My XJ broke bad in a bad place.
This story is a good example of why we should never wheel alone. If I had not had good loyal, competent friends with me on this day I would have been in big trouble.
We had just started down trail 26, one of the Jeep Badge of Honor trails at Windrock. The first obstacle on the trail is a sharp right hand turn down a couple of ledges. It is hard to see where to line up and the narrow trail makes for a precarious position to drop into. I had lined up a bit off from where I wanted to be, but I figured I could make a quick adjustment as my front tires dropped off the ledge.
As I slowly dropped in, I turned the wheel hard and I heard a loud pop. I continued to the second ledge a few feet further in and as I slid down, I heard two more loud pops in rapid succession. Suddenly, I had no steering and the front of the Jeep was going in very much the wrong direction. I eased it to a stopping point hoping it would stabilize and not roll over.
When I first looked under the front of my Jeep I did not see what was wrong. I was expecting a track bar or tie rod to be broken. But then I saw the real issue. The steering box had broken loose from the frame. All three bolts were sheared off.
These were the original 1988 bolts and they were totally seized in the steering box. So even if we had new bolts there was no way I could swap them out on the trail without a torch.
I tried in vain to brace the box with ratchet straps and a high lift but nothing worked. I felt defeated and really did not know what to do.
The group decided to at least get my Jeep off the trail which it was blocking and at least back to the gravel road we had turned off of. So Brian hooked his winch to my rear recovery point and began pulling. The others took turns using a high lift handle to keep the front wheels pointed in sorta the right direction. All I could do was hold the brake in my Jeep while they did all the work.
Once I was back up over the ledges and no longer in danger of tipping over, we made a new assessment. Still, no way to fix it on the trail, so we decided to get it out where I could bring the trailer for a recovery. We found a mud puddle to reduce the friction and spun my Jeep in the road using two winches. Evan worked his way back around me and drug me off the trail and back to the Gravel road.
Brian had fried his alternator while winching so we decided to take his Jeep back to camp to get my truck and trailer. We made it a few minutes up the road when we came to a very rocky passage that I was not comfortable getting my trailer over. So we turned around and decided to drag my Jeep at least that far.
On the way back, Brian dreamed up a plan of tow ropes, shackles, and ratchet straps that he thought would make my Jeep track behind his as he towed me out. It took a few tries and some broken straps before we got just the right combination, but in the end, it worked. He was able to pull me very slowly back to one of the main roads.
Just as we reached our destination, his battery finally went dead. So we pulled the Battery from my Jeep and swapped it into his for the trip back to camp. Back at camp, Brian headed to town to get an alternator and I took the truck and trailer up the mountain to get my Jeep.
I was really concerned about loading the Jeep as it is a tight fit between the fenders on my trailer. I was prepared to remove them as I have done on other rescues in the past. However, this time my Jeep tracked right up the ramps and right into the spot for transport. I strapped it down assuming I was done for the weekend.
When I got back to camp, I called Brian to ask him to see if they happened to have a steering box at the parts store while he was there. That was when he told me he had already found me one at a junk yard he had gone past. He had a box and the bolts I needed to make the repair. I could not ask for better friends than this.
While waiting for him to get back, I began stripping down my steering. I had a very difficult time getting the old lines out of my box to reuse them but luckily someone had a MAP gas torch that freed them up. Evan helped me bench press the replacement box into place and I got it all put back together before dark.
Among the group, we had just enough tools and skill to swap both Brian’s alternator and my steering box at camp. With field repairs done, we were able to wheel again the next day.
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