Someone dumped a Ram 3500 on my property. No plates, and the cab and part of the engine compartment are burned. It has a steel flatbed and probably was a weldor's truck. It hs a V10 engine and a transfer case putting the front driveshaft under the driver. It has a Dana 80 rear with 4.10 gears. Dual tires. Regular cab.

The VIN plate was destroyed and there is nothing left in the cab or under the hood that easily identifies the truck. The door and jamb are bare except for some ashes.

Where would I find a VIN on this hulk? Any other way to identify? There is a tag on the rear end with a part number. Would this help?
Thanks!!!

check radiator support.
Also ive heard either bottom of passenger side frame rail, in area of transfer case or top of frame rail around drivers door area.

If you know a LEO there are hidden tags that help them ID burned vehicles. Not sure when manufacturers started doing it though.


Tim

Should be a Vin tag welded to the floor under the passenger seat.

It should be pin etched on the frame rail on the passenger side lower flange near the trans/tcase.

No VIN on the engine?

Robert

Im sure there is but I don't have a way to get to it. I'll look unde the passenger seat
R.

the round tag on the t case should have a date on it

Correct.

Look there, the VIN is pin etched into the frame.

It was done fairly early on the chassis line (frame component assembly) in the plants.

Possibly a dumped stolen, just call your local state police & let them look into it.

I agree, call local LEO. no need to be poking around in WHAT could be a piece of crime scene evidence being covered up and dumped.

surly you watch crime shows on TV?

poking around in it with out first reporting it could make you a "Accessory after the fact" in a crime.

at least get you a ride down town and under a hot light bulb with tie and suites water boarding you.

if you figure finders keepers then file a illegal dumping report and after 30 days it becomes yours....just pick it up from impound.

If I remember right, the cab vin will be stamped on the edge of the cowl, on the passenger side.

Well, the mystery is solved. The owner came one afternoon and claimed it. I was already getting offers on it from the neighbors! But the owner told me the story of how it ended up in my yard.

It was late at night and he was driving home in his trailer pulling truck when he noticed flames coming out from under the dash. This was in the boonies, 15 miles from the nearest town of 678 souls, four miles from my farmyard. He stopped in the middle of the road, jumped out and watched it burn. Fortunately for him he remembered to grab his cellphone.

He called the only guy he knew crazy enough to come and rescue him and Wayne (his real name) brought a wrecker and hooked up. Wayne was an old friend of the family and had visited my Dad many times while Dad was alive. So he knew it would be safe in the farmyard until the owner could tow it away. Towing it back to Wayne's yard (almost said Wayne's World)would have taken it miles out of the way.
While it was still on the hook Wayne removed the front wheels thinking they would be a target for theft.

I told the owner there was no hurry getting the truck out of the yard as no one lives there. He was trying to figure out how to hook it to a 3-point hitch on one of his tractors as I drove away.

So no need for CSI or FBI, just an unlucky farmer.

R.