"Wheeler's Anonymous"

<- me at Universal all weekend with my Duff & donut.

 

Thanks Jeremy that makes perfect sense. I'll just have them rebuilt for now and see if that helps. I do plan on skids eventually, winch, still debating.. Haha

 

I wanted to do this, but Micah told me that doing that with the LR UCAs causes issues so I didn't do it. Maybe when they need revalving I'll have it taken out and upgrade my UCAs

 

I never wanted a winch since they are heavy and expensive, but after wheeling alone to get to camp spots and such, having one would make me a lot more comfortable. You never know when you are going to get stuck.

 

I don't think light racing arms have the extended travel and so you'd bind up. Most uniball joints like Total Chaos, Camburg, Icon, etc, have a bit of extended travel from the uniball.

 

Oh yeah, I totally get cha, I just don't wheel alone. I'm sure I'll want to get one one day, they're just fucking expensive

 

This. Me neither, but the fact is you never know when you or someone else will need this tool 40 miles out from no where. Piece of mind is playing a big factor for me with my potential overlanding build. I want to be able to be self sufficient and no where near a paved road for a week at a time.

I forgot who did it but there was a winch "shootout" performed by a company comparing top dollar winches like warn to less expensive options like badlands from HF. In the end the HF winch held up just as good and was found to have the same mechanical quality parts essentially with a different sticker on it then warn and other top dollar options. For me I do not plan and hopefully not use my winch a ton and will also have a backup option as well(highlift, etc) so I may go that route with a HF for now. Hard to pass up when they are always sending me coupons I do know I want some synthetic line For it though to help with weight and such.

Man the list just never ends with these mods!

 

My truck has an uncontrollable gas problem apparently

 

Makes me think of Greg's trail damage and how, even with a winch, he was royally fucked.

Lesson? I don't wheel alone.

 

Ya highlifts can be sketchy forsure. Myself, i do not have a ton of experience with them either. Me and some friends have used them before in a pinch as a winch though. Buddy was stuck in the desert with no anchor points around so we used a spare tire as an anchor in a dug hole and a small trench for the line and "winched" him out with the highlift and some straps.

 

This^
Oh so true

 

I wheel alone all through out hunting season. Not ideal but you really don't have much choice. Got stuck in the Sierras a few weeks ago right at dusk. A winch probably would of bailed me out, but it was still sitting in a box on my workbench. Ending up hiking out 15 miles started hiking at 9pm. At least I had the buddy that got me into the mess with me, It was a fun little excursion. Nothing like hiking for 4 1/2 hours from just over 10,000 feet elevation to 4,000 feet.

 

I wheel alone all the time. This Sat-Sun I'll be doing the Old Dale Mining District north of JT. I'll be taking a friend with me but not another rig. No winch, no high lift, no come-along. I have a strap but that's kind of useless without another rig. I do have an axe, shovel and traction pads but they will only help in certain situations. I rarely do any trails that I don't feel comfortable with or that I can't back out of safely. I also always carry 8 gallons and another day's worth of food.

 

I carry a 2.5 ton jack on my truck, as well as 200 ft of 1/2 silver long and assorted jacks. But we were sliding off a side of a sandy hill, building up rocks on the hill wasn't working. We hiked out to grab a 4x4 work truck so we could fairlead the front of the truck over with a winch and use the floor Jack in conjunction with a 2 ton chain hoist to drift the rear of the truck back over. We had tons of recovery gear in our work yard so it made the most sense to grab all the rigging and the 10 foot recovery treads and head back up with them the next morning. We hiked out at night cause when you spend as much time in the mountains hunting as we do, you tend to not be scared of the dark, and I didn't see much point in waiting till the morning to get started on the inevitable hike.

 

We also hike in the dark pretty regularly. Last night we hiked 5 miles into onion valley after work. Once shooting time had passed we hiked back out. I'm not a fan of long hikes in the dark alone, but their are honey holes I like to hunt that less than 5 people know about so if the four people can't go I can't bring anyone else. So I've been forced to suck it up and hike in before first light by myself. Doubt I'll ever get over the uneasy feeling that gives me.

 

It wasn't that bad. Just a case of someone who doesn't know much about wheeling giving you less than ideal spotting. I shouldn't of been on the trail I was on. It's wasn't in a plans, but once buck fever kicks in your almost do a stupid of shit as the deer do during the rut. It was a good lesson learned. I brought my quad up the next week, it's a little easier to get yourself unstuck in it.

 

For some reason big cats make me more nervous than snakes. I don't worry too much about the Bears but the idea of something else stalking me give me a more unsettling feeling. I've never seen a mountain lion in the wild but I see tracks and scat all the time. One of the trails we walked down that night was littered in big cat tracks. All you could do is stay noisy

 

So Toyota says they were able to replicate the clunks I was hearing from the front, told me that ball joints and control arms look "okay" but I may want to consider replacing them in the future...I don't know how much peace of mind that really gives me lol. Basically they told me the 5100s/881s are putting more tension on the LCAs and ball joints than they were designed to handle and that's the source of the noises I'm hearing (figured as much). What concerns me is I've had this setup on for a couple months now and only recently has the clunking been getting a lot worse.

As for the grinding in the driveline I'm feeling when wheeling and going over bumps/ruts, they weren't able to replicate it of course but they're going to grease the u-joints for me and see if that helps.

So I guess I'm back to square one with the hope that the u-joints just needed some grease and a little peace of mind knowing that my LJB's aren't shot, they're just 'okay'.

Figure I'm going to make getting new LBJs a priority soon and see if it's possibly something I can do myself with some help. UCAs too since I know I'll need them eventually anyway.

 

Use this as an excuse to upgrade to Long Travel. LT supercharged Ryan!!!

 

LOL rrrright, I'll just take what's left of my savings account that I haven't put into my truck already haha

Going to save up a bit for some OEM ball joints, meanwhile let's hope this doesn't happen to me (my biggest fear)...