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Originally Posted by rumatt
Cool stuff. Two questions:
1) I'm no expert, but huge rocks scraping down the underside of the vehicle can't be good for it right? How often does this cause significant damage?
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Usually not . . . but on a Jeep it's not too bad . . . if you install some skid plating.
It all depends on where the rocks hit.
The transfer case is decently protect and the engine is usually far forward enough that it's harder to tag the oil pan. And if you're scraping the frame rails? Pfft whatever. It's just a big steel beam, so a little paint gets scraped off.
Let's see, my rig is pretty lightly armored and in 8 years of offroading. . . hm, I think the worst I got was some bent control arm brackets on the frame, a torn rubber driveshaft boot, and a dented oil pan (still no leaks). The brackets were straigtened at home using a pipe wrench and flanges welded on to help strengthen them. None of this damage happened on a single trip. So of the three things they've all be spread out over 8 years of use.
To give you an idea. . . for all the abuse my Jeep has seen . . . it's cost less to keep it repaired and fixed up than our BMW . . . and I've had the Jeep a lot longer than the BMW.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rumatt
2) How often do you have problems that you can't fix on site? Have you ever had to abandon a vehicle?
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It happens.
But the only time I've seen a vehicle need to be abandon was my own and that was because I was out by myself without any other vehicle.
I shattered my transfercase and had to abandon my vehicle on the side of a mountain. But that was more of a freak occurance. Turns out, the t-case had no fluid in it. The output shaft fiinally weakened and snapped. When it let go it tore up the inside of the case and the whole thing had to be scrapped.
If you have two Jeeps you have a good chance of self recovery. Which is what happened since a tow truck will NOT be able to reach the Jeeps. Thus I learned the Jeeper's motto of "Never wheel alone".
I've seen much carnage on the trails and rigs are very rarely abandoned. I've had a friend who had rolled his Jeeps, causing the driveshaft to spear back into the t-case breaking the case into pieces to the point you could see the chain and gears inside. We unbolted his driveshafts and I just towed him home, 150 miles over the mountain passes.
Another guy had one of his control arms tear off. We just wrapped the winch cable around it to stabilize the axle and then (slowly) drive the Jeep the 40 miles into town, including about 4 miles of trail and 10 miles of gravel wash board roads.
One Jeep had both leaf spring shackles fatigue on him at the exact same time on the front axle after a decade of wheel'n. Again, axle was winched down and they managed to drive 10 miles on some intense 4x4 trails back to camp. While they were heading to camp I heading into town to find something to jury rig the shackles to get him home. Within maybe 4-5 hrs of the breakdown we had the parts back at camp and the rig fixed.
One rig caught on fire (REALLY old CJ-7 with a leaking carburator) about 9pm as we were nearing camp. After putting the fire out we towed him the rest of the way to camp, then slept on it. By the time breakfast was done the next morning the carb was cleaned up, tuned up, and put back together, running better than it had in 2 years.
More recently, another friend of mine burned out his starter when he was stuck in a deep puddle and turned off his engine. Too much water, and when he tried to restart it the starter fried. I towed him back to pavement. Then we had to drive 40 minutes closer into town to be in cell range to call AAA for a tow truck.
Anyways . . .
You get really good at improvising and self recovery. There is also a very good support network . . . it's called other Jeepers. You do what you can to not break down but everybody is in the same boat on the trails. You don't abandon your friends or even strangers. People are pretty good about helping each other out.
But you also need to be a little philosophical about the whole thing.
I mean, look at where you're driving your rig. You just need to accept that as careful as you are sometimes something might happen that damages your vehicle.