What is most likely to break or strand an FJ40 off-road? (1 Viewer)

[4x4veteran]

Slow and steady.

Probably not real smart but my wife and I used to take off camping by ourselves because everyone we knew had jobs.
Luckily we never had any major problems in our outings but I had enough tools to cover them had they happened.

From 1974 to 1984 I had the six cylinder and it out four wheeled a lot of bigger more powerful rigs.
In 84 the six gave up and I put the Chevy V8 in.

With the V8 I had more power and if I didn't watch it I would tend to spin the tires easier.

One time a guy was looking at my FJ40 and made the comment that it was in good shape so I must not go off road much.
I told him I did go off road but tended to go around obstacles when I could rather than over or through them.

Many a time did I get out and walk a way down a chosen path to check the terrain before driving on.

 

[3_puppies]

running out of gas would strand you on the trail

 

[4Cruisers]

Reducing tire pressure helps if you have the means to air back up.

From one of my earlier posts:

"Ordered a SuperFlow MV50 based on Fearless Leader's recommendation ." Fearless Leader = @POTATO LAUNCHER

 

[nor_cal_cyclist]

How many of y'all remember The Broken Birfield Bar?

I still have my big green and yellow round stickers from Andy denoting "The Broken Birfield Bar"

 

[pjohnson]

The Broken Birfield Bar

That was an awesome story. Does anyone have a copy to share?
I still have my sticker

Edit: Found it!

So I walked into a burning building today...

Just to show you how tough these things are - that one is easily repairable . If it were anything else , might have to write it off . At least you don't have a lot of extensive damage , considering the shop's position - I'd just start saving up and hunting a few parts to fix it . Sarge

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[tdskip]

Good morning all, what a great discussion.

Knowing that the most likely thing to strand the rig is me or my co-driver I have been forwarding him all of the notes that basically suggest that bravado is the most likely thing to get us in trouble. In other words-and take it easy because this is all new and hard to enjoy the scenery or finish if we’ve done something stupid along the way.

I have a 5 gallon jerrycan that is already securely fitted in the back and he could selection of miscellaneous bolts, zip ties, and a full complement of tools.

It’s kind of liberating to look at stuff that I would normally not have room to bring in one of the sports cars and say “sure, throw it in, who cares about the weight”.

One thing I do not have-and this is come up from a number of people that have responded N is a good set of recovery gear. This is a group event and they’ll be more experience people with us but right now there’s no winches or cables or anything like that that have been installed on the rig.

 

[nor_cal_cyclist]

Go to your favorite MUD supporting vendor and order a basic recovery kit with a snatch strap, tow strap, and a couple shackles. Until you have a winch, no point to a snatch block. Sounds silly or cliche, but also carry some duct tape and bailing wire - I've seen and completed MANY trail repairs with these items.

The other suggestion is to WATCH others and how they select a line thru or around an obstacle, and dont be afraid/embarrassed to ask for/listen to advice.

 

[pjohnson]

Do you have recovery attachment points?
@nor_cal_cyclist beat me to it, get a recovery kit or at least a couple of shackles and a tow strap.

 

[tdskip]

Thanks guys, will order a recovery kit today.

@nor_cal_cyclist - I am not shy from learning from others, as my approximately 999,999 questions and threads here have shown.

You guys rock.

 

[4Cruisers]

Sounds silly or cliche, but also carry some duct tape and bailing wire - I've seen and completed MANY trail repairs with these items.

^ This. From one of my earlier posts:

"A long, long time ago in college, my roommate and I were heading across the Sacramento Mountains on our way to Roswell to visit friends for the weekend. My roommmate was driving his parent's AMC 550 sedan. We were about halfway from the summit to Roswell when the engine died. The first thing we checked was the distributor. After taking off the cap he noticed the end of the rotor had snapped off. So he went to the glove compartment and retrieved his emergency repair kit - baling wire and electrical tape. He proceeded to quickly tape the rotor back together and off we went. We completely forgot to buy a new rotor when we were in town (two full days) and ended up driving all the way back to school, ~175 miles, with the rotor still taped up."

 

[nor_cal_cyclist]

@tdskip - make sure you have the stock front tow hooks and possibly a receiver hitch (and a hitch pin or the reciever recovery point by warn/factor 55/etc) for a rear spot to be pulled.

 

[lcwizard]

If you're travelling alone the most important thing to carry is a sleeping bag ,tent, change of clothes for the climate, food and water for three days, matches/fuel bars and if you have one, a GPS beacon/locator like the Garmin Inreach.
If you break something you can't fix, set up camp , make food. enjoy the outdoors until help shows . It shouldn't take more than three
days in the USA. Never assume you can fix everything on the trail. Stay healthy til someone shows

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

If you break something you can't fix, set up camp , make food. enjoy the outdoors until help shows

Now we're talking.

Another reason my fishing gear is an essential part of my cargo.

 

[lcwizard]

Now we're talking.

Another reason my fishing gear is an essential part of my cargo.

