During the course of the may long weekend shakedown run where I snapped my rear pinion, my truck wasn`t the only one to suffer some damage.

After my rear driveline let go, I decided to see how strong my homemade square tubing front driveshaft was. My friend Simon had all the beverages in his `89 Xtracab


so I gave chase with only front wheels driving. When he couldn`t shake me, he decided to stop abruptly in a mud hole to

ahem... shoot the shtuff as we say. Unfortunately, I was too close behind him (he later admitted he even tried to back up!) and could not stop in time. It was all in slow motion. I looked over at my passenger and said we were going to hit. I reached for the CB mike to tell Simon to get the hell out of my way but it was too late. I had tried to swerve around him but the ruts kept me from doing so and my ARB bull bar`s fairlead guards drove into the right side of the box.

The impact took out the tailgate and tailight and repositioned the whole right side of the box

3 inches forward and buckled the sheetmetal behind the wheel. There was nothing more than a small chip in the powdercoating on my ARB! I felt really bad especialy since I had helped repair that box and even painted the freakin`thing but that`s what happens when you horse around in the mud.

Despite the mishaps, spirits were still high and Simon was not dissuaded in the least about going hardcore into the gooey stuff.


There`s a 36" Super Swamper in there somewhere! He needed Marc to winch him out with his Sidekick but it was all good.


We all can`t wait to get back out there!

Toughguy

That's a nice looking truck! I like it! 3.0 or 22?
Ya gotta love the mud! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />

Go check out the post for the fab job on his rig; pretty awesome.
Tuff guy, you know you're in with a good crowd when you have a bonk like that and keep enjoying the afternoon; I'm jealous! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

I am jealous! That's a tight looking truck! I really like it! Maybe my '89 will look that good one day! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

His `89 Xtracab as well as my `88 4Runner have the 3.0 and he also has a `94 Xtracab (daily driver) with the 3.0 as well as a `90 regular cab shortbox with a 3.0. If that wasn`t enough 3VZEs, I also have a 3.0 from a parts 4Runner I had!

Simon and I go way back. We were both first year engineering students in university back in `89. Last May long weekend, we had gone to a trail ride about 3 hours away from home. He had installed some 31 inch rubber on his `94 and I had welded his front diff. All was pretty good as our group had about 15 trucks in it. To give you an idea of how rough the trail was, it was only 11 kilometers from the trail head to the lake we were camping out at but it took us 8 hours to get there! Way fun!

Well, about halfway there, Marc had drowned his Sidekick up to the windshield in a creek. He had to get out from the sunroof! We yanked him out and pulled the plugs. No damage done and he was good to go after about 15 minutes. Not too long after, Simon and I started getting a little rowdy. (he`s single and I figure he was trying to impress the ladies) Now I`m 6`2" 225 lbs but he`s 6`1" 250 lbs and he tried to tackle me. There were some rocks behind me and I was not going to land on them with him crashing down on top of me so I hooked him under the arms and turned him to the side. As he put his leg out to stop himself, we heard a loud snap and he fell to the ground clutching his knee. Bye bye ACL! We didn`t know how bad it was at the time and Simon isn`t one to complain alot so he decided he wanted to complete the ride! We pressed on with me driving because he could not operate the clutch anymore. We came to a water crossing that other trucks navigated successfully before us so I went in. I might have had a little too much speed and the wave started climbing to the top of the hood. Three seconds later the motor just stopped dead. The water was barely touching the bottom of the doors so I decided to try and restart the motor. Bad move! It turned over about a quarter turn and that was it. She was hydro-locked! There was about two inches of water in the cab by the time we were able to get a tow out. We pulled all the plugs and sprayed Muskol mosquito repelent (last resort) in the distributor cap. The motor fired up and ran quite well but the unmistakable ticking of one or more bent rods could be heard. I was breaking everything I touched sofar!

Anyways long story short, I got him to the hospital back home at 6pm the next day and X-rays confirmed a torn ACL requiring surgery. A few weeks later he was walking better so we tore his engine apart and discovered two bent rods. I bought him a complete gasket kit and donated my spare 3VZE and we rebuilt his motor.

I still feel bad about that weekend for what happened to his engine but in the grand scheme of things, it all evens out. I can`t remember him ever riding any one of my dirtbikes without something breaking so we just chalk it up to karma and we don`t worry about it. As for his knee, well, he`ll think twice about trying to open up a can of you know what on me! Besides, his knee is actually stronger than it was before the surgery.

Interesting side note: We wrench on each other`s rigs regularly (even when the other isn`t there) so it`s like we are part owners of each other`s trucks. Just the other day I was a passenger in his `94 and he was powershifting and getting hard on the gas. I`ve got as much scrapped knuckle flesh on that thing as he does so I told him to calm down. He realised what he was doing and did as I asked. I would expect the same from him if I was being hard on my truck.

Toughguy

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the comments about the truck. Toyota trucks are hard to find around here, especially under $10,000. I was looking for a bush truck so I bought this one for $1200 thinking I wasn't going to fix it up too too nice and that way I wouldn't mind using it off-road. Well, thanks to our long weekend trip, it now has a few trail scars and I intend to use it for many years to come. I have purchased a solid axle for the front where I'll be putting an ARB air locker. (Best price so far is $1050 cdn from national4wd.com)

p.s. thank you Sean for the post!

You can see how much work this thing needed when I first got it:
http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...;oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post530707

Simon