A freind of mine is a repo man. He is considering new trucks and likes my dodge and teh new ones but is told that the new dodge frame will not work. He was told that it would break? Given that his wheel lift welds to the frame , I suspect that is really the problem. Any insight on attaching a wheel lift to a new dodge? He wants to keep his existing lift which isn t very old, they cost 15k or so....

BTW, imagine carring up to 7500 lbs 10 ft behind the rear axle..........it wants to lift the front of the truck and bend them in half. Its incredibly hard on a truck.

 

So, what kind of truck is he running now?

 

Currently ....well yesterday it was an older (96 ? ) chevy gas truck, but I think its borrowed or back up....He has run a 7.3 super duty (pretty nice) a 6.0 ( I didn t like it) and another 6.5 chevy ( I think his current truck....) but he wants to get a new truck because of the ongoing problems.


He is leaning towards the ford.....(If he can t use a dodge) and I think a d max might be as good as the ford...probably come down to which one he likes best if the dodge is out due to the frame problems and questions.

 

Is that sort of like a 7500lb tongue weight? I've only seen those on the back of MDT's.

I wouldn't think any light duty pickup truck would be a good idea; but to each his own.

 

I doubt you're gonna carry 7500lbs on that lift... even if you had a darn-poor weight distribution of 75/25, that would make it a 10,000lb vehicle...

But I have seen 1-ton trucks with them, so I don't see why you couldn't use a Ram3500.

 

I'd say find a slightly used 2002 3500.

Real engine, real frame, already broken in for him.

You don't want a brand new truck for a repo truck,
people tend to hit, spit, and throw things at the repo man as he's driving away.


Contact the maker of the lift and see what they have to say about the new Dodge frames?

Maybe they already have a workaround for them.

Am I reading it right, he's already had that lift installed on 4 different trucks?
Welding, unwelding, welding, unwelding?


phox

 

The lift has been installed on a couple trucks, but the way it works is they make a new sub frame that welds in then the lift attaches to that. When you remove it you leave the sub frame and just buy a new one.

Having people throw stuff at you hasn t been a problem.....

The problem with the new dodge is the frame, I was looking for some one that new for sure.

The 7500 lbs would deffinately be on the out side....like if your repoing another loaded 1 ton.....an excursion....etc.....Most repo trucks around here are 1 tons or 3/4 tons, most with gas engines. They like to blend in, and they like to be quiet.

 

We had one mounted in an '86 Ford w/ the 6.9L Diesel. It would pull anything. We ended up bending the frame behind the rear wheels down 1" from the perpendicular towing a 12 ton truck. We took the bed off, had the frame straightened, then bent 1" up, and then braced to prevent it bending again.

 

my boss once (in later years) broke a truck in half trying to pull a big rig up right. they ended up taking it apart and welding it back together.

 

I had a towing company for 8 years with everything from 1 tons to big rig tow trucks.....the first step in building any tow truck is to have the frame double framed because the stress of operation can and will bend frames

I even had one extra heavy duty truck that was used for tractor trailer accident recovery work with dual 50 ton winches that had a triple frame.....anyone thats serious about towing will modify the frame before installing the tow rig this is common sence

 

So nobody has done anything to an 03 or 04 dodge yet?

Pappyman, how would you strenghten the frame, on a truck your not suppose to weld to?

Thats what my question is in regards to? And if the new dodge frame is so stiff already that breaking it may be possible with out bending it.

 

Could somebody please explain this a bit more? What's the deal with the new truck frames?

Last week, I borrowed my dad's '90 W250 CTD w/ utlity body because I recently got my electrical contractor's license. I figured I'd drive it a couple years and then buy a new Dodge 2500, sans bed, and put a new utility body on it. The only problem is, I like the look of the extra cab over the look of the Quad Cab. The Quad Cab with the 8' bed is just a bit too long for my tastes. The extra cab is just perfect. Maybe I'll have to buy a used truck in excellent condition.

 

The new frames are hydroformed. During the process, plasticized metal is squeezed into shape creating built-in stresses, kind of like tempering glass. When you subsequently heat the frame by welding, you change the stress in the frame possibly weakening it in vital areas. As I understand, you're not supposed to drill it either.

 

Hmm. The things truck manufacturers will do to save a buck. It sounds like I'll need to find an '02 or earlier.

 

When the automakers used to make frames before they used the hydroforming process, they had to manually bend the frame rails, but because of the thinning they invariably got in the middle of the bend they usually had to thicken up the frame. Since it was expensive to thicken the frame locally, they just used to use thicker tube or channels over the whole frame. They also couldn't obtain the best shape they wanted to get the strength so they had to thicken for that also. The result was an over strong frame
in many areas, particularly on the straights where we wanted to drill and weld. Now with hydroforming, they prebend the frame rails to a rough shape, put the rails in a die, fill the die with water, and pressurize them to force the rail to the shape of the die. They get much less thinning in the bends, can get better shapes, and so they can use a thinner rail altogether. They now also use higher strength low alloy steels, than they used to do before. So the final result was, the rails got thinner and stronger. Unfortunately, this makes the new rails more sensitive to notches such as from drilling or welding. However, if you know what you're doing, you can still weld or drill the frame. After all, the automakers do that during manufacture.

John