Bent Chassis on my MN GRRRRRR

[rat patrol]

This was my Triton I showed you all in the into section a few weeks ago

well this is it now

here is a slide show of the Chassis failure both side exactly the same.

Also the tailgate came open a few time on the rough corrogations and rubbed against the HF mount.

I have been i an agument with Mitsubishi for the last 5 weeks an this is the result.
Well The fight is on Mitsubishi have said NO warranty on my truck. Reason: I have modifide the springs. BE WARNED even if you change your shocks they can nock back your warranty uprated springs will void your warranty. I will put up a full report soon but in short ALL the accerories were firred by the dealer.Or by OP at the request of the dealer. I took delivery of the truck with all acceries fitted or at least paid for the conopy took two months to arrive.The dealer paid and arranged for the fitment of the acceries. Even tho the dealer fitted them Mitsubishi does not care. not their problem they say.

Also I DID NOT sign any waver regarding the acceries. As Mitsubishi have a page in the front of the service booklett that both parties are to sign and the dealer is to explane that if you fit ANY acceries to the vehicle you will void you warranty. unless it is Mitsubishi stamped and approved.



Even if you put a hayman reece tow bar on cause it may be 200bux cheeper than the oringal you are gone even tho hayman reece make the bars for Mitsubishi it MUST have the Mitsubishi plate on it or your warranty will be voided.



ALSO there will be lot of speculation on this, but the truck was 205kgs under GVM. And even if you take into account the rear bar with tyers on and the draw bar down load the down load was 45kgs UNDER the 270 alowed..

This is not an isolated case, there have been 5 presenited to David island Mitsubishi in Cairns in the last few months. I have pics of a nother one in Sydney and the have been two others in NSW that I have found out about and one in Toowoomba. Also i seen two on the Bruce Hiway on Wednesday on my way up to Noosa. thee was a white one with canopy and off road camper bent as bad as mine then about 20 min later I seen a Grey one with an old type Millard caravan abou 18' long with a bend not quite as bad they were heading south as I was gooing north.



Here is a slide show of the damage this bend is IN front of the axiel. Cilck on pic



Cheers

Rat

[Joe]

Shit mate. What a worry

Did you manage to drive it home like that or where you trucked?

This is one I'm sure you will be pushing really hard for the warranty on. I don't see how it can't be a warranty claim after what you've descrived. Wouldn't they have to prove that it was the aftermarket springs that caused the damage? Not sure how they could do that and can't really see how the springs would cause it either. I hope this works out for you RP. Keep us informed.

[Wallace]

No good Rats.......
Hope the end result is to your liking............

Moving to General Discussion....PM sent!

[borngeek]

This is concerning news.. especially seeing you are aware this is not a isolated case..

Was each case a result of upgraded springs / raised suspension? Is that MMAL's void card alone?
Were they all MN's? the chassis, as far as i know and will stand corrected, is the same length just the rear towbars/protection bars etc by all the MFG's inc mitsu are longer to get around the bigger bum..

What was the total load on your towbar??

Frig this is a massive worry there's a fair few of us just on here towing heavy stuff around.. (inc me!)

also very sorry to hear this rats!! hope you make headway with MMAL..

[mad992]

mate not good at all i wish u well with mmal

[amanda]

Hey Rat patrol we have an MN too and I was wondering what YOU think caused the chassis to bend. We have always thought the mitsi tow bar on ours might cause the chassis to bend but the other way from hitting something hard with it. Scary stuff.. good luck fighting it

[snowman]

considering the MN is only really a year old this is just the beginning in my opinion..........and the first really big 'major' concern for the model.

good luck with it rats. Thing is, as it will be an expensive fix, Mits will find any excuse. Obviously it is going to happen to MN's that are stressed with a higher fulcrum moment from added rear length including tow ball loads, bigger tub etc.

i reckon Mits have been caught by lengthening the tub without beefing up the chassis. or at least the bloke doing the maths in that department cheated on his exams.

any chance of some more photos of the u/s rats? it said 'slide show' but i could only see one.

i really hope you find some assistance here, in my opinion i would be finding as many examples of these incidents without aftermarket springs or shocks (Then use those example in your case). We both know it makes no difference - in fact aftermarket would prevent bottoming out which is when the chassis would get a massive shock load.

without getting too pre-emptive i would be using the 'power of the net' for this one. create a post thread that can be searched by 'non newtriton.net member' owners. If you can get enough people together (you have indicated there already are) i reckon there would be a VERY good case of a class action against MMAL. Were all your examples MN's.

