I just traded my 3rd gen 2002 Ram 1500 (which I bought new) for a 2017 Ram 1500.

2nd and 3rd gen Rams were notorious for cracked dashboards. Years ago, when the dash on my 2002 cracked, I determined it was too expensive to replace it and bought a molded-carpet dash mat that solved the problem for me. No way to tell the dash was cracked unless you removed the mat.

Rather than waiting for this to happen again with my new 4th gen Ram, I was thinking about going ahead and buying a dash mat right away. I don't really mind having a carpeted dash, but I'm not crazy about it either. I'd rather not cover the dash if I don't absolutely need to.

I've done quite a bit of research and it seems like Dodge may have solved the cracked-dash problem in the 4th gen models. I haven't been able to find any complaints about it anyway. Maybe Dodge is using a different type or blend of plastic nowadays, not sure, but it doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.

Since I am brand new to the 4th gen family, I was wondering if those of you who have had 4th gen Rams for a while have experienced a problem with the dash cracking.

 

Almost 200 views of this thread and no reports of 4th gen cracked dashboards. I'm hoping that means Dodge finally cured a very serious (and sometimes dangerous) issue that affected previous generation Rams. That's great!

 

no evidence of any cracking on our 2011 purchased new. our second gen has an intact dash but i did replaced the bezel with a new mopar and it looks good. i got a matching cap (instead of the carpet) that protects the original top dash. bottom potion of dash also intact but does have one crack on the left side and glovebox door also has a crack. all in all it looks good but, yeah, what crap plastic that was.

 

I've got a 2009 with 165K on it that has sat outside 365 days a year since it was new. No issues at all.