Will Insurance Cover This?
 

Read all the time on here about pulling an overloaded trailer and how insurance will not cover if you cause an accident. I have a friend who is an insurance adjuster and would tell me stories and then wrap them up with insurance covers stupid. Well here is a story of a truck that was overloaded and the frame broke in half. Ram of course. The owner expected Ram to cover it, they denied the claim stating vehicle overloaded. Now the guy is filing an insurance claim. Will insurance cover it? What is difference from overloaded trailer. Sounds stupid to me, but that's what insurance covers apparently. Just wondering the thoughts of everyone. I don't know what the outcome will be or if we will ever find out. Kinda just wanted to post something to show these pics.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...q=60&m=2&f=jpg

​​​​​​https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/auto...fe0fc3#image=1

Those large truck campers weigh around 5000#. That is a lot of weight to put in the bed of a pickup. I am surprised there was enough weight on the front end to steer. I suspect there will be a long fight between the owner, Ram, insurance and the camper manufacturer.

I've talked about this in the past. Cargo and towing and GCWRs that are posted are ALWAYS the lightest, simplest, empty trucks.

That is what always gets me with ratings on half ton trucks, people thing the max towing is what all of them can do. If you dig into I think it was Ford I was looking at that even said with a 150 LB driver, and again 2WD, XL level trim etc.

On this one why the heck you would have done a short bed doesn't make any sense, that thing had to be a hand full driving.

Not that it would be right, but wouldn't the long bed have less capacity?

I know the article states short bed, but that bent truck is a long bed

I thought the purpose of insurance was to cover stupidity? Unfortunately.
If you run a red light (hopefully by accident, or ideally not at all), that's kinda the same thing as accidentally overloading the vehicle.

If your intention was to defraud the insurance company for a new truck, then that would be 1. not covered 2. illegal.
if you did at least SOME research and bought the truck, and camper thing, and a company installed them, or you did, to the best of your knowledge, and this occurred, I would expect insurance to cover it.

Generally Insurance, (from what I've read of my policy) wouldn't cover things that are illegal. Was putting that camper on the truck illegal or just misinformed consumer?

I'm going to side with the consumer on this one. I'd fault the company that put the camper on the truck. They should know better, and their insurance should be covering it.

Lawyers will also include the installing dealer in the lawsuit (assuming the camper mfg didn't install it) its gonna get ugly fast! depending on how good the customer is with the Ins company, they may just settle with him and go after everyone else to get their money back

Read the last section of the following link:

https://www.truckcampermagazine.com/...p-1200-review/

The above review is based on Eagle Cap’s largest model.

A 4500-series may have been a better bet but then again we do not know which model this one is exactly.

My thought is that the seller of the camper is at fault.

That things huge. Wow.

About 2/3rds way down the article gets into weight. And there is a lot of it.

Without knowing specifics, the dealership can also be at fault if the owner went in specifically to by a truck for that camper... If the sales rep just assumed the camper was a lightweight and said it would work... Then the dealership sold a truck that wasn't capable of task.( Who will then retort the truck was overloaded with gear+ bike et all)

Just another side of the conversation that's probably going between the owners lawyers.

It definitely shows what does happen to a modern truck when capacity is exceeded.

too many variable without knowing details........just looking up payload for a 2019 dodge ram 3500....Just guessing its not new but not that old... it says they can go to 7600lbs for payload....but we dont know if the owner loaded more gear inside the camper. Another thought i had was how the camper is attached to the truck in the middle where it broke....if the installer drilled holes in the frame....then Dodge will say that weakened the frame and they not responsible.... i see this going years of finger pointing!

I would say that overloading your car/truck is illegal. I would guess most states have a law for that. Kinda like hauling a trailer that weighs too much is probably also illegal. Is the camper sales place at fault for selling a camper? Who's jobs is it to make sure your car is up to par before turning the ignition key?

There has to be more to this story. That RAM should have easily been able to handle the camper, those things have a HELLUVA payload rating, should have been far more than adequate.

At that point isnt it easier to just strap a full-size motorhome to the roof? wtf!

Helluva rating is still a rating and he went passed it! Also, reading the article, he was on bumpy Mexican roads. I saw someone above mention installer may have drilled frame or altered it in some way.

"It`s a Ram of course"? What does that mean? You a Ford or Chevy Fan boy?
So if you overload a truck and stuff happens let`s blame the the manufacturer?
Id hate to see what would happen to the aluminum bed of a Ford of they put that much weight on it.

It's covered if the owner has "Farmers insurance" ... a least from their past commercials (LOL)! I'm retired from the auto industry, and unless changed insurance covered stupidity too

Maybe the ‘famous’ Ford Raptor guy was driving it down those dirt roads. :)
”I dunno mr insurance guy, i was just driving down a dirt road and…i dunno…it just fell apart.” :)

Insurance company's job is not to pay very simple just went through it! Any excuse looks like they have a few from photo?Keep after them good luck!

