How well do you inspect your jeep?

[RDE2ROK]

My build has been finished (kinda) for 14 mo and I've been on some pretty difficult trails, that being said, after every wheeling trip I always wash it inside & out and even underneath! The next day I start under the rear with an assortment of wrenches, big screwdriver, flashlight,rag and a small grease gun. I work my way to the front, steering ,tires,wheels,eng, look for fluid leaks and check for cracks in everything and tighten bolts. You get the picture. I've been a truck driver for almost 28 years and have a lot of experience in pre-trips and post-trips. But I can't believe what I saw this last weekend!
We drove to a jeep event about 60 mi from our house, and 60 mi back. Doing 70 to 80 mph on the freeway, RTI ramp, and about a block from my house I hear a noise from the left front and then the esp light comes on! I pull in my garage and this is what I saw! SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!
Understand that I'm running High Steer arms, kinda like the EVO setup.

Yes, you see it right! Two bolts were missing,one I pulled out with my fingers and only one is in tact!
All three bolts were broke, but to the eye they looked fine. I put a wrench to them a few times after the build was fresh but they never were loose, so I always give them a visual.


I hope everyone learns a lesson from this. My wife and I are lucky to be alive, this could have turned out very bad.

 

[Texas Nick]

Very nice catch! Im glad you make it a habit to check pre-post trips and that you caught it before anything serious happened.

 

[WJCO]

Wow. Crazy.

 

[JKbrick]

Wow good catch, looks like they have been broken for a while by the rust on the top

 

[catahoula]

That is some scary shit! Very lucky to catch.

 

[notnalc68]

That's scary. I think I'll give mine the once over, Wednesday, when I'm off work.

 

[bthomas]

Shit! That could have been bad... Scary!

 

[christov11]

Not having any training in mechanics what would you suggest I do as an "inspection"?

I dont have a torque wrench but a general wrench kit. do you think a visual and making sure nothing is floating is enough?

just thinking with the limited training and resources, how safe can I be?

p.s. not doing anything rediculous with the jeep but would like to learn to do as much work as i can on her myself

 

[wayoflife]

Wow, good catch! As mentioned, they look like they've been broken for quite some time.

 

[RDE2ROK]

Wow good catch, looks like they have been broken for a while by the rust on the top

Wow, good catch! As mentioned, they look like they've been broken for quite some time.

Yes the rust indicates they have been broken for a while. Honestly it handled on the road just fine with the account of tire wear. But I learned a big lesson,I could have caught this a lot sooner if I would have put a socket on it!, because to the naked eye it looked fine!
You can imagine the tremendous pressure on those arms when aired down to 5lbs, locked and crawling over big rocks with hydraulic assist.
My solution is I'm going to get some longer arms custom machined and it will be double sheered.

 

[HighwayTrout]

Great catch! Glad you found it before it found you.

I've had a very similar thing happen to me with one of my pick ups. One of only two bolts holding the steer arm was sheared off and the other was loose. Scary indeed.

.

 

[wayoflife]

Yes the rust indicates they have been broken for a while. Honestly it handled on the road just fine with the account of tire wear. But I learned a big lesson,I could have caught this a lot sooner if I would have put a socket on it!, because to the naked eye it looked fine!
You can imagine the tremendous pressure on those arms when aired down to 5lbs, locked and crawling over big rocks with hydraulic assist.
My solution is I'm going to get some longer arms custom machined and it will be double sheered.

"Longer arms" as in longer steering arms? As in, arms that will exert even MORE leverage? Maybe I'm missing something but I fail to see how that would help anything. Also, I'm sure it's just that I'm just a mall crawler and never spend any time pushing a 7,000 lb. JK on anything more than a speed bump but I run the same steering arms a problem like what you just had isn't something I've had happen to me.

 

[cjmenma]

Unfortunately, I've seen this happen often, specially once you start jumping on tire sizes. It happened to us a few years ago, while in the middle of nowhere in south america at 3am in the morning. Luckly we were going slow (~20mph) but it caused the whole wheel to fall apart and the rig went into a ditch. For sure something to look for while inspecting your rig.

 

[RDE2ROK]

"Longer arms" as in longer steering arms? As in, arms that will exert even MORE leverage? Maybe I'm missing something but I fail to see how that would help anything. Also, I'm sure it's just that I'm just a mall crawler and never spend any time pushing a 7,000 lb. JK on anything more than a speed bump but I run the same steering arms a problem like what you just had isn't something I've had happen to me.

When I say longer arms I mean long enough to align to the bottom arm to double sheer.


Here is a pic of how far off mine are now.


This will take a lot of pressure off the upper arm.

 

[wayoflife]

When I say longer arms I mean long enough to align to the bottom arm to double sheer.

This will take a lot of pressure off the upper arm.

