BorregoFest Carnage Report

[gon2srf]

Well.....since rider77 admitted to his trail damage I thought I would throw out mine too.

One blown out DR/ICON front right coilover on my 07 FJC.

This is my 3rd blown lower seal. Not a really big deal for me because I happen to live 25 miles from the ICON shop so it will be easy to take it over there for a rebuild.

However the failure of the shock led to some other problems.

I have run without my sway-bar for 6 months in an attempt to avoid broken front sway bar links and torn CV boots.

Upon inspecting my rig yesterday I noticed the shock seal was blown and this had allowed uncontrolled travel as we were running out to Carrizo Mountain.

I never installed my limit straps so the UCA was free to slam around banging into the coilover. The seal on the UCA is damaged and my powder coated spring is dinged up pretty good. The blown shock and lack of a limit strap allowed the UCA to droop so low it was getting caught between the coils of the shock.

The moral of the story is this: If you remove the sway-bar then you should install limit straps. I am lucky I did not break an axle or CV joint out there.

I know of a couple other drivers who damaged some gear, lets hear about it!

[sdnative]

I have a couple new scrapes. Nothing major. All in all, it was a relatively uneventful weekend. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

[cruiserlarry]

Well.....since rider77 admitted to his trail damage I thought I would throw out mine too.

One blown out DR/ICON front right coilover on my 07 FJC.

This is my 3rd blown lower seal. Not a really big deal for me because I happen to live 25 miles from the ICON shop so it will be easy to take it over there for a rebuild.

However the failure of the shock led to some other problems.

I have run without my sway-bar for 6 months in an attempt to avoid broken front sway bar links and torn CV boots.

Upon inspecting my rig yesterday I noticed the shock seal was blown and this had allowed uncontrolled travel as we were running out to Carrizo Mountain.

I never installed my limit straps so the UCA was free to slam around banging into the coilover. The seal on the UCA is damaged and my powder coated spring is dinged up pretty good. The blown shock and lack of a limit strap allowed the UCA to droop so low it was getting caught between the coils of the shock.

The moral of the story is this: If you remove the sway-bar then you should install limit straps. I am lucky I did not break an axle or CV joint out there.

I know of a couple other drivers who damaged some gear, lets hear about it!

First, a comment on your coilover seal failure. While it may or may not have anything to do with your situation, removing the swaybar adds a lot of stress to the coilover. When turning, the additional force from the shift in force on the coilover when there is no swaybar to dampen the momentive force can cause a shock to blow. THe sway bar helps to reduce the force on the shock and coil when any side force is present - eliminate this additional protection, and you are more likely to experience a failure. At slower, off road speeds, this force is applied gradually to the coilover, and is unlikely to create an issue. But the tremendous forces present when the vehicle is moving at speed is a different story; the sway bar is there to reduce these forces, which causes less stress to the coilover, and provides better control of the vehicle. This situation will not be helped by a limiting strap, which is designed to restrict wheel and shock travel extremes.

Back on topic, regarding carnage on the trail:

The overgrown brush at the third water crossing on the Coyote Canyon took it's toll on my 2m/440Mhz antenna, located on top of my roof rack - ripped it's base in two. Well, this became an upgrade opportunity: taking a clue from Ollie, I installed a Diamond 9000 antenna mount, that can be lowered electrically from inside the cab...works great, and hopefully, I won't lose another antenna to the trail....

[raYGunn]

I made it out with only a few scuffs and scratches on rock rails and my LCA mounts. Not bad for some of the rocks I went over I think. Good spotting is key I guess! Thanks TomS and sdnative!

I understand the need to armor up the LCA area and beef up those arms more now. eek

[BoBoNel]

my bottle of wine fell over friday night....luckily i caught it in time and saved the contents....later to be consumed. whew....that was a close one though. other than that....no trail carnage i dont think.

[cruiserlarry]

my bottle of wine fell over friday night....luckily i caught it in time and saved the contents....later to be consumed. whew....that was a close one though. other than that....no trail carnage i dont think.

What are you "wine-ing" about ???

[gon2srf]

Exactly the response I expected! Tremendous forces! Come on Larry, these are a pair of $1100 racing shocks that I run hard for maybe 20 minutes at a time every 3 months. Do the long travel trucks that run Icons use a swaybar?

Next you'll be telling me that jumping dunes is bad for my rig, sheesh.

