Broken Frame on a RAM 3500

Groover wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Another good point. No one knows how his rear suspension was set up. But one thing is certain, that camper won’t haul on that truck without something else besides the stock springs.

Unless you are bottoming out the suspension going with stiffer springs adds stress to the frame. The suspension is there to absorb the bumps. Making it stiffer reduces that capability.

Agreed for the most part. And bottoming out stresses the frame right over the rear axle. Been there done that got the T shirt! (To be fair I’m the guy that welded the frame back together when I was in high school, I would have been smart enough to not put a 7klb skid steer along with a spade attachment in an approximately 2000lb dump bed with a 20klb tag trailer loaded sitting on the factory 2” receiver!). Even before I knew as much about vehicles I could do basic math and my eye sight was pretty good! Lol

However excessive cycling of the suspension also puts stress on components. Typically minor elastic deflections that after xxx,xxx number of cycles work hardens steel and leads to brittle fractures. (At least that’s what I learned in mechanics of materials and metallurgy courses after I saw it happen in the real world).