93' Isuzu Trooper 3.1 TD chassis failure

It's news to me that it's a design flaw. Until now, the only Jackaroos that I have heard about with cracking in the chassis are the Garland Racing team ones, after 20000kms of being bashed really hard.

I'd be asking the insurer to show you what information they have that it's a design flaw, and to show you statistics of how many other Jackaroos/Troopers/Bighorns they have seen with this problem.

Is there any corrosion where the break occured?

How do the insurer know it's a design flaw? They know something that isn't common knowlegde about this? I'd ask them more questions. I do remeber a post about a Rodeo cracking the chasis in the middle but I think that had done heaps of off raod work.

Leroy

Hi guys... a site where you get a bit of action..She is a clean fracture, no rust this is New Zealand no salted roads, follow the dotted line down both sides of the weld. Another site in Aus jackworld.alphalink.com.au makes mention of chassis failures in td models. But they believe the might be attributed to winches and heavy accessories being fitted. Dont fall into that catagory
At present it's a write off.. and unless I can find someone willing to cut the buggar'd bit of chassis out and replace with a new front end off a wrecked one i'm stuffed.

Re insurance..yep unless there is evidence of damage / a cause/accident/ etc they will stick you with the old sorry mate...

Keep it comming...

Cheers
PAUL V
Kiwi down under...

Obtain an engineers report on the damage, also ask your insurer what are the recognised qualifications of the person who made the decision.

Worked for me once with a broken yacht mast! Insurer said it was a "design flaw" so I asked for the assessors qualifications & said I would see them in court & that I would be accompanied by the designer & the builder of the mast. Cheque was in my letter box within 48 hours.

I think they are having a go at you.
Get the dogs out and set them at them.
design flaw my arse.you want that to be in writing on manufaators letter head.
If not take it to the media.

shadow

If I thought I had a leg to stand on I would be in like the proverbial robbers dog.. But without any other physical evidence that indicated I might have hit something I've got to agree with the insurers it looks to be a stress fracture. I've been offered a complete 2nd hand chassis fitted for a couple of grand or a cut and paste replacement for around $750...

I would dearly like to have some concrete evidence of any other instances so I could go Isuzu...i've got some very interesting photo's just not sure who or where to send them...

Cheers Paul V

Hi Guys.Its the old story if you spead the web far enough....Just had notification of another confirmed case of a failure at the same point.. Unfortunately the evidence is now in the form of reinforcing steel...have a gecko under your wheel arch and the arm in question,and along the leading edge of the underside of your chassis.( Directy below the power steering unit)
Not wanting to be paranoid but this has the potential to kill.. and makes for a bloody difficult fix if happen to be on walk about...

Cheers
Paul V

Paul,

What happened exactly?

Did it just give out one day, or did you have an accident? It would help if we knew a bit more about the events.

If it just broke, then the insurer could well be within their rights as it is not accident damage. However that would mean you have some sort of recourse on Holden (or Isuzu ... do you have a Bighorn or Jackaroo?) as welds like that shouldn't just break even if the car is 11 years old.

Do seek assistance for this from your motoring organisation and let us all know how you go.

If you could get some illumination under there Paul and then snap it with a digi cam in focus - now that would be worth quids to us Jack owners. Thanks for the report.........sharing of info is much appreciated.......surely a repair by someone good with metal is the best financial option ?

Hi Guys..I will try and cover all of your questions..Firstly I am a photograper so pic's are not an issue.. I have (3) excellent images available as Jpeg files. I will probably have to compress thebleepof of them as they are currently about 3mb files.. also just not sure how to post them on this forum.However if you have any experts ..I'm happy to put a Cd in the post and they can load it onto the web site..

How did it happen.. Fortunately I was driving in the city.(Auckland) I was approching a set of traffic lights slowed from about 45k's and bang.. The old girl lurches to the right..It sounded like it was brake issue... the disc or a front axle. I nursed it back to my office less than 1km away and had a geko under the wheel arch...Buggar me...

The model of vehicle..well in NZ they were badged as an ISUZU Trooper some later appeared as Jackaroo's as supplied to the Aus market. It's a LWB 3.1 TD.

Had the vehicle been involved in any frontal accidents or was it modified in any way?.. No.. It did however run 265x 65.16 Firestone Firehawk RV's on the STD factory rims. And 95% of the time it was used in 2wd..the other times it was used mainly in Snow..

I have owned a total of ( 5) Brand new Isuzu's over the years and this is the first truely bad experience that I have had.

As mentioned in my early posts my greatest concern is that of safety and not wanting to see anyone killed should this be more than a one off incident..and the more I dig the more my gut feeling is that there are quite a few out there...

Let me know if someone can post the images..and I will send you a CD...

Thanks for your continuing interest..I note that GM. are still yet to respond to my E.mail and probably won't..

Cheers
Paul V

Hi Guys..thanks for all your interest ..just spoken to panel shop in West Auckland who were recommended as having all the gear and experience to either transplant new chassis or weld in new section.. they confirmed that have seen three cases..of chassis failures on td model Isuzu's.
Still no response from GM.in New Zealand..I have posted a CD with pics to Darian so allow about a week and hopefully he will post them on the web site...

Regards
Paul V.