'03 Dodge frame bent last night

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North West Indiana
Well, one of my past students that works on my vehicles, raised my '03 Dodge pickup on his hoist and kept hearing a "creaking", realized all of a sudden that the distance from the top of the bed and back of cab was wide enough to place his fist sideways between the two!! Yep, frame bent. Truck is sitting right now looking like it has been arched, I can still put four fingers wide between the cab and top of bed. So, measured, will get some metal put together tomorrow after helping Fina and Josh move to their new house (with my past student's Ford pulling my gooseneck stock trailer). Going to lift it back on the hoist, lower down onto jackstands, use my porta power to pinch the boxed frame back in shape and then lay in an L bracket of 3/16" metal along the one side and bottom of the frame, put a flat bar on the other side and weld onto the bottom of the L making basically a channel. Before welding going to drill numerous 1/2" holes so I can weld more than the horizontal edges. Doing both sides. Hope to have it on the road depending on when we get done with Fina and Josh's move by Sunday afternoon evening. Have 7 fat steers to haul to the processor Tuesday. So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, check your truck frames, it bent on both sides the same location. Behind the cab mounts. Evidently water laid in the frame at these locations. Just a heads up so it doesn't strike you while on the road. Evidently is not just a Dodge problem. There goes my "easy" weekend!
 
I don't remember when they went to the boxed frame. I did tap the frame from front to rear on the bottom tonight, got a good ring except a dull thud sound where it bent. Think the rust absorbed the shock/sound. So, yeah, I would recommend the hammer test at least.
 
I'll check my 2000 tomorrow. I'm guessing you probably drive around in mud (and other stuff) more often than I do...

Was the rust on the inside of the box frame?
 
Several years ago when I was looking into buying a pickup, I talked to a friend who flew his private plane here to work on a nuclear medicine camera. He had a friend who had a construction company in the Vancouver, WA area. His friend had a fleet of trucks for his company. His friend had a couple Dodges with bent frames. His were caused by overloading.

My next door neighbor is a retired teacher. He and his wife do a lot of RVing with a 5th wheel trailer. When he retired, he purchased what he thought would be his last pickup. He bought a new Dodge 1-ton Cummins and had the dealership install a factory jake-brake kit. After he bought the truck, he was talking to the dealer....then my neighbor read the details in warrantee. According to him, if you drill holes in the frame to mount a trailer hitch, it voided the warrantee on the truck's frame. So my neighbor found 1 clamp-on gooseneck hitch that used existing holes. He bought the hitch and an adapter for his lavish 5th wheel trailer. He converted the trailer to gooseneck. He and I discussed this and it's our belief Dodge is running their frames close to maximum and that's why you can't drill holes without voiding the warrantee.:dunno:
 
This is nothing guy's....my wife get's bent out of shape on a almost daily basis.....and she has one tuff frame...............;):D

My step-sister bought her husband a used Bronco years ago, first weekend baha-ing with it, second jump, frame snapped in half...no warranty, no insurance :doh:
 
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