I had just gotten off work around 730 or 745 ish. Drove my truck with the windows down , a few miles down the street to this strip mall / store area i frequent . Got out of the truck went in the store and other establishment . Was inside for maybe 5 mins . The truck was certainly turned off, windows up. When i came back out to the truck i opened the door and it was full of smoke and the armrest / center storage bin was molten and so hot it had melted the two pieces . I had a couple bottles of water in the truck and was able to put it out but had burned my left hand in the process . Once i was sure it was extinguished i moved it away from parked cars to an empty lot to prevent anothe possible fire from damaging other vehicles . I then had it towed to Bob Caldwell on Morse road in Columbus Ohio. This was on Saturday july 11th . Still no adjuster put to the vehicle since filing my insurance claim. It’s Thursday July 16th now .

The contact owns a 2023 Ram 1500. The contact stated that while pulling out of a parking spot, the steering wheel was turned and the front ball joints snapped. The contact stated that the driver’s side ball joint side snapped, and the passenger’s side ball joint was bent under the pressure. Due to the failure, the control arms were severely damaged, and the front driver’s side axle was ripped apart. The vehicle became inoperable. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, but the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 53,000.

Driving down the highway in heavy traffic and the truck shutoff unexpectedly, I came to a complete stop and luckily avoided being rear ended and had to go from Drive and Park and recycle the ignition to restart the truck and limp off to a safe place.

Ram 1500 Big Horn Limited 2023 was totaled in accident. Front end collision. None of the air bags deployed.

Starting March 30 2026- My Dodge Ram 1500 with the digital dashboard statred registering the wrong speed- Which was always higher than the speed I was going, by a lot! It is still happening to today, we will see tomorrow.