As the title indicates, I had a bit of an incident today which resulted in the 4Runner having the passenger side tires (front & rear) in a ~3' ditch (that side of truck & the mirror were about 5 inches from a wall of dirt/rock) while the driver side tires where up high on the edge of the road in mud/gravel.

Driver rear wheel barely not touching the ground. Tilted so much that the seat belts wouldn't work when I tried to strap myself back in. Thanks gawd no airbags went off.

A hour or two later, I'd reversed at idle in 4Low while being winched at the same time (attachment point being right near the rear trailing arm on the driver side; the intent being that the 4Runner wouldn't slide further into the hillside when moving or topple over the rest of the way).

So the truck is out and there's not a scratch on the body work. Wheels aren't scratched and the tires haven't broken their beads either. It would seem a lot of stress, fear, etc. went through my system for nothing. And I also saved having the tow guy have to just "rip" the righ out of the ditch and hope it didn't topple over.

But now I wonder: Did the weight of the 4Runner resting on those two passenger side wheels, plus the slide sideways down into the ditch, potentially bend or screw-up some part of the truck I can't see or am not familiar with? After driving the mud off of the Duratrac's, it seems the steering feels 99% good (alignment) but not perfect (or perhaps I'm don't really remember what is was before the incident). Everything else outside and underneath check out visually.

Is it possible the alignment was impacted or should this rig hold the alignment true during a simply sideways ditch slide?
Anything else I should be concerned with?

First picture is teh 4Runner in question.

Second picture: Looking down the long axis of the ditch with the high-groud/driver side to the left, and low ground/dirt wall/passenger on the right. Front was pointed towards drain pipe; rear was where i'm taking picture from.

Final picture: Taken from up above on the dirt berm with the top of the picture being the road (high area) and the drain pipe/front of 4Runner being to the right. You can see the tire marks. Oye.

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You'll be fine! These things are built for alot more abuse then that.

What? I read through all that post, and no pics of the truck in the ditch? Boo I say, boo!

Might need alignment checked is all. What's the story on HOW you went into that ditch lol.

Doesn't look like anything that could affect the alignment - certainly not some mud/clay while sliding.

Use the hitch receiver instead of your suspension for recoveries.

This ^^^

Okay okay trolling here I admit, but I can't pass it up.

Wait for it


Wait for it





Meow

ehh, could have driven out of that with some creative thinking....just messing. Yeah your truck will be fine.

They're coming!

Honestly I didn't think about taking pictures while the rig was leaning to the right. But I did ask some of the rangers who were taking pictures to email them to me.

It actually doesn't take a lot to get to that point. Same thing happens if you're going up or down a steep hill, there's an angle sensor that causes the seatbelt to lock.

It's okay to admit it, was there texting involved?

Ha! No!

Just the wifey trying to get a better look at the 40+ deer in the meadow.
Doh!

+1..

Tease!!!!

It'll be fine. Most of us regularly do worse to our 'Runners on purpose, haha.