NLXTACY
Wits' End
Unless you have a Chinese snorkel. Good as a roll cage.
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Unless you have a Chinese snorkel. Good as a roll cage.
hj 60
JT1W0HJ6000960839
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2012
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Can happen with a worn tie rod, all other is human error like the worn tie rod.
Hi, We have rolled a cruiser down a mountain in Hot Springs, our 1987 fj60 did not flatten much. We took down 6 trees and fell about 40 feet and landed upside down in a rock filled creek bed. All 7 of us were fine. Mike
LS1FJ40
SILVER Star
LFD2037
TEXAS LEXUS!
I was wondering the same thing. Haven't seen him around here in a while.
I don't think the top 'flattened' as much as the pictures suggest. Both pics are from bad angles to assess the damage, particularly the second photo where the road 'berm' hides the top of the vehicle causing it to look more 'crushed' than it likely is.
But certainly....there was substantial damage and the unfortunate loss of life.
We are well advised to check the fasteners on all steering components...from time to time. We don't know the cause of this 'accident', but a sudden loss of steering (possible on these rigs) is certainly one thing that will do it.
Loose, deep terrain (whether dirt, sand or gravel) will really grab a tire if you start to get crossed up. Worse yet, if the tire comes off the bead...the rim will dig in and bad things start to happen fast.
So....check your vehicles from time to time and always travel at a prudent speed for the conditions.
This is indeed a very sad story on all levels.
Also lug nuts. Two of us had a tire seperate from the axle last year. Mine was probably due to lug nuts I never finished torqueing and the other member’s studs simply sheared off. Both of us were on the highway. Luckily no one was hurt nor were the vehicles.
I rolled an 80 off of a slick road a couple winters ago. We tend to put too much faith in these Landcruiser’s.
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I'm not sure its that flat. The closer of the two photos looks like its actually dug into the road, burying the top of the drivers door, makes it hard to tell how much intrusion there is. To answer your question though, it all depends on the roll. Sometimes a vehicle starts out in a sort of barrel roll, on the first hit the A-pillar comes back towards the B-pillar. Sometimes they go completely sideways and everything gets worked from one side to the other. For a 20+ year old vehicle the 80's I've seen wrecked on here have held up surprisingly well.
One of the top causes of death in and around Death Valley has nothing to do with the temps or lack of water - it’s “SVR.” Otherwise known as Single Vehicle Rollover. Be careful out there!
It looks pretty flat to me.
Kinda like this one:
Kinda like this one:
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
Without the driver chiming in, I'd say 'no' based on 1st person narritive of some hard flops & 1 horrid 4-7x roll (the guy in ~NV flatland, had a RTT, I want to say he had retread tires & 1 blew @ ~70mph?????). His was fooked, but you still knew it was an 80 & IIRC everyone walked away at the scene.
We've seen pics of what have been hard g-force situations, and in reality most have still had a 80-esque profile.
So this seems like a crazy hard flop to bend the A-pillars so hard, but without the driver chiming in we're all armchair QB's.
Maybe a deer hopped out, anything is possible.
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
I want to say that was your son?
Was that a simple flop, or was there more speed / elevation involved?
--That is a awefully flat bunch of -pillars for a single flop (pure speculation here).
You know, almost every time i see a roll over photo of an 80 series truck, the A, and B pillars are always crushed, sometimes the C pillars too. I've got to say, seeing those pillars crushed all the time doesn't instill a lot of confidence.
NLXTACY
Wits' End
Mine I was convinced was from over torquing 20 year old studs
All I know is that I'm used to sports cars, and seeing these pics and thinking about how top heavy an 80 is and how easy it would be to roll one if anything went wrong, it makes me wonder if a roll hoop wouldn't be some cheap insurance. You can be the best driver in the world but if your wheel studs shear off in a 5000+lb lifted 4x4, there may not be anything you can do.
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
^^^^My takeaway is that by my redneck math, the whole RTT & 'overland' thing is going to add to the count of flopped 80's.
Reason being that there's a whole gaggle of goods that instantly get added to make a 80 'overland ready' - the worst being a RTT at the worst place you can add weight.
So now you will have guys who may be new to 80's, loading them for bear with all the goods to make a signature that reads like a loadout punchlist on a Stryker Brigade rig - and then running around town in them like a Honda Civic between real trail excursions.
I may be pulling a 'chicken little' but between the popularity of slinky springs & RTT lately, I hope those who have both on the same 80 play it as cool as the backside of your pillow. Both are relatively new here in large numbers, so we're on the frontend of this.
Reason being that there's a whole gaggle of goods that instantly get added to make a 80 'overland ready' - the worst being a RTT at the worst place you can add weight.
So now you will have guys who may be new to 80's, loading them for bear with all the goods to make a signature that reads like a loadout punchlist on a Stryker Brigade rig - and then running around town in them like a Honda Civic between real trail excursions.
I may be pulling a 'chicken little' but between the popularity of slinky springs & RTT lately, I hope those who have both on the same 80 play it as cool as the backside of your pillow. Both are relatively new here in large numbers, so we're on the frontend of this.
Alcohol, speed, nuts...or lack thereof
A bit to much weight on top 37" tires
Looks like there was a rack on it with the spare tire attached by a strap, and possibly this gas cans too.
Yes pretty much. I've seen dozens of pictures of rolled 80s. Ever time the pillars look like they were made from cardboard. And every time I see one I say to myself, "I need a cage."
- Thread starter
- #40
It makes sense, sadly, as the FJ is a heavy lump at 4500lbs empty, and all the pillars are pretty slender. Gives me even more pause to drive it like a granny on the dirt. Hopefully we'll learn what caused this so we can make sure to avoid such nastiness on our drives.
