Being from Minnesota, it looks to me like the bottom part of the frame (the lower channel) rusted off. That bend or channel provides a lot of rigidity to the frame so when that rusted away, that put more stress on what was left and thus the crack.
Insurance? Forget it. Why would insurance cover a rusted frame?
There is a youtube of a time lapse of a guy changing a frame on a pick up. Toyota? Or whatever one had the frame replacement issue. Bunch of rusted frames in a pile in back of the shop so the guy has quite a bit of experience. It is very very involved and at $80-120 an hour shop time, um what can I say? Forget it. Time to say bye bye.
Sorry to be blunt but would you rather be lied to?
Probably true! A reputable shop may see this damage and RUN from this job. Or they will quote a price to replace everything that might be compromised. Just fixing what is obvious might open them up to liability as there may be unseen rust hiding elsewhere. Jobs like this are where I would require a huge down payment so the truck doesn’t just get abandoned at the shop.
Many many years ago I had a 1979 Pontiac LeMans with a rotten frame above the rear wheel wells. The welding shop said it was common on that age of GM cars and knew how to fix it. They did a nice job. I was to bring the car in with the gas as close to empty as possible to make it easy to drop the tank. I also had to pay upfront as they said they had too many drive offs, folks would have a spare set of keys and would take the car after hours when they knew the job was done.
No one will find another frame that isn’t in the same condition. All vehicles in the rust belt don’t last as long as in Florida or the south. Forget welding as there isn’t enough good metal to weld together. You will find that where the mounts for suspension parts are welded to the chassis that they are coming apart also.
I live in southern California, and there are tons of Rangers of this vintage being driven that have completely rust-free frames
But that’s not the point . . . even if a perfect frame was located, it could be free and it still wouldn’t make financial sense, due to high labor costs
Would be cheaper to buy a complete vehicle from a southern state then, if one is determined to drive a Ranger. IMHO anyway from my little corner of the world.
I’m by no means a welding expert but when you weld something like a frame, it can actually make the repair area more brittle and prone to future failure. Couldn’t tell ya what the metallurgic properties of a frame are, but quite certain it just isn’t plain ole mild steel. The one welding failure I’ve had was on steel adjacent to my weld. The weld held but the steel a few inches away cracked and went flying. I saw it so went back to pick it up again. It was off the mount for the trailer spare tire. Steel from China.
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I’m by no means a welding expert lll
Like you I am no expert but if you look at the frame’s of big truck’s like road tractor’s and box truck’s where you can easly see the frame a lot of them say do not weld or drill make’s me think they are made of some kind of treated steel that would make it weaker from the heat.
I think the Q waa more meant as is it POSSIBLE ins would cover it. I’m kinda thinking not, sorry
As to what caused it, and just from the pic, i’d say the corrosion weakened and made brittle the metal, stress from flexing while u move down the road (and slam huge potholes) probably cracked it.
There’s gotta be other degregation around the rest too. l’ll leave it to someone else to tell u how to figure where and how bad. I can only guess what could work, not how a shop would do it. I have no idea what it’d cost to replace part or all of a frame, other than to say u CAN. Undoubtedly not worth it for ur poor old dog tho
There’s gotta be parts value in it tho. Who knows, maybe even a couple $K if u sell em off yourself piece by piece.
I had 2K sold off (but took longer to let them come get) on a car only worth 5.
But, I was in CA with no rust and it had perfect interior (seats bring easy big ).
I think he was replied to you because my initial question was would it be possible that insurance would cover the damage, and you responded “How could anyone say what your insurance will cover ?”
the rest of the comment after that wouldn’t be applicable to you.
