[Mud yapster]

They should have bought a Subaru instead of a Prius. LOL.

 

[.44mag]

Hey GSM24, not trying to be disrespectful or any thing but there are alot of people who use their trucks off road whether for work, play or hunting (and other outdoor stuff). They usually modify the suspension. You can haul more stuff related to the off road activity than a jeep can. Yeah a jeep can get in tighter spots but it wil roll over quicker. Farmers, construction workers (depending on location), power companies (the guys who put up poles and lines) and logging companies use trucks OFF ROAD, not for fun but to put a roof over their families. Not in their right minds??????????????? Alot of the places they use their trucks will twist one up making it wore out before its time. They use the trucks to haul tools, supplies, extra fuel and whatever they need. I had a 1990 f150 once several years ago, with a 6 inch lift and 35 inch mt tires. The frame rails on both sides cracked where the radius arm drop brackets connected to the frame, a big bummer. It was repairable yes but no good for anything but daily driving after that, gone. Later found out that because the ford frames flex like they do that any larger than stock tire could cause this problem with or without a lift kit. Hot rodders box/stiffen the frames up on their vehicles to help them handle the torque launches and handling. Take a civilian crown vic and police pakage crown vic and drive them on an EVOC (emergency vehicle operations cours. The police vic has a stiffer frame, don't FLEX/TWIST no where near as bad as the civilian package. The civilian package will spin out 10 times quicker. Not trying to say you are wrong or bash on you, just saying what I know from first hand experience and what I have seen.

 

[sounddoor1]

A group did similar tests back in I think 2011. I don't know for sure, but Ford probably uses the tailgate to resist the frame twist if the truck were to ever get into a situation like that.

To me, the test is meaningless. Who drives their truck in real world driving conditions where the truck gets twisted like that? This doesn't change my mind about Ford or Ram. Ford makes a quality truck. I haven't heard of frames breaking on Ford trucks when towing. What I care about is safety. I'm not real happy with the new report that came out that Ram is dead last in safety for front end crashes. Ford is the safest.

I'm a Ram guy. I love the Cummins engine. People on this website love to bash Ford for some reason. Many bash Ford and have never owned a Ford truck. I can tell you this. Ford is getting the bugs out of their Scorpion 6.7L. They are building the all aluminum F150 trucks which are lighter and crash results are the best in the 1/2 ton class. If they do the same with their Heavy Duty line of trucks, watch out. The trucks will be lighter, won't rust, the engine will feel more powerful because of the high weight reduction, and get much better fuel economy. The downside is the body is riveted to the frame. A joe blow like me won't be able to take off a fender to gain access to the engine bay or make any body repairs. A specialized shop will have to do any body work that have the tools to rivet the body back to the frame.

Ford is #1 in truck sales for a reason. It's not because they build poor quality trucks. Let's keep things in perspective.

This is the frame on my Ford F-250 Super Duty 2016 my work truck just from having the bed loaded driving my current constant wait is 7700 lb which granted is heavy but never expected to see anything like this I am now purchasing exclusively Dodges for my company

 

[Danderson]

When the Ram 2nd gen's were released Petersen's 4wd did a test between a '94 Ram 2500 diesel and an identical F-250 diesel. They went down a tight rocky road with many holes etc. You couldn't open the driver's door or the hood do to frame twisting on the Ford. Conversely, the Ram's door and hood opened fine. The fully boxed frame was clearly superior to the C-channeled Ford of that period. GM and Ford followed suit years later.

 

[Mud yapster]

I have hauled 4000 to 6000 pounds in the bed of my 2015 dually on numerous trips of 7 to 9 hrs each way. No issues. I tow a 43' foot TH with a toungue weight of 4200# for 10s of 1000s of miles and still no issues. All in a Ram 3500 Dually CC 4X4. Buy yourself a Ford or Chevy if you think you like them better but don't bash a Ram 3500 they are proven tuff.

 

[Don82146]

It is only 7 years since the last post in this thread.
Ford has changed their frames in that time.
Ford is still a Ford even after that.
See my sig.

 

[Scott_Cummins_Newbe]

I was a service manger for 28 years for a large corporation. Nationwide Ford was the service truck, F250 or above [mostly F250’s]. As soon as we got into the 4 door extended cabs with a service body the frame flex became very obvious. On bumpy roads you could watch the rear of the truck flex up and down independent of the cab via the rear view mirror. This also translated to a horrible ride like when you were running on concrete sections of the highway where you get that up and down motion between sections of the concrete. It was very evident the frame had a lot of flex. Eventually Ford did a buy back program for our entire fleet and we switched to a different manufacturer. Not bashing Ford, just providing the experience we had with frame flex compared to other manufacturers.

I used to have a Tundra CrewMax [personal truck] 2008. It had the frame that was not fully boxed and the flex was just as bad.