Precautionary travel items.

[Mopar1973Man]

I'll give you all a clue. Most all failures give clues in performance like MPG record dropping out. Like my VP44 was dropping MPG well before the pump died. Most other failures show up as heat. EGT's higher than normal, coolant temperature higher than normal or transmission temperature higher than normal. 

[Guest 04Mach1]

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Never carry any tools or parts. No sense in it. Every time something has happened to me in the backcountry there isn't a tool that will fix it. Like for example breaking the main shaft of the transmission. Unit bearing failed. None of this stuff can be fixed along the road. What I do pack is everything to ensure my own survival.

• 2 MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat)
• 2 half gallon jugs of water
• Extra jacket
• Gloves to keep my hands warm
• Cigarette lighter and matches
• First aid kit
• Mutli-tool
• Poncho or tarp
• GPS 
• Flashlight & batteries

So when this happens...

 

You know the list above will keep you alive till you can get to safety. It wont do you any good to have a bunch of heavy tools if the part that failed you don't have. Like I said before whatever fails typically you don't have the tools or the means for repairing in the backcountry. Now the truck is dead and not moving can you ensure your survival? 

That is very sound advice for rural trips. I'd also recommend a fire extinguisher. I've had 2 engine fires in the mountains with my 78. I had fire extinguishers both times in the truck because regulations of the business my grandfather had required all vehicles on the job site be equipped with fire extinguishers, he was a logger. Of the many break downs of various vehicles we had spare parts or mechanics tools never got us home but things like food, warm clothing, matches, etc... kept us alive to get home. Let's face it, it's not if we are going to to break down but when we are going to break down. If it's got boobs, tracks, or wheels it's going to give you trouble.

[Mopar1973Man]

1 minute ago, 04Mach1 said:

If it's got boobs, tracks, or wheels it's going to give you trouble.

 

So very true... 

 

2 minutes ago, 04Mach1 said:

I'd also recommend a fire extinguisher.

 

Yeah, I've got one in my truck. Never had to use it but its there just in case. 

 

2 minutes ago, 04Mach1 said:

Of the many break downs of various vehicles we had spare parts or mechanics tools never got us home

 

Same here. I've never had exactly what I needed to get rolling again. No, I'm not going to haul another truck on a trailer as insurance or haul tons of tools and parts. 

 

4 minutes ago, 04Mach1 said:

but things like food, warm clothing, matches, etc... kept us alive to get home.

 

So very true. Not my first time camping out in the woods with a dead vehicle. 

 

I learned my lesson long ago. Back with my 1972 Dodge Power Wagon. A friend and I decided to go out for afternoon ride looking for firewood. When we got out on Smokey Boulder Road we seen where everyone drove around the tip of this fallen tree. I followed the same track and down the truck sank in the mud. I lock in my hubs and was hooked on a log. No jack. No tools. No food. No water. Then made the poor choice of trying to dig the truck out by hand. Needless to say it was over 8 hours later in the dark we managed to get the truck unstuck. No matches to get fire lit. No clothes to stay warmer. No gloves to protect my hands. The interior of the truck was covered in mud every where. Ended up damaging a hub fighting to free the truck and chewed up the tires with all the tire spin. (Young and dumb).

 

Now looking back I should of abandon the truck and started walking out. If I had my rescue bag I've got now I could have easily walked two people out with water and food and got to safety and got help to get my truck out of the mud.  Now I don't even fight it anymore. I grab the bag and lock the doors and leave the truck behind. If it is broke down no one can steal the truck. Now you just got to go get help so the truck can be recovered. 

[IBMobile]

On ‎10‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 5:10 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

No, I'm not going to haul another truck on a trailer as insurance or haul tons of tools and parts. 

In 1973 I had a Volvo blow an engine in Greenwood, Delaware.  I got it over to my grandfathers processing plant's work shop where I was able to install a used engine that I acquired in Seekonk, Massachusetts.   When I was done I put the junk engine into the trunk with my tools and headed back that night north to Cumberland, Rhode Island.

 

That morning I watched the sun rise over Scarsdale, New York and headed on to the Connecticut Turnpike.  Now it's just after 6 AM and everything had been going fine, 55MPH (the max speed limit) and putting down miles when there's a bang and blue smoke out the back.  "Dam" I'm thinking "not another engine".  I roll the car on to the brake down lane and get out to take a look.   Lift the hood and look around, you could see the engines back then, and heck nothing looks bad.  I pull the dip stick and no oil:  look under the car and find that someone forgot to tighten the oil drain plug.  It's not there.

 

About the time I make this discovery I hear a car pull up be hind me.  Looking around the hood I see that it's a Connecticut State Trooper.  He gets out and I meet him at the back of my Volvo. 

The Trooper asks "What's the problem?"

I tell him "The drain plug fell out of the oil pan".  

The Trooper asks "where are you going to find an oil plug for that car this time of day?"   

With out thinking I said "Oh, don't worry.  I've got a spare engine in the trunk". 

The Trooper says "Now I've heard everything.  I've heard of people carrying spare tires, spare belts, spare hoses, but I've never seen anyone carry a spare engine".

I ask him where the next gas station was since I only had 2 qts. of oil with me and would need 2 more.  He tells me there's one at the next exit about a mile up the road and he left.

 

I rolled the old engine on to it's side, got the drain plug out and installed it in the good engine, put in the 2 qts, drove to the gas station added the rest of the oil and made it home.    

