So cleaning the truck to day as I try to every week or so as I am meticulous with this truck and try and wash at least once a week and wax quarterly. However, this winter has been a little tough in the North East so I have been resorting to car washes. Today I finally was able to hand wash the truck and find on the passanger side rear well I find sever rust around the inside edge severe enough to deform the metal and almost all the way through in a few spots. Unbelievably upset about this I think this will have to be my last Dodge loved my previous and not near as many issues as I have had with thus truck! $40K for a truck that rusts out in just over 5 years must have been rusting from behind because panel was not prepped properly and was rusting while still under warrantly just never visible with the fender liners.

 

My Dakota is a 2005 and needs a new bed already, wells are completely rusted thru, bottom of both rear doors has started to crack too

 

My 11 started to rust in the same spots but the paint hasn't chipped away yet. But you can see where the metal has bent down from the rust. And of course no help from Ram/Dodge.

 

It's an epidemic and a disgrace that this issue is some common on these trucks. I had an 06' with the same issue. Quite a few coworkers of mine have these trucks too and ALL of them that are more then 4-5 years old have at a minimum bubbling paint where rust is about to come through. Any time i see a 3rd gen or older in a parking lot i look and 98% of the time i see rust. I did see a really nice 05' at Home Depot and was surprised it had no sign of rust. As i was walking in the store the owner of the truck was walking out and asked what i was looking at since he saw me walking around his truck. I mentioned i was looking for rust and was surprised he had none. He laughed and said "It did rust through, i had it cut out with new panels welded in last year". Figures.

 

The first mistake is adding mudflaps... my pretty ram logo mudflaps (screws into fender) trapped all the nasty stuff...now Lower portions of fender are gone...

Also them stupid rubber door seals trap all kinds of door seam eating nastys..

06 is my year but 2015 model Rams still have the very same door seam design..

 

I hear you on the brutal winter we had, it's tough to keep all the road salt off your paint when they use so much of it and so frequently. Did this issue just happen over this past winter? Seems like a lot of rust to appear so quickly.

 

I'm disgusted with the amount of rust on these 6 year old trucks. My RF fender has rotted out, and others on here have serious rocker panel rust. My dealer basically told me to get lost. You'd think that Chrysler wouldn't want a bunch of late model trucks running around with holes in them, as it is still a body style that is currently in production. There is definitely something wrong with the paint prep and/or quality of steel.

 

I've got the factory fender flares. I wonder what mine look like underneath.

 

Get rid of it now while you can. This is a big issue and more will pop up. This is a mixture of not enough mils on edge and pack rust between the fender and fender plastic panel.

 

[B[/B][QUOTE=wellstep;3232118]So cleaning the truck to day as I try to every week or so as I am meticulous with this truck and try and wash at least once a week and wax quarterly. However, this winter has been a little tough in the North East so I have been resorting to car washes. Today I finally was able to hand wash the truck and find on the passanger side rear well I find sever rust around the inside edge severe enough to deform the metal and almost all the way through in a few spots. Unbelievably upset about this I think this will have to be my last Dodge loved my previous and not near as many issues as I have had with thus truck! $40K for a truck that rusts out in just over 5 years must have been rusting from behind because panel was not prepped properly and was rusting while still under warrantly just never visible with the fender liners.[/QUOTE
I'm new to this but i've been doing some research online myself, because my truck is beginning to show premature rust on the wheel wells too! I work for Chrysler, so it's even more maddening! Not to be redundant, but that's my whole argument also. I paid $47,000 for a brand-new pick up truck, and the wheel wells are starting to rock from the inside out with less than 30,000 miles. Well within the warranty.! I took my truck into the dealer last week for some recall issues and also to have Chrysler take a look at this issue. The dealer took digital imaging and sent it to Chrysler. I'm waiting to hear back from them as we speak. They assigned me a case manager, and hopefully they'll do the right thing.