Yes, I have a ARB ice chest,, tent, bag and pelican tote with essentials, two 2gallon rotopax with water, a folding 100watt solar panel and
large 240 wh power pack that never leaves my truck. I also have a flashlights and a headlamp . I've been on trips alone where I got sick and had to just crash a couple days. I've only been mechanically stranded once with a broken rear axle. It took a day to get out so I spent
an unplanned night. It's very calming, when in an emergency, knowing there's no reason to worry or panic. I also have a great first aid kit.
Did this on one trip.... because of the very stocked kit , I didn't cut my trip short . I still had four days lift on the trip

 

[tdskip]

Ouch

 

[Suntreemcanic]

If you are going with a group, there will be lots of help and parts. Sounds like you have plenty of parts to loan also.

 

[4x4veteran]

^ This. From one of my earlier posts:

"A long, long time ago in college, my roommate and I were heading across the Sacramento Mountains on our way to Roswell to visit friends for the weekend. My roommmate was driving his parent's AMC 550 sedan. We were about halfway from the summit to Roswell when the engine died. The first thing we checked was the distributor. After taking off the cap he noticed the end of the rotor had snapped off. So he went to the glove compartment and retrieved his emergency repair kit - baling wire and electrical tape. He proceeded to quickly tape the rotor back together and off we went. We completely forgot to buy a new rotor when we were in town (two full days) and ended up driving all the way back to school, ~175 miles, with the rotor still taped up."

One reason I stuck with points rather than electronic ignition was you have a chance of repairing points.
Never had to do it on the trail but did have a set of points break when I was in Los Angeles nit far from LAX at 4 am.
Had just dropped some friends off at the airport and as I was heading home the points crapped out and I took the closest exit and coasted into the first gas station.
The two guys there looked like Arabs and didn't speak any English but seamed friendly enough.
After some pantomime I got my problem across one of the guys showed me a box full of old points.
I also didn't have any tools so they gave me a pair of pliers and a file that was about a foot long and an inch wide.
With the supplies given me and a small pocket knife I made a set of points that would fit in about four hours.
The whole time I was working I kept hearing gun fire.
After I made it home I dove with those points for another coupe of weeks before I got around to changing them.

Months later I was bragging to my dad about my cleverness and he went me one better.

During WW2 dad trained in the desert in a place called Glamis.
One night he and a friend manged to get a couple of forged passes commandeered a Jeep and drove to a little town called Brawly that was near by.
On the way back the jeep konked out and after some head scratching found that the flat spring on the points had failed.

After some scrounging they finally whittled down a piece of Grease wood and with some strands of wire they pirated from the tail light repaired the points and made it back to base ditched the jeep and didn't say squat to anyone about it.

So to try to bring this back to the original subject, A lot of things that can go wrong usually turns out to be something simple and a solution to it in many cases can be found.

 

[daner]

Don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but I would be concerned about the gas tank in an old rig that hasn’t been off road. It may work fine on paved/graded roads, but when you get to washboard or off-roading all of the gunk will get sloshed around so it is good business to at least carry a spare fuel filter.

 

[Tysano]

On a 600+ mile trip the most likely thing to break is the loose nut behind the wheel, good luck and have fun.

 

[65swb45]

One reason I stuck with points rather than electronic ignition was you have a chance of repairing points.
Never had to do it on the trail but did have a set of points break when I was in Los Angeles nit far from LAX at 4 am.
Had just dropped some friends off at the airport and as I was heading home the points crapped out and I took the closest exit and coasted into the first gas station.
The two guys there looked like Arabs and didn't speak any English but seamed friendly enough.
After some pantomime I got my problem across one of the guys showed me a box full of old points.
I also didn't have any tools so they gave me a pair of pliers and a file that was about a foot long and an inch wide.
With the supplies given me and a small pocket knife I made a set of points that would fit in about four hours.
The whole time I was working I kept hearing gun fire.
After I made it home I dove with those points for another coupe of weeks before I got around to changing them.

Months later I was bragging to my dad about my cleverness and he went me one better.

During WW2 dad trained in the desert in a place called Glamis.
One night he and a friend manged to get a couple of forged passes commandeered a Jeep and drove to a little town called Brawly that was near by.
On the way back the jeep konked out and after some head scratching found that the flat spring on the points had failed.

After some scrounging they finally whittled down a piece of Grease wood and with some strands of wire they pirated from the tail light repaired the points and made it back to base ditched the jeep and didn't say squat to anyone about it.

So to try to bring this back to the original subject, A lot of things that can go wrong usually turns out to be something simple and a solution to it in many cases can be found.

Rule Number One: form follows function. When my Pertronix failed in my 45 many years ago, I pulled my emergency pair of points out of the glovebox only to watch the insulator crumble in my hands!

Form follows function.

I needed something that would keep the bolt from touching the distributor housing. After looking around my immediate environment for about 30 seconds, I settled on a cigarette butt! Worked perfectly.

Markguyver strikes again.