Issues with my new Ram... :(
 

Not looking to do any bashing, at least at this point. lol But, since new my truck tended to pull to the right. Also, the tailgate never closed flush on the driver's side. I was able to finally make an appointment at a local dealership, not the one where the vehicle was purchased, about these issues. They did an alignment, which was off and I had some uneven wear on the front passenger tire. Keep in mind, I only have about 2600 miles on the truck at this point. The tailgate could not be fixed. They tried adjusting it and even tried a different gate from another truck. The conclusion was that the bed itself was not built properly from the factory. This requires photos to be taken and sent off to Chrysler. Then waiting to see what they are willing to do as a fix. The body shop guy at the dealer said that a new box is the fix. As for the alignment, picked up the truck yesterday. This morning was heading into work and was driving on a flat level road. Once I would take my hands off the steering wheel, I would watch it cant to the right and the truck would then begin drifting to the right...

Anybody else have these issues on a new truck? Im starting to think there might be a frame issue... At this point I am hoping that the dealer, which is over an hours drive away, where I purchased the truck can help. But I tend to be pessimistic about these things....

Most all roads are crowned in the center so rain runs to the sides, so there is always a lean to the right. Every car/truck will drift to the right edge if the wheel is let go. That said it will not be a fast drift. While following behind look at a long bed truck in front of you, it looks like the truck is crabbing on a road with a lot of lean like an interstate.

Sounds like a frame issue to me also. Good luck!

Familiar with the Crown in a road as a causing factor. The road i was on this morning is flat, no crown. And I know vehicles are designed to "drift" to the right for safety issues even if aligned in the green specs, which my truck is now. Some specs previously were in the red. I have the print out showing the before and after. But, to have the wheel go from being centered to canting to the right?? Nothing is ever easy, even with new...

Something is wrong with the truck and as Ben mentioned the frame may be bent

Like when the Rams total revamp came out in '93 or whenever it was. Boy was that a disaster !

Im hoping that it is not a frame issue.. but the only way to check that is to put it on a machine and measure it.

Any body shop with a computer measuring system can measure the truck frame and tell you. They are accurate within 1mm. If your dealer does not have a body shop, you can take it to a body shop and they should not charge you more than 2 hours labor. Make sure you use a shop that has a good frame measuring system like chief, shark, or car-o-liner . If you are anywhere near me in Greensboro,nc I will do it for free . Jeff wurl

I'd love to use this as an excuse to go to NC, but it would be cheaper to pay someone local. Thanks. :) Definately something I want to rule out as a problem.

The dealer I just had the truck at who did the alignment has a body shop. But are referring me back to the one where the vehicle was purchased for any further dealings with Chrysler. While its my understanding that any dealer can do the leg work and interactions with Chrysler, I don't think they want to bother since I did not buy the truck from them. So, instead of a 15 minute drive to the dealer, its over an hour...

Contact Chrysler and see what they tell you

I have owned 4 Ram 1500 4x4s and absolutely love them, I have never had an issue with any of them but if it were mine I would have them replace it.

So I took a tape measure out and decided to do a little measuring.. While I did not find any major differences in the dimensions of the bed itself, I did find a difference in the distance between the rear tire and inner fender wall where the flares are attached. The distance on the drivers side was shorter than the passenger side at the rear of the tire. I also noticed, when measuring between the tires with the wheels pointing straight, a difference of a quarter inch. The driver's side was longer than the passenger side when measured at the same spot on each tire. The alignment did list the thrust angle at -0.13.

frame?
 

When I was much much much younger I worked at a Jag,MG dealer. Customers would complain about doors, trunks, hoods not fitting or sticking on new cars. We would not even attempt to adjust them. Send straight to the frame shop. When the frame was straight everything would fit AMAZING. Transport would chain or strap these down. The frames would tweak. I sure think that would be a ez thing to check and fix prior to re inventing everything else.. Good Luck

I bought a new Ram 1500 Crew 2WD last year......owned it exactly 6 months and 1 day, 10K miles. It was not a great truck and I was thrilled to pay $4600 to get rid of it. Key wouldn't be recognized daily, 6-8 times a week the trans selector knob wouldn't engage in drive and the final straw was all the power windows quit working......luckily the windows were all in the up position at the time! Figured if truck has issues now, I'm not going to enjoy it more later (when it is out of warranty). I did have some passenger side tire wear but never addressed it since that was about the time I made the decision to dump it. I bought it new but I definitely thought the front fender had been repainted along with the bumper. Color was white but the shade was off and there were fish eyes in the paint!

I loved the way it rode though (coil springs in the rear)!

For what its worth, replacement truck (new GM) turned 20K miles yesterday and hasn't had a single issue in the 10 months I have had it. Bought it with 24 miles on it. 2 oil changes and one tire rotation have been the only things done to it.

you would be surprised to know how many new vehicles are repaired before they are sold. some just have some dings and scratches but we repainted a truck that the owner bought new 10 years ago and had never had any work done to it. the paint was bad on the one bed side and after digging into it there was bondo from one end to the other from where it had torn up before he bought it. I have seen cars that fell off trailers and had new panels and repairs on half the car and were sold as new with out the knowledge of the buyer. it is possible that the truck was damaged in shipping so start looking at things real close.

