Glad you're OK, man.

 

hate to see that, glad to hear your OK.

I know that you have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that truck. It has to be that much more of a loss.

 

Dang man... sorry to hear about that. Glad everyone is ok.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

We've been seeing a lot of insurance estimates higher right now, of course your mileage may vary. Seems body shops are HURTING in our area and will quote low in hopes to get the job and then have a monster supplement. Again, may or may not be the case where you are.

 

Sorry to hear about your truck. It looks like you can fix it.

 

Sorry about your truck that's a nice rig.

 

Sorry about your truck but the important thing is you and the other driver both walked away.

 

If I remember correctly, our frames have a front crumble zone. Look under your cab and you can see where the main frame and front frame meet. The repair shop can easily put in a new front frame and you'll be better than new. At least that is what I heard...

 

I believe you're right cgl. There's a used dealer fairly close to me who sort of specializes in heavy duty trucks and he also has a business of reconstructing totalled trucks. He sometimes sells these on ebay. Anyway, if memory serves, he mentions a front frame section in his ebay auctions.

You might contact him if you think it would be useful....

Pendleton County, WV - Ted Davis Auto Sales - Used cars, trucks, vans, 4X4s, SUVs

 

The front frame section does have crumple zones, but to replace it you have to remove the cab, engine, and suspension. To pull it straight you don't have to remove any of that.

 

if ur truck was a rebuild once already, it'll totaly try to wrangle the ins. company into fixing it again, and keep any extra cash u have left over..

to be honest the damage doesnt look that bad.. certainly need a frame alignement/straitening, and some front end sheetmetal/paint..

but after all is said n done i bet u can come out ahead..

unless of course your thinking of using this chance to get into a different truck...

 

I would like to upgrade to a 6.4L crew cab, but I think the smart thing to do would be fix it and pocket the extra cash.

 

Yeah I often hear that some of the really heavy duty bumpers are basically as strong if not stronger than your frame so your frame is gonna end up with damage sooner than the bumper! Atleast once you cross the threshold of enough impact to mess up the frame. The factory bumpers are designed to flex and take up some of the impact, which may have helped or may not of. I'm looking at the Iron Bull bumpers when I get my SD... hopefully they would help vs factory with smaller things like when I inevitably hit a deer... but up against another truck or something 'solid' not sure if the aftermarket bumpers will really amount to much (but they look sweet still).

 

More good news. Upon closer inspection today, it looks like the bulk of my bumper is not bent. All the tubing and most of the center section is straight and just the mounting plates and the vertical 3/8" plate where they are welded on is bent. If I can straighten it that will shave about $1200 off the repair costs.

 

Why not just find another front end replacement on Craigslist? Metal fatigue has already taken place and it's going to be weaker unless you heat it up, bend it, and anneal it.