I was visiting an old high school teacher today when he looked at my truck and said "Is that cracked?" I look, and sure enough my frame is cracked pretty much directly above the rear axle. The crack was right at the front of the bump stop, and went a little over half way up from the bottom of the frame. It also went about a half inch across the underside of the frame. I did get some pics, but they're on a friend's camera so I probably won't be able to post them for a day or two.

Anyway, this same friend works at a metal shop so we headed over there to fix it. First they welded the crack itself, then grinded that weld down and welded a plate over the whole thing. I'll post pics later.

I was just wondering if this is a known weak spot on the frames, or if this was just a fluke. Also, it wouldn't hurt for anybody who does a lot of off roading (like myself) or otherwise drives their truck like trucks are supposed to be driven, to check out that spot on their frame to make sure they haven't had a similar problem.

 

LOL! Yikes. .

 

well it was fixed the correct way. I cant believe it cracked though

 

Here's a news flash for you,.....

If you are offroading your truck hard enough to crack your frame above the bump stop, you are not driving it the way a truck was meant to be driven!

You need to step up to a four-link long travel suspension. You could also benifit from some roll bat bracing. Your frame is being twisted past it's designed limitations because of two reasons. First is the limited suspension travel, second is the frame's flexability.

 

I live in South Florida. It's not like I'm out rock crawling or jumping dunes. When I say I off road a lot, that generally consists of exactly what the term implies: driving off road. There's not a whole lot of flex invloved in driving down a dirt road or through some sand.

 

 

Dang....

 

O..

 

Glad you got it before it got you

 

Oh me too. That would have been catastrophic if it had cracked all the way through. Hey, it would have been a good excuse to get a new truck though

 

Just wondering if you are the first owner of that truck?

 

No I'm not. I'm pretty sure that I'm the second owner and the first was some sort of construction company. It's a 4wd base model, reg cab, long bed4.6L. Typical construction work truck. It seems to have been well maintained, as the tranny and engine are both running very strong at 100K miles. The only suspicious thing is that the rearend that came on the truck (when I bought it) does not match the axle code. I blew my rearend shortly after buying the truck. It was an open differential. I replaced it with a Ford LS. A few months later I was regearing to 4.56s and checked the axle code to see what my original gear ratio was. The axle code was H9, 3.55 LS. So for some reason somebody had to replace the rearend. If it was due to an accident, that could very well explain the weak point on my frame.

 

yup happened to me too....same spot....but i had a c-notch so maybe thats why mine cracked....i fixed mine the same way

 

That is a typical crack from hauling a load with the axle on the bumpstops.
Not quite what I had in mind before. How is the other side?

 

The other side looks fine. I have 3 inch lift blocks on top of my 2 inch factory blocks. I rarely haul anything over a few hundred pounds, so I can't really see that causing it. It would take a LOT of weight to bottom those bump stops out.