Post up your trail break-downs and what you did to recover?

[VCeXpedition]

I'd be interested to hear about some of the break-downs on the trail, and how you got home, one way or another.

1. Fixed it, continued on like nothing happened
2. Left the truck to get the necessary parts/tools, had to come back to fix it
3. Called help, or dragged it out on a rope and got home on the back of a tow truck

- What broke? To what did you attribute that it broke? (bad mod, old parts, sent it a little too hard, etc.)
- What did you do to fix it? Did you have what you needed to make repairs? (or anyone that was with you) --> Extra points for being clever here!
- What did you learn, and what do you do (or carry) now as a result of that event?

Pictures would be awesome but if not, have some detail in your explanation to help others learn as well.

Let's all learn from one another's experiences here, please no judgments, fixed it right or wrong, whatever, just learn what you can to be and go prepared.



Dan.

 

[VCeXpedition]

Exhaust system failure - '95 FZJ80

Alright, I looked for some pictures of this one, but I was the one doing the work so I realized they aren't on my camera.
I'll add if I can find them but they're not too exciting.

We were on the Mojave Road doing a pre-run for the Spring trip in 2017.
I didn't fully realize how rough the road was and I didn't lower my tire pressure enough, so it was extra rough.

I got to camp on the third night and had been hearing a lot of extra exhaust sound over the rattling that the road was causing.

A quick inspection showed that the weld where the header pipe connected to the exhaust pipe had completely come apart. It was a pretty clean break, the weld around the pipe had completely failed and the pipe was off of the header downpipe.

I had just finished putting together a 3-battery welding kit with fresh sticks, so I decided to try that out. I hadn't stick welded since college, so I knew I would be rusty, but I was confident I had all I needed to keep going.
I pulled off the front tire allowing plenty of access to that area, set up my welder using the 2 batteries from my vehicle and decided that would have to do for this weld job.
I did the best I could given my current skill level with stick welding, I had to scrounge some metal bits to overlay to get a firmer weld.
It looked pretty bad but held in place and solved most of the leaks I had.

--> I was able to fix it and keep going with the trip, no interruption.
--> I attribute the cause of this failure to a broken exhaust clamp on the rearmost part of the pipe at the back of the car that allowed the exhaust pipe to flop around too much. That combined with the severe washboard and tire pressure that was too high, it was the weak-point and finally failed. It wasn't a huge problem but I could smell exhaust inside the car and I really didn't want to go on like that, therefore the repair!

Looking forward to hear of your trail repairs and your learnings from them!



Dan.

 

[TacomaDave]

Oh, I have stories.

This was quite a few years back, when I was young and foolish instead of mature and wise like now <insert eyeroll>, long before everyone carried a camera in their pocket so no pics I'm afraid. Anyway...

I was 17 and was out playing in the sandhills in a beat-up 2WD Ford F150 because it was all I had and wanted to play in the sandhills. It makes perfect sense when you're 17. So does not carrying any rescue gear of any kind.

So, of course, I get bogged down to the axles with nobody around for miles. Nothing to do except walk to the nearest phone 8 miles away and call my sister to come get me. Next morning she takes me to a local wrecking yard and I explain that all I have is $40.00 and I sure would appreciate some help. The guy says "Sure kid. I'll get you out". So we get in his 4WD dually tow truck and go hook it up and start dragging it out. No problem. Until we get pretty close to the solid caliche road and the sand just kinda collapsed out from under us. Now his truck is stuck beyond all hope. He had a shovel at least but all our digging didn't help matters. There was nothing solid to tie his winch to. We even tried pulling him out with mine.

Finally he gets on the two-way radio and called his dad, who owned the place, and told him the situation. Dad brings out the big truck they used to tow 18 wheelers. Being wiser than us he said he's not getting off the road. So we drag out all the cable he has and it's not nearly enough to reach. They are both pretty exasperated by this time so I was avoiding them at every opportunity. I could see them arguing and finally, without a word to me, they got in the truck and left. A few hours later they show back up with a new spool of cable which I'm sure cost a lot more than 40 bucks. They get it rigged up and they pull out his dually. By this time I'm thinking they'll probably just leave mine out there but I guess they were raised better than that. We dragged the cable back out and got mine out. I pulled out my $40.00 and walked up to hand it to him but he just shot me a look that should have killed me on the spot. He just got in his truck and took off. I put my money back in my pocket and went home.

