Anatomy of a Trail Fix

Broken parts are a part of four wheeling, and ingenious trail fixes are often necessary to get the vehicle back to the parking lot where it can be trailered home.

In a previous post I mentioned that one of the Jeeps in our group at Tree's Ranch, a TJ model (97-06), broke a rear axle trying to climb a ledge.  Luckily it was near the end of the day, and the trail fix was an interesting part of the run.

When a rear axle breaks on a TJ, the axle shaft comes out of the axle tube and the wheel begins to stick out from the side of the Jeep.  If it is not restrained, it will eventually separate from the Jeep.

The fix in this case involved two steps.  First, the rear drive shaft was disconnected, which made the Jeep front wheel drive only.

The second part was to take the vertical bar from a high lift jack (a 4' tall jack made for heavy equipment but beloved by four wheelers) and tie it across the tire using parts of a ratchet strap (the type used to tie town loads to a trailer).  One end of the jack bar was tied to the Jeep frame on the rear of the tire and the other on the the front of the tire.  As the photo shows, this lets the jack bar slide on the tire while holding the tire and axle shaft in place.  The tire was lubricated with WD-40.

Unfortunately, the jack bar tended to rise up on the tire as it turned, and one of the guys rode on the bar as the Jeep drove back to the road.  As the Jeep moved, the rider sprayed the tire to keep it lubricated.  The Jeep had to drive very slowly, obviously, and a trailer was sent to pick it up at the first accessible location.