Have you ever broken something in rough terrain that made you Rig non Driviable?

I had a clutch master cylinder explode on my many moons ago. I wasn't even wheeling, just up in the mountains snowshoeing.

Called a friend to pick us up. Went back a few days later with a new master cylinder and a shovel (to clear the snow, lol). Swapped it out, drove home.

 

Yes, they are entirely different trucks. They share a name and a lug bolt pattern. That's about it.

Reminds me of that thread a while ago where some people were wheelin on the Lorrel Lakes Trail (near Mammoth CA), and they came across a 3rd gen with a flat tire that had been abandoned.

I'd bet that the factory jack and spare tire were in perfect working order, just that the operator was, shall we say... deficient in the brain power to know not only that they existed, but how to use them.

 

Lol that sucks, yeah that area has some sharp rocks. That's actually near where I blew my sidewall, but further out in the Coyote Flats area near Mammoth.

I did have a spare and my tools but my spare was a 32" tire and I was on 33s....figured I'd be okay but Murphys Law was out to get me that weekend. Made it work though with the smaller spare up front. Got a full size that week though when I got home.

 

yeah, even a miss-sized spare is better than walking out, lol.

I've seen some of those Ronny Dahl or 4wdAction shows (or just dude on youtube) where they get pretty freakin creative with a broken whatever. You can accomplish a LOT with some ratchet straps and a good heaping of desperation. Then you see someone think they're stranded cause they broke a CV or (worse yet) got a flat.

And those guys don't even carry welders like the Jeep guys here do...

 

And the rear axle

 

There are some odd specialty bolts that you can't just walk down to Ace and pick up, though.

 

5 words - ratchet straps and bailing wire

Everyone should carry plenty of those in your kit...works well in a lot of scenarios where you need to limp your truck off the trail or back to the road.

Obviously you don't want to drive it on the street with your broken upper control arm ratchet strapped in place but hopefully it'll let you crawl to safety or to a spot with reception if you don't have it.

 

Had my rear passenger drum break seize up causing the rear differential to gernade. That was fun getting the truck off of the trail and back home. I was over 4 hours away and a tow truck would have been over a grand. Rented a uhaul truck and car carrier for about half the cost. Basically had to deflate the front tires just get the tire straps over the tires and secured.
Shit happens off road. Not to many people carry extra diffs with them lol

 

yeah that's a shitty situation to be in for sure, can't always prepare for more catastrophic failures like a grenaded diff. I guess if you had no other choice you could pull the 3rd member and rear drive shaft and then limp out in 4wd (front wheel drive)? Knock on wood I haven't had that happen and hopefully won't lol.

 

This happened at Windrock and luckily we weren’t to far from pavement when the truck went down. We just didn’t know it. There are two local guys who do recovery up there who more than do it to help out. They charged next to nothing for getting us out of the trails and back to camp. We tipped them more than what they charged us because we were expecting the worse for cost to recover us off of the trails.

 

I damaged my oil pan once while rock crawling in my FJ40 many years ago. It started leaking and I didn't know it (slow drip) until halfway home and ran out of oil. Lost oil pressure at 55 mph and spun #2 rod bearing. Truck became undrivable.

 

You can drive without a working clutch pedal. Just need to use the starter in 1st gear when you stop. I drove 6 hours last summer when I wore a hole in the hardline.

Not sure this would work to well since nothing is supporting the axles in the center.

 

Ah true, yeah I don't know if that would work. I have a vague memory of a buddy who blew his rear diff on a trail and I could have sworn he told me that he got it to the tow truck a couple miles away by removing the 3rd and the rear driveshaft but I could be wrong. I'll have to reach out to him and find out exactly how they moved it.

 

Oh for sure, and I would have done that had I been in the wilderness. Luckily I was near a ski resort so it was more on an inconvenience. Went to the bar and had a couple cocktails while my friend drove up to get us.

Current truck is an auto now, so that won't be an issue again.

And duct tape.

I know people that have patched arterial leg wounds with the stuff.

 

I carry Gaffers tape with me, that shit puts duct tape to shame haha. Not cheap though

 

I have this stuff I use for work. It's like $60 a roll. It's not "gaffers tape" but it's basically the same thing

 

I love the stuff, fortunately since I work in a photo studio we have plenty of it (which I conveniently get to use). But yeah if I had to buy it myself I would just use duct tape.

 

I carry both Gaff Tape and Duct Tape. Gaff is great, especially if you can stick it to itself. Gaff doesn't work on wet surfaces though and Duct will. Duct is cheap, Gaff is $$$$.

 

Good Sam Platinum is a pretty nice roadside assistance package. Unlimited mileage to the nearest repair shop, covers dirt roads, covers winchouts a little bit. https://images.goodsam.com/goodsamroadside.com/pdf/2018/Plat_Auto_MBB_web.pdf

Note 3 says "An off-road area is defined as an area OFF of any of the following: hard-packed or graded dirt public road, paved street, driveway, parking lot, highway, freeway, expressway or adjacent shoulder." So you're covered for an unlimited mileage tow from most BLM or FS roads.

My State Farm auto policy has unlimited mileage roadside assistance that covers dirt road tows.

 

I had a 3/4 ton square body chevy back in the day with 35 boggers and a big block. On national forest there was a hill climb lots of loose rock and dirt you had to go down and turn around to climb back out a buddy took his Subaru down and ripped the fuel pump off and I was sure i could pull it back up. The climb was about 60 yards long about half way up the front started hopping destroyed both ball joints and axle on the drivers side, knuckle and wheel all the way back against the cab. Had to go back the next day, chain it to a tree so it wouldnt roll back down the hill and replace everything. fun fun but I was in my 20s and didnt gave a shit