dodge 3500 frame

[kevinwarren]

I have a dodge 3500 crew cab with a Lance 1181.
Has anyone had any problem with the frame breaking? Both of my rails broken about mid way of the rear seat.

[Groover]

I hauled a similar sized and weight Fleetwood (maybe bigger, it was a 12 1/2ft model) with my '1991 F250 for 20 years. Hauled my family of 6 and towed a 21ft offshore fishing boat behind it a lot of the time. The frame flexed a lot but never broke. I did put a piece of stiff foam between the cabover and the cab roof to reduce bouncing and it seemed to help.

Bottom line, I would have expected much more from your truck. I am sorry to hear about your problems. I have heard of frame issues with the diesel in earlier Dodges but thought that it had been fixed by 2009.

[Me_Again]

kevinwarren wrote:
2009 , cummins 6.7 with 6 speed standard

Have you been towing along with hauling the truck camper?

[Grit_dog]

Troll post. Or tell the rest of the story.

[RoyJ]

Broke clean in half or bent? Unless there's corrosion damage, the relatively low ksi steel is unlikely to just snap.

What's the total weight? And off road or big speed bumps at speed?

Being rear heavy, a Lance 1181 should place the weight close to the rear axle. Meaning there's relatively low bending moment around the rear seat area (middle of wheelbase).

For illustration:

[otrfun]

OP's truck is a 2009 Ram 3500. Ram made major changes to the 3500 frame in 2013 (2500 got similar changes in 2014). Have to wonder if the frame rail area around the rear seat (location of OP's problem) were strengthened/modified in 2013.

[JIMNLIN]

The main frame rails are a hydro formed box. Has some one welded on the top or bottom of the rails. That can cause cracking usually on the bottom of the frame rail when carrying heavy loads.

I 'spect severe overloading the gawrs and/or abuse some where back down the road.

[rhagfo]

You don’t State SRW or DRW, the SRW in 2009 maxed out at 10,100# The DRW maxes at 12,200# payloads maxed at 3,000# for SRW and 4,750# for a DRW. Dry weight on your Lance is 3,650#, so likely overloaded on either, not like enough to cause the frame to break. Do you drive a lot of rough roads? The frame is fully boxed, do you live in the rust belt, is the frame he’s LT corroded?

[dedmiston]

Moved from Tech Issues.

[kevinwarren]

2009 , cummins 6.7 with 6 speed standard

[bobsallyh]

What model year are we talking about?