Cracked Frame??? in under 40K miles
 

Anyone else have any issues with their frame? I took mine to the dealer couple weeks ago for the recall, for the potential area up front on the drivers side. Yesterday dropped off at the dealer to locate a "clunking noise" coming from the passenger side rear. They found the cause of the clunk...I about fell over when I saw the frame was broken. Not just cracked, but broken in two, between the cab and the bed. They contacted Star and after a couple hours told me to come and get it and take it to a body shop. They weren't going to warranty it. I'm at a little bit of a loss. I have a $70K truck sitting in the parking lot of the dealer without a scratch on it, that is in my opinion-totaled. First call was to set up a meeting with an attorney, second call was to Insurance agent.

Today can only get more interesting....[verymad]

Holy Crap!

Ditto!

Sheesh,that's terrible. It's not like you were jumping the truck.
These guys might be interested also.http://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/default.aspx.
Hopefully the legal process will work to your benefit.

can you take any pic's?

Are they claiming the snow plow was the culprit?

I have seen the same break on the right side rail immediately behind the cab on some 2nd gen trucks. None on the newer ones though.

Most had been carrying a large camper.

Good luck with that Dodge $tealer

Many years ago I worked for a snow cat manufacturer, occasionally we'd get reports of cracked frames in AK. The steel got too brittle when the temps dropped to -30°F.

My 14 got jacknifed in the ditch with a 30,000 pound trailer hook on. Dented the back of the cab. Kinda hard to explain but rear tires drivers side were in the air, with very little weight on drivers front. No frame damage or anything. I couldn't believe the hit that it took and the truck drove perfect.
I'm speeches when it comes to you frame breaking Alaskaworktruck!!

quick update
 

Dealer still has the truck. They have actually been pretty helpful. They resubmitted the claim to Chrysler, once it was clear that I hadn't cut, drilled, or modified my frame. The original denial by Chrysler was I "modified frame to put on camper tie-downs, thus voiding the factory warranty". Clearly they can see that the tie-downs I purchased are designed to use existing factory holes in the frame. They also gave me a loaner 3500 to use till this comes to a resolution.
There will be 2 factory Chrysler reps arriving the 11th of this month to take a look at the frame.
As far as pictures, I'm headed over to take some today. Seems like the dealer has taken plenty and so has my attorney; but I'd better get some for my records. Not sure where this is going yet.

Insurance agent has indicated they can take action as soon as the cause is determined. Still not sure what that means....

Glad to see that they're at least working with you a little. I assume your insurance is saying they are going to wait to see if dodge pays for it, or they may have to shell out some money.

warranty....maybe *update*
 

The 2 Chrysler fellas that came up and looked at the broken frame were a little perplexed as to how and what caused the break. They were going to recommend to their supervisor to warranty. Still has to go up the food chain... but getting closer to a decision. They asked dealer to work up a quote to fix it. Frame cost right at about $7K, and they figured 55 hours to swap over the truck. Figuring $200 per hour, that's another $11K. Crazy to think its going to take $18K to put my truck back on the road. Patience is a virtue, I keep telling myself....

Oh man that's a rough one. Hang in there and hopefully they get you all sorted out. If it makes you feel any better (most likely won't but maybe makes yours seem not so bad) we had a truck at work here broke in half a couple weeks ago. I was on days off and don't have any other details as to what happened but that tiny slip tank and crossover certainly isn't heavy enough to break a one ton truck.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.die...39457ba688.png

Chrysler Corporate sucks...local dealer makes good
 

Coming to the end of the broken frame saga. Chrysler said warranty on the broken frame was a no-go. They couldn't figure out what caused it, but just knew it couldn't be their fault. That's a joke.
Local dealer stepped up and purchased the 24 month old truck at a decent price and put me in a new 2016 Limited. Nice truck, that I think I could come to appreciate.
It really didn't come as a surprise to me that Chrysler Corporate was trying to avoid the incident, but it was a pleasant surprise the way the local dealership stepped up to solve the problem. They even sent my old truck over to a neutral shop, to let me take off all the aftermarket goodies that will fit on the new 2016. I guess that's why I continue to do business with them, despite Chryslers flaws.
Only thing left to do is change my sig on the forum.