The arms are just really thin, any wheeling is going to break them eventually. I even bought a truck that hadn't been offroad and it had a broken arm, that's why they revised the part. They are almost exactly the same on the gen 2 except they run a smaller bushing making the sreas around thicker. As far as reinforcing them goes, it could be done but you'd need to remove the bushings, preheat the arms, weld extra plates on the bottom with a structural weld process, post heat then dress and polish all welds. Even after all that they could still break on the top sides. In short just get gen 2 arms.