Remedied - Broke down

In 4wd going up an incline and felt the truck bind up, front control arm looks like it broke at the ball joint. They're SPC arms about five years old. I'm panicking and trying to get my insurance to come out to tow. My insurance may cover it, what kind of damages am I looking at? Tire probably punctured, control arm, possibly cv axle or anything else suspension related over there

 

Aren’t the UCA’s supposed to be rebuilt/services regularly? I haven’t dealt with insurance with situations as such but my guess would be unless you reported your aftermarket components/add-ons they might be hesitant to cover damages. It doesn’t look like you damaged much, my best guess would be maybe damage to the CV shaft? Everything looks intact. You’ll know more when the tire comes off and start moving stuff around. Best of luck.

 

how far out are you? if your down a trail where a tow truck can't get. jack it up. ratchet strap that ball joint back together and drive out slowly

 

I unfortunately do not have my jack in the truck. It's a very mild gravel road and I was going out fishing, really screwed without it though. I have my bottle jack but that's unlikely to get it done

 

The bottle Jack under the lca should be fine to get the job done.

 

Why would insurance cover you
off-roading?

 

If it a designated road, they have to cover it. I rolled this on The Gold Coast trail. 100% covered.

 

Why shouldn’t it? You pay them money to cover damages to your truck, doesn’t matter if that happens on or off road unless the policy specifically states otherwise.

 

Got the wheel up and control arm is center back on the ball joint, where should I throw the straps to keep it together

 

I'd probably try making a V from behind the bolt to either side of the ball joint. Hard to explain.

 

Thank you for the ratchet strap trick, drove it forward and took out of 4wd. Not sure I should try going farther, tow truck is on the way

 

Mine clearly states towing from a main road. I would never expect them to come rescue me while I’m out playing, that’s what friends are for

 

I think you're gonna need a few more raps around the spindle and uca.

 

Make a lot more wraps around where the ball joint should be to hold it together once it starts flexing. A V pattern back and forth between both sides of the upper arm where the ball joint mounts and both sides of the spindle where the nut is might work.

 

Before you go on with that, if you have a piece of leather or something else to put between the strap and spindle. This will help the strap last longer before it cuts.

 

@rollin904 contact SPC from their website and see if this is a covered failure, if you are the original owner they have an excellent warranty

 

SPCs had a rash of failures awhile back. They were at least doing a good job with warranty replacements last I checked. As someone else suggested once you are out of the woods do a search here on TW and contact SPC to see if they can help out.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/spc-warranty-and-new-uca-design.515809/
Warranty thread

 

Thanks I'll check it out. I tried reaching out to them to see if I could get the replacement model ball joint that has a grease zerk a while back but they told me I'd have to buy them. Wish I had now