Exactly what I would do as well.

 

You guys called it. Since it's not a "perforation" they will not cover it, even though clearly it's rusted through by the visible rust stain and run on the outside of the truck.

Unfortunately, I'm not willing to purposefully make the corroded area worse on purpose at the risk that they may still not cover it and then I'm stuck with an even worse hole.

It was at least worth a try. When spring comes I will start shopping for another vehicle anyway, so I will not worry about it too much. I have sprayed neutralizer on the area, sealed all the holes with fresh tape inside the rockers, and sealed the 3rd brake light. Hopefully that'll slow the rust down enough to get me into spring 2018.

 

Obviously there is water getting in. Being a Jeep guy we drill holes to release the water and allow it to dry out. Why can't we do this to the bottom rockers, and cab corners? If you get under the truck you can drill a small hole in a inconspicuous space.

 

That's an idea that I'm considering now. To purposefully drill a hole or two along the bottom of the rockers so that any water that gets in can find an easy way out.

I wonder if anyone else here has done this? Did it help?

 

I'm looking to get a 2013 FX4 and it's got a decent amount of bed corner rust...I spoke to a coworker and he took his 2013 into a Bed coating shop and they sprayed the rocker panels, bed corners, and bumpers to control the rust...he said it's the best thing he's ever done to it.

 

Mine is doing the same thing, my buddy is a body guy says it is common with them because leaking rear windows or even condensation runs down and collects there because that is the low spot. When you fix them put a drain hole in and coat the inside really good with some rust proof treatment. He also says the bumpers all go bad fast because they are made of poor quality recycled metal so now I'm looking for good replacements that are not factory.

 

Your buddy doesn’t know what he’s taking about as far as bumpers. The OEM will outlast the aftermarket ones by many years. Especially if they’re chrome. Painted, will rust, but that’s not because they’re cheap material, it’s due to rock chips.

 

My front bumper has many chips from 9 years. No rust. Don't really understand. I was kinda counting on some rust there to give me an excuse to replace it.

 

I have a 2010 supercab with 155k miles. My rockers and bed arches are more or less shot from the Columbus, Ohio, salt trucks even tho we don't get nearly as much snow here (like Cleveland) as most would expect. Of course, I have to get a pic when we have a foot of show, tho.

My rockers are the ****-iest I've ever seen, but you can't see then with the doors closed...
My '97 RAM never corroded fast like this.

I picked up the replacement rockers from a guy who decided not to redo his truck and traded it in. I may go ahead and get these done with my buddy who has a lift and willing to do the work with me. The rear parts of the rockers are bad all the way past the rear door lock, so in order to do that, we have to lift the bed off the frame to access the rear of the cab.

I can't imagine that most owners would NOT want to go through all that if they have to pay a few grand to cut, prime, install, tack weld, seam weld, and repaint... and probably also clean up all the rusted metal behind all that so it doesn't start all over again.

With the cost of new trucks these days, it's probably going to be worth doing this summer. I've already done the timing job 20k miles ago on the 5.4L, and it hasn't missed a beat since then.