I learned a lot of lessons that day. Like...
Not going out alone.
Be prepared with rescue gear.
Tell someone where you're going and when you expect to be back.
Don't think for a minute a 4WD can't get hopelessly bogged.

When I retired I knew I was going to be going it alone most of the time so I decided to build a rig that could handle almost anything. I equipped it with everything I could think of, including a winch, traction boards, shovel, pick, axe, ground anchor, full set of armor and of course a first aid kit and a roll of duct tape.

 

[Jeffrey Dill]

Oh, I have stories.

This was quite a few years back, when I was young and foolish instead of mature and wise like now <insert eyeroll>, long before everyone carried a camera in their pocket so no pics I'm afraid. Anyway...

I was 17 and was out playing in the sandhills in a beat-up 2WD Ford F150 because it was all I had and wanted to play in the sandhills. It makes perfect sense when you're 17. So does not carrying any rescue gear of any kind.

So, of course, I get bogged down to the axles with nobody around for miles. Nothing to do except walk to the nearest phone 8 miles away and call my sister to come get me. Next morning she takes me to a local wrecking yard and I explain that all I have is $40.00 and I sure would appreciate some help. The guy says "Sure kid. I'll get you out". So we get in his 4WD dually tow truck and go hook it up and start dragging it out. No problem. Until we get pretty close to the solid caliche road and the sand just kinda collapsed out from under us. Now his truck is stuck beyond all hope. He had a shovel at least but all our digging didn't help matters. There was nothing solid to tie his winch to. We even tried pulling him out with mine.

Finally he gets on the two-way radio and called his dad, who owned the place, and told him the situation. Dad brings out the big truck they used to tow 18 wheelers. Being wiser than us he said he's not getting off the road. So we drag out all the cable he has and it's not nearly enough to reach. They are both pretty exasperated by this time so I was avoiding them at every opportunity. I could see them arguing and finally, without a word to me, they got in the truck and left. A few hours later they show back up with a new spool of cable which I'm sure cost a lot more than 40 bucks. They get it rigged up and they pull out his dually. By this time I'm thinking they'll probably just leave mine out there but I guess they were raised better than that. We dragged the cable back out and got mine out. I pulled out my $40.00 and walked up to hand it to him but he just shot me a look that should have killed me on the spot. He just got in his truck and took off. I put my money back in my pocket and went home.

I learned a lot of lessons that day. Like...
Not going out alone.
Be prepared with rescue gear.
Tell someone where you're going and when you expect to be back.
Don't think for a minute a 4WD can't get hopelessly bogged.

When I retired I knew I was going to be going it alone most of the time so I decided to build a rig that could handle almost anything. I equipped it with everything I could think of, including a winch, traction boards, shovel, pick, axe, ground anchor, full set of armor and of course a first aid kit and a roll of duct tape.

View attachment 91924

This story is even more enjoyable when I imagine it being told in the voice of Sam Elliott (from your profile photo).

"Settle in, partner, and let me tell ya a tale about them there sand hills over yonder..."

 

[old_man]

On Poison Spyder Moab Utah

The chunks kept locking up the rear axle. I ended pulling the axles, and carrier, so I could get the chunks out, then removed the ring gear. I continued the trail in front wheel drive only. When I got off the trail, I had half the tread on the front vs the rear axle.


had all the tools and could have done it alone, but good friends are what it is all about.

 

[VCeXpedition]

@old_man to what do you attribute that failure? Was the ring/pinion aftermarket or just old original stuff?
It's hard to think that you were abusing it, was it a sudden change in torque that broke it? Or just that it finally went?

Nice limp to safety, thank you for being prepared.
It's hard to imagine that you might need to carry spare parts for this breakdown, but it's the assessment of "what to do next?" that will make the difference.


Thanks, Dan.

 

[old_man]

As it turns out, I had a pinion nut back off on my rear Dana 44 after 5 years of hard wheeling, It put things in a strain and exploded trying to climb a 6 foot ledge. It sounded like a grenade going off
.
We routinely do very extreme stuff and carry tons of spares, including axles and welders, but setting up a ring and pinion in the wild is pretty much impossible.