Collision damage?

[Wes Davis]

I mentioned in another thread that I was rearended by a friend. His car hit my trailer hitch. He hit me hard enough that it snapped 5 of the 6 bolts that mount my hitch but that was all the damage I could see. His Mercedes car not so good where the hitch went through the grill. I jacked my bumper and hitch back into place and installed new bolts and I thought that was the end of it. Well something is still not right. I am hearing some clunking in the rearend that was not there before the accident when the back window is down and also my truck bed is tweaked. If you notice in the photo my bed is not sitting level. I don't know if one side is high or if one side is low but I believe it is the passenger side that is sitting low. So something underneath is bent or broke. I have looked under the truck but can't see anything. What do you guys think I should specifically look at?





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[Wes Davis]

Look at the cab of the truck and you can see that it is perfectly level. The lean in the bed is obvious. I got some sagging going on.





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[EddieS'04]

Most likely the frame is bent. The noise could be from any part of the suspension that is torqued out of position or loose.

Get a dead blow hammer and start pounding on different parts. you may find it.

 

[Les C]

I assume since you replaced 5 of the 6 hitch bolts yourself that either your freind doesn't have insurance or he or you don't want to turn it into his insurance company. Or pehaps you thought that was initially all ther damage. But to break 5 of 6 hitch bolts, that was seeminly a hard hit. Friend or not your Spert Trac deserves to be put back in the condition that it was in before the accident. And I'd think a true friend would want it that way too.



Could the noise be the rear ends gears? Just thinking out loud.

 

[Wes Davis]

To be honest it probably didn't take much to snap my hitch bolts as they were just those pot metal type bolts. Not sure of the actual name of the metal.





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[Dean Kolar]

The same thing happened to me late lAst year. I don't exactly know what they did but I know that they put a new bumper on, replaced the trailer hitch, and did an alignment. I can look later tonight at the papers to see what they did exactly

 

[Wes Davis]

Thanks Dean appreciate it.





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[Robert Howell]

A quick check on the frame rack would tell you much more about what is going on

 

[Wes Davis]

Yep its a bent frame. I climbed under and took a good look at everything. On the passenger side right where the tailpipe hanger connects to the frame there is a factory cut out weak spot. Now there is a collision kink in that area of the frame. The other side does not have that cut out weak spot. I guess its off to the body/frame shop. Anyone know how much a repair like this should cost? Does the bed have to be removed to do it?

 

[Dean Kolar]

Sorry I took so long to reply, I've been so busy. Alot of my cost came from the actual damage to the bumper and trailer hitch. The trailer hitch took most of the force so it messed up the whole hitch and they had to straighten out some of the frame where it had been connected. My total was 2900 but that is also with all the other parts. His insurance covered it and so it was all good. Never want to get in a crash, but I did get a new trailer hitch to replace the old one that was taking a beating in Midwestern winters

 

[Kevin Palmer]

I have seen frame shops straighten rails for 75 bucks and not remove the bed.



Depends on how bad the kink is.



If it were me, once it is straightened, I would put an additional plate of steel in the damaged location and drill and bolt it in place.



That said,,, it might be a design in the frame to fail there for safety.