Broken Frame on a RAM 3500

jimh406 wrote:

Groover wrote:
40 years ago many of the truck campers I saw had shock absorbers on the front of the cabover going down to the front fenders. The point of these was to absorb the frame damaging stresses that lead to fatigue and also control a bouncy ride.

If you read what Lance says about their shocks, they were to improve the ride. They made no claim that they helped with frame stress.

In any case, anything you can do to soften bumps/ride is probably good. When I bought my truck used, one particular bump on I-90 was pretty brutal. I installed Bilstein shocks and that bump wasn't very noticeable after that. I don't know how the stock shocks performed when new because I didn't own it then.

It's possible that the suspension added to the stresses on the frame. You can easily watch how much your TC moves when you hit bumps. Big movements compared to the same road without a TC are probably not a great thing.

While we are on suspension, I feel the right amount of air in airbags can also smooth out the ride, but nothing will smooth a very bumpy road other than slowing down.

Shock absorbers by their nature should help.

Force = mass * acceleration.

Properly designed shock absorbers to the overhang would spread acceleration of the overhang bending down out over a longer distance and thus time by starting to resist the downward motion sooner. If it takes twice as long to stop the downward motion, the acceleration and thus force would be cut in half.

On a similar note, it's common for people to upgrade to stiffer tires, springs, airbags, etc... In moderation and within the trucks weight limits, this is usually not a problem. But if the owner put on really stiff tires running at max psi and pumped airbags to max to compensate for being overloaded, that can dramatically increase the forces applied to the frame. Rather than the tires and suspension absorbing a big bump gradually by compressing, they transmit it quickly (ie: greater acceleration and thus force) to the frame.