Ah, got it. I must have glossed over the part were you were wanting to tie it into the knuckle for double sheer. If you're not concerned about how will effect your steering and ESP/BAS, it would certainly provide more strength. Me, I think I'll stick to just checking the torque on my bolts as a part of routine maintenance. After almost 150,000 miles and me playing at the mall, my steering arms are still holding up just fine.

 

[RDE2ROK]

Ah, got it. I must have glossed over the part were you were wanting to tie it into the knuckle for double sheer. If you're not concerned about how will effect your steering and ESP/BAS, it would certainly provide more strength. Me, I think I'll stick to just checking the torque on my bolts as a part of routine maintenance. After almost 150,000 miles and me playing at the mall, my steering arms are still holding up just fine.

I was just trying to highlight how important it is on inspecting you jeep especially if you wheel it aggressively.
I do still DD my jeep locally but no where close to the driving you do Eddie. I agree that our set up is just fine but I am doing more and more crawling than driving. This is just my plan for my peace of mind. :beer:

 

[wayoflife]

I was just trying to highlight how important it is on inspecting you jeep especially if you wheel it aggressively.
I do still DD my jeep locally but no where close to the driving you do Eddie. I agree that our set up is just fine but I am doing more and more crawling than driving. This is just my plan for my peace of mind. :beer:

LOL!! Oh no, please don't get me wrong. Clearly, your title stated your intentions. I guess where you left me scratching my head is when you start talking about your plan. I mean, I find it difficult to believe that you'd have custom wheels made so that you could somehow tie it into your axle better just because you broke a couple of wheel studs. Even the term "sheer" when it come to bolts is laughable to me being that they are NEVER rated for sheer, only torque. It's their tinsel strength and their ability to clamp parts together tightly that make them strong. Even if you were to make your plan work without all the steering issues you'd have that comes with it, you'd still have ONE MORE bolt that still needs to be checked as a part of routine maintenance and failure to do so could STILL lead to a similar break. Going back to the original essence of this thread, peace of mind comes from routine maintenance - NOT necessarily from more bolts or points to tie them into. But then, that's just me. :beer:

 

[BABOOZLE]

Well at least a fatigue spot has verified and now you know that you need to perform additional inspections on those fasteners over the life of the vehicle. I need to perform these inspections more often. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Dynatrac]

My build has been finished (kinda) for 14 mo and I've been on some pretty difficult trails, that being said, after every wheeling trip I always wash it inside & out and even underneath! The next day I start under the rear with an assortment of wrenches, big screwdriver, flashlight,rag and a small grease gun. I work my way to the front, steering ,tires,wheels,eng, look for fluid leaks and check for cracks in everything and tighten bolts. You get the picture. I've been a truck driver for almost 28 years and have a lot of experience in pre-trips and post-trips. But I can't believe what I saw this last weekend!
We drove to a jeep event about 60 mi from our house, and 60 mi back. Doing 70 to 80 mph on the freeway, RTI ramp, and about a block from my house I hear a noise from the left front and then the esp light comes on! I pull in my garage and this is what I saw! SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!
Understand that I'm running High Steer arms, kinda like the EVO setup.
View attachment 222537
Yes, you see it right! Two bolts were missing,one I pulled out with my fingers and only one is in tact!
All three bolts were broke, but to the eye they looked fine. I put a wrench to them a few times after the build was fresh but they never were loose, so I always give them a visual.
View attachment 222538View attachment 222539View attachment 222540View attachment 222541

I hope everyone learns a lesson from this. My wife and I are lucky to be alive, this could have turned out very bad.

RDE2ROK, sorry to hear about what happened, and we are glad nothing bad happened. If you’ll private message us your address, we’ll send you a new set of studs and nuts for both sides. Please send us your steering arm and the broken studs; we want to inspect the studs to see what happened. We’ll also inspect the arm – if it is fine, we’ll send it back, or we will replace it if we see anything out of the ordinary. Also, in your PM, please give us your axle’s serial number, and where you bought it from. We stand behind our products as being the highest quality on the market. If a customer has a problem, we always want to make sure they’re taken care of as best as possible. Thanks!

 

[JKRicky]

RDE2ROK, sorry to hear about what happened, and we are glad nothing bad happened. If you’ll private message us your address, we’ll send you a new set of studs and nuts for both sides. Please send us your steering arm and the broken studs; we want to inspect the studs to see what happened. We’ll also inspect the arm – if it is fine, we’ll send it back, or we will replace it if we see anything out of the ordinary. Also, in your PM, please give us your axle’s serial number, and where you bought it from. We stand behind our products as being the highest quality on the market. If a customer has a problem, we always want to make sure they’re taken care of as best as possible. Thanks!

And this right here is why I will be buying Dynatrac axles. You guys set the bar high.