If Mits realise this is not an isolated or abused example they may have to release some form of rear chassis bracket strenghthening package.

[har05l]

What a kick in the nuts . I've not changed the suspension as yet and will wait to see the outcome as I also intend on towing a camper and the likes as you.

All the best and I'm sure we all here feel for you

har05l

[4wd26]

one question- are you running airbags in addition to the suspension upgrade?

[Tony]

This looks bad..... I've noticed ours flexing even with a double horse float on rough roads. That extra 200 length is tough on the chassis.

[tassie_ml]

best of luck Rats, thats a serious flaw in the chassis and I hope it doesnt extend through all ML's and MN's that tow.

keep us informed

[Diddy]

What about contacting your insurance company cos they might right it off having a bent chassis .
I know it would not be roadworthy with a bent chassis if u were to run up the bum of another car your insurance would not come the party cos the vehicle is um roadworthy .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[shotgun283]

Mitsubishi should have a look at the extra length added to the MN. An independant engineers report might be worth the cost. Ive had my reservations about this extra overhang on the MN but im going to keep an eye on the ML as well. I know this isnt undeard of as we broke the chassis of a 85 hilux towing a 1000lt fire unit

[RockoWallaby]

one question- are you running airbags in addition to the suspension upgrade?

Very good question. I know airbags have caused this sort of damage on Navara's, after fitting some to my old mans. We ended up only using them minimally, and upgrading the springs, to avoid this very issue.
If it's anything like the Navara, it's a bloody expensive fix, too. I know there have been repairs done on Navaras, from looking at the posts, to beef up the back end when it happens, and as I recall these repairs make it significantly stronger than the original. Try doing some searches on Navara and airbag, and see if you can find out the info?

If the dealer fitted the accessories before collection (which I think is the smartest thing you could ever do, because it has to put responsibility on the appropriatness of the accessories on the dealer, and is what I did with accessories too) I'd be seeking VERY good legal advice, and taking action against the DEALER URGENTLY. Screw Bitsa... like all big companies they'll drag you around by the balls forever until the problem goes away. Fact is, you didn't buy it from Mitsubishi. You bought it from a specific dealer, who ftted the accessories for you....sue them, and let them deal with their parent company for compensation

Regardless, it's a shit of a situation, and you have my sympathies. I've always wondered about the huge torque stresses caused by the big overhang of the tray over the rear axle...guess it's not as good an idea as Bitsa thought.

All the best, mate
Scotty

[FreestyleCab]

one question- are you running airbags in addition to the suspension upgrade?

From his other posts I believe he is running airbag bellows, the heavy duty black ones. I think most of the chassis failures (of hiluxs, rangers and bt50s) that I have seen photos of have involved air bags, heavy loads and outback dirt roads. That's the main reason I stayed away from airbags and put up with the firm ride of my dobinson constant load springs. If the vehicle was still under GVM, ball weight etc then I would be taking it up with the airbag manufacturer/importer.
Brett

[gregned]

Do you have an engineers report? This will help your argument but let them know through your lawyer as this cost can be recouped from them. And the report will put you in a better position should it go to court.

[Naff]

Mits does have to prove it was the result of the changes, you may get some assistance from the manufacturers of the springs etc. as if Mits doesn't come to the party, then it looks particularly bad for them. The fact that there is several occurences of this means Mitsubishi would have to prove the fault for each case and the more times it is raised, the more it's going to damage their sales.

[snowman]

so is the airbag concensus that the load is placed on the chassis directly above the axle instead of, say, a heavier spring which loads (at least half) of the load further back the chassis on the rear springer hanger?

[4wd26]

so is the airbag concensus that the load is placed on the chassis directly above the axle instead of, say, a heavier spring which loads (at least half) of the load further back the chassis on the rear springer hanger?

Sorry for the hijack Rats.


See how a airbag can load up the chassis in a position that was never in the original manufactures intention.
I have seen a lot of dual cabs "break" and seems the common factor is airbags.

