1991 Dodge Ram Van problems

Filed Aug 29, 2004 · Fuel system · 13,518 miles · MI · 1 injury

On august 27, 2004, I had just driven 80 miles from home, I parked my dodge van for approximately 1/2 hour, which gave it time to cool down from trip. I then moved and parked my van to a parking space 1 block away to unload, where it sat and cooled down again. Moving the van back to the original parking space required me to go 1/2 mile, when all of a sudden a loud clunking noise was heard, I pulled into the original parking lot to park. When examining the back of my vehicle, I discovered the metal band on the fill side of my gas tank had broke. This caused the tank and inlet hose to rest on the exhaust system, which was warm. At this time I only had 1/2 tank of gas in the tank. I could have been killed had this had happened while I was on the freeway. The tank was tilted toward the hot exhaust system, which would have resulted on the highway at 70 MPH, if the band had broke while driving the tank would have leaked directly onto this exhaust system creating fire/explosion killing myself, my passenger and other innocent people. In trying to find a replacement band so my vehicle could be fixed, I phoned chrysler and was advised they had no bands in stock and are heavily back ordered, which indicates to me chrysler is fully aware of this defect and danger. I am furious, that myself and others are at risk of death or serious injury due to this known defect and no notification by chrysler. I had to have a universal band installed on my van to get me home, the chrysler dealer said this would be ok. The repair garage advised me they could not guarantee their work with this universal band due to it not being a chrysler product, even though chrysler stated it would be ok. I was also advised by the repair shop not to fill the tank over 1/2 full until the correct band could be obtained and to drive slower. What kind of carelessness is this? And how many people and vehicles will be damaged due to this hidden defect?