We had several of those at the dealers I worked for, we made the transport company and manufacturer deal with them. ie: wouldnot accept them. I watched the transport truck lower the top section on to a poor little Toyota Corrolla still on the lower level, Ouch ! Um, you better call your boss, we are not taking that one ! Obviousy e had paperwork on our end.

A few that got damaged in our hands where sold with disclosed info, still new, and at very discounted rate.

So, I guess there are some shady new car dealers according to person above.

I live in your area RollWithIt. I have a 2500 Silverado and i know that its very hard to find a good allignment shop. My buddy is a mechanic and has gone through 3 different shoos for alignment. Especially on heavy duty trucks. He is located in Blawnox and will make sure its right or tell you if some thing is off. Just because its innthe green part doesnt meen it is straight. Message me if you would like him to look at it.

Thanks for the responses guys. I did have the frame checked and it is straight. So that is one less thing to worry about. Still have to get back to the dealer where I purchased the truck from in regards to the bed not being square. The shop manager at the local dealer wrote up all the stuff they did for the truck so that I can just take that with me to the other dealer. Hopefully this makes the process go quicker.

Just curious why you bought over a hour from home and not support a local store?

Glad the frame checked out good! I thought warranty work had changed and any dealer can do the work and collect the warranty payment? Would there be any reason to read more into them not wanting to get involved? I've had my Ford to different dealerships for warranty work...

I worked as a service advisor at a JCDR dealer for a few years, bought my '15 Ram new, it has 48k on it now. It has drifted right since day one, and honestly most of them do. Tech support was never able to explain why, I've left it the way it is and I haven't had any type of tire wear issues. Bed wise, getting Mopar to do body repairs is like pulling teeth, especially if its more than repainting a section or replacing trim/moldings. Usually common issues like the rusting and peeling wrangler door hinges, or fender flares coming off of the 2500/3500's get processed quickly. I have a paint blemish on the hood of my truck, took about a month to get it approved, but I ended up not having it fixed because the dealership I worked at didn't have the highest quality body shop. Most dealers are going to refer you to the selling dealer for things like that because they are supposed to document things like that during the PDI process and if they didn't it falls back on them. Regular mechanical warranty work, usually any dealer will handle it. If you really don't want to go back to the selling dealer, find out who the district parts and service manger is and get in touch with him/her and they will usually contact the dealer you want to have work on it and let you know who to get in contact with.

I have a 16 2500 power wagon,Had the same slite pull to the low side of the road witch is normal as said from crown in the road,If you want it to go away as i did buy a Carli suspension Low Mount Stabilizer part #CS-DLMSS-14.it's nitrogen charged,mounts in the stock location and you truck will never pull to the right again!

Had a full Carli suspension system on my last ram and loved it. I'll eventually do some mods on this one as well. Its a budget issue.

Yes, any dealer can do the work and that is why I took the truck to a local dealer, who is less than 15 minute drive from home. They were very helpfull in trying to diagnose all the problems or potential problems. The shop manager there said that they could do the process with Chrysler but referred me to the selling dealer because, according to the local manager, the issue would get resolved quicker. He said that it typically takes a little longer if you go through another dealer , not the seller, due to shipping documentation and such... But, even the guy at the selling dealer said I can have any future work done at a location of my choosing.

I am aware of the normal drift. All vehicles are designed to slowly drift right for safety reasons. Also all roads are made with a slight crown for water runoff. This is something a little more. The Shop manager at the selling dealer said that he knows of this as a problem on some of the 2500 series trucks and that they can get it to go straight. As for the bed, I just want to be able to close the tailgate with a lack of a gap. Or without slamming the driver's side shut to eliminate the gap, however there is a pop sound when opening due to the gate being under pressure.

Why I purchased the truck an hours drive away? It was on their lot. I was looking specifically for a Mega Cab. Most dealers do not have them sitting on the lot unlike a traditional crew cab. This dealer happened to have a mega cab on their lot, in a color we liked with a trim line we were happy with for the right price range. Still took a little haggling to get the price a little better. If ordering a new one from the factory I definitely would have gone with a local dealer. I also do not have a normal salesperson to go through in order to have the truck shipped from dealer to dealer. Even my last car, Dodge Challenger, was purchased at a dealer near this one. My last truck, purchase used, was at a dealer in Ohio. I'm willing to travel to get something that fits my needs.

Bought my last truck from a dealer in SC and had it shipped in. Cost a lot less then buying locally even with the shipping

Not a dodge guy, but pretty sure they are strait front axle w/ 4x4 correct ? did suspension and front end work for many years for ford, when doing a alignment you want 1/4 deg more camber in the driver side, 1/2 degree more + caster in the pass side, this is to for the road crown. Now strait axles usually dont have a great deal of adjustability in them which is a huge downfall when comes to getting the alignment dialed in, and then finding someone anymore who knows how to do anything other than follow the cute high tech computer screen thats there to impress the customer and make a masterlubercolligist a front end tech...so good luck and keep us posted

I purchased a 2013 Dodge 2500 Tradesmen, turbo diesel. Pulled to the right, took it back to dealer, they did the alinement. Still pulled to the right, they did the alinement again, then again. Finally the service manager told me, "this is just the way the trucks are, it's always going to pull to the right a little." I have tried tires, other alinement shops, and a leveling kit. Truck still pulls to the right...