What was I thinking?
We were on our way back from running Lopez and Sycamore Passes down south of Tucson. We spotted an incredibly steep downhill road that ended at a wash. We thought about trying it though we knew we'd have to climb it back up. It was getting late. Should we? ActiveTRAC never let us down before! We went for it!
About one car length down the long 100-yard hill the Cruiser simply began sliding and it slid ALL THE WAY to the bottom. Oh boy!
I was freaking! If we slid all the way down, how in the heck can we climb it?
Well.....we couldn't. After about 20 attempts (most with one front wheel going off and back onto the ground....a bad thing) we gave up.
Then, help came by! We winched to a Toyota Pickup and only the Pickup moved. So, his friend in a Silverado strapped to the front of the Pickup for help. Still a no go. On one pull I broke my winch cable. It was almost dark. Now what? Just then a huge quad decended the hill to see what's going on. He was going for more help though when he tried to climb the hill (with triple lockers) he could not. What was I thinking when I headed down this road? So, the quad driver exited via the wash. 5 minuntes later he returned and told us he thought the Cruiser could exit via the wash. Not wanting to leave the thing there overnight I gave it a shot.
Guess what? Exiting the wash was CAKE! Guess what else? When we returned to pavement we heard bad noises from the front while slowing down.
After a trip to Toyota for Extended Warranty Service I had a new front differential. So I have been one of the very few to break a 4-pinion front diff. We know from reports that the 2-pinion diffs in the 98 and 99 model-years are weak. The 2000+ models are not. In all fairness however, this diff failed due to driver error. I was desperate and alone and kept getting more and more aggressive on the gas trying to get back up that hill.
Conclusion: ActiveTRAC is NOT enough. If we're going to attempt difficult climbs like this we need more traction and the security of locking differentials. I think it's time to add ARB lockers front and rear.
NOTE: As you'll see in the next post...ARB diff's went in. We did return to this same hill. Once again we decended it though this time with a few 80-series buddies. From the bottom, Kevin in his 80 headed up first. About 2/3 the way up he almost went off the side of the road and then got high-centered. It looked SCARY! He had to fly to make the climb and he did on try #2. The guys talked me into the attempt and the 100 did it's "do" too and on the first attempt.
So, lockers DO make the difference!