Thinking out loud - "If it breaks on the trail - can I fix it?"

[Daryl 32]

This is not a boot camp thread in it's self, but an idea to build on maybe?

The first post would be a list of break downs - or things to check before they do or you go on a long trip. That would be monitored by someone or a group and added to as ideas are presented, so the whole growing thread does not have to be scanned for all the things added.

And maybe have it a sticky?

Couple of my thoughts-

With our 99 F250:

If I puncture the engine oil pan I can fix it in the field with screws, washers, rubber stripes like inter tube and JB weld. But then the oil capacity of the 7.3 powerstorke is 15 qts. Do I carry enough oil to feel it back up after I patch the pan.

Same idea with the trany, if a cooler line blows off, gets ripped off or I puncture the pan, I can fix it. But its capacity is 17 qts.

So if my trip takes me 75 or more miles from stores to buy these floods, do I can that much of both? Or end up waiting for help and paying possibly 100s of dollars in towing fees.

Just thinking out loud - as I just experienced a trany cooler line failure on the i 15 coming south into Washington Utah / Saint George. I was able to get off the freeway, fix the line and find 9 qts of trany fluid a mile from where I was and able to get back on the road and home to Riverside So Cal. Transmission died three days later and is not in the shop for a complete rebuild.
But what if I was in the middle of Baja - in Alaska - way up along the north rim of the grand canyon?

Again just thinking out loud.

Daryl

 

[slomatt]

One important item for both examples in your post would be a spill kit to collect the oil off the ground. Some offroad clubs require all members to carry one.

Rubicon Trail Home Page -- Friends of the Rubicon Directory

Rubicon Trail Home Page -- oil spills and fluid cleanup techniques. Carry the right gear to clean up any fluid discharges. Rubicon Trail of California; find everything you need to know about the Rubicon Trail right here.

www.delalbright.com

 

[Billiebob]

No way can you carry enough to fix everything. Skid plates and careful driving will go a long ways. Regular maintenance and an experienced mechanic to recognize when to replace parts, hoses before they fail. AAA and VISA. File your plan with a freind, relative and check in daily.

Thats been my plan for 30 years.

 

[madcratebuilder]

I carry oil, trans fluid and coolant with several types of repair tape and tank sealers. I hard failure, axle or drive shaft I'll just get it towed out if needed. Even with full skids I worry about fluid's.

 

[MOAK]

Thankfully I drive a somewhat simple machine. The question however, can I fix it on the trail? Big things? No. Little things? Yes. However, I place a very high priority on preventive maintenance. Examples? I replaced my starter last year only because the starters have a reputation of failing at around the 100,000 mile mark. The old one is sitting on the shelf, just in case. I’ll be replacing the alternator this year for the same reason, in spite of the fact that it’s still charging up at 14- 14.3 volts. Belts are replaced at 30-40 thousand miles whether needed or not. Batteries are replaced every 6-7 years whether needed or not. If a brake line hose is cracked or over 10 years old, it gets replaced.. all the rubber under hood, along with the dif breathers and door seals was all replaced 75,000 miles ago and should be good for a few more years. Did I mention I’m a bit anal when it comes to preventive maintenance? In over 30 years of this I’ve only ever had one breakdown and that was on an interstate. It was my own fault.. even as retentive as I am, I chose to ignore a very tiny heater core leak for over three years. It leaked less than a half pint a year. It gave up the ghost and blew out big time. I’ll not ignore any leaks again. After that experience I buttoned up every one of my oil leaks that many self proclaimed experts thought to be foolish. Those “experts” had no idea where we go or what we do.. good day, and Merry Christmas

 

[leeloo]

In my experience Murphy's law will always prevail , what ever you don't carry and /or you don't have the skills for will break. If you carry an alternator, the starter will go.. and so on. Preventive maintence and knowing your limits will go a long way. If you fell like you are at the limit don't travel alone. Some problems like electrics will strand you, while with others you can limp back home. Some elctric skills and a small electrical kit is good to have..

 

[DeltaBravo]

O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist.

 

[MOAK]

In my experience Murphy's law will always prevail , what ever you don't carry and /or you don't have the skills for will break. If you carry an alternator, the starter will go.. and so on. Preventive maintence and knowing your limits will go a long way. If you fell like you are at the limit don't travel alone. Some problems like electrics will strand you, while with others you can limp back home. Some elctric skills and a small electrical kit is good to have..

Yes, I carry a multi meter, extra wire, lots of fuses, and a couple of important relays etc..

 

[TerryD]

Since this is not a vehicle specific forum and our rigs vary so wildly in possible and probable failures, I always suggest you find a good forum dedicated to your vehicle of choice.

This way you can look into the things that go bad and leave you stranded that others here might not even know about.

In my case, with the Xterra, it's cam and crank position sensors and the main fusible link on the battery cable. There's also one relay in the IPDM (your vehicle probably doesn't even have that) that will completely disable it and there's a trick fix AND I carry a spare relay.

There's no way we can cover different vehicles in enough detail to really be helpful beyond the "carry a full size spare tire and jumper cables" here and no reason to try with so many good forums out there already.

We do have a thread on what we all carry for spares that's a little more generalized. I can't link it from chrome for some reason but you should be able to search it out.

 

[M Rose]

I seldom ever call a tow truck to recover me when I break down. That being said, the only times I have relied upon a tow truck was when a road side repair was too dangerous to attempt. I have done almost any repair imaginable on a rig on the trail or along side the road, to include transmission swaps, major engine repairs, and even replaced ring and pinions.

This past Labor Day weekend I was returning with my kids from a 5 day fishing trip at my favorite reservoir when all of a sudden my volt gauge started reading 11 volts. I immediately found a safe place to pull the Adventure Machine off to the side of the road. When I shut the engine down, steam was already pouring out from the grill. I knew that the belt was broken without even inspectingunder the hood. I even suspected the cause of the breakage. I opened the hood and looked at my air pump and sure enough the pulley was seized.
I had a spare belt, but unfortunately it wasn’t going to work to bypass the air pump, so a quick call to my dad and wife got a spare belt on its way out to me. When the new belt got to me it was the wrong size, so my wife had to take the kids and me home to return to the Bronco the next day. I ended up making 3 trips between the part store and back to the rig before we finally had a belt close enough to the right length to limp back to the part store where I got a belt that actually fit. Then I bought 2.

My point in this rambling, you can carry all the spare parts you want, but sometimes even that isn’t enough. Better to have knowledge on the mechanical weaknesses of your rig and know of ways to “trail fix” the problem to get yourself back to civilization than to carry every part under the sun for said rig.

 

[Dilldog]

Honestly the ability to do a repair comes down to knowing your rig as much as having the gear. Perfect example, my 1980 Isuzu. I was pulling Snoqualimi Pass and noted that at wide open throttle I would loose power, mid throttle was OK. So I pulled over knowing it was carburetor issue. I found that 3 of the 4 nuts that bolt the carb to the intake were gone so when I whent to wide open throttle the cable was pulling the carb off of the intake manifold. I thought a bit about how to fix this, well the nuts that hold the carb on and that hold the front driveshaft on were the same size. So I rolled under the pickup, pulled the front drive shaft and tossed it in the bed, and used 3 of the drive flange nuts from it to secure the carb.