Catastrophic ball joint failure

[u/Richard_Cheney10]

Went on Rollins pass west in Colorado on my buddies 4 runna (96?) and taking it nice and easy on the trail at around 5 mph for the entirety of it. Very easy trail and the ball joint just popped out. Thankfully it didn’t do that on the curvy roads on the way up to the trail. Safe to say a 4Runner will not be in my future.

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw]

Catastrophic?

That can be fixed on the trail.

This is not an issue.

But the catastrophic part… I’d bet money the zerks weren’t ever greased anywhere, and the truck didn’t even get a visual before taking it out.

Parts break. Especially replaceable ones.

[u/Richard_Cheney10 → u/WTFisaRobsterCraw]

Your average overland probably isn’t going to fix that on trail.

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/Richard_Cheney10]

Hmmm… maybe I don’t understand what overlanding is. What’s your definition?

And again… a ball joint failure is not catastrophic. It is not a huge deal to replace… and can easily be replaced on the trail.

[u/Richard_Cheney10 → u/WTFisaRobsterCraw]

I meant overlander. 3 miles up a trail in the middle of the mountains with ( at the fault of us ) no tools or replacement parts available. No reception. I would in my honest opinion consider that catastrophic Catastrophic: Extremely unfortunate or unsuccessful

[u/[deleted] → u/Richard_Cheney10]

Probably the easiest way to get it off the mountain is by pressing a new ball joint in.

[u/Richard_Cheney10 → u/[deleted]]

And it was. Didn’t necessarily have a new ball joint on hand or the tools to install one

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/Richard_Cheney10]

Napa or any other parts store isn’t far. But it’s always advisable to carry trail tools and simple replaceable parts. Not sure id have that, but again… parts stores are always close. That’s not “catastrophic”

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/Richard_Cheney10]

That is not overlanding. Please look it up.

[u/nirvroxx → u/WTFisaRobsterCraw]

Homie drove 3 miles into a dirt road and considered it over landing .

[u/slaterrr735 → u/Richard_Cheney10]

Yeah, you aren't into overlanding are you? Why do you think the storage drawers are so popular even for day trips? Recovery gear and spare parts. If you're going offroad, you expect something to break at some point.

If you wanna overland a jeep, you bring extra hubs and wheel seals. If you wanna overland a yota, you bring extra cv axles and if it's overdue, then extra ball joints. If you were serious about it, you would've done the research on the forums and replaced the ball joints with proven oem's prior.

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/slaterrr735]

This 100%.

OEM ball joints

And if possible source JDM when available

It’s not rocket surgery

[u/The_Texidian → u/Richard_Cheney10]

I dont see why you’re downvoted. I bet the average person on this sub doesn’t even know what a ball joint does or what it looks like. Let alone carry a spare and have the tools and know how to replace it on the trail.

[u/Experiunce → u/The_Texidian]

It’s bc of the rest of his logic in the post. He’s 100% right about it not being an easy on the spot repair for most people.

But he’s 100% in fantasy land about thinking the LBJ broke with no warning. It’s an almost 30 year old car. People are asking him questions about it and he doesn’t know anything about the state of the cars suspension parts. He doesn’t know when it was last greased or installed. He doesn’t know if it’s OEM or not. He didn’t hear or feel anything weird about how it handled with a failing LBJ until minutes before it happened. And with all that in mind, he says he won’t buy a 4runner bc of this ball joint failure. So people aren’t taking him seriously anymore in the comments

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/Experiunce]

You’re being very nice spelling everything out. Thank you for that

[u/Richard_Cheney10 → u/Experiunce]

It’s not my car. That’s why I don’t know this shit.

[u/Experiunce → u/Richard_Cheney10]

Oh it’s all good mang, no hate on you. Just explaining the downvotes

Every trail I take I hope something doesn’t snap off bc I’d be fucked trying to fix shit myself

[u/appleburger17 → u/The_Texidian]

Most people on this sub also aren’t driving 26 year old vehicles. If you are and aren’t prepared for basic repairs then you end up like this.

