Fleetside owners - an often overlooked part to check

[Spitshineschwinn]

Fleetside trucks have body-to-frame braces that are approximately 3/8" in thickness. I was rolling along about 50mph when the brace in front of my driver's side rear tire snapped. It pared the brand new BF Goodrich TA radial like an apple, and the sheared rubber busted through the bed boards and really beat up my wheel well. This happened about 10 years ago, but seeing the post on fuel filters reminded me of the incident. If I had been in the habit of checking these braces periodically I would have seen how rusted and worn mine had become.