I notice it as well. Went camping last weekend over a VERY bumpy road and it was terrible to listen to. Bed of the truck was empty for part of the trip, was hoping I was just hearing the camping gear bouncing around but it still did it. I looked under the truck twice since and can't find anything...
MEGA CAB RATTLE FOUND!!!! AND CURED!!!
ok everyone.. here's the skinny on the rattle that is probably present in almost every 2019 Ram with the mega cab. This ONLY applies to the mega cab truck. The noise, rattle, which sounds like a block of wood bouncing around, golf ball in a plastic jug (my description) etc.. anything that is coming from the underside of the truck, in the rear of the cab. After purchasing a set of electronic chassis ears, I narrowed the noise down the rear cab/body mounts. These are a new design and not the same mount as the rest of the body mounts. The issue lies in how the metal sleeve, inside the mount, bounces off the floor of the cab while hitting sharp bumps. If you remove the 18mm bolt and large washer, you can see the metal sleeve. it's about 3/4" inside diameter. No matter how tight the bolt is, the sleeve will always hit the underside of the body over sharp bumps. So here's the cure. Forget going to the dealer as there isn't an updated bushing, (there was for the 1500 but only the front mount) and it's relatively easy fix. They also won't give two ****s anyway, will track footprints in your truck, waste your time because the booger-eater tech doesn't have a clue. (I've spent 30 years as a certified tech, general foreman of a large government fleet shop, so I've seen plenty of booger-eaters)
Take the large washer that covers the lower portion of the bushing (thick one with some paint pen marks on it) and oversize the hole to at least one inch. Unibit works great. Remove the thin sleeve that's snapped into place, inside the washer, as you'll need this later. Loosen all of the body bolts as you will need to jack up the truck from the rocker panel to separate the body from the bushings. Use some dunnage (2x4) and place it under the rocker panel to spread the load while jacking up the body. Place a towel or rags over it so it won't scratch up the underside. (I'm anal). I used a small handled interior pry bar, and wedged it between the rear body mount and underside of the cab. Do this from the rearward side as there's a nice radius on the cab channel to make it easier. This gives enough room to slide the large/thick washer between the mount and body. Center up the over-sized hole, over the existing metal sleeve that is centered in the bushing. You will see two dimples or indentations on the large metal washer. Place those facing down as to keep the portion of the washer that rests against the body, flat. In other words, the two indents compress the rubber portion of the body mount. The overall goal in this, is to compress the internal sleeve, tight against the floor of the truck when it's torqued. With the over-sized hole in the washer, the sleeve will compress against the body when the bolt is torqued back down. Now I went one further step in eliminating the noise once and for all. I replaced the thin sleeve, back inside the bushing. This gives a little "shelf" around the existing metal sleeve. I added two washers, roughly just over an inch in diameter, to fit over the long bushing bolt. Fender washers are good because of their size. These two washers allow just enough thickness as to make contact with the sleeve, and make it sit flush against the body. (The rubber portions of the mount have a metal structure inside, so they don't crush easily). You can't remove the thick factory washer on the bolt, which you don't want to do anyway. Torque to 90 ft lbs. (factory spec). Now there are two things I will mention. The repair manual states that the bushing bolts are a one time use. Like a torque to yield head bolt. I say poo-poo to that so I used them again. I can't see the logic, however that's what the factory states. They are not a stretch torque value. Your decision. Secondly, by re-locating the large/thick washer up top, the rubber portion of the bushing is exposed to the elements. Again, I don't see this as an issue. I torqued all bolts back to 90 ft. lbs and it's as quiet as it should be. The noise is now gone and I don't foresee any other issues creeping up. Please spread this around to any other folks that might be experiencing this. I would have attached some pics, however it's pretty straight forward. I hope this helps out. If you email me at
[email protected], I will send some pics of what I did.
