Rusty Bowtie
General Category => General Discussion - Intros => Topic started by: EDNY on January 27, 2023, 07:09:20 AM
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Now the owner of the brokeback Ram is facing that bill because Mopar says it's his fault
https://www.carscoops.com/2022/12/an-eagle-cap-camper-snapped-a-ram-3500-dually-in-half-to-the-tune-of-17000/#Echobox=1674695747
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Nobody adds up to how much weight these things are. My dad being a truck driver was looking into campers but ended up getting a motor home instead. Beefier frame.
Probably not showing what's behind it too. Motorcycle on rack.
The new chevy Colorado and jeep trucks have had broken frames from overloaded teardrop trailers.
Owners blaming the crumble zones in frames. Warranty denied.
They were driving too fast on a dirt road that had whoops and the frame snapped.
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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.
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I agree with Sammons. Weld it up & get a smaller camper, maybe a Tee Pee if you need that kind of room. ::)
I quit driving my '89 3/4 ton GMC when I found cracks in the frame. It had hauled many 1 ton loads of hay up this bumpy road and survived 2 teenage boys. Some day I'll pull the engine & trans and haul the rest away.