post off-road maintenance

I went off and played in the mud pits of the South Jersey Pine Barrens today. I would say I was in over my head. The truck handled fine, but I definitely pushed to hard and came out lucky. I should not have done what I had done. I was fortunate to put myself and the truck in a poor situation and come out fine. As a kid I had a jeep and would every once in a while take it back to that same area. I never maintained my jeep and drove it to the ground. I do not want to do that to my truck.
As I said before, I was scared for my truck with what I put it through today. The other people on my ride had much larger trucks with snorkels and mud tires. My truck is currently stock. I was in deep puddles that went almost to the top of my hood, some 20+ yards long. I was shocked that I didn't drown the engine. On my way home I washed the truck to get all the mud, sand, and trail debris off. What else should be checked/cleaned? I have no check engine lights and everything sounds fine. However, that's how I handled my Jeep back in the day and I don't want to find out months from now that I could have prevented component/mechanical failure by properly cleaning something out.

 

I'd check to be sure the boots for the R&P and CV Joints are still secure. Also, grease all your zerk fittings on the drive shafts ect. If you plan on getting into that kind of water again this is a good and easy mod you might consider https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/differential-breather-mod-for-dummies-pics.15686/

 

Post the pics on Instagram, then do what the stuff everyone else is saying.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. Sorry Brian, the only picture I have is not that crazy and I made it my profile picture.

and one of the cranberry mounds we played around

 

wait that didn't post the truck... try #2

 

Cork the wagon and ford it next time

In the future, be aware of where your intake and diff breather are. And let someone else be the first one through the water. We've had some folk on here sink their trucks.

 

"You gotta pay to play" is a very real phrase with this hobby...our trucks can handle some tough scenarios but nothing is bomb proof and if you wheel often, eventually things can and will start to break. The average life expectancy of any given part gets shorter the more you beat on it, as opposed to someone with the same truck that only ever drives it to work and back.

You can offset this by doing your due diligence and before/after every offroad trip, take a good look around and under your truck...look for anything out of place and have your torque wrench handy (with access to torque values for the different bolts) and check everything that you can access with it - make sure things are torqued to spec. I would wager that most people who see parts break on the trail are those that aren't DIY'ers and don't know how or don't care to check torque on critical components of the truck. Have to do it more often than someone that only drives on the street and relies solely on their service intervals at the dealership to have work done.

Also it's a good idea to check your fluids more often too, and even change them out in shorter intervals if you offroad a lot. Heat breaks down oil/fluids faster and when you're offroading, things get a lot hotter a lot faster and more often.

This is why so many of us who weren't mechanically inclined before this hobby, have become mechanically inclined...you can save yourself a lot of money and headache by learning to do some basic maintenance (preventative and otherwise) yourself. Unless you're filthy rich it will drain you financially and emotionally to have a shop look at and fix your truck every time you hear an odd noise or tweak something after a wheeling trip.

 

Again, thank you to everyone who posted. I truly do appreciate the help. I checked my air intake this morning and it was dry with no mud, dirt, or evidence of water on the filter. I glanced at all the rubber boots and they seem fine. I will replace the diff fluid in both diffs and the transfer case next weekend as there is about 15k miles since it has been done last. I believe the maintenance schedule for this is supposed to be every 30k (please let me know if I am wrong), but I prefer to do them all at the same time to not have any confusion. As for fluid changes I have been running Mobile 1 full synthetic every 5k in the engine. My break fluid looks pretty clear. I bought the truck used a little over a year ago and haven't replaced the break or power steering fluids yet. It is a manual transmission, so no trans fluid that I know of that needs to be checked. I will be sure to place a rear diff relocation tube in before my next off road trip. Why is there only a rear diff relocation mod? Shouldn't there also be a front and transfer case relocation as well?