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All welded joints will break next to the weld when over stressed. The heat from the weld reduces the molecular structure of the metal. If it breaks through the weld, it’s welded improperly. In a perfect world it will break somewhere else first but that seldom happens. SFI roll cage padding is stiff for a reason. USAC and SFI spent many months hitting helmets against tubing and measuring the force on head forms. Remember you have a helmet that is hitting the padding so the roll bar padding is secondary. It must absorb the load with no rebound and not capture the helmet. Soft padding is worse than no padding because it captures the helmet and pinpoints or concentrates the load rather than letting the helmet slide and dissipates some energy. A lot of work was done with padding and there is a reason it is constructed like it is. Don’t second guess it. Also tape your padding to the cage, the glue back is great until the tubing bends.
Mike Devin
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