Rusted crossmembers

[Uschi Otzenberger]

Hello everyone! Looking for opinions....I’m driving a 2009 B4000. The frame is a bit rusty but in pretty good condition with no holes. The rear cross members however are in pretty bad shape rust-wise, lots of holes and basically rotted out. From a bit of research I understand this is expected to go first and I shouldn’t be overly surprised. What I haven’t fully understood yet though is how important are those cross member from a structural / safety perspective when the rest of the frame is ok. Do they just carry the load in the truck bed (if any) and can I consider it acceptable to drive for another year or two for as long as I don’t have any significant weight in the bed?

 

[Uncle Gump]

Is that a crossmember on the bottom of the truck bed or an actual frame crossmember?

The picture is in so tight it's hard for me to tell...

 

[Curious Hound]

Looks like he’s talking about the bed. There is a thread somewhere that discusses those pieces. Some people had new pieces made and some people were able to source similar pieces from body shop supply places. That’s about all the detail I remember from the thread .

 

[Uschi Otzenberger]

The worst one is the second one from the back around the center of the bed and then there is a completely rusted out part in the area at the very front of the bed where it meets the cab. Full disclosure as you can probably tell by now I’m not mechanically verse and do not really know what I am talking about hence looking for opinions. Thanks!!

 

[Curious Hound]

Those are part of the bed and not part of the truck frame. The bed can be removed and turned over or stood up on end to make it easier to work on.

you could take some pictures and make a sketch with dimensions and have new pieces made at a sheet metal fab shop. Then grind the old ones off and weld the new pieces on.

Or, just replace the whole bed. 6 bolts, unplug the wiring harness, unbolt the fuel filler, reverse process with new bed.

 

[Uncle Gump]

All good... I thought they were the bed support rails and not a frame crossmember. This is common... too common. The fix is to move south... lol.

There are no Ford replacement parts for those... as Eric stated... they can be fixed but requires sourcing your own replacement materials. Or... find a nice clean bed.

Does the truck have a bedliner?

As for the safety of whats going on there... it would be debatable on overall condition.

 

[Uschi Otzenberger]

Thanks so much to both of you for having taken the time to take a look! I sure wouldn’t mind moving south but unfortunately there’s no south up here in Canada. I would not be able to do this myself and spending the money on labour is likely too expensive..it does have a drop in bed liner . I’m eyeing the new Nissan Frontier so was just wondering how comfortable or not I should be driving my truck until the Frontier comes out. A new Ranger of course was first on my list, but the prospects of having to replace a turbocharger $$$$ right after the warranty expires down the road are too high a risk for me personally to take. Thanks again, hope you guys have a good weekend!

 

[Uncle Gump]

I asked about the bedliner because some folks are surprised to find the bottom of the bed with rust through also. Your best bet if it starts to come unglued... put another bed on it. If you can find one.

If mine gets to bad... I may do a flat bed. Ya just never know.

There is a new Ranger coming for 2023... I'm also hoping they have a naturally aspirated V6 in the line up.

There are some really cool offerings coming...

 

[Roert42]

Beds are very easy to swap and if you can find a used one in better condition for $250/300.

If the bed is still bolted to the frame, the bolts are not rusted off. I wouldn’t worry about it. Especially if you have one of them plastic bed liners.

 

[09fx4guy]

Mine was not that bad when I treated it fortunately. It took me some time and effort to do it.

Honestly, if you could find a somewhat decent bed, I would swap it out with a better one.

 

[sgtsandman]

The new bed option probably going to be the cheapest and fastest fix.

To replace those supports is going to require some fabricating skills and a welder. You can get the replacement pieces but you have to finish where they left off and weld them on.

 

[John97]

That's the kind of rot that ended my time with my '97. The turbo engine scared me off the new Ranger as well.

 

[G8orFord]

I doubt get why folks are scared of turbos. They've been around a long time, it's just more recently that the computer controls and better technologies have made them viable for daily driver type vehicles. When I get into a vehicle that's not turbocharged or supercharged anymore it just doesn't really feel right. Those that do drive them know what I mean, especially turbo diesels.

But I agree, the I-4 turbo in the new Ranger is not right. It should have been the 3.5 V6 twin turbo.

 

[holyford86]

Thanks so much to both of you for having taken the time to take a look! I sure wouldn’t mind moving south but unfortunately there’s no south up here in Canada. I would not be able to do this myself and spending the money on labour is likely too expensive..it does have a drop in bed liner . I’m eyeing the new Nissan Frontier so was just wondering how comfortable or not I should be driving my truck until the Frontier comes out. A new Ranger of course was first on my list, but the prospects of having to replace a turbocharger $$$$ right after the warranty expires down the road are too high a risk for me personally to take. Thanks again, hope you guys have a good weekend!

Can confirm, live an hour south of MTL and its still all rotten garbage here, haha. I've seen many much more rotten beds than that, you should be fine for a while.