See here
http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=118&t=86618
http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=79933
Interesting this bloke also had his fitted by "OL" in Brisbane.......
At least he got it covered but took a lot of fighting- he paid up front and then tried to get the manufacture to fix. (from memory)

Lots of good info and something to be mindful of when loading up.

Sorry Rats for your misfortune. I hope MMA come to the party.

[Blue]

Jeebus fkn hell...

[sam]

That's one of the reasons I wouldn't put air bags in ours and went for just a light coil spring between the diff and chassic that is very easy to put in and take out.

When the tech was here from mmal I showed him what I do and he agreed that it seemed a lot better idea as when you compress air it is soft to start with but builds pressure, so therefore hardness very quickly which ain't a good idea where as a coil tend to be far more progressive .

Would be interesting to know if all the other Tritons had airbags or not that have bent but the MN I believe is just pushing the streeses to far with that HUGE over hang as even if you didn't have airbags the same thing would most likely happen if it kept hitting the bump stops as said earlier .

[Longranger1]

Get all of your information locked down and watertight (engineers reports etc, other similar cases and so forth) talk to the dealer who fitted the accessories and consider legal action (last esort).

You have statutory rights on warranties, take it up with consumer affairs if necessary.

Tritons are to big ticket item for Mitsubishi in terms of sales, if necessary use the media. The last thing they would want is adverse media coverage. Just make sure that the damage is fixed without financial burden to yourself.

Aftermarket springs and shocks excuse is a cop out. Mitsubishi have their own heavy duty springs as an upgrade so it would be easy to shoot that one down.

Good luck. I feel for you.

[jimmy]

is this just an MN problem?

[rat patrol]

Ok to answer a few questions.
1. Yes I do have an engineer’s report. And he has said that there is NO way that the springs or the Air Bags could have caused the failure. Also one of the panel betters who is a Chassis specialist said the same thing.
2. The spring up grade I put in was a 300kg tradie upgrade. As i carry between 300-400kgs at all times when working. This gave me about a 85mm lift the airbags were never intended to be load bearing as the springs were more than enough. They were put on to help the shocky’s in the rough corrugations. There was only 22psi pressure in the bags at the time of the failure. My engineer believes that if I had more air in then it MAY have saved the chassis.
3. And remember the failure is in front of the axel at the two oval shaped tooling holes. Which are in front of the round cross member? My engineer believes that that is the weak point that the holes should be round or better still not there at all. If the air bags were going to cause the failure the bend would be at the fulcrum point straight above the air bags or behind them
4. Be warned having had a long discussion with Mitsubishi there are many thing we need to look out for. If you put a steel bull bar and a winch on they will not warrant the front suspension, If you upgrade your front suspension as I have done then you run a very real risk of voiding any chassis warranty or front end warranty,
5. The rear bar... If you put any tow bar or rear slider type bar on that does NOT have a Mitsubishi plate or stamp on it they are calling that a unauthorized chassis extension bingo... no warranty. I asked my dealer for a genuine tow bar but it turns out it is a Hayman Reese bar .Now Hayman Reese make the bars for Mitsubishi they are made in the same jig but Mitsubishi will not accept the bar without a Mitsubishi part number on it, so it becomes an illegal chassis extension. That is one point they are trying to get me on. There is on I am trying to get pics of that failed on the fink I am lead to believe that it had stock standard suspension. And was only toeing a twin motor bike trailer. Should have those pics next week.
6. Draw bar down load If you want to call the rear bar and spare tyres part of the drawbar down load I am happy with that as that is what I did ,so including the rear bar tyres and the trailer my total down load was 228kgs out of 270 allowed..My TOTAL load including all accessories, all the stuff in the back Wendy and myself 717kgs which is 245 kgs below GVM.
7. Also at the time of the failure I was cresting a sand dune I was in 2nd gear LOW range at about 1500 revs. So i was not up it so to speak and I can tell you I was babying the car if anything as this is the 1st brand new car I have ever owned so I was trying to look after it.
8. The slide show should start if you click on the pic.
Cheers
RAt

[peleroda]

HI Rat,
This is a definite worry. I have had my MN since March this year and just came back from 6500K around Central Australia towing approx 1500Kg of Camper Trailer. At this point my suspension is stock and my towbar is genuine but I was looking at upgrading springs & suspension.I might hold off a while pending the outcome of this. Good luck sorting this one and I'm sure there will be some very concerned MN drivers watching how it all pans out.
Cheers