Hey all... first time poster here (i finally joined). My buddies and I were out playing in the mud and my freind had a slight ummm... misfortune. We were turning around in a unfamiliar place and he backed up too far, dropping his 97 F150 Supercab Lariat into quite a steep and deep ditch. Well when we finally got him out of that really nasty stuff (he had mud about halfway up the door) we saw what most of us in older trucks shrug off... BODY DAMAGE! Well his truck being a flareside, the bed is pretty much trashed (he hit a medium sized tree at the bottom of the ditch). We then see that his tire is sitting in about 6" from where its suposed to be, and at a wierd angle. He bent the ***** out of it and needs another. Plus the frame slightly bent and other things wrong, we need a new axle quick. Waht would be your suggestion and how much do you think it'd set him back? I was thinking about junkyards but i dont really want to drop him in the hole a grand or so. All we need is a shell, I've rebuilt quite a few axles in the worst spots possible so its no big deal. Any help is appreciated..

Chris

 

Crazychris7,
Man, sorry to hear about the boo-boo. I can't tell you much about the axle situation, but I've been pricing used beds for a buddy who bent his up, and holy cow! I've been priced everything from $1500 to $2600, and some of them still require body work. This is for a styleside bed. There's a '98 4x4 Offroad SuperCab truck on Ebay that has the front end trashed, but has a 28,000 mile 4.6 drivetrain in it, a perfect styleside bed, and good rear frame section and axle. Last I saw, it was at $2,???. It's probably higher now, but for all the parts you could get off of it, it would save you money compared to buying each separately. I thought that info might help. Good luck! Eric

 

With thte frame being bent I'd be concerned that the axle won't sit in there straight and will want to try and dog track. I'd get it on a frame rack before putting the new axle on there or else he may have more problems than hes got now. I kinda remember seeing a junkyard around the Harlingen/Weslaco area, but for the life of me I can't remember where it was that I saw it. There been any rain down there since Jan? I was in Harlingen from Dec30 to Jan20, might be back there sometime next week too.

 

He went to the dealer and is in the proscess of straightening up the frame. The bed looks like the fiberglass could be patched up and resprayed but i think he's going to get a new bed. (he wanted a styleside in the first place) Plus he needed to get a new paintjob anyway. There are a few junkyards in the weslaco area that stock current models, but they want so damn much for even a tailight. (plus you get to pull it off with your tools) We are going to go this weekend and see what some cash in hand will do. We plan on pulling it off ourselves since I have a air compessor in the jeep and a portable bottle, so it prolly wont be too bad... (we hope) But we will find out when it happens.

Chris

P.S. It rained all the end of last week (2-3 days straight) Give me a idea when you'll be down, we'll show ya a thing or two on some trails outside of harlingen

 

Crud, hopefully they didn't get any rain out at the farm. Rain is usually so spotty there. Harlingen seems to get hit almost every time when I was there and the farm got missed all but 1 time.