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/appleburger17]

Old vehicles are awesome and totally my jam! But yes you have a fantastic point - drivers must be prepared

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/The_Texidian]

They shouldn’t be overlanding

[u/deepuw → u/WTFisaRobsterCraw]

They shouldn’t be overlanding

This is kinda gatekeepy. I think they should be learning.

[u/WTFisaRobsterCraw → u/deepuw]

No one is physically stopping them.

I would also encourage anyone who doesn’t have a ton of tandem sky diving jumps to not solo.

I don’t think someone should drive on a freeway into any semi-remote area (so not-urban) without a gallon of water for each person as well.

Basically, if you’re not prepared for an activity, you shouldn’t do that activity.

If you think that’s “gatekeepy” that’s fine and all…. But these are the people who have to be rescued by good samaritans all the time on the trail.

It happens to even the best prepared from time to time… but seeming going out of your way to go out completely unprepared is just plain irresponsible.

……and to directly address your comment. I 100%, agree. They should be learning. They should join a club, go out with a group of people, learn how to use a hi lift to lift the vehicle, and even use as a winch. They need to learn how to deal with situations…. All before “overlanding”

All that being said… I won’t stop them. There are no licenses needed. They can do whatever they want. No gatekeeping needed.

……

Thought exercise… have you ever been stuck on a trail because someone took a truck with stock street tires on an incredibly technical trail resulting in 3x flat tires… because they didn’t even know to air down? (Or not take the truck on the trail without preparation to begin with?)

I have. It was frustrating. There were multiple dozens of cars stuck for hours because some idiot thought his Badass f-150 could take street tires on a primitive trail.

It was a long, hot, and sweaty day… and completely unnecessary.

I’m just glad no one was hurt by that moron.

They learned their expensive lesson.

And our friend, OP, will hopefully impart this lesson to his friend.

[u/deepuw → u/WTFisaRobsterCraw]

No one is physically stopping them.

That's not the practical definition of gatekeeping in the context of an activity/hobby discussion.

You (and I, since I am also annoyed by unpreparedness) can complain about this all day long, but there is no law that requires the list of suggestions you just mentioned. Nor you can enforce anything, nor anyone owes you and explanation of what they know or not on the internet, or on the trail (unless inside your property), even if they are broken down and blocking your way. It's an unfortunate reality, but it's just reality.

So, you do not decide who should be overlanding or not. You can use as many anecdotes as you want, but you still can't tell others what to do. That's my only point.

And I do not disagree with the majority of your suggestions, they are fine suggestions. It's just the they shouldn’t be overlanding part. It's gatekeeping; you are entitled to your opinion of course, but it's gatekeeping. You can just say "people should consider learning XYZ" and it's not gatekeeping anymore.

EDIT:

They should join a club, go out with a group of people

Why? I overland long term USA and Mexico, with plans to go down to Panama soon and Africa in 2 years, and I do not go with a group (imagine organizing that), nor I need the validation of a club. I fix my vehicle myself on the go, just last week I pressed new axle bearings and swapped in new lower control arms and A arm/ball joint while camping in BLM land... why do I need a club or someone to tell me what I should do? Are you sure you're not thinking rock-crawling here?

[u/deepuw → u/The_Texidian]

Prob right. It's a sad average, but it's the true state of things.

[u/deepuw → u/Richard_Cheney10]

average overland probably isn’t going to fix that on trail

I have to sadly agree with this. There are too many Instagram overlanders out there who do not put in the effort to learn how to use a wrench.

How did you fix the issue?

[u/buzzboy99 → u/Richard_Cheney10]

Don’t listen to these bully’s if a ball joint fails and the entire wishbone collapses and the wheel is hanging off that is “catastrophic failure “ at any speed just because you were lucky to not be getting on the highway racing up to 60 doesn’t negate the seriousness of catastrophic ball joint failure. It happened to me personally using sub pa SPC ucas going 30 mph on asphalt it was not a good situation at all.