BrianSD_42’s Nov. 2015 Death Valley Trip (& Breakdown) Report

[BrianSD_42]

Recently went to death valley with a close friend and a bigger group from the 3rd gen section.

Friday - Drive to Death Valley, camp at Emigrant Camp

Saturday - Drive to Rhyolite Ghost Town, then to Phrymm Canyon then to Titus Canyon, then to Cottonwood Canyon

Sunday - Leave camp at Cottonwood, break down @ 8am, stuck in Death Valley until 5am Monday.



About my breakdown …

My drivers side Knuckle / Hub broke where it meets the upper ball joint. The Toyota part failed. I’m not sure what happened. It could have been stress fractures, metal fatigue, hitting a rock that was too large etc. It just happened.

Cottonwood Canyon was never a nice place to go but with the recent floods it really was a nightmare.

I was traveling with my friend Rob in the silver Tacoma and we had HAM radios so when my failure happened I was able to ride out with him.

We go back onto the road and drove to StovePipe Wells, used the local internet to book a Uhaul trailer dolly in Beatty, NV about 30 mins away. Got to Beatty, NV and it turns out the trailer place was closed on Sundays - no exceptions. The dolly’s were right there but no go. Can’t steal things of course. Called Uhaul found another dolly 150 miles away. Went there, got it, came back. Filled up in town at Beatty, NV. Headed back to Cottonwood. Got at the trail entrance near StovePipe wells at 4pm. Started the trail, it was very slow going. You can see that the Uhaul is extremely close to the ground, probably 3.5” at most in ground clearance.

The Uhaul rental was $150. I did call for local tow service but I was told the early quote was $2,000 for 8 hours.

I had to walk the path to make sure we didn’t get a flat on the dolly, it was about 7+ hours to go in and get the truck out. We must made it out of the canyon at 2:30am. Walking in the dark, clearing rocks, stacking rocks, etc.



Cottenwood Canyon - WTF I hope to never meet you again.


Now for the pics!


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:girl:



General Trip Pics


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[BrianSD_42]

More trip pics Pt_1


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[BrianSD_42]

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[BrianSD_42]

The end. That's all the pics.

 

[Ol'Blue]

Nice trip man. That fuel station at 395- I remember that place well. It was our stopping point for gas and food before heading out.

Call James over at the truck shop. He had everything you need in stock to fix that.

Blue

 

[KidVermicious]

Great pics.

Cottenwood Canyon - WTF I hope to never meet you again.

What are you talking about? Get back in there right now and make that trail your *****.

 

[Dropzone]

bummer about the ball joint, at least you were not traveling at speed

Did you drop the rear D/S when you towed it?

 

[CdaleR4000si]

I'm sorry to see how it ended, but it looks like it was an incredible trip! You guys out west have some amazingly beautiful places to ride.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Thanks everyone!

bummer about the ball joint, at least you were not traveling at speed

Did you drop the rear D/S when you towed it?

It was towed in full N. Meaning transfer in N and the trans in N. I really had no other choice. We didn't even get to the truck in the canyon until 11 at night.

Just to be clear it was the Knuckle/hub that failed.

 

[maclean216]

That sucks. I did the same thing last summer. I had the Total Chaos gussets welded on mine to prevent it from happening again.

I have a spindle in my garage if you are looking for one. And I am in San Diego.

 

[BrianSD_42]

That sucks. I did the same thing last summer. I had the Total Chaos gussets welded on mine to prevent it from happening again.

I have a spindle in my garage if you are looking for one. And I am in San Diego.

Hey man thanks for the offer. That's great. The shop already found a used one for $100 that they are getting for me. James said he though he had one in the back for $40 but it turned out to be passenger side so they had to go get one from a scraper.

 

[maclean216]

Well let me know. I can do better than $100 and I want it out of my garage.

 

[KidVermicious]

It was towed in full N. Meaning transfer in N and the trans in N.

Uh oh.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Uh oh.

I don't get it. Hopefully it's not the end of the world.

This is what I found but it's not a 3rd gen.

The 2010 SR5 4Runner does not have an electronic transfer case like the 4Runner Limited. It has a manual transfer case with a stick lever coming out of the transfer case like those that we saw years ago. You can move the lever to 2WD, 4LWD, 4HWD and a Neutral Position. So with the transfer case in the neutral position, the rotation of the drive shaft from the rear differential, when towing behind a motorhome, is not transmitted to the transmission thus no abnormal wear and tear can take place. Furthermore, unless I am mistaken, the lubrication of the manual transfer case is accomplished by splashing and not by a pump like the transmission.

In my case I have a limited 97 with no AWD, can be either 2WD or 4WD and when towed with the transfer case in N the back is completely disconnected. In this case it was in 2WD then put in N on the trans case then N on the transmission. It stayed like that the whole way back. Drive forward into the shop ok. The mechanic doesn't seem concerned at all.

These guys talk about it here as well but they are assuming full time 4WD which I don't have. Anyways I didn't have any of these resources at midnight in the canyon.
http://m.cartalk.com/content/i-want-flat-tow-my-toyota-runner-five-speed-four-wheel

 

[KidVermicious]

I don't get it. Hopefully it's not the end of the world.

Tcase in N doesn't isolate the rear output - if your shaft was spinning, so was the tcase output, which was spinning the trans output, which was not getting oiled by the trans input.

Or that's how I understand it. I could be wrong about the specifics, but the bottom line is you might have substantially shortened the life of your trans.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Good to know. I'll have to hope for the best.

[MENTION=49649]KidVermicious[/MENTION] sitting here at the post-Thanksgiving breakfast table, my Dad definitely agrees with you. I should have dropped the driveshaft.

 

[4eigner]

Total Chaos spindle gussets, with promo code blackfri for 10% off at Toytec. No better time to make that purchase.

Edit: or...you can go for these bad boys: Toyota Fully Fabricated Spindles | Solo Motorsports

 

[Dropzone]

Thanks everyone!




It was towed in full N. Meaning transfer in N and the trans in N. I really had no other choice. We didn't even get to the truck in the canyon until 11 at night.

if you ever get stuck having to tow it with the rear wheels on the ground again it is advisable to pull the rear driveshaft. According to Marlin of Marlin Crawler the rear output bearings do not get properly lubricated with the case in neutral and can lead to bearing failure.
I also learned this the hard way when towing my 81 back on a tow dolley. The truck went in to gear some how. I toasted my crawl box and transmission.. Expensive lesson when i was too lazy to take 10 minutes to undo 8 bolts

edit-
i see Kid V covered it too, i quoted the notification..ooops

 

[rossgoldie]

I LOVE DEATH VALLEY. Sucks about your breaks though.

My favorite spot in Death Valley isn't even in the valley! Next time you go try out Saline Valley for a few days of camping at the Saline Valley hot springs! Its about 50 miles of washboard to get to but the camping is free and the hot springs are awesome! Best views in the area. Plus you can't beat watching F-18's from the nearby base do flybys ~100ft above your head from time to time. If you don't mind naked hippies, I highly recommend a visit! I got some pics from my last trips there...

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[Bandit Runner]

I LOVE DEATH VALLEY. Sucks about your breaks though.

My favorite spot in Death Valley isn't even in the valley! Next time you go try out Saline Valley for a few days of camping at the Saline Valley hot springs! Its about 50 miles of washboard to get to but the camping is free and the hot springs are awesome! Best views in the area. Plus you can't beat watching F-18's from the nearby base do flybys ~100ft above your head from time to time. If you don't mind naked hippies, I highly recommend a visit! I got some pics from my last trips there...

Where's the naked hippy pics?