NevadaZielmeister
Caught the Bug
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I was torn about sharing the details about this apparent freak accident, but felt it was important to share what I learned with others, in the hopes that others can learn from my mistakes.
I was four wheeling with my friend QuicksilverJK after the morning was spent installing my fenders with Sharkey and QuicksilverJK. I was excited to just get out since I have been trying to save my stock parts for sale next month when I drop my 2016 JKUR to ORE for a whole bunch of upgrades. I figured in my mind, what could go wrong just driving around on forest service roads? Well, this happened:
I was driving on a forest service road and drove over some sticks that looked harmless. Well, one of them went up into my front driveshaft, then caught the boot and the stick was shoved into the Automatic Transmission Fluid Pan, splitting it from the housing and pealing the gasket open. My first clue something was wrong was smoke coming out from underneath the rig and when I got out to look underneath, the first thing I saw was ATF fluid spewing out onto the frame crossmember. I immediately turned off the engine. Luckily no fire was started since my wife and two children were in the vehicle.
I got to use my new winch and QuicksilverJK and I were able to get to the "main" road. The problem was that there was no cellular phone service so my wife jumped into an already full JK and she went to get help once she was in cellular phone range. Meanwhile, I was stuck in a disabled JKUR with two scared children for 1.5 hours. We went for a little walk and eventually we got too cold, so I went back with them to the JK. That is when I saw two very old trucks driving up to us. Thoughts of the movie "Deliverance" immediately jumped into my mind. I immediately put the kids into the JK and locked the doors. Luckily the two hillbilly types were not interested in us and just drove by. But I had no way of protecting them other than my fists.
They became worried about why we were not driving and where was "mommy". The only other tool I had was the Owner's Manual so I read them that, which calmed them greatly. You can imagine what that sounded like, me reading them from the manual things they could not understand at 3 and 5 years old. But they continued to ask for me to read whenever I stopped reading.
Eventually my wife got help and we reunited to wait for the tow truck and the vehicle was towed to the dealership. The good news is that the repairs were less than $500.
I was pretty disappointed in the Rubicon at that point. This was only my third trip in the Rubicon and it already failed. But I will go with this being a freak incident and not common. I just expected more from a stock Rubicon, that was all.
The lessons learned were many:
-Always come prepared for any off-road adventure. I lacked everything: Fire extinguisher, tow straps, tools, fire making materials, firearm, d-ring shackles, etc.
-Never assume that you will become disabled. Always be ready and have a plan.
-Use whatever preventive steps you can in your build.
I spoke with several friends on this site and the professionals at Off Road Evolution and I came to the conclusion that I needed the EVO MFG Protek Skid Plate system. This has been added to my build. I felt that what Eddy does and talks about in a thread in 2013 was important, to allow easy access to the underside of the vehicle but also allow cooling. I wanted to install HUGE underside plates, but realized that I need to go with what persons who are way more experienced than myself and went with the Protek skid plates.
I REALLY hope that I am not the second coming of Trailbud (“Trailbreak”) and have these kind of freak issues in the future.
I was torn about sharing the details about this apparent freak accident, but felt it was important to share what I learned with others, in the hopes that others can learn from my mistakes.
I was four wheeling with my friend QuicksilverJK after the morning was spent installing my fenders with Sharkey and QuicksilverJK. I was excited to just get out since I have been trying to save my stock parts for sale next month when I drop my 2016 JKUR to ORE for a whole bunch of upgrades. I figured in my mind, what could go wrong just driving around on forest service roads? Well, this happened:
I was driving on a forest service road and drove over some sticks that looked harmless. Well, one of them went up into my front driveshaft, then caught the boot and the stick was shoved into the Automatic Transmission Fluid Pan, splitting it from the housing and pealing the gasket open. My first clue something was wrong was smoke coming out from underneath the rig and when I got out to look underneath, the first thing I saw was ATF fluid spewing out onto the frame crossmember. I immediately turned off the engine. Luckily no fire was started since my wife and two children were in the vehicle.
I got to use my new winch and QuicksilverJK and I were able to get to the "main" road. The problem was that there was no cellular phone service so my wife jumped into an already full JK and she went to get help once she was in cellular phone range. Meanwhile, I was stuck in a disabled JKUR with two scared children for 1.5 hours. We went for a little walk and eventually we got too cold, so I went back with them to the JK. That is when I saw two very old trucks driving up to us. Thoughts of the movie "Deliverance" immediately jumped into my mind. I immediately put the kids into the JK and locked the doors. Luckily the two hillbilly types were not interested in us and just drove by. But I had no way of protecting them other than my fists.
They became worried about why we were not driving and where was "mommy". The only other tool I had was the Owner's Manual so I read them that, which calmed them greatly. You can imagine what that sounded like, me reading them from the manual things they could not understand at 3 and 5 years old. But they continued to ask for me to read whenever I stopped reading.
Eventually my wife got help and we reunited to wait for the tow truck and the vehicle was towed to the dealership. The good news is that the repairs were less than $500.
I was pretty disappointed in the Rubicon at that point. This was only my third trip in the Rubicon and it already failed. But I will go with this being a freak incident and not common. I just expected more from a stock Rubicon, that was all.
The lessons learned were many:
-Always come prepared for any off-road adventure. I lacked everything: Fire extinguisher, tow straps, tools, fire making materials, firearm, d-ring shackles, etc.
-Never assume that you will become disabled. Always be ready and have a plan.
-Use whatever preventive steps you can in your build.
I spoke with several friends on this site and the professionals at Off Road Evolution and I came to the conclusion that I needed the EVO MFG Protek Skid Plate system. This has been added to my build. I felt that what Eddy does and talks about in a thread in 2013 was important, to allow easy access to the underside of the vehicle but also allow cooling. I wanted to install HUGE underside plates, but realized that I need to go with what persons who are way more experienced than myself and went with the Protek skid plates.
I REALLY hope that I am not the second coming of Trailbud (“Trailbreak”) and have these kind of freak issues in the future.
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A f-ing Feed Bag caused over 2k worth of damage not including the tow and labor (did it myself) :doh:
