Overloaded Dodge Ram snapped in half

Jhodgesatmb

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I saw this photo and just had to share it with the group. This is what happens when you put massive amounts of weight cantilevered off the back of a vehicle. My guess is that bike rack with 2 heavy Ebikes hanging off the back, is the straw that broke the camel's back.

The lesson I get from this is that payload capacity is based on within the vehicle. Not hanging way out beyond the bumpers! ;)

dodgefail.jpg
Sad but that camper was way off the end of the truck; it looks 3-4 feet from the end of the bed. The bikes probably didn’t do it.and they were stranded in the snow.
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Ogre

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Ogre

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Sad but that camper was way off the end of the truck; it looks 3-4 feet from the end of the bed. The bikes probably didn’t do it.and they were stranded in the snow.
Bikes added insult to injury out there. Likely 200+ pounds of ebikes plus rack sticking 5-8 feet off the rear bumper. As soon as you have weight off the back of the truck it’s like a giant lever.

The guy also mentioned that the roads in Baja were bumpy with lots of dips. I’ve driven trucks that are overloaded many times and they don’t just fold like this. He likely drove it along some rutted out bumpy dirt backroads at speed thinking he bought a big enough truck he could beat the hell out of it.

As they say. FAFO, Fornicate Around and Find Out.
 

HaulingAss

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Bikes added insult to injury out there. Likely 200+ pounds of ebikes plus rack sticking 5-8 feet off the rear bumper. As soon as you have weight off the back of the truck it’s like a giant lever.

The guy also mentioned that the roads in Baja were bumpy with lots of dips. I’ve driven trucks that are overloaded many times and they don’t just fold like this. He likely drove it along some rutted out bumpy dirt backroads at speed thinking he bought a big enough truck he could beat the hell out of it.

As they say. FAFO, Fornicate Around and Find Out.
I've driven my F-150 with double it's rated load capacity of wet alder in the bed but I went slow, especially over uneven ground. And I only went a couple of miles on a Forest Service road. No problems.

But this really points out that these heavy duty trucks with mild steel frames don't have a large margin of error nor are they engineered to a high standard. They are overweight and not as strong as you might think. But, yeah, operator error. The web is full of photos of American pickup trucks that have broken in half between the cab and bed. I'm sure they were all either improperly loaded or had rust cancer that had reduced the strength.

The Cybertruck will not be indestructible either if improperly loaded but it will have the advantage of being more corrosion resistant and it's rigidity will help avoid the kind of metal fatigue from repeated bending that was the demise of this Dodge Ram.
 

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HaulingAss

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Oh, wow! That broke easily and it broke in dramatic fashion. This is what happens when you have a 9,000+ lb truck with too many batteries and not enough frame and then proceed to put it in "Watts for America" mode which lowers the suspension and the amount of suspension travel and drive it through a dip at 60 mph. Totalled.

The Hummer is not as tough as the image it projects. It really is a worthless design. Not really good off-road, too heavy and too weak. The Cybertruck with a load maxing out it's full 3,500 lb. cargo rating will weigh about the same as Hummer with three or four people in it.
 

Ogre

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I've driven my F-150 with double it's rated load capacity of wet alder in the bed but I went slow, especially over uneven ground. And I only went a couple of miles on a Forest Service road. No problems.
Done similar things. **JUST** overloading a truck is generally not going to cause this kind of failure. Overloading it then driving it hundreds of miles and over bumpy dirt roads? Thats a whole other thing.

Some friends of mine work in bike shops and they get crazy warrantee claims all the time. People come in with folded wheels and cracked frames and say “I was just rolling around”. They call it “JRA” jokingly.

This dude makes me think of that… his cousin in the rolled Rivian as well. “The truck shouldn’t do this!”. When the reality is they were most likely doing something pretty stupid and thought they could get away with it.

The Cybertruck will not be indestructible either if improperly loaded but it will have the advantage of being more corrosion resistant and it's rigidity will help avoid the kind of metal fatigue from repeated bending that was the demise of this Dodge Ram.
This particular failure mode seems impossible for the Cybertruck. I’m sure there are plenty of other creative ways to F* it up though.

It would be interesting to see the truck warn you it is overloaded
 
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Ogre

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Oh, wow! That broke easily and it broke in dramatic fashion. This is what happens when you have a 9,000+ lb truck with too many batteries and not enough frame and then proceed to put it in "Watts for America" mode which lowers the suspension and the amount of suspension travel and drive it through a dip at 60 mph. Totalled.

The Hummer is not as tough as the image it projects. It really is a worthless design. Not really good off-road, too heavy and too weak. The Cybertruck with a load maxing out it's full 3,500 lb. cargo rating will weigh about the same as Hummer with three or four people in it.
Absolutely. Trying to drag race on an unknown surface is just flat out stupid, but the truck design encourages this kind of stupid. A lifted truck with huge tires and a drag race mode?? Of course someone is going to drag race it where it’s stupid to do it.

Totally agree on the truck design as well. A lighter truck would have taken far less damage. The Hummer is by nature like driving around a fully loaded off road vehicle.
 

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Seems pretty common even on smaller utes:


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Ogre

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If that’s legit, that’s impressive and downright dangerous. A car tire could spontaneously explode when over-pressured and it’s like a small bomb. I’ve done it with bike tires at 50Psi and it’s like a gunshot. A car tire at 97 Psi would be… nasty.
 
 




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