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diambo4life
Well-known member
What an idiot and he was expecting Dodge to cover for his stupidity....
LD50
Well-known member
A tragic lesson to reinforce the fact that one should never listen to a truck or camper salesman when it comes to determining the loads your vehicle is capable of hauling.
Buyer2021
Well-known member
Don't Ram trucks have a VIN-specific payload rating sticker (noting no mention in the linked article, perhaps the truck owner is withholding that from the public)? Thought that manufacturer's are required to affix that by law (but might be mistaken).
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xtraman122
Well-known member
Crazy to think you need a truck as big as a 5500 to properly carry one of those things. With all of that stuff hanging off the end of the tailgate but mounted further up inside the bed it must literally work like a giant lever against the poor frame of the truck, damn.
DT400
Well-known member
Agreed it "looks" like the leverage of the camper, not necessarily the weight, played a major factor in the damage. Not to mention the thousands of miles of rough corrugated roads he drove on.
It would be interesting to know where the balance point of that camper is when he had it loaded.
Consumer trucks aren't designed to operate at full capacity at the extent it sounds like this Dodge did. I imagine Baja was the biggest strain on the frame, more so than driving on the highway.
Max weight numbers are great info but you have to realize that the weight needs to be properly distributed. And most people don't understand the physics of force.
Most pick-up can Handle considerably more than their max load for short periods but bad things happen if it is a constant condition.
Darrell
Old Bear
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All vehicles do, required by law. But you have to actually read it for the magic to work.
diambo4life
Well-known member
Imagine this didn't happen to this truck and you were the buyer of this "low mileage" good condition truck. This is why I would never buy a used truck. People do stupid shit with their trucks. This is not the first case of buffoonery I have seen either.
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Calson
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This was a common occurence prior to the truck companies going to a fully boxed frame with their light duty trucks (GM in 2011, Ram in 2013/2014, and Ford in 2016). The point of failure was always right behind the cab as this is the area where a truck frame will flex until it breaks.
This is not from an overloaded truck but from a poorly engineered truck frame on 2500/3500 class trucks. A cabover camper has it center of gravity high and forward of the rear axe and porpoising often occurs. I had a 3700 lb camper load in my GM truck and it was within the load capacity of the rear axle, rear tires, springs (after adding SuperSprings) and within the GVWR of the truck. my 2011 had the new fully boxed frame which is why I chose it over a truck from Ram or Ford. The only Ford option at that time would have been a F-450 CC.
When I was doing research for a new truck and for a slide-in camper on various RV websites this sort of frame failure was not unusual. It would happen more often with DRW trucks as the greater width of the rear outside tires put a more leveraged load on the frame with more twisting of the frame. Test were done using various trucks where the front wheel only went up a ramp and the amount of frame flex was measured. In these test the Ford truck flexed the most of the 1-ton truck at the time (2010).
Porpoising is also hard on the frame and too few people appreciate that this is the result of too little payload support at the rear axle and too little shock dampening at all four wheels. It is why for most people a motorhome is a safer purchase as their is little customization that needs to be done.
This is not from an overloaded truck but from a poorly engineered truck frame on 2500/3500 class trucks. A cabover camper has it center of gravity high and forward of the rear axe and porpoising often occurs. I had a 3700 lb camper load in my GM truck and it was within the load capacity of the rear axle, rear tires, springs (after adding SuperSprings) and within the GVWR of the truck. my 2011 had the new fully boxed frame which is why I chose it over a truck from Ram or Ford. The only Ford option at that time would have been a F-450 CC.
When I was doing research for a new truck and for a slide-in camper on various RV websites this sort of frame failure was not unusual. It would happen more often with DRW trucks as the greater width of the rear outside tires put a more leveraged load on the frame with more twisting of the frame. Test were done using various trucks where the front wheel only went up a ramp and the amount of frame flex was measured. In these test the Ford truck flexed the most of the 1-ton truck at the time (2010).
Porpoising is also hard on the frame and too few people appreciate that this is the result of too little payload support at the rear axle and too little shock dampening at all four wheels. It is why for most people a motorhome is a safer purchase as their is little customization that needs to be done.
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torque arm moment way to far aft
wonder what the real weight of that camper and STUFF added aft of axle.
Pedaldude
Well-known member
Even with zero payload, this is how Toyota Tacoma frames were failing.
When factoring in loads, dynamic forces are included. So if you do want to try your luck with going over the sticker ratings, you can get away with it if you drive very slowly and smoothly while avoiding all bumps. You can’t get away with both! The owner of the camper got his money’s worth out of the frame, so he should be happy. Not everyone gets to test the limits of their vehicles.
Same with this Raptor frame that saw one too many big ass bumps at speed:
When factoring in loads, dynamic forces are included. So if you do want to try your luck with going over the sticker ratings, you can get away with it if you drive very slowly and smoothly while avoiding all bumps. You can’t get away with both! The owner of the camper got his money’s worth out of the frame, so he should be happy. Not everyone gets to test the limits of their vehicles.
Same with this Raptor frame that saw one too many big ass bumps at speed:
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