Hey Mudders,
I was out in Mojave National Preserve this past weekend, losing my fillings along the washboard roads for longer than I care to recall. Do you ever keep thinking, "I should pull over and air down," and then just keep driving? I do that more than I should.
We stopped to check out the lava tubes (very cool) and my buddy asked me why I was missing a bolt on my front suspension. I was shocked to see that the front, top bolt on my DS radius arm was missing - totally gone. That was not good, as we were miles in and I had no replacement bolt on hand. I thought about using the bolt on my exhaust Y pipe, which I put on a couple years back to hold together my aging exhaust. The bolt was too short, and pretty narrow for the application. As I walked around the truck, I noticed the pin in my trailer hitch. I just had a recovery shackle connection in there, which I pulled out. It turns out that 5/8" pin is an exact fit for either of the front bolts in the radius arm. I drove off the trail and a few hundred miles home with that pin in place - checking it regularly and keeping alert. The rear bolt in the radius arm is a different part number, so I'm thinking it's a different diameter but I'm not sure.
So, my takeaways from this experience are as follows:
1) Put a ratchet on all those bolts under your truck on a regular interval - I had my lift installed by a shop about 8 years ago, and I've done a lot of off-road miles since then. I should have checked that bolt;
2) Carry a spare hitch pin - why not? It's a pretty small thing to carry, and has at least two uses;
3) Inspect your rig regularly - this is kind of a restatement of 1. Just don't assume things are holding together. Everything is easier, and a whole lot safer, to fix in your driveway or garage.
I also whacked my hand with an engineer's hammer while trying to finesse the pin through the bushing - it's hard to get a good shot on the curved hitch pin handle.
Good luck. YMMV.
I was out in Mojave National Preserve this past weekend, losing my fillings along the washboard roads for longer than I care to recall. Do you ever keep thinking, "I should pull over and air down," and then just keep driving? I do that more than I should.
We stopped to check out the lava tubes (very cool) and my buddy asked me why I was missing a bolt on my front suspension. I was shocked to see that the front, top bolt on my DS radius arm was missing - totally gone. That was not good, as we were miles in and I had no replacement bolt on hand. I thought about using the bolt on my exhaust Y pipe, which I put on a couple years back to hold together my aging exhaust. The bolt was too short, and pretty narrow for the application. As I walked around the truck, I noticed the pin in my trailer hitch. I just had a recovery shackle connection in there, which I pulled out. It turns out that 5/8" pin is an exact fit for either of the front bolts in the radius arm. I drove off the trail and a few hundred miles home with that pin in place - checking it regularly and keeping alert. The rear bolt in the radius arm is a different part number, so I'm thinking it's a different diameter but I'm not sure.
So, my takeaways from this experience are as follows:
1) Put a ratchet on all those bolts under your truck on a regular interval - I had my lift installed by a shop about 8 years ago, and I've done a lot of off-road miles since then. I should have checked that bolt;
2) Carry a spare hitch pin - why not? It's a pretty small thing to carry, and has at least two uses;
3) Inspect your rig regularly - this is kind of a restatement of 1. Just don't assume things are holding together. Everything is easier, and a whole lot safer, to fix in your driveway or garage.
I also whacked my hand with an engineer's hammer while trying to finesse the pin through the bushing - it's hard to get a good shot on the curved hitch pin handle.
Good luck. YMMV.
