NHTSA Complaint #11427546 — 2005 FORD F-150

This and many other trucks of this generation have major frame rot issues due to the box frame. The rest of my truck looks excellent but the frame is so bad its most likely not repairable. I am not the only one with this major safety issue. Its only a 16 year old truck. Thankfully I have not towed or put a large load in the bed or else it could split in half. I wash my car seasonally and pressure wash off rust every spring. Yet the frame has rotted so badly they could not put it on a lift to do the alignment. I love this truck and I'm a big fan of the f150 line as a whole. Ford should take responsibility as Toyota has and fix their customers frames from this generation. I love ford but its always interesting walking through a parking lot and seeing every 04-08 f150 with major frame rot. Without fail every single one has that issue. Seems to me like they didn't properly galvanize and protect the steel. I am now needing to do a bed off frame restoration since no shop will take it on. This truck that should be going for $5k with this insane used car market. (August 3rd 2020) yet it is max $200 in scrap. Bad / cheap engineering should not be the owners responsibility. Yet that is what it has come to. It was most likely an honest unforseen mistake on their part. Overengineering the rigidity but ignoring the long term effects. Short term strength for log term pain as is commonly said with these trucks. I'm sure in a few years time these will just start breaking in half over bumps on the freeway. I beg and encourage ford to fix this before people die. I doubt ford wants another pr fiasco like the pinto. Hopefully they will do a cost analysis and realize that a recall is a much better option. Seem like 250-500k a pop for settlements for the most popular truck of all time is much much more than 5k per affected vehicle. Not including the long term dip in sales. So unless they want the other brands to win the truck war they gotta fix it. Tldr: a recall is cheaper than death.