Sheared axle U-bolt

There might have been something wrong with his u-bolts but from what the guy mentioned in another thread later on, the Jeep that was winching him did it improperly and winched him backward up a hill via the rear axle iirc

either way that whole thing was a shit show, so many mistakes made all around and people standing around watching it happen without saying anything

 

I remember reading all about it the day it happened and saw several videos it was actually an FJ towing him backwards.

First I heard of tying off to his axle, yeah that would be monumentally stupid but also don't think thats what happened as the truck body got pulled over the axle right?? Like if they were yanking it by the axle itself the axle would've been forced out behind the truck, instead the axle remained in place while they yanked on the frame/body over it. But I'm just spit ballin.

All I remember is before the driver deleted his TW account he mentioned his lift/ubolts and mentioned he had just had his lift installed and thought they either didn't tighten the ubolts enough, or used the wrong ubolts and didn't have enough lenght for his new lift IIRC.

 

Yea, looks like his front brakes were locked almost the whole time he was getting pulled too

 

I would be willing to bet it was a combination of factors, bad rear lift install and a bad recovery. I just remember him saying later on in another thread that the guys that winched him took off after the axle ripped out and left him there with his friends to deal with the aftermath. Thought he said they hooked it around his axle but I might be remembering it wrong. Was a crappy situation for sure especially because he had the truck up for sale before that happened lol

 

Yeah that happened at a local OHV park near me that I've been to 100x times, it draws some big crowds being pretty close to a couple big SoCal towns. Seems every year there are a handful of bad accidents like this, rollovers, injuries etc.

 

What I never understood is why are they even trying to winch him DOWN a hill?? That never made sense to me unless I'm totally watching all the videos wrong. From everything I could tell about the position of his truck if it wouldn't back down under its own power there mustve been something SERIOUSLY wrong, like enough for everyone to try and figure that out before just yanking on the truck and forcing it down lol.

 

haha holy shit full send on the towing end

 

Thanks all, just picked up a new set of U-bolts bent up from the spring shop.

 

3rd gen.

/thread

Wonder if this is the same guy that got stuck on Laurel Lakes Rd because he got a flat and didn't know how to change it.

 

I can't fathom what they were thinking. The way they are winching that thing is like it was already junk to start. So many questions.

 

Does anyone happen to have the torque spec on hand that the rear axle ubolts should be?

 

73 I think

 

For 1st gen Tacomas (1995 - 2004) it's 90 ft/lbs


Here are some torque spec sheets for future reference

 

Definitely torque correctly.
I recently noticed on my driver side my 2 of the 4 nuts that hold the two U bolts where missing I had just drove from Tampa to Boston and back to Tampa and can’t believe my truck didn’t look like these guys photos.

CHECK YOUR U BOLTS !

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/

 

Yeah the idiots just kept dragging it.

 

Thanks a million! Gonna print this out and keep it in the glovebox

 

That's what I did too, I laminated them in packing tape and keep them behind my seat. Comes in super handy

 

OP,
Time for a u-bolt flip kit.

 

That was a huge subject on here after that happened. It was an FJ that pulled him out. My conclusion was that he was in 4low when he was being towed. Sounds sounded like u bolts snapping and probably teeth being stripped off of gears in the tcase. From people who were there, they said the dude was a fuckin asshat and wouldn’t listen to people trying to help him... you gotta be pretty dumb to risk some u bolts snapping, same level of risk as hand tightening lug nuts.