Passenger footrest question R21EC

[hwhayes]

So, this is a question for the factory and anyone else who may have experienced the same problem.
Our 2015 R21EC has a stainless footrest that can be installed for the passenger. The fitting in the cabinet where the footrest is installed consists of a flat flange welded to a tube of slightly larger diameter than the footrest slides into. The weld between the flange and the tube on ours has broken. I wonder if: 1. Just re-welding it will be strong enough, 2. If anyone has tried to reinforce this attachment in some way, the metal tube has an end cap with a hole but nothing attached to it, and 3. If anyone has come up with a good modification that is stronger? Thanks to any and all who can respond.

 

[bob daily]

I have found that the foot rest on my boat is useless as you can not access the cabinets once installed and I cringe any time a healthy (over weight) shipmates uses it! So I use two coleman coolers for foot rests one port and one starboard. I like the Coleman 24 can party stackers but under the helm I use a little bigger cooler. Bob

 

[Newf]

I just looked at mine and it's hard to imagine how it would break unless:

-it was poorly welded
or
-the weld was ground too much, removing most of the weld metal to allow it to sit inside a tight hole in the cabinet.

I would just reweld it and instead of grinding the fillet weld any, just chamfer the edge of the hole it the cabinet to allow the flange to fit flush.

Without seeing a pic, this is only a guess of what caused the failure.

Newf

 

[hwhayes]

So just as Newf suggested I had it welded.
I said “welded” rather than “re-welded” since there was no sign of a weld bead at the junction, just a press fit of the tube into the flange!
I’m not extremely happy with the work but it will do for now.
Thanks for the responses, TugNuts is the best!