I've noticed a lot of this, (all brands) since the late 80s. Different steel compounds? Earlier problems seemed to bend easy, later seem to be brittle. I remember farm pickups, usually 3/4 ton bendinding a little, (belly down) from large feed boxes just behind the cab and over loaded tool side boxes but nothing like todays trucks. I've fixed a lot of 90s chevys around here that had got stuck, nose down. They pulled out with a tractor and bent up in the middle, but not break. Old trucks got way overloaded in the past and hardly ever had a frame issue. My buddy Tom's 1958 LCF wheat truck use to have side bed extentions, it carried a combine on the bed and pulled a header trailer for a couple decades. Frame is not much, it never bent or broke🤔
I've seen a lot of different photos of that Dodge. They had a closeup of the break, and it looked like it broke right at the edge of a weld. Looked like a bed mount?
Three to blame in my opinion. Dodge and camper co seemed to approve 3500 prior to purchace. The owner not checking loaded weights himself. I don't know where his fresh water, gray and black water holding tanks are located. The amount of stress from that over hang is tremendous. Then stick a motorcycle rack on to boot🤯
I'd almost bet if that truck was a 2 wheel drive and had just a 360 small block.... (with that much weight and leverich) he would have wheelied a bit on bumps. Something has to give. At $17k repair estimate they must just be talking a new frame. I'll bet he will get nowhere with his insurance company either. He's already had it welded at the weak point, weld a cap over it and go on.