to mud or not to mud

[www1221us]

JUST TO LET EVERYONE KNOW THIS TOPIC HAS GOTTEN OFF TOPIC SO DONT START AT THE BEGINNING UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO



i am 18 yrs old and am about to start college. recently i went offroading which has landed my stock fj62 in the shop for several weeks:whoops: .(it was bought new by my parents) The only reason that i can find that the truck got damaged is because i was offroading with 235/75R15 michelin LTX highway tires w/ less than 3000miles on them. because my truck was damaged my parents now believe that i should not go offroading as it is my only means of transportation. when i say offroading it is going into 1 or 2 ft of mud. i believe that if i just add 31x10.5x15 BFG a/t KO tires i will be able to keep my truck out of the shop. Compared to what ive heard everyone here talk about im not even offroading. and so my question is how much do you think i could get for my michelin tires and should i keep offroading?

 

[jb welda]

i dont know but if youre after 7 michelin 31X10.5X15 LTX tires and are somewhere near sacramento shoot me an email. i want to upgrade to 33s. of the tires three are brand new, never on the ground (spares) and the other four probably have less than 10k miles on them and appear in pretty new shape.

just a thought

wjust@dgweb.com

one love
jah bill

 

[High Desert]

You must have done more than get in a little mud to end up in the shop from your expedition..

Read up on safe and enviromentally sound trail running. INFO all over the net, look up Land Rover sites, those guys like to do tech talks on everything from driving in fog to crossing north Africa in a Rover.

If my son screwed up my 60 I'd kill him. But he has been out enough to know when to turn back or look for other routes if he did screw it up it would probably be a real accident, not a dumbass "I got four wheel drive I can go anywhere" attitude problem..(I'd still kill him though)

READ and GO back out, maybe get a job to pay for parts or better yet buy your on 4X4. Tires won't help as much as wiseing up would. $x4 is just there to get you further into the woods bfore you get stuck...

 

[magFJ60]

You must have done more than get in a little mud to end up in the shop from your expedition..

I agree. What kind of damage did you do? If its that bad, I don't think getting different tires would really solve the problem. I'd be looking into rock sliders and other armor to help protect you.

And along the lines of what high desert said, tires are no substitution for good driving skills and knowing what your capabilities are.

 

[TEPUI]

www1221us, can you tell us what got damaged?

 

[brokenparts]

well in the world of wheeling... you got to pay to play. If you dont have a whole lot cash laying around to fix your truck when it breaks out in the mud... I would keep it on the road. When on the trails you ARE going to break something, its just a matter of time.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Holy hell. You must have hit something hard to have landed it in the shop. Ouch!

I'd say be more careful next time you go wheeling, if you want to do it again that is. That, and get bigger tires!!

 

[college boy]

Being a college boy myself, allbeit, an older, wiser, and more married college boy than I would have been at 18, I feel your pain.

First off, what did you break exactly? Knowing this is key for us to give you an informed opinion.

Second, is this your car or your parents? What I mean is, did your parents give you user rights or did they out right give you the rig?

Third, what college ya going to?

Let us know man!! --CB

 

[lunyou]

Well im just going to repeat everything that everyone else said. The 4x4 isn't a substitute for bad driving and If your truck is in the shop for "several weeks" then I don't think that slightly bigger tires would make that big of a difference.....I have the AT version of the tire you are running right now....in 31x10.50 r15s and I have never had a problem with them they wear great(as all michelins do) and I have not been stuck and i have hit some pretty soupy sticky nasty mud in my PU and 4runner(I have same tires on both). Right now on my 60 i am running BFG 33x9.50 r15s only because they were almost brand new(still had nipples onthem) from the previous owner....if i could get enough out of them i would sell them and buy a different tire probably something like a 32 x 10.50 or something like that.

lunyou

 

[www1221us]

to clarify it had nothing to do with bad driving, i am a very good driver and am very cautious with the truck. i got stuck in a rut where the chasis was sitting on mud underwater, left wheels were stuck on the ground and the right wheels were just spinning, we had to yank it out by the uhaul hitch attached to the back because the hook on the front was lost, it ran fine except it needed a new belt so when i took it in, they looked at it and determined some of the pulleys in the front had been bent. i think that when we pulled it out of the rut the pulley system in the front was damaged. well it is my dads truck, but im the primary user, and i am going to buy it from him when i get the money. and i am going to UAB(university of alabama in birmingham)

