My six month old 3500 SRW Q/C 4X4 has developed some cracks at both rear corners of the box floor. I do have an aluminum sled deck bolted into the box, but I honestly believe theis should not cause the box to crack. I had this same deck bolted into the box of a '00 Chev for two years with no problems at all and the deck's only been in the Dodge since the end of September. Just curious if anyone else is having this problem.

 

Do you still have the tailgate installed?
It adds alot of rigidity to the rear of the box.
Either way, you'd expect a truck to be a little stronger than that Huh? :

It's Dealer time.

 

What kind of driving conditions? do you do a lot of "off road" (gravel) driving?

 

Tailgate is still installed. As far as offroad goes, I have done a fair bit of driving on gravel logging roads while hunting this fall, but no serious off-roading at all. When on the logging roads, I very rarely do over 60 km/hr. I'm definitely not happy about this >

 

well its under warranty isnt it?? tell your dealer you want a new box...be sure to mention the part about your chevy to the service manager... ;D

 

Hmmm.... I'll be doing roughly the same kind of driving you are. What part of the world are you in? Be careful with what you have the dealer "fix" I have a '93 that had the spot welds pull apart in the corner of the truck box. The dealer "fixed" it, and a couple months later it was a bigger mess than if I had just left it.
I would be interested in pics if possable. Maybe I could find a way to prevent this from happening on mine.

 

any photos?

 

No photos yet. Once I get the sled deck off tomorrow, I'll clean up the box and take photos of the damage.

Westcoaster, I'm in Hinton, Alberta. I need to get this fixed soon because sledding season is upon us and I plan to make numerous trips to Valemount, McBride, and Revelstoke. Cripes, if the box can't handle the weight of a 280 lb. aluminum deck and one 600 lb quad then whats it gonna do when I throw two sleds up there ???

 

Yup... Identical driving conditions... Although I don't have a sled deck.
That sled deck, does it ride on the top of the box rails or does it have some hardware that places the load in the bed?

 

The deck has four aluminum channel "legs" that bolt down to the box floor in front of and behind the wheel wells.

 

I would think that a rack that was designed to haul that kind of weight would be made in a way to attach to the frame. Thats a lot of load stress on four "channel legs" for a pickup box. Of course the "logging road" scenario adds even more stress. I would find a way to help spread the load a bit more.