 

  

[dripley]

Now thats a good story. 

[Dieselfuture]

Now that's some engine that can run with no oil for a while and then keep going when you add some in.

[AH64ID]

While I agree with @Mopar1973Man about most failures not being able to be fixed in a remote spot I do carry a few simple things that will alleviate some more common issues. 

 

In my truck box I always have

• Tool set
• Air compressor (used LOTS)
• Tire plug kit (used LOTS)
• Serpentine Belt
• Fuel filters (getting bad fuel in remote locations/stations is more likely than a hi-flow station in town)
• 1 jug of emergency anti-gel (2 in winter)
• 2 pairs chains (3 in winter) 
• 1 Qt of engine oil
• Tow strap, tree saver, etc
• Blanket for laying on or warmth
• 4 MRE's
• ~1.5 gallons of water
• Jumper cables, never needed to jump myself but they have lots of use
• Various plugs for external oil/coolant fittings on the motor

Inside the truck I carry

• Fuses
• SPOT tracker
• Glock(s)
• 600A self jump starter

I also have a hitch mounted winch that I take with me on most really remote trips. Not often in summer, but always in fall/winter/spring

 

I also generally have my smaller chainsaw and a shovel. 

 

Depending on where I am going I will also take a 2nd spare tire. 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Don't need an entire engine just a spark plug.

[2000Ram2500]

11 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

Now that's some engine that can run with no oil for a while and then keep going when you add some in.

 

A buddy of mine used to have a 72 beetle that we swapped an offroad motor into which had an external oil filter. Lines were all rotted and i told him he would be safe to test drive it but he'd better make sure he gets new oil lines before he really drives it. Well needless to say he never changed them out and about 2 weeks later hes down the street from a friends house that i was at and blew the oil line off and lost every drop off oil and seized the engine.

So we drove over to him and figured out what happened and since he was in the middle of town autozone was nearby we picked up some oil from there and grabbed some jumper cables and a big wrench from the house and used the starter to help get the engine to crank over while we tried to turn it by hand. Put the oil in and tightened up the line and believe it or not he drove it for another 2 months and it kept running but it never did sound right after that...

 

It is possible to run something out of oil and keep it going I guess its just luck of the draw.

 

Me personally I keep tire chains, water, basic tools, medical/survival kit, decent jack (even though i dont have a spare...), fire starting stuff, tie downs, got a couple jack stands and blocks of wood to chalk tires, really just random junk is floating around in my toolbox but ive used all of it before for desert trips and usually friends need it more than i do. I also keep fuses and electrical tools in case a wire gets nicked or something minor especially now that i chased down problems for a month and a half with that p1689.. and about a year and a half ago i was sort of stranded in the middle of the rocky mountains in the middle of the night nowhere near a town. I think the nearest town was pagosa springs and that was still an hour drive. Had to modify my torque converter lockup wire i removed the switch but left the wire and it was causing me problems.

 

You get creative in the middle of nowhere. Used a rock to put a battery cable back on before lol

 

We actually fixed a pinhole in a friends radiator hose with duct tape and silicone and it held up for about 2 weeks before he got another hose.

 

Zipties and duct tape are a must. I should probably carry an extra bit of oil but i feel like if i lose one quart im losing the rest anyways and at that point im calling for help or getting creative anyways.

 

Im gonna stop i could go on way too long

[Dieselfuture]

5 minutes ago, 2000Ram2500 said:

Put the oil in and tightened up the line and believe it or not he drove it for another 2 months and it kept running but it never did sound right after that.

Yeah I've ran into a few of them with a spun rod bearing that ran for a while before, with little knock lol

9 minutes ago, 2000Ram2500 said:

Zipties and duct tape are a must

Yes indeed, use that myself a few times in the past

[2000Ram2500]

Just now, Dieselfuture said:

Yeah I've ran into a few of them with a spun rod bearing that ran for a while before, with little knock lol

 

After we pulled the motor to swap in another one he had laying around we split the case and it was not pretty. Journals were all scored. Case was destroyed he needed a new everything after that.

[Dieselfuture]

4 hours ago, 2000Ram2500 said:

 

After we pulled the motor to swap in another one he had laying around we split the case and it was not pretty. Journals were all scored. Case was destroyed he needed a new everything after that.

I got a good one, buddy of mine had a late 70s Chevy jacked up on 44 in Swampers, he was trying to sell it locally but couldn't get what he wanted for it imagine that. So we took it to a car auction and it started to burn oil on the way up there about 2 hour drive one way. He almost got offered what he wanted for it but for whatever reason turn it down, so on

the way home we started to use motor honey, somehow we made it back in town with about 4 quarts of that honey stuff in it. Right before our exit it started to knock and lose power, he got pissed and hammered it to the floor, you can hear when pistons were going out one by one and eventually lost all the power, then we had to pull over. Had some smoke under the hood and luckily he had a fire extinguisher, so I grabbed it jumped out and since his truck was jacked up you could see the oil pan looking through the wheel well, it had bunch of holes in it and there was a fire inside the oil pan. I never did use that fire extinguisher fire went out all by itself. He endded up dropping in a built motor out of some wheeling and dealing he did. Needless to say he should have sold it at the auction. Lesson learned, but we both had fun and I helped him put a different motor in it later.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Dieselfuture
Smart phone is not too smart

[Turbolover]

Take a deck of cards with you. If you get lost, just sit down and play solitaire.

Some jerk will always come along and tell you how to play it.