The hitch was an Airsafe 25K sitting on a Hensley adapter to fit the Ford Pucks

 

Hitch looks robust enough to take the trailer. Appears to me that it is not compromised.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident and the frame being bent. It sounds like m-chan knows what he is talking about. The problem is he is not working on your truck. At least they are doing a frame swap and not trying to straighten it out. I think you will be fine with a frame swap, but I think it is going to be hit and miss if they do a good job or not. My experience with having work done in a shop is they don't get things like wiring looms, hoses, fuel lines, brake lines attached like they were from the factory.

You should be fine with the frame swap! Just if you can stop by during the job and look things over real good. Ask for references, check there work out. They are working for you it's your truck!

 

Look again, the plates under the airbags are supposed to be flat not S curved and cracked. The adapter is supposed to be flat on the truck bed. The Ford under bed system was not damaged. I am not an engineer but I think the hitch structure failed because of the adapter, The Ford mounting system is 13" center to center and the adapter to hitch is 29.5" which leaves a lot of unattached area.

 

Yep, that hitch is toast.

 

Now I see, not familiar with the hitch. Yeah it is toast.

So make me wonder if the hitch had held up, would that have been enough to prevent the frame becoming bent?

 

That's the question I keep asking myself, also 99.5% of the time in quick stopping situations I grab the manual brake control but this time I did not, would that have made a difference. Trailer has disc brakes and controller was set to 9 with max effort.

 

As far as difficulty level, I can't really answer that with any fair degree of certainty due to many factors. What might be simple for ME to tackle may not be as simple for someone who is shade tree. In the number of years that I've been turning wrenches for a living, I slugged more than my share of engines from 5.0L V8s on Mustangs and F-150s, to 4.6/5.4/6.8 engines on just about every Ford vehicle so equipped, from Mustangs to Crown Victoria's to E and F Series trucks, to....yes, even diesel engines from the 7.3, to the 6.0, to the 6.4 (LOTS of those) and even two 6.7s to date. This is not to mention all the newer engines from the 3.5/3.7 Eco and non Eco engines. And in every one of those engine jobs done, I've always been guardedly nervous about ensuring wiring harnesses, hoses (coolant or fuel) and grounds all return to their proper original locations. It only takes ONE improperly secured component or connection to cause the job needing to be redone.

That said, a frame swap job is A LOT of work. One that I would not be willing to do without the use of a proper hoist, along with engine lift at my disposal. That, along with a sufficient number of bodies to assist with lifting, removing and positioning both the damaged frame and the new frame.

 

Good answer! Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

Ya this is no small job. It would be something different if you were just swapping the bodies from a wrecked truck to another with a good frame where all you have to do is unhook some things. There are a lot of parts to swap from one frame to another frame. This would be a huge job. I would only trust a dealer to do this kind of job. This will not get done in a couple weeks ether.

 

Been reading this thread. Hopefully the job gets done right for you. Good luck.

 

This post most accurately describes what is realistically involved with the undertaking described. If this truck were assigned to me to take on the repair, I would probably be able to have it completed by one week and change, provided no issues are encountered during the repair.

 

SuperDuty450...that is a beautiful truck you have though! Too bad about the hit.

 

Trying to figure out what the diminished value would be. Truck will be done in 2 weeks, new frame arrived on Monday

 

What all should be replaced when doing a frame swap? Should all the self locking nuts be replaced also? Cab mounts also