Yeah, I'm a Ford fan, had to talk some crap. I say if you overload a vehicle it's your fault. The bed did not fail, the frame did. Ford does not use aluminum frame rails. Kinda doubt the ford bed would suffer any damages from this type or overloading as its not supporting the load, the frame is.

But was this guy told by the dealer and who ever installed it that it was ok?

After reading the article that was out in 2017, seems to me that a dealer for these trailers should know what kind of truck is needed.
Lawyer's are going to have a field day with this one. Ram will not want to cover it since that would encourage more people to do the same thing,,,,,, it's a mess all the way around.


Why wouldn't you just buy a small pull behind or 5th wheel if you wanted that much room?

If the truck held the load with say 1000lbs to spare, and the owner went over that rating, who is responsible? Unless it is in writing from someone/s, good luck proving who said what. Also, even if the load was in spec for the truck to handle, look how far back the weight was. The truck should have been scaled. I think you would see how little weight was on the front axle. Rear axle over loaded.

Still can't figure it out why it happened she left the dog home???
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...de3aba3a1e.jpg

Lots of places here (mtns in nh) the shorter the more accessible some spots are. Trucks length too. I access more spots in my ranger vs my crew cab short bed z71. Forest service rds / class v’s / state forest : national forest / even some driveways and neighborhood rds.

I have a hard time comprehending the frame bending that easy, got to be more to the story. IDGAF if it was rated at 5000 lbs and he put 6000 in, i dont see truck frame on a 1ton bending like a twig. We get farmers who bring trucks here for transmissions/rear ends etc where we run truck acrossed local grain scale to se if its safe to put on our hoist and weve seen plenty that scale at 12, 13,000 that are 7500 empty!

I would have expected the frame vertically cracked vs bent... bent frames would pinch the box into the cab and that truck opened up like a a beer can.(unless one lead to the other)

Unless there is a follow up story where someone admits fault - its all speculation - but hey, it's winter!

I’ve seen other pictures of this truck, it vertically cracked.
I used to do truck pulls in my duramax, the sled weighed over 40,000 lbs and through the years my truck had from 450-850 hp. Never bent anything but the stock trailer hitch.

I've seen several pics like this pop through Facebook lately, ironically every one a Ram with a pickup camper. Thinking they have an unexpected design flaw causing this. I remember when the 99/early 2000's 1500 Chevy's frames would bend in same spot easily if hitting a big bump with weight distribution hitch too tight. The OEM's don't always get everything right nor test a truck in every way possible. Lord knows a Ford Super Duty frame flexes/twists like a wet noodle (at least every one I've had) to point where if you park on uneven ground the tailgate won't open and extended cab suicide doors wont close. Had lots of torsion in lateral direction, but certainly didn't' flex much along it's length. Lots of flex ramp tests on YouTube of new HD trucks, Ram usually has the stiffest frame in those, and sometimes that can be a bad thing.

With the insane towing and payload capacities advertised today, hard to believe that camper was outside of the bounds. The motorcycle on the hitch carrier with 6' extension to clear camper certainly didn't help though.

in the 2nd article:
But looking at the specs a bit closer, the payload number for the 3500 isn’t the same truck. It is for a regular cab with a long bed, two-wheel drive, and a 6.4-liter V8 engine. The truck in question is a crew cab that features four-wheel drive and a 6.7-liter Cummins diesel engine. For that setup, Ram lists payload at 5,850 lbs.

And that is why the Ram warranty won’t cover the damage. The Eagle Cap 1165 camper weighs 4,900 lbs empty. Once gear, clothing, full fuel tanks, and more are crammed into it, not to mention the driver and a passenger, the total payload can easily exceed Ram’s 5,850 lbs rating. And the motorcycle hanging off of the back of the camper doesn’t help. Unfortunately, the owner has never had his loaded rig weighed.

It had to feel like a pig going down the road.........glad to see nobody was hurt.

Insurance will cover stupid.........the bigger the claim it will be likely be declined as long as possible. In this case, they will buy the guy's truck/pay him off.

In the case of the guy pulling that huge overweight boat (for money) out near Havasu and he blew a light and killed some people............that case might not be paid out as quickly. But then again if he had a 100-200K policy they might just write the check, walk away as "paid in full" and let the plantiff's lawyer sort out who gets what.

Just looking at the picture, all the weight on the rear tires and they are hardly bulging. I've loaded trucks so full that the tires fully inflated where almost flat. I did end up breaking a rear spring though. This is definitely a frame design issue unless modified, which I doubt. I used to work for an RV dealer and camper tops come with brackets that don't require drilling the frame.

This isn't a camper top, it's a slide in camper unit that can be dropped off at a campsite, on legs, and the truck driven out from under it. Is that the same situation?

Like someone else eluded to, prob went over something like a steep set of train tracks.

Found this video on youtube about it.

​​​​​​

The rear camper jacks are supporting a lot of the camper weight.

read the instructions !!!! lol

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...326d505a79.jpg

d’oh!!

I was thinking about this thread the other day for some dam reason. I was wondering, overloaded or not wouldn't you had expected the springs, or axles to fail before the frame? Would love to see a FEA analyst on this and how the frame was the first to go.