weird frame breakage.

[white433]

A while back my passenger side ram horn broke-off while driving. I was puzzled that such a thing would happen. This afternoon I went to fix it, and found the rear spring-hanger (passenger side front) had broken-off. All the weld lines. When it broke, it folded up and must have jammed the exhaust pipe up and thus broke the manifold. Luckly the bolt that goes through the eye sticks out about a half inch and the frame was resting on the bolt-end. Something bad might have happened had it had been driven hard like that. Yall might want to check your hangers, anybody else seen that happen?

[randyscycle]

Are the spring hangers original? Truck been lifted, or a spring over? Really big tires?

I've seen them break on other vehicles, but usually from fatigue and not on the welds. Generally it was from some other stress factor as mentioned above. Of course there just may have been proper planetary alignment the day you were out driving.

[brute4c]

There have been a couple instances of this...Barrman had one do that if I remember right.

[white433]

Stock underneath, on XLs. If you look at it close, it doesnt look very stout, I am not surprised it has happened before.

[brute4c]

I am actually surprised it hasnt happened more...

[503m715]

Two of my trucks had issues with the front hangers coming loose at the welds. Both sides on both trucks had been rewelded.
I wonder what Tom Lawlor's frame on his big truck looks like. You would think with the abuse from the top truck challenge the stock rear spring hangers would have failed on it.

[Barrman]

Yep, I think mine came that way from the fire department. I drove it for a year or two and didn't know it with stock everything including tires. The first time I had my students pick it up on a frame mount lift here in my class, the right front tire stayed on the ground while the rest of the truck was going up.

The breaks in the welds were rusted over, so it had been a while since it broke. I set the truck back down on the mount and drove it home. Tried to stick weld it with the bracket still on the spring. I had c-clamps, pry bars, comealong winches and all kinds of stuff and ended up welding it "close" to where it was supposed to be. If I remember right, it was raining like crazy that day and just about everytime I got an arc, it shocked the heck out of me. That was in 2003.

That fix didn't hold for more than about 6 months. I had a brand new Millermatic 210 by the spring of 2004. I pulled the leaf spring off, ground everything down right, aligned it up and cranked up the Miller. That is the way to do it since it has lasted ever since. Or it could just be that welding in the rain is a bad idea and I didn't get enough metal melted since it hurt.

[randyscycle]

Or it could just be that welding in the rain is a bad idea and I didn't get enough metal melted since it hurt.

Ouch! I've been shocked by my TIG a couple times on the metal welding table in the shop but no water was involved. Bet that was fun........

[Barrman]

This was back when the M715 was my daily driver. I "had" to get it fixed that night. I got the Mini done a little after that and could use it as a back up driver so the M715 repairs could be done correctly if needed during the week.

[Jed]

My truck was cracked up around the front right spring hanger too. I ground things out and rewelded everything and it's helded up fine so far.