Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[Jstpssng]

Back to the broken frame. I had a 97 F150. It had the tow package. I got it used. It had a 2 5/16 ball on the hitch. I removed it and installed a 2". After 5 years of heavy use, and I did overload it a lot hauling stuff to build a house, I had a horse trailer on it. Drove 80 miles to a vet with horse, drove back, unloaded horse. When I went to unhook the trailer, the back of the truck just kept going up. The frame on the truck had broken almost in to on both sides. Just where the rubber bumper from the bed was hitting the frame. It most likely had been cracked for years. Only the top section of the frame stopped it from coming completely into. I jacked the middle back up, unhooked the trailer and pulled it out of the way. With the middle jacked up, the crack in the frame closed up. A friend welded it with plates. Drove it another few years. Lucky, I didn't show up on the news with a wrecked truck and trailer with dead horse.

I don't know when they started adding a little steel to the frames, but I cracked several mid-late '80s Ford frames from on running gravel roads at 50-60 mph. At the time they weren't made for the gas shocks I ran and the steel around the mounts would break out.
IIRC, they used the same frame for the F250 & 350 as they did for the lighter trucks... and still had less payload than many half tons today. They also were mostly regular cab and weighted about 2000 lbs less.

 

[BravoXray]

I’m not sure how you could do this unless you loaded it on rollers?

I'll bet it wouldn't have happened if it was in an eight foot bed.
I'll also bet that with that skid in the bed, that far back the frame was resting on the snubbers and the nose pointed up. Add in a slippery bed liner and gee, look what happened.
Not a surprise to me.
Moral of the story, if you need a truck, buy a truck.

 

[Darryle]

It's Full!View attachment 708764

I know it's been a while, but my theory is no receiver hitch or improperly installed aftermarket receiver. Last Dodge I worked on the frame is not a full boxed frame and looks like the front half is the same and they put the correct rear section on and weld it depending on the model and configuration.

 

[aczlan]

I know it's been a while, but my theory is no receiver hitch or improperly installed aftermarket receiver. Last Dodge I worked on the frame is not a full boxed frame and looks like the front half is the same and they put the correct rear section on and weld it depending on the model and configuration.

I would be surprised if that was the case, pretty sure the receiver hitch is standard on pretty much all pickups half ton or bigger.
That looks like the frame failed in front of the front spring hangers, or it broke right over the rear axle. I suspect the former.

Aaron Z

 

[bcp]

The frame may have been cracked from previous abuse. That load or bump might have been the "last straw."

Bruce

 

[nikerret]

The MDS system is a joke. Had that in two 5.7L Hemis. It barely ever activates in normal driving and the MPG difference is miniscule. I will say that it is seamless in its operation though, which is nice since it isn't very useful.

That hasn’t been my experience, with MDS, at all. When I worked for the County, we had several Ram trucks with the 5.7L. One if the display screens showed when cylinders were deactivated. Literally, every time you let off the throttle, it cut cylinders. Touch the throttle, it went back to V8. Seemless? Damn near. You really had to be feeling fr it and even then, it was tough to catch. Unfortunately, the MDS also meant engine failure. Usually, before reaching 100,000 miles.

 

[4570Man]

Engines dying at less than 100k sounds great. I’m glad to see Chrysler is keeping up the good work.

 

[Diggin It]

Plastic bed liners are very slippery. OSB is also very slippery. Bad combo without adequate straps. Doesn't surprise me at all to see this result. Not to mention the very short bed length of that Toyota which had a lot of the load behind the axle and didn't take much movement to put COG behind the tailgate. That amount of OSB is probably far over the cargo capacity of that truck too. Someone made a series of bad decisions and it will be costly.

Rob

Is that bed even 4'?

I don't see any straps on the load to the 'truck', just the metal binding straps from the mill.

 

[RandyT]

That hasn’t been my experience, with MDS, at all. When I worked for the County, we had several Ram trucks with the 5.7L. One if the display screens showed when cylinders were deactivated. Literally, every time you let off the throttle, it cut cylinders. Touch the throttle, it went back to V8. Seemless? Damn near. You really had to be feeling fr it and even then, it was tough to catch. Unfortunately, the MDS also meant engine failure. Usually, before reaching 100,000 miles.

Are you talking about the ECO display. That by itself doesn't mean it is in MDS mode. I can tell when mine 2011 goes into MDS which is extremely rare. When it happens it is always on a flat no head wind interstate with the cruise set, and you can tell because you will get a harmonic vibration in the steering wheel.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Interesting discussion about frame strength above.

A couple weeks ago I passed a newish F150 on the highway pulling at least a 26’ travel trailer and it looked like the box side had some distortion like a ripple forming. I chalked it up to an optical illusion.

Since then I’ve looked at several very new 1/2 ton Ford and GMs with what I’d call excessively large trailers parked at the the local stores and they all appear to have some degree of flex causing a visible misalignment between the box and cab. I didn’t get out a tape and measure but I’d guess it was about 1/2” difference.

I don’t mention dodge only because I haven’t seen one yet parked with a very large trailer to look at. All these has had longer than standard draw bars. Not sure whats driving everyone’s fascination with fancy drawbars lately.