Houston,

There is a bunch of info that is just not out there on these birds, one of the biggies is those cone shaped extensions to the rear of the LOK birds mainly. Those birds were not finished or mounted. And the cones serve several purposes, not only do they aid in easing the casting process, but they serve as a mounting system and were used in several different ways.

The first was they could be tapped down and bolted, but even with that, it would create a stress point, and aluminum is not all that strong so although it was done, its not the the way most were configured for heavy mounting.

The way they were mounted, and I mentioned this to JR a month ago and he did not seem to be aware, as he questioned it. The cones were cut to down to just above the surface of the bird, then they cored out a hole and cemented or affixed steel bolts and set them into the rear of the bird. This would have been for a heavier application. Take a look at the pictures of my bird that I posted, and you can see the adhesive or material between the bolts and the rim of the original aluminum mount. These are the Rail Eagles. This has been noted on just about every large bird that I have seen that is found with the larger bolt setup.

The bolt's were also tapped and then tapped through the center of the bolt, why this is I dont know, as if you tapped the lug, why center tap the lug for a screw as well? you cant use both at the same time on a single surface. So these in some case's were cut down and used with a screw mount, it was dual purpose. And to back that intent, a lot of the lugs that were done in this manner were not tapped all the way to the base, why?, the steel bolts were. But they could cut the bolt at the base of the thread and utilize a screw mount and the bird would sit close to it's perch. Did they tap them as a guide for a cut?.

So yes, you can tell a WEHOG without seeing the mounts as it is poor, but in order to answer your question?. If so much thought went into the mounting then why do the WEHOGS all have these cast over and poorly applied mounts, or no mounts at all?. Thats not a factory reject, its a fake.

K