Hey guys im new to the Forum... I bought a 1996 Dodge ram 1500 club cab 4x4 5.9L 360 about 2 months ago, it has a really bad squeaking noise coming from somewhere in between the bed and the Cab. i can hear the squeaking nearly the whole time im driving. Its really beginning to bother the hell out of me. I've gotten down under the truck and moved the truck around and it sounds like it's coming from the top of the gas tank but theres like no way of getting up there without dropping the tank and i don't want do that if its not even the problem. i was wondering if anyone else has had this same problem?
Ive also checked the cab mounts.

 

you can on bolt the bed

 

yea im going to get down there tomorrow and try everything i can before i have to do anything major.

 

Stay in better hotels.

Squeaks and rattles are not uncommon and tracing them to their source can be a pain. You can remove the bed bolts on the drivers side, loosen the passenger side bolts and jack the bed up rather than drop the tank. Still a lot of work. You may find a chassis mount that has either rubbed through to the metal or something on top of the tank that is contacting the sheetmetal.

 

yea the sound is definitely coming from the drivers side between the cab and the bed by the gas tank so thats where im going to focus my search.

 

I had a terrible squeek there once. Turned out that I had gotten a rock or something (from hauling landscape rock in my bed) fall between the bed and the cab. It managed to bend one of the seams at the bottom of the bed. That small distortion of the bed seam started digging into the gas tank causing the noise that from the cab could only be discribed as an aweful loud squeak. I went under and dropped the gas tank down just a little by just undoing the hanger straps that hold the tank up. I found that the bent area had actually rubbed a pretty good hole in the top of the tank. So I patched the hole with epoxy, and fixed the bent metal lip on that bottom edge of the bed. Then tightened the tank back up.

The jist of the story for you is, try lowering your tank down just a little bit, and then see if you still have the noise. If the tank is rubbing on something, or has soemthing between it and the bed, lowering it a little will releive that, and the squeeking should go away. It's really easy to lower. Just unscrew the strap bands that hold the tank up. The more you unscrew them, the more the tank lowers. You'll see what I mean when you crawl under and look at the straps. That will at least help you identify where it is coming from for sure.

 

Okay thanks, this is probably the first thing im going to try. cuz it definitely sounds like the same problem i have its a really annoying sound that sounds like metal rubbing plastic.

 

Also check the body mount bolts while you are under there, that could possibly cause it, but they will usually give you more of a popping sound, not squeek.

 

Yea this is a straight up annoying squeak that never shuts up no matter how smooth the road. I can move around in my truck and make it squeak. Ill post back tomorrow when i figure out whats going on.

 

You might look closely to the bed bottom from under there too. Look close to the seam at the front. I have two cracks in the bed floor on both sides. They are about a foot to a foot and a half long. The edges of the metal scrapes back and forth and it is really annoying. The passenger back lower corner of the cab is also cracked so you might take a look at the cab sheetmetal too.