 

[lunyou]

sounds like you need a locker more than you need larger tires?

lunyou

 

[SleekFJ62]

I can't quite envision what actually happened...or how you recovered the truck. Did you hit something with the front of the truck that forced the cowling toward the cab??? One can only guess what was happening for you to have bent pulleys while wheelin'. You (and your cronies? (which I expect is a tacit component of this (mis) adventure)) must have been hitting it pretty hard!
Most of the people on this site that are wheelin' their trucks hard have spent YEARS (and mountains of cash) getting to the point where they CAN wheel hard (not to mention the fact that the hard-wheelers are generally NOT driving stock vehicles).
A stock 60 Series is an amazing vehicle - it will take you MANY places no other stock 4X could go, and they're pretty hard to kill.
Carful how much you bite off - you just might choke! Land Cruisers are meant to be taken off-road: just take some time getting to know what it's capabilities and limitations are.
Best of luck at University!

 

[www1221us]

does a locker cover the engine bay because if so then where can i find one cheap?

 

[89s rule]

I remember those days. I know ho wthese storys always start. Its wasn't my fault. Yada yada.

1. These are not vehicles to have if you cannot work on them. (As with any older vehicle.)
2. There is a good bit of diff from 1 ft of mud to 2 ft. Especially if you are in a stock truck. The more I offroad the less and less I like to deal with lots of mud. Being a good driver on road and ofroad are 2 different things.

Good luck and be glad they let you drive thier 60. 1 owner at that! Remember its not a right to have a car, especially a 60! Its a honor try and treat it that way.

And you might want to search on what a locker is!! He he!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

........................

Search about what a locker is. It's a differential that replaces either the front or rear stock units, and it's purpose is to prevent one wheel from spinning when the other isn't. AMAZING upgrade from what I've read.

I thought that there was a skidplate covering the radiator and pullies. If there isn't, then you can either make one or buy one.

Have fun with it!! I'm jealous however because I lost my 60 a while ago. I was going to take it to college with me too!

 

[jefferson-mo]

There is a "plate" that goes under there but it's just sheet tin and all it's for is to help guide the air coming through the radiator by the engine and not create turbulence. Also I suppose it could keep water off the crank pulley if you were to hit deep water suddenly(although for just a second)

 

[www1221us]

when i said that it was 1-2ft of mud i mispoke i meant that there was 1-2ft(closer to 1ft) of water and then mud but i agree driving onroad and offroad are way different. actually the part that kills me is that i wasnt driving when it got stuck. One of my freinds was. OH and something else The truck was sitting for about 3 hrs in water up to the hubs which is about (lets see 1/2 of the tire) and when we got it out an experienced driver drove it across the big mud lake(if you call 5-6 yards a lake). when it hit the rut, it looked like the wheels came off the ground for a few seconds. but anyway it was mostly the drivers fault that the truck got stuck, not the trucks.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

actually the part that kills me is that i wasnt driving when it got stuck. One of my freinds was.

I guess that that's the last time that you let your friend drive your truck!!!

Replacing a pulley is an easy job to do at home. Why did you take it to a shop? Did you/your friend break something else?

 

[89s rule]

when i said that it was 1-2ft of mud i mispoke i meant that there was 1-2ft(closer to 1ft) of water and then mud but i agree driving onroad and offroad are way different. actually the part that kills me is that i wasnt driving when it got stuck. One of my freinds was.

That was the #1 no no rule for me. Never let others drive your vehicle!!

 

[www1221us]

well we didnt even know that the (i think it was the a/c pulley(i dont even use the a/c)), and a belt tensioner was bent until my dad decided to take it into the shop, the belts were really loose, and cracking. but i really wish that my dad and i had worked on it together instead of taking it in. That was the first time that that truck had been offroad in 5-10 yrs(my dad used to use it to get to caves). ill show you a picture of it when i get it back. oh my friend has a picture of it stuck, on her cell phone if you want to see it, i think shes out of town right now though.