6.4L Radiator Failure

TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO:

6.4L trucks have always had a problem with radiators that break.  In this video, you see one of our BiggDogg aluminum radiators that has been bent.  You can see if you look along the top of the AC condenser, that the radiator has actually been crushed from the sides and there is a bow in the radiator.

On another truck with a leaking radiator, you can follow the line across and see how it is pushed up almost ½ inch in the middle.  The radiator is getting pressure.  These radiators always leak from the driver’s side corner.  The radiator is a plastic tank so we tried to figure out how this pressure works that makes these radiators buckle.  We have concluded that because of the severe duty that this truck goes through (he has a 22,000 pound trailer he pulls to job sites in uneven terrain), flex in the body is causing the radiator problems.

To test our theory, we put a fork lift under one of the wheels and watched the radiator as we lifted the wheel.  By lifting the driver’s side wheel 18-24 inches off the ground, it dramatically shifted the radiator.  By simulating driving through rough terrain on a job site, the whole truck is flexing.  This customer mentioned hearing the doors moving and the body creaking in the truck as it would go over a job site.  He felt the cab flexing and heard a loud pop from the driver side of the vehicle.  When that something popped in the front end (front braces) it caused it to flex and damage the radiator causing it to leak.

We also checked the cab isolators for damage.  Cab isolators are the rubber pieces that sit between the body and the frame.  On this particular truck, we had to replace the cab isolators because the rubber on the bottom was completely gone.  Worn cab isolators would cause the front end to flex more and contribute to this problem.