Torn frame-anyone seen this?

Opus Dei

Inactive
My 2001 Dodge P/U frame is torn where the receiver hitch bolts to the frame. It's on both sides, and is starting to crack in the radius. I pull a trailer daily, and leave it hitched. It grosses out around 6,500-7,000 lbs, so it's not overweight. Fortunately, it's in a fairly good place, and can be repaired relatively easy.

Anyone ever see this before?
 

DARKSTAR

Contributing Member
There was a recall on the older trucks for the hitch's cracking, newer hitchs have been upgraded . but if its the factory hitch you must use a weight distributing hook up on it to be rated for 7500 pounds trailer and 750 tongue. Its only rated for 5000 lbs and 500 tongue weight if its weight carrying if i remember correctly.
 

Opus Dei

Inactive
Even though it's the frame itself, and not the hitch, I'll look into that-Thanks for the information. BTW, it's a Valley aftermarket hitch rated Class IV. It's obviously tougher than the truck.
 

biere

Veteran Member
Dodge had some frame problems when that body style came out. On the chassis cab duallies it was common to have problems even when under the legal loads the truck was rated for. A search can turn stuff up, but I have figured that the easiest fix is to cruise to a local welding shop able to do good work. Sometimes you have to find a shop able to repair actual truck and car frames, out here most weld shops are qualified even if they don't do mostly car and truck repairs.

I figure out what super duper hitch I want, sounds like you have yours. I make sure everything is out of the way so they can bolt it on, you already did. Then I let them bolt it on, weld it to the frame. And then we play a game of how much more metal we can add.

I bought a boxy body style chevy used and it had a bumper/hitch setup but some of the brackets were pulled loose when the bumper was hit. The guys fixed all the stuff that was there then added more braces and stiffeners and in many cases I get them to weld the frame up so it is thicker as well, just welding plates onto the frame basically.

I used to work in a spring shop and the other guys in the shop could stretch and repair frames on class 8 trucks and on down. Overall their opinion of new stuff sucked and whenever someone bought a new truck they brought it in to do the super duper job I described above.

You can easily add 50 pounds of metal to the back of the frame, but I find it easy to add tow hooks and what not and any problems are readily apparent since there are plenty of braces that give way before the major ones close to the hitch do.

I like the idea of a new truck, but the old trucks had extra metal from their poor technology and overall I like the old ways better since these problems seemed less common unless you overloaded the truck.
 
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