Well.....since rider77 admitted to his trail damage I thought I would throw out mine too.

One blown out DR/ICON front right coilover on my 07 FJC.

This is my 3rd blown lower seal. Not a really big deal for me because I happen to live 25 miles from the ICON shop so it will be easy to take it over there for a rebuild.

However the failure of the shock led to some other problems.

I have run without my sway-bar for 6 months in an attempt to avoid broken front sway bar links and torn CV boots.

Upon inspecting my rig yesterday I noticed the shock seal was blown and this had allowed uncontrolled travel as we were running out to Carrizo Mountain.

I never installed my limit straps so the UCA was free to slam around banging into the coilover. The seal on the UCA is damaged and my powder coated spring is dinged up pretty good. The blown shock and lack of a limit strap allowed the UCA to droop so low it was getting caught between the coils of the shock.

The moral of the story is this: If you remove the sway-bar then you should install limit straps. I am lucky I did not break an axle or CV joint out there.

I know of a couple other drivers who damaged some gear, lets hear about it!

First, a comment on your coilover seal failure. While it may or may not have anything to do with your situation, removing the swaybar adds a lot of stress to the coilover. When turning, the additional force from the shift in force on the coilover when there is no swaybar to dampen the momentive force can cause a shock to blow. THe sway bar helps to reduce the force on the shock and coil when any side force is present - eliminate this additional protection, and you are more likely to experience a failure. At slower, off road speeds, this force is applied gradually to the coilover, and is unlikely to create an issue. But the tremendous forces present when the vehicle is moving at speed is a different story; the sway bar is there to reduce these forces, which causes less stress to the coilover, and provides better control of the vehicle. This situation will not be helped by a limiting strap, which is designed to restrict wheel and shock travel extremes.

Back on topic, regarding carnage on the trail:

The overgrown brush at the third water crossing on the Coyote Canyon took it's toll on my 2m/440Mhz antenna, located on top of my roof rack - ripped it's base in two. Well, this became an upgrade opportunity: taking a clue from Ollie, I installed a Diamond 9000 antenna mount, that can be lowered electrically from inside the cab...works great, and hopefully, I won't lose another antenna to the trail....

[BorregoWrangler]

my bottle of wine fell over friday night....luckily i caught it in time and saved the contents....later to be consumed. whew....that was a close one though. other than that....no trail carnage i dont think.

[cruiserlarry]

Exactly the response I expected! Tremendous forces! Come on Larry, these are a pair of $1100 racing shocks that I run hard for maybe 20 minutes at a time every 3 months. Do the long travel trucks that run Icons use a swaybar?

Next you'll be telling me that jumping dunes is bad for my rig, sheesh.

Well, IMO, it's not the couple of hours of off-roading w/o the sway bar that would cause the problem, it's the months of street driving between that could do it. I don't know if it is a cause in your case (third seal, huh? ), but I've seen it destroy shocks on many other vehicles that are street-driven without the sway bar. That's one reason why they make disconnects for the Jeeps, and not just remove the sway bars.

The long-travel trucks that race run for 1,000 miles or less between rebuilds, and spent no time running on harder, less forgiving pavement. They also weigh less, and have their mounting positions and stress points designed around the equipment they use - not completely analagous to putting coilovers on a basically stock vehicle, driven for thousands of miles on the pavement, with factory engineered handling equipment removed....

But more importantly, how much air are you going to get this year at SNT ???

[gon2srf]

Well, IMO, it's not the couple of hours of off-roading w/o the sway bar that would cause the problem, it's the months of street driving between that could do it. I don't know if it is a cause in your case (third seal, huh? ), but I've seen it destroy shocks on many other vehicles that are street-driven without the sway bar. That's one reason why they make disconnects for the Jeeps, and not just remove the sway bars.

The long-travel trucks that race run for 1,000 miles or less between rebuilds, and spent no time running on harder, less forgiving pavement. They also weigh less, and have their mounting positions and stress points designed around the equipment they use - not completely analagous to putting coilovers on a basically stock vehicle, driven for thousands of miles on the pavement, with factory engineered handling equipment removed....

But more importantly, how much air are you going to get this year at SNT ???

I drive straight wherever I go, except where there are turns so there should be no problem. .

If I had the nitrogen and the press I'd rebuild them every 1000K.