Worth patching this frame?

Should I save it?

  • Junk it, not worth saving.

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chillman88

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You are not supposed to mess with the top and bottom areas of the frame. Believe it or not, that is where all the strength is. If you notice, all official gooseneck hitches you buy fasten to the vertical sides of the frame. That being said, my truck had this exact same type of homemade hitch welded to it also. I have never had a problem with it. I just got finished putting a dump bed on it, and had to cut that hitch out. Being afraid like you, I just took the torch and cut the center out, and left their welded on part on the top of the frame and did not bother it.

You can do a google search, and you will see all the big truck companies have rules about modifying their frames. You can weld and modify the frame, but there are certain ways to do it, and they usually want you to stay away from the top and bottom short areas, and only drill and weld to the vertical piece. I noticed on a 1989 f350 cab and chassis frame, Ford had welded a narrow piece of metal to the top and bottom of the horizontal areas of the frame to beef it up.

Yeah I've seen a lot of that and that's what makes me nervous. I think I'm probably going to end up lightly plating the underside of the worn area and just filling the top with epoxy prior to paint.
 

chillman88

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As long as I'm not looking at the pictures!LOL Honestly, it's hard for me to imagine someone letting their bed rub on the frame that much. It obviously happened once and probably more time that we don't know about.

Yeah I just want to know what on earth they were doing with it. The front two bolts had been replaced with hex bolts and the next pair back were missing. The bed had obviously worn clear through the bottom rail and they had tried to weld the bed on. What were they doing that everything was moving around THAT much?

Almost makes me wonder if it was an oilfield truck or something that was always off road. Possibly a very very rough ranch or something?
 

Jesus Freak

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What were they doing that everything was moving around THAT much?
They were "testing" it against a day that it might have to pull a trailer with 14K lbs on it.
 

IDIBRONCO

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Almost makes me wonder if it was an oilfield truck or something that was always off road. Possibly a very very rough ranch or something?
That's what I'm thinking too. It is a crew cab so it will have A LOT of frame flex. You also mentioned that the worst wear is at the front of the bed while the back has minimal wear. That makes sense if you think along the lines of frame flex.
 

Jesus Freak

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I had mine parked in a pasture one time and when I was walking back to it having repaired some fence, I thought something was broke it was so wobble cotted. I had no idea. The cab and bed were not in line to say the least.
 

no mufflers

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i would slap some weld on the worn spots and grind it flush. looks clean tho, and will come out awesome blasted and painted.

if i had to guess.. besides defiantly performing a 10 out of 10 durability test of the truck. maybe they tried mounting the 5th wheel to the bed and figured out that wont work. so then made that custom one on the frame lol.
 

Oledirtypearl86

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I'd run the hell out of it after a few cans of Walmarts finest paint and the goose neckis fine make sure no crack on the frame or welds if not your fine gotta remember it's lasted this long and I'd put money that that frame was a dirt road runner
 

chillman88

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i would slap some weld on the worn spots and grind it flush. looks clean tho, and will come out awesome blasted and painted.

if i had to guess.. besides defiantly performing a 10 out of 10 durability test of the truck. maybe they tried mounting the 5th wheel to the bed and figured out that wont work. so then made that custom one on the frame lol.

I've been told welding the worn spots would be bad because of the amount of weld required to fill the voids. I was told it's going to be MORE likely to crack because of the heat input. I've heard this from two separate very seasoned welders. That's why I'm leaning towards plate the bottom and epoxy the voids.

What's your thoughts on that? I know you have done a fair amount of welding lol.

Oddly enough the gooseneck had been plated over in the bed where they had cut the hole....
 

IDIBRONCO

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I've been told welding the worn spots would be bad because of the amount of weld required to fill the voids. I was told it's going to be MORE likely to crack because of the heat input. I've heard this from two separate very seasoned welders.
I would tend to agree with this. Since you're working with a bare frame, could you find a way to strengthen the goose neck plate? I'm thinking about putting a brace underneath the top of the frame running forward? You could bolt it to the frame and weld it to the plate. That should help to reduce the chances of the frame cracking by the plate.
 

chillman88

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I would tend to agree with this. Since you're working with a bare frame, could you find a way to strengthen the goose neck plate? I'm thinking about putting a brace underneath the top of the frame running forward? You could bolt it to the frame and weld it to the plate. That should help to reduce the chances of the frame cracking by the plate.

Honestly I'm not opposed to just cutting it off and grinding it flush with the frame. I was more curious if it was going to be an issue or not.

I have 5th wheel rails in the bed now, i can always just use a plate that pins into them if I ever get a gooseneck trailer.

If it was a quality hitch I'd want to keep it. It's a janky homemade one so I'm not worried about it lol
 

Nero

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My dad's crew cab was on an apple farm originally. We bought it in late 2014, and the tags had expired in 2005, it had been solely used on the farm bouncing around. Guy sold it cause it was originally a 460 gasser and the pinion nut had worked loose. Thing was just COVERED in clay and looked rough. After several hours of steam cleaning, it looked better. Slid a limited slip rear axle in it and drove it as a 460 for a while. Had the bed off to do some tank work, and it didn't have nearly as much wear as yours does, but had the same home style welded in 5th wheel plates in with no issues. We don't use a 5th wheel, but after years of abuse those suckers are still in there tight.

Don't worry fellas, October of last year it got a lovely idi swapped in out of a 1989 f250.
 

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