We need any information that anyone can offer regarding the back of the cab
contacting the front of the bed. I know that Dennis posted this problem a
while back, and the general consensus was that he should get the TSB related
to the cab bolts fixed.
Turns out that in Canada, there's a recall on '98 Dakotas for the same
problem. Both the dealer and Chrysler's main customer service dept. assure
us that this recall does NOT apply to our VIN number. But we still had
the cab and bed contact and crack the paint after our recent trail ride.
The dealer told me that the mounts are slightly flexible and that it will
"just do that" if we bounce around too much.
Where we stand right now is that the dealer has pretty much decided that we
were abusing the vehicle, and we're getting the standard "Chrysler is not
responsible for owner misuse by actually taking a 4x4 off the pavement"
legal disclaimer drivel. They insist that they inspected the cab mounting
bolts and that there is no mechanical problem. They sent it over to the
body shop for an estimate to get the paint and a couple of other scratches
fixed (even after we told them not to) and we got an astronomical estimate
to re-paint the entire truck (give me a break). Personally I think they
feel like they need to punish us for misusing a leased truck or something.
The paint is my second concern. My first is why did this happen in the
first place? There was a Nissan pickup on the exact same trail under the
exact same conditions, and he was just fine (except he had an antifreeze
leak somewhere, but that's not related to structural integrity). There were
also several bone stock Jeeps, Toyotas, Suzukis, Ladas (if you don't know
what a Lada is, it's a little Russian piece of junk, think 4x4 Yugo) and
even a Chevy, none of which had any problems. I can't possibly believe that
this Dodge isn't built as well as those vehicles. If there's a mechanical
problem, I want it fixed, even if they refuse to do it under warranty.
They're still denying that there's a mechanical problem, which forces me to
conclude that it's a fundamental design flaw (in other words, that Dodge
can't build a strong solid truck). That's a conclusion that depresses me to
no end.
Is there anyone out there who has any suggestions? If you've seen this
problem, I would really appreciate it if you could tell me as much as you
can about your truck -- year, exact model, etc. If you have a current model
(1997 or newer) Dakota that you've taken off road and this has NOT happened
to you, please let me know that as well. If I can give them a count of
how many with the same design haven't ever seen this problem and how many
have, I might be able to convince them that we have a manufacturing defect
that they previously weren't aware of.
Thank you.
---------------------------------------------------------
Jason Bleazard jbleazard@home.com Toronto, Ontario
current: '95 Dakota Sport white 4x4 Reg. Cab V6/3.9L/5spd
current: '98 Dakota Sport black 4x4 Club Cab V8/5.2L/Auto
RIP: '95 Dakota Sport black 4x2 Club Cab V6/3.9L/Auto
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:13:49 EDT