Bent Frame Insurance worth messing with?

[Birdman_2000]

Just did a trip down to Florida with some friends. Was an eventful journey for us. We left with a 6x16 tandem cargo trailer that was old and rather beat up. It was for sure overloaded. Pulled OK till it didn't. We snapped an axle and before I could get it over to the side it beat it up pretty good. We had been talking about getting a bigger trailer and going in on it together. So instead of trying to unload and figure out how to fix the old thing we just scrapped it. Ran down to a trailer shop and grabbed an 8 1/2 x 20 enclosed car hauler with 5200lb axles. Pulled like a dream for the rest of the trip down. Didn't really squat my truck at all. We only had the stuff from the little trailer and we spread the load. Fast forward to the return trip and the problem. I hit a bad section of road coming through Atlanta at night. whole rig bounced pretty good. About an hour down the road I stopped to get gas and noticed the gap of the bed was bigger at the top. Instantly regretted not swinging into an RV place and getting a Weight distro hitch. Honestly didn't think we were that heavy though. I knew i had a bit more tongue weight with the bigger trailer, but we spread the load mostly over the wheels. I normally pull a toy hauler that is roughly 800lb of tongue weight. Either way now it needs fixed. I am just not sure if it's worth dealing with State Farm.

Question - Has anyone had something like this where they hit bad road and turned something like this into insurance to fix it?

Truck setup
2019 1500 Hemi no E-torque with 3.92 gears, 5'7" bed
Timber grove air bags
Sticker and Camper I have pulled for years in pictures

 

[Birdman_2000]

Irony is I was planning to trade up to a 2500 later this year. Most the trailers back on the family farm are gooseneck and I always have to go grab a farm truck to use them. Now I am wondering if I should swap brands away from dodge. Is this a common issue on all Rams?

 

[fulbuyer]

I've had this happen also, I ended up taking it to a frame shop and they fix it fairly inexpensively. I didn't want to use State Farm either.

 

[Bt10]

Yeah any body shop should be able to pull it straight, but I would be very tempted to add metal on the rails. I have had to do that to a small tractor as well. I would stay within the sticker weights too.

 

[Trooper4]

Equalizer would have been a good move.
BTW, I have a goose neck hitch in mine. B&W turnover ball hitch.

 

[silver billet]

Irony is I was planning to trade up to a 2500 later this year. Most the trailers back on the family farm are gooseneck and I always have to go grab a farm truck to use them. Now I am wondering if I should swap brands away from dodge. Is this a common issue on all Rams?

Get it fixed and trade up to a 2500. It's not "common", but it does happen on every half ton. These are not work horse trucks, they are all basically large passenger cars at this point.

You definitely should be towing with a WDH, it most likely would not have flexed with that in place.

Maximum tow weight WITHOUT a WDH is 5000 pounds and about 500 to 600 on the hitch.
Maximum tow weight WITH a WDH is about 1200 lbs on the hitch.

Your payload is 1500 lbs but you absolutely cannot dump that all on the hitch, especially without a WDH.

Using a gooseneck is a far better setup as you no longer have all that leverage behind the shocks flexing the frame. The truck truck will be more stable towing it as well.

 

[1791]

no offence, RANT ALERT! i have seen this all over the country in over 1 million miles driving a big rig. it's your bad. too many people going way to fast for the trailer and more failed axles and bearings than i can count. actually your lucky no innocent drivers got hurt. never roll with a trailer you know is overloaded they build those as cheap as possible for the "rated weight" i would argue not to even go to the max rating.
let this be a cautionary tale, do not overload you trailer make sure the tires and bearings are in good shape.
every time i drive the i am required by law to do a pre trip inspection and any time you pull a trailer with a pick up you should do the same.
that being said i'm glad your okay and your truck is repairable.
guy's your top concern should be SAFETY for everyone else on the road.

 

[Birdman_2000]

Equalizer would have been a good move.
BTW, I have a goose neck hitch in mine. B&W turnover ball hitch.

Yeah, I have a blue OX for the camper. I did contemplate a gooseneck hitch in this one, but I honestly want a longer truck bed. I have no plans to keep this truck longer term so I didn't want to put the investment into it.

 

[Birdman_2000]

I've had this happen also, I ended up taking it to a frame shop and they fix it fairly inexpensively. I didn't want to use State Farm either.

yeah, I am starting this route. Gonna take it back to my home town and have them take a look at it. They are usually cheaper than the shops in the city.

 

[Birdman_2000]

Yeah any body shop should be able to pull it straight, but I would be very tempted to add metal on the rails. I have had to do that to a small tractor as well. I would stay within the sticker weights too.

yeah, I am going to see if they can add some re-enforcement when they get it pulled back straight.

 

[Birdman_2000]

no offence, RANT ALERT! i have seen this all over the country in over 1 million miles driving a big rig. it's your bad. too many people going way to fast for the trailer and more failed axles and bearings than i can count. actually your lucky no innocent drivers got hurt. never roll with a trailer you know is overloaded they build those as cheap as possible for the "rated weight" i would argue not to even go to the max rating.
let this be a cautionary tale, do not overload you trailer make sure the tires and bearings are in good shape.
every time i drive the i am required by law to do a pre trip inspection and any time you pull a trailer with a pick up you should do the same.
that being said i'm glad your okay and your truck is repairable.
guy's your top concern should be SAFETY for everyone else on the road.

Yep, I know it was my bad. I was a truck driver for 10 years and still have a CDL. Reason we knew of the trailer place was I did the normal walk around at every fuel stop and caught one tire wearing badly on the inside. We went and replaced it. I typically run 60 with bigger trailers though. Wind drag, fuel average, etc. Not worth going much faster. You just stop for fuel more. The new trailer was inside the trucks capacity. I am going to scale it at some point here to double check, but I know we didn't pull 4k lbs out of the littler trailer. I just misjudged the tongue weight for sure though and didn't realize above 5k for these trucks they want a weight distro hitch. Normally I tow the camper and I have always had a weight hitch. I was just way away from home and trying to just get back. Gambled on it holding out since it didn't even squat the truck. Agree Safety should be top concern. I have hated pulling the old little trailer on every trip, but if I didn't pull it my buddy pulls it with his Tahoe and it struggles to handle it at all. I actually convinced him to sell it after this trip and I would go 1/2 on the new trailer. He was even looking at buying my truck when I go up to 2500. I typically set things up as safe as possible. I run 10ply's on the truck for stiffer side walls. Run airbags even though I don't think I actually need them. Even bumping up to a 2500 is not really needed for my camper. I just would rather be over prepared than under. Good part is now we do have trailer that can carry the load and it should be much safer going forward.

 

[fulbuyer]

yeah, I am starting this route. Gonna take it back to my home town and have them take a look at it. They are usually cheaper than the shops in the city.

Mind me asking what state you live in? Small town shops will definitely give you a better deal. The guy that did mine did it cheap.

 

[Birdman_2000]

Mind me asking what state you live in? Small town shops will definitely give you a better deal. The guy that did mine did it cheap.

Missouri. Live in Kansas City, but my hometown is across the state near Hannibal

 

[fulbuyer]

Missouri. Live in Kansas City, but my hometown is across the state near Hannibal

Got ya! I am north of you so I don't have a near recommendation.