Commercial and Heavy Vehicles / In shop only
Commercial Truck Body and Structural Repair
Commercial truck work covers cab body repair, structural frame correction and equipment installation on medium and heavy duty chassis. Frame straightening runs $750 to $20,000 and up at 5 to 80 labor hours, measured against factory specification before and after.
A commercial truck frame is a ladder chassis and it fails in four predictable ways: bend, twist, sag and diamond. All four are measurable and all four are repairable.
What is not repairable by plating over it is a fatigue crack, which is the most common thing we inherit from field repairs.
How do you know if a truck frame is bent?
Measurement, against published factory specification. Symptoms come first though, and they are consistent enough to be diagnostic. Tyre wear that returns after alignment. The vehicle dog tracking. Doors binding at one corner. A visible ripple in a rail.
Any one of those justifies measuring. Two together and the frame has almost certainly moved.
- Dog tracking, the vehicle not following squarely
- Tyre wear returning immediately after alignment
- Cab doors binding or no longer latching cleanly
- Visible sag, ripple or wave in a frame rail
- Cracked welds at crossmember and outrigger joints
- Body mount separation from the chassis
Why does plating a cracked frame not work?
Because it moves the stress riser rather than removing it. A plate welded over a fatigue crack transfers the concentration to the plate edge, and it cracks again there, usually within a year.
Correct repair removes the cracked section entirely and splices in new material with full penetration welds, then reinforces where the original section proved inadequate for the load it actually carries.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does commercial truck frame straightening cost?
$750 to $20,000 and up at 5 to 80 labor hours. Simple crossmember work is at the bottom. Full chassis correction on a heavy chassis is at the top.
Do I get proof the frame is straight?
Yes. Before and after dimensional records against factory specification are supplied with the vehicle, which also protects your position on resale.
A previous shop plated a cracked rail and it cracked again.
Expected outcome. A plate relocates the stress riser to its own edge. Correct repair removes the cracked section and splices in new material.
Do you service the engine or do DOT inspections?
No. Body, paint, structural and equipment installation only.
Services We Perform on This Vehicle
Related Vehicles
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Bring the vehicle to our Yorba Linda facility and we will document the damage properly, work directly with your carrier, and give you a written figure built from published rates and real labor hours.
All work is performed at our Yorba Linda facility. We do not offer mobile, roadside or fleet route service.