How often do you break things on your truck? | 4WDTalk - Overlanding and offroad Forum
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How often do you break things on your truck?

TerraTamer

TerraTamer

Active member
Curious on how often are you guys breaking things in your truck when you are getting off pavement? I have an older 2001 toyota 4runner with nearly 200,000 miles that had been sitting in my barn for last 10 years. I just put a battery in it yesterday and it turned over nicely. Now its completely stock and I'll get a new set of tires put on it this week. However this will become a dedicated overlanding truck for me. It has the 3.4L V6, so it's a good motor. I was planning on getting one of those tear drops trailers to tug behind it. But just curious on how often people are breaking stuff, and when you do, what broke? Part of why I'm asking this question is to determine common things that break and perhaps having that beefed up on this truck.
 
Are you asking how often we "Break" things or are you asking about failures when parts are beyond their life span. 100k miles is past the life span of most parts, driveline will go to 200k if its taken care of.
Adding weight, larger tires....take the life span of parts down fast. When you start building, you have to consider what the strength of the part is and will your mod's or driving effect it.

This is a subject I can spend days talking about.
I currently drive a 96 Cruiser with 260k. In order to make it dependable, I have replaced or rebuilt the entire vehicle (need to do trans still) over the last few years. I cant take the chance of it leaving me stranded by myself, in the middle of the Eastern Mojave. Its also frustrating to have some someone with you, driving a worn out truck that keeps breaking down do to everything being worn out.
 
(knock on wood) not happening enough for me to mention.

smritte - Yeah but your Cruiser is light years away from a 4Runner, not taking anything away from a 4Runner, but there is a gap between the two in terms of offroad prowess.
 
I'll agree to a point but, the OP's question was more breakage then prowess. Durability wise, very few vehicles can match the complete overkill Toyota did when making the 80 series. Even with that, the lifespan of my seals, gaskets and small bolt on's like water pump, alternator, engine sensors.... will have the same lifespan as everyone else.
 
I did just break things during serious offroad, never during regular driving on tracks or bad forest roads.

trippin
 
Usually (knock on wood) the only time I break stuff is when I'm doing something I know I shouldn't. Or on a road with large bumps/rocks.
 
Yeah pretty much the same as above, when I do something I most likely shouldn’t have, or picked a wrong line, or to much speed.
 
So it looks like the suspension should be a good point to visit and focus on in the start of my build. Speaking of which, I don't suppose any of you know the weak points on these things?
 
Depends on what your building, starting age of vehicle and what its used for. My mild builds start with all bearings and ball joints. If the vehicle has an inferior design of either, now its time to step up. Older vehicles get chromoly axles because the price of replacement is close to the same. Suspension arms, again most likely will need upgrading based on age/vehicle.

Dirt roads wear things out fast. Just mild dirt driving means upgrading anything that moves with the tires.
Then there's the other school of though. Drive it till it breaks. Just hope your not somewhere far.
 
Yeah, but the problem is if I drive it till it breaks and it breaks in the field, I'm going to have a tough time getting that repaired in the field, and likely cost me more in long end. Do you do most of the work yourself?
 
I do almost all of my own building. I played with desert race and rock crawl. Now I just cruise around and relax. I need to make sure something doesn't happen when I'm a bit remote. Things happen you cant control but I can eliminate all the things I can control. I tend to drive a bit hard and I build my vehicles to take it. That also means very careful inspections and more maintenance.
When I'm out driving the last thing I want to do is repair something.
 
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