Originally Posted by unterhausen

The stresses will be concentrated along the sides too. But if you don't weld the ends it will be a little more compliant, because the gusset can bend along its width (oil canning) at its own rate. So it probably does avoid a little bit of cracking. One of the more vocal anti-gusset builders* was last seen looking for information on how to add gussets because his personal frame broke pretty easily. But he was testing it on 8 foot drops to flat. So if you do jumps like that, a gusset probably will help. Failure in rupture is worse than fatigue failures. Don't know if he ever added gussets, I get turned off by his "only I know how to do things right" attitude.

*he always said that gussets just show the frame where to crack, which is probably true.