Columbia dash frame

Every freightliner I ever drove or owned the dash fell apart. Thus the name frightshaker. They all fall apart. Do the best you can with it

 

Dash in my FLD 120 is all broken. I just live with it.

 

I don't know if there is a factory fix for this, but I've seen a lot of home made ones. I have a 2005 too (at least for another week or so) and I thought this was something that they had improved over the earlier years, since mine has held up OK. It's the rest of the dashboard that's disintegrating into shards of plastic before my very eyes. I would ask at a dealer about a factory made reinforcement, if they can't sell you something, fabricate your own solution.

It totally annoys me that Freightliner couldn't see fit to spend a few more dollars on the doors & dashboard in the Columbia. Lots of people have assured me that the Cascadia is way better.

 

My '01 Columbia did the same thing. I took a piece of plate steel, bored holes for the valves, drilled for the screws and did what I could. It was much better after that. I wish I had taken pics so I could show you.
I'd love to get my hands on the idiot "engineers" that come up with these manufacturing processes. My '07 KW did the same thing. The overuse of plastic, combined with the fact that some of these idiots must use their feet to release their brakes causes all kinds of issues.

 

A freightliner dealer told me once that the columbia/century trk's were a throw away trk for fleets. They only expected them to be around 5-7 yrs. Just another reason i love my kw. I too have had to do like some else said made a plate out of aluminum to hold the mv3 valve. Parking brake valve

 

My 2006 (June 2005) Columbia never had a problem, although I was the only person to ever drive it from brand new when I picked it up at the dealer. I cant remember me ordering anything special on it, regards the dashboard, although it did have the "Heritage" interior.
Dash was fine, except for a coupld of the plastic locating tabs coming off the pieces that go between the metal dash panels.

Martin

 

My 2006 Columbia CL-120- the past few years the dashboard has eroded apart. The affect, the radio fell thru the dash in 2010, the brake knobs fell thru last year. I replaced the entire unit back in Sept.13. What I believe the origins to the dashboard falling apart: The trucks suspension. Over this year, is when I've begun replacing that whole system...whether a freightliner mechanic stated, that part was needed to be replaced or not. (their opinion was not a #### thing wrong with it. Today, my truck rides a lot better from focusing on replacing the entire suspension.