Colorado bent frame

Toytec

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Saw this on the web yesterday. This unfortunate thing happened to a Colorado owner hauling a trailer down a gravel path. After going through a dip and bouncing back, the frame bent between the cab and bed.
He was hauling a trailer with a 2100 pound load well below the 5000 pound limit. After a 3 month settlement, GM has declined to help him out.
Tells him his tires were 1" taller tires than stock, and the trailer should have had trailer brake above 2000#. The load was just 100 pounds over!
He is completely SOL and GM won't help him out a bit so he posted his pictures for everyone to see.

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Cerwin D. Vega

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Holy crap. I question if the 1" taller and the 100# heavier are even material to this situation except for denying the claim. If that is the case the Colorado's out there are running around with very little upside capacity.
 

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That sucks for that guy. I wonder if there is more to the story - I don't know why 1" taller tires or trailer brakes would have anything to do with the frame bending like that. It seems like there is some missing information somewhere.

I guess I'm glad the Ranger has a fully boxed and reinforced frame.
 

VAMike

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I'd guess the tires and brakes were the factual excuse and the real reason is that the truck was overloaded between the trailer, the cap, whatever was in the bed, the trailer, and anything that may have been taken out of the trailer before the weighing.

That said, these zr2s seem to be more delicate than you'd expect.
 


Tyler

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Tongue weight is what bent the frame, not just trailer weight. Tongue weight should be roughly 10% of the weight of the trailer. If he loaded the majority of his trailer in front of the axle, it would put a lot more stress than a 2000 lb trailer should.
 

samsd

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Why is this a GM deal and not an insurance claim, I agree with everyone else, we need to hear the rest of the story.
 

Tyler

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Why is this a GM deal and not an insurance claim, I agree with everyone else, we need to hear the rest of the story.
Its not an accident, its a vehicle malfunction (due to improperly overloading the vehicle). He may have been able to go through insurance and claim he hit a big hole but now that there has been an investigation concluding he was hauling more than allowed, he doesn't stand much of a chance of an insurance payout either.
 
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Toytec

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Tongue weight is what bent the frame, not just trailer weight. Tongue weight should be roughly 10% of the weight of the trailer. If he loaded the majority of his trailer in front of the axle, it would put a lot more stress than a 2000 lb trailer should.
From what was reported, the tongue weight was 347 pounds when inspection was done. That's all the story I read. I imagine this became an insurance deal after that.
 

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From what was reported, the tongue weight was 347 pounds when inspection was done. That's all the story I read. I imagine this became an insurance deal after that.
That doesn't seem excessive, but maybe that coupled with a large bump/hole offroad was the combination that caused the bend - that just seems quite excessive to me - and definitely a weak point in the frame.
 

THLONE

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It is obvious he loaded to the max and then went too fast over a bump. He is trying to make GM pay for his stupidity. The weight of the eng on one end and the weight of the trailer on the other and too fast over a bump will bend your Ford also.
 

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From what was reported, the tongue weight was 347 pounds when inspection was done. That's all the story I read. I imagine this became an insurance deal after that.
And the inspection was done at some point long after the accident, so we don't know whether the weight at the time was the same. (No, I don't just assume someone's completely honest when they're trying to get upwards of $20k.) That's why I suspect that GM thinks the load was a lot higher, but can't prove that, so they're using what they can prove to deny the claim even if it sounds petty.

I don't know why anyone thinks insurance would cover bending your truck towing an out of spec trailer off road any more than GM will.
 

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WoW!!
I loaded one of my old Rangers so overweight that I put jacks under it to support the suspension overnight, then drove it to the dump the next day, no damage. We also towed a loaded car trailer with that truck for years without a problem.
 

GTGallop

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In My Humble Opinion - and totally devoid of any facts.....
Just in what I glean from the pictures......

If he was headed down hill then the trailer would be in line with the frame. But when he reaches the bottom of a hill it changes the angle between the truck and trailer. If he's hard on the brakes at that point or even engine braking then the forward momentum of the trailer becomes part of the dynamic load bearing down on that hitch and could possibly cause a frame failure.

Remember your tongue weight is only rated for highway speeds where you are linear with the trailer. When you articulate and start to close that angle the dynamic load from forward momentum is transferred via the tongue to the hitch to the truck and frame. So if you are flexing at the trailer ball and articulating a lot, you will need to remember to back off that trailer weight.

Also - Better to buy a hitch mount that is WEAKER than the frame. Would be better to have to repair $2000 in trailer and hitch damage than total a $45,000 truck.
 

HenryMac

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I loaded one of my old Rangers so overweight that I put jacks under it to support the suspension overnight, then drove it to the dump the next day, no damage. We also towed a loaded car trailer with that truck for years without a problem.
Different era. Engineering and manufacturing today are able to design these trucks so precise, compared to previous years, that they have very little excess capacity.

Crawl under your truck and take a close look at the boxed frame. It is made from thin gauge steel.

I was amazed when I installed the Shrockworks Rocksliders on my truck how easily the 1/2" dia. through the frame bolts would crush the frame if you didn't take care not to do so.

As others have said, these new Rangers will do the same thing if overloaded.

Don't overload the truck, no worries.
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