That V8 tho...

[Jeff V.]

Rust? Or just fatigue?

Both? I did some reading and it's a known failure with these. They were all rust belt trucks too. Ours was from the Chicago area.

So much for taking it easy your first trip out.

Yeah....this was supposed to be an "introduction" course to off roading. Not rock crawling. It was something like 30+ newer Jeeps, 3 Toyotas (one fairly new and expensive Land Cruiser), and us. During the classroom portion they asked who had a truck older than 2015. Maybe 3 hands went up. The Jeep in front of us was stock as far as I could tell and he was banging his undercarriage off a bunch of rocks because he had 32" stock tires. I don't think he was happy.

If I had known what they actually expected us to do, I don't think we would have gone.

With that said, the guy leading our group said he was 'impressed as shit' with our truck up until it broke. He didn't even know they made Hummers with dual lockers and a 4:1 transfer. The best part was when we made it to the top of this one gnarly hill. He said 'your locker handled that nicely'. I told him we didn't even have it turned on. I wanted to see if what it took to get it stuck before we used it. We never got stuck.

This truck has a lot of upgrades, but none of them really help with performance besides the tires. As far as actual capability goes, it's mostly stock. It's old and worn out and basically stock...and it did shit that blew my mind before it broke.

The only other failures I know about were a tire blowout and a near-fire due to a dead electric cooling fan on a very experienced JK Cherokee that had been trailered in.

[Duck Vader]

Jk cherokee?

[Jeff V.]

Did I get my letters wrong? The boxy, 90s model.

[ChargerX3]

Oh so this was part of an off-road class? Sounds like they gave you more than you bargained for. Good news is you were in the right company to have such a failure. Now you get to do like the rest of us, upgrade your truck with stronger components.

Sounds like you and the truck performed well too. That’s got to feel good. Is the truck back home now?

[Duck Vader]

Ya. All cherokee are XJ. Like mine.

[Jeff V.]

I should have known it was XJ. :d oh:

I just got the spring off the orange truck. Everything came apart nicely. Hopefully I have similar luck with the silver truck. Vira's dad is on his way over with a few extra things to make this easier and safer to do in a gravel parking lot. Then we're headed out.

[DCIV]

Tell me he is brining.....the beam.......



Coop

[vr4]

[quote=""DCIV""]Tell me he is brining.....the beam.......



Coop[/quote]

[Duck Vader]

Hope the hummer is still there when you get there. I know around here leaving something overnight alone by any of the offroad areas is asking for trouble.

[Chris GTO TT]

[quote=""DCIV""]Tell me he is brining.....the beam.......



Coop[/quote]

[Jeff V.]

Tell me he is brining.....the beam.......

Sadly, no. But he damn sure could have done it with his ridiculous truck. We're gonna need to get a "Hummer recovery vehicle" sticker for the Sprinter

Hope the hummer is still there when you get there. I know around here leaving something overnight alone by any of the offroad areas is asking for trouble.

It's a pretty professional park. They have a campground and we were parked right under the cameras on the roof of their pavilion. I was more worried about the radio than I was about the rest of the truck. I mean, who's gonna steal an old, broken Hummer?

So, here's the timeline of today's events as I related them to Vira via text message. I think we did awesome.

08:00 Start to remove the spring from the orange truck.
08:30 Run to O'Reilly for a 21 mm open end wrench. How do I not have one of those already?
09:50 Loaner spring is removed.
11:00 Head out with Vira's dad (Dan) to Kansas Rocks Recreation Park (KRRP).
12:40 Arrive at KRRP.
13:12 Broken spring is out.
13:29 Loaner spring is installed. We had to use a come-along to get the axle back into position. It's not that it was that tight or bent or anything. That was just the best tool we had to gently get it where it needed to be.



13:45 All parts installed and ready to be tightened down.
14:05 Repair complete.
14:33 Cleanup complete, tires aired up at on-site air station, depart KRRP.
16:03 Arrive home.

The broken spring is on the orange truck just so it's not sitting in my driveway on a jackstand. It's good enough that I can at least reposition it if I need to put the silver one in its spot. I haven't figured out what the long term fix is just yet. Vira thinks we should get the ARB upgrade springs with the military wrapped ends. $268 each, but it looks like I can get them delivered for free to a local 4 Wheel Parts store.

So what do you guys think of this? This doesn't look like a fresh break to me. It's still my fault for not checking it, but I'm not sure we actually broke this at the park.

[DCIV]

Dude you did kill it for fixing a stranded vehicle.


Coop

[Jeff V.]

There's so many ways this could have been worse. I'm bummed it happened at all, but the conditions were pretty much ideal.

Vira needs to post her pictures so you can see what we actually did.

[tabasco122]

kinda reminds me of the rusty wrx i had. trailing arm mount was rusted out from the chassis, but with the weight of the car on it you had no way of knowing, wasnt until i lifted the car and the suspension drooped that it was able to pull the mount out.

basically, it was already broken, you just uncovered it.

[ChargerX3]

So does that spring just clamp around a bushing. If it touches metal you can likely just run a quick bead and not worry about new springs.

[vr4]

Yes it looks broke long ago. I'm with v. Upgrade since it's gotta be replaced anyways.

[alienviking]

For what y'all want to do - Upgrade.

And this explains perfectly why I am scared to get into off roading hah. I ain't got the skills or patience to fix things.

[DCIV]

Really not that expensive of an upgrade but I like the welding idea. Or even some sort of nylon tie off that could also happen.


Coop

[aaronatstate]

Just remember what we learned from our 3S experiences, forced upgrades!!

[Jeff V.]

I have to drop the fuel tank again to change the driver's side spring. I'm lucky it was the passenger side that failed at the rock park.