What have you broken on the trail?

1. I’ve had a ATF return line break on the trail and did a nice field repair and a thread on that here: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/3-different-leaks-2-different-fluids-1st-field-repair.13467/

1.2. last week I backed my spare tire into a tree in the forest and the impact caved in my tailgate. Did a field repair with 2 pieces of 2x4 that I found at a dispersed campsite. Wedges one piece between the tub and the inside of the tailgate and the other piece between the outside of the tailgate and a tree. With the right placement, I slowly reversed and bent it back to shape and working condition again!

2. I’ve also spun a bearing on the bottom end of the 4.0 while overlanding at Glacier. One extremely long tow home and long story short, crate engine swap was the answer.

Broke the rear diff. Dana 35.
Was able to go home with the front Dana 30 engaged.

Other than my pride.

My Cb antenna mounting screws backed off once, a u-joint attempted to come out of the retainer, and my control arm bolts loosen. I've been pretty lucky.

Loose lower control arm after a run that gave me serious wobble. Repaired/tightened in the driveway once I got home.

Angry sparrows, pulled the shaft after the run and drove the 115 miles home in 4hi.

Bushcracker flare kept truckin'

ARB pressure switch leak. Fixed it while others were playing around.

I've been lucky too it seems

Broke a front break line, folded it over and zip tied it closed. Broke rear leaf spring on my YJ used two ratchet straps to keep everything together, I never go without ratchet straps. Had my fuel line from my tank come disconnected and lost almost a full tank of gas in 1/4 mile. I was able to just snap it back in place.

I broke my family's spirits on a 7 hour Chicken Corners ride in Moab last year. So much whining. It was great.

Broke the record for descending Black Bear Pass in reverse: 3 minutes, 22 seconds. The 22 seconds came after I missed the first switchback and bounced all the way to the bottom. Replaced the jeep and headed for the Rubicon.

Okay, that was a lie, but my only true breakage wasn't nearly as exciting:

Chewed a couple of pinholes in the radiator of my XJ while climbing The Wall at Poughkeepsie Gulch near Silverton, CO when I carried a little too much speed over the top and got some air time for the front end. Hit kinda hard and the fan flexed into the radiator. Dumped some Stop-Leak into the radiator, drove home to Albuquerque and replaced the radiator.

That is all.

-Flywheel/starter adapter broke on TJ (engine swap). I could have gotten home without it (roll start or something), but didn't want to take any chances with that thing flopping around in there.
-axle stub U-joint on my truck, drove out to get towed home. Didn't have any tools with me and didn't want to mess anything up.
-bent a t-case crossmember on a ZJ and drove home
-cut side walls
-electrical issues on an old Willy's CJ (pretty much have to tow it home anyway)
-power steering pumps, no issues driving home
-at least noticed a broken sway bar on the TJ
-Front prop shaft on ZJ, the CV joint liked to fail often
-busted plastic radiator on my Dodge 2500, drove for a few days no problem but I could smell it, but didn't know until I got to work and there was a puddle, so I drove it home, I did see a little over half way on my temp gauge when climbing hills in 4x4 low
-cooling stuff on an F-150 and TJ and the gas engines overheat very quickly, just tow them, but you can make it to a trail head, but be extremely patient, especially when adding water
-a van got stuck and the catalytic converter caught some brush on fire somehow and the van burned, along with several acres
-something internal on another van went out and we got part way home and had to get towed home and scrapped the van
-Probably other incidents

Last year about this time, I was out at Sycamore Creek doing a test run. I just got done putting new wheels and tires and 4" currie lift on. I was planning on meeting people up in Moab in the next month so I wanted to do a ruff test drive. We were crawling over small rocks and crossing creeks and climbing small hills.

Luckily, I towed my jeep out to the wheelin' spot. We were way in the back crawling over some rocks, and I noticed my steering felt funny. Then we passed some guys picnicing, and they started yelling at me. I stopped to see what they were saying and they said my track bar was hanging down. So I looked and sure enough my bottom track bar bolt was broken and the bar was hanging down.

