Cracked Frame 2000 Silverado 1500 4.3L

havi4362 · June 9, 2013

The truck is a long bed, reg cab. I noticed that the bed was falling towards the cab, and that's when I got under and saw the cracks. Each rail is cracked right behind the seats. It's a 4x4V6 but quite rusty from age, 190k miles. Should I weld it, brace it, swap the frame, or scrap it? Pics to follow.

99 2500 · June 10, 2013

Weld in some braces.

scooby5121 · June 10, 2013

My friend does pick-up conversions with camaro front clips in old Mercury trucks etc.

He would weld steel in a tear drop shape for looks on top of the frame to join the two frames.

so the answer imo is to cut a piece of steel and weld it on too.

Scooby.

lift the frame with some jacks to get the gap between the truck cab and box also.

gmtech4 · June 10, 2013

scrap it .....its done

KMGZ400 · June 10, 2013

yeah definatley scrap it.... you really would be comfy welding the frame back together and driving around? thats a death trap

gmtech4 · June 11, 2013

bounce bounce + rust == done lmao !!!!

99 2500 · June 11, 2013

My friends 2000 silverado 2500 is unbelievably rotted and cracked in the front and middle rails, probably has 70 pounds of braces welded on it. It looks like it has been at the bottom of sea for the last hundred years but that is because he 4x4'd a lot in sea mud pits. Vehicle is still used to move at least 2000 pounds soil around the place.

zach1990 · June 11, 2013

Y'all had me climbing around under my 2000 all paranoid and what not

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havi4362 · June 11, 2013

I didn't ever off road this truck, never even bought the ORV sticker. I bought it with 160k miles from a used car dealership, and I thought it was ok even with the rust. I noticed the sagging of the bed after a deer hunting trip. This was the most abuse on the truck: 3 people in the cab, hunting gear in the bed, and driving a two-track ~1/4mi in the woods to get to the cabin. This cracked after the second year of hunting at this cabin.

A co-worker's wife works at GM durability. So he snapped some photos and showed them to her. Her group's conclusion was, "yes, this is where we'd expect it to crack at 98% life." end of story. no love from the general on this one.

I bought a car to replace this as it was my daily driver. I have no urge to put work into it, so I'm willing to sell it or scrap it. I need to find a farmer who will just weld the cracks and only run it lightly on his farm. damn shame.

sorry to be a noob, but how do i attach pics? i got an error saying that i can't use the image extension for this forum.

txab · June 11, 2013

BEst way is to host the pics on a pic hosting site like photobucket (free). Then post the link in the thread

http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/28374-how-to-post-pictures/

havi4362 · June 13, 2013

http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/bhaviland07/media/DSC00767_zps44b92e79.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/bhaviland07/media/DSC00766_zps8139e76d.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/bhaviland07/media/DSC00764_zps6c0337a4.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

scooby5121 · June 13, 2013

IMO that doesn't look to bad tow weld a plate on top of.

I wish i could buy it off of you, but too far away.

Scooby

99 2500 · June 13, 2013

Wow, that's bad. The 2500 I was talking about had angle iron welded in bad areas before they broke like yours did, probably best to scrap it.

Badass69 · June 16, 2013

If you won't hopefully someone condems it and sends its to the nearest scrap yard. Gm will not care about a 200000 mile 13 year old truck, lol. Junk it and move on.

zach1990 · June 16, 2013

If you won't hopefully someone condems it and sends its to the nearest scrap yard. Gm will not care about a 200000 mile 13 year old truck, lol. Junk it and move on.

Hell they should endorse my motor lol

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