Albe22

iTrader: (1)

I did a quick search and did not find anything similar to this issued that I just had.

I was taking off my back rack to put on a different spacer for my tonneau cover and instead of the nut coming off the bolt. The piece inside the bed where it was mounted pulled through and separated. The truck is currently at the Ford dealership for service. The service leader said he has never seen anything like it and expects a lot of questions from Ford on this issue.
The attached pictures show what the hole is suppose to look like, what the damaged hole looks like and the piece that came out.

Iamraiderpower

UNBROKEN

iTrader: (1)

Stress crack from vibrations. Damn near all of our company fleet with headache racks have some cracking in one or more spots...and they're all steel.

SilverSurfer15

I guess those GM commercials were right!

(trolling)

Seriously.... thats no good. Whats the repair for that?

Napalm

Looks like it did it's job. This will sound odd at first.

stress caused the metal to crack - as the crack spread the metal relieved in a linear manner to a point where the load pulled away. IE it ripped clean and into a spot with less stress or till the load came away (bolt broke free)

I don't know about the bed design but that looks like the inner "skin" of the bed is sacrificial to the structural so that it would give first.


As to why it happened - damn fine query. I'd like to know more. what was connected there - and how. do you have a picture?

Albe22

iTrader: (1)

Don't know what the repair is yet, I just dropped it off. Told them I am at work for three weeks so they probably won't look at it for another 2 and a half.

Albe22

iTrader: (1)

The inside skin is very thin.
The mounting bolt for my back rack was there with a square washer on the inside and a washer and nut on the inside all steel hardware, unfortunately I do not have any other pictures other than the ones I posted.

Delphi

So the washers were steel on the aluminum skin? Or were the washers plastic?

2017XLT

Aluminum doesn't have the elasticity of steel. It will shear quicker, rather than stretch & warp like steel will before shearing. This isn't exactly a bad thing, as it dissipates energy better than steel in the event of an accident, hence Ford's 5* crash ratings on this truck vs 4* on its steel trucks. If mounting something like this in a non structural area, I'd try & find the biggest washers I could to spread the load over a larger surface area.

J15

I wouldn't expect much help from the warranty department. The damage was caused by a heavy aftermarket component.