What spare parts are you bringing out with you?

[Mark & Silvia]

If you saw my other post, I’m having concerns about breaking down off grid and would like to plan for more. Which includes having some common parts that break on overlanding rigs. Or shall I say, what are some parts that most will carry with them for emergencies?

 

[smritte]

That's kind of a hard question and its going to be based on what you drive, where you drive how old and how worn things are.
80's-late 90's. No one made strong replacement parts and the vehicles we drove were never designed for what we did.

Back then, I carried axles, U-joints, a coil, belt set, an outboard fuel pump, oil, stuff to fix oil pans, fuel tanks and radiators. This is also when I started carrying an onboard welder.
Then people started making chromoly axles, better frames, better u-joints and better skid plates.
Almost all of my spare parts went to other vehicles. The failures were mostly due to lack of maintenance. The rest of the parts were normally too much foot.
My axles would get pulled once a year and checked for cracking, U-joints constantly checked, steering, ball joints and so on.

Today I don't carry any spare parts but I can still fix a radiator, torn oil pan or gas tank and because of the vehicle I drive, head gasket stop leak. I do on the other hand have replaced any weak link with stronger.
I also keep five plus days of emergency food, change of clothes and a simple cook set in the vehicle.

 

[4x4tripping]

If you carry everything to help yourself, your car will break down because of the weight. The key is, to travel as lightweight as possible.

For extended international journeys like a transafrica or panamericana I do carry this parts, who are used for maintenance. And are different on a european spec, compared to the vehicle who are sold locally:

- Fuel filter
- Air filtre

Duct tape, rescue tape, tool for fixing camping gear, 4wd recovery gear. And original equipement for changing tyres. Nothing more. And an emergency device like a satellite two way messenger.

But I do vehicle maintenance at my mechanic in front of each trip, changing oil, breakes, other maintenance. Maintenance on dampers and so on.

Above is the map I did with my Land Cruiser, equipped that way.

Also during my trips I did went to toyota mechanics in capitals, each 5000-6000km. For a checkup and for changing oil.

trippin