I ended up sticking a screwdriver in to hold it and wrapped a bungee cord really tight around it to hold it enough to get it back to my trailer. Once I got home, @Boinked let me borrow his while I ordered a new heftier one from Black Magic. Haven't had an issue with it since, but was kind of wonky trying to drive it back to the trailer with a loose connection.

Three sliced sidewalls (Duratracs), lost a u-joint cap, and a muffler hangar.

I’ve broke a couple things

1- tie rod, welded a piece of angle to it and went home
2- pitman arm. Beat a ujoint strap around it and welded it up and went home.
3- rear axle. Limped it to the trailer and went home
4- rear locker. Limped it to the trailer and
Went home.
5- cracked spark plugs, after a roll. Replaced on trail and kept going
6- numerous tires off beads, just reseat and keep going

This list of breakages just reinforces my decision to not carry spare parts beyond fuses.
I do carry an extensive tool kit plus duct tape, zip ties, tie wire, hose clamps, spare wire etc but no parts.
Spare u-joints aren’t much help when the rad pops a leak or a spare axle shaft doesn’t help a punctured sidewall.

broken track bar bolt axle side friend had a spare fixed on the trail and kept going.

Vinman said:

This list of breakages just reinforces my decision to not carry spare parts beyond fuses.
I do carry an extensive tool kit plus duct tape, zip ties, tie wire, hose clamps, spare wire etc but no parts.
Spare u-joints aren’t much help when the rad pops a leak or a spare axle shaft doesn’t help a punctured sidewall.

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It’s why I have a tow rig. If I can get to it, I can get home and to work the next day. Just park the Jeep in the garage and deal with it later

Vinman said:

This list of breakages just reinforces my decision to not carry spare parts beyond fuses.
I do carry an extensive tool kit plus duct tape, zip ties, tie wire, hose clamps, spare wire etc but no parts.
Spare u-joints aren’t much help when the rad pops a leak or a spare axle shaft doesn’t help a punctured sidewall.

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True but stop leak and tire plugs won’t fix a broken u-joint and you won’t get off some trails with only 2wd.

DrDmoney said:

True but stop leak and tire plugs won’t fix a broken u-joint and you won’t get off some trails with only 2wd.

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My point was the breakages vary so much that it’s almost impossible to be prepared for everything and I never go out alone, usually try and have a minimum of three rigs on any trip.
In over two decades of wheeling I haven't seen enough consistency in parts that commonly break, I remember seeing two u-joints, 3 broken rear axle shafts, one clutch fan, four tire failures, one t-case shifter linkage failure, one clutch, one locker, two leaky gas tanks, two winch failures, one battery failure.
All those failures listed were over a wide variety of different Jeeps.
I’m sure theres probably more that I can’t remember but I’d rather be more prepared tool wise to jerry rig them back together rather than be over loaded with spare parts.

Vinman said:

My point was the breakages vary so much that it’s almost impossible to be prepared for everything and I never go out alone, usually try and have a minimum of three rigs on any trip.
In over two decades of wheeling I haven't seen enough consistency in parts that commonly break, I remember seeing two u-joints, 3 broken rear axle shafts, one clutch fan, four tire failures, one t-case shifter linkage failure, one clutch, one locker, two leaky gas tanks, two winch failures, one battery failure.
All those failures listed were over a wide variety of different Jeeps.
I’m sure theres probably more that I can’t remember but I’d rather be more prepared tool wise to jerry rig them back together rather than be over loaded with spare parts.

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I agree you can’t be prepared for everything but you can prepare for high probability failures

DrDmoney said:

I agree you can’t be prepared for everything but you can prepare for high probability failures

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Read the list I posted above, I don’t see enough consistency to call any of them high probability.

I was on a recent Rubicon trip and the only Toyota in the group of mostly Wrangler TJ Forum Members broke his high steer arm off the passenger side knuckle and he drove all the way through and 200 miles home on a trail fix.