rbarton
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Acworth, GA
I know that Rusty's name has been batted around ad-nauseum over the years...both pro and negative comments from many. I just wanted to give credit where credit is due and go on record as saying he really helped me out this past week while I was attempting to take a family vacation and had a major problem with one of his parts.
While towing my 96 XJ to Myrtle Beach, SC from Atlanta, the rear end of our little class C camper started bobbing and swinging wildly. We quickly pulled to the side of the road and after checking tires and the expected list of possible causes, my wife notices the track bar of the XJ is hanging down below the axle. A closer inspection revealed it had broken at the collar weld. Oh crap! now what?!? We were in the middle of nowhere and were flat towing. Without the track bar, we'd have to leave the XJ there...which I knew would mean it would not be there, at least in one piece when we returned. We decided to see if we could find a local welder to come by and help us out and to our surprise, we were able to do just that. But, the idiot put the bushing back in before he was finished and melted a fair portion of it, which could not be seen from the outside. To make a long story short, he left, we reinstalled the track bar and went about 100 yards before another small bump in the road ripped the sleeve from the bushing and sent the XJ flailing side to side violently...again. So, after driving from bump to bump and having to stop and pull over every time we got a bad case of death wobble, we found a well-lit motel and paid the owner to let us park the XJ until we could get back to it. We continued on to the campground and had to have the XJ towed about 35 miles to where we were so that we didn't have to setup and then break campe the next afternoon.
Okay...here's where Rusty came into the picture. This track bar had broken before, in the same spot, two years earlier. Again, while on the road and NOT on the trail?!?! A friend had a portable welder and we were blessed to be able to fix it on the trail. It looked like it would hold so I never replaced it. I told Rusty about it and he offered to send a replacement, but there didn't appear to be a need then. Many trails later, still no problems. It took the horrible roads in South Carolina to break it again. While waiting for the welder to arrive, we called Rusty and told him what had happened. He agreed to send another one out via Fed Ex overnight to our campground. The next day, it arrived by 2pm and although it was an inch shorter than the one we were replacing, I had enough length on the frame mount bushing to make up the difference, or so it appears for now.
I am going to send the original track bar back to Rusty for him to look at, as requested and hopefully he will be able to see what happened. He told me that he had never seen one break before, when it happened the first time.
I have had issues with stuff being shipped to my home from Rusty in the past, as many others have stated on this forum. It was frustrating, I admit. But, when the real need for parts that meant being stranded in the middle of nowhere or not, Rusty came through and got the parts to me that I needed.
Thank you Rusty! This saved our trip and allowed us to continue on to our next destination as scheduled.
(Sorry for the long post...)
While towing my 96 XJ to Myrtle Beach, SC from Atlanta, the rear end of our little class C camper started bobbing and swinging wildly. We quickly pulled to the side of the road and after checking tires and the expected list of possible causes, my wife notices the track bar of the XJ is hanging down below the axle. A closer inspection revealed it had broken at the collar weld. Oh crap! now what?!? We were in the middle of nowhere and were flat towing. Without the track bar, we'd have to leave the XJ there...which I knew would mean it would not be there, at least in one piece when we returned. We decided to see if we could find a local welder to come by and help us out and to our surprise, we were able to do just that. But, the idiot put the bushing back in before he was finished and melted a fair portion of it, which could not be seen from the outside. To make a long story short, he left, we reinstalled the track bar and went about 100 yards before another small bump in the road ripped the sleeve from the bushing and sent the XJ flailing side to side violently...again. So, after driving from bump to bump and having to stop and pull over every time we got a bad case of death wobble, we found a well-lit motel and paid the owner to let us park the XJ until we could get back to it. We continued on to the campground and had to have the XJ towed about 35 miles to where we were so that we didn't have to setup and then break campe the next afternoon.
Okay...here's where Rusty came into the picture. This track bar had broken before, in the same spot, two years earlier. Again, while on the road and NOT on the trail?!?! A friend had a portable welder and we were blessed to be able to fix it on the trail. It looked like it would hold so I never replaced it. I told Rusty about it and he offered to send a replacement, but there didn't appear to be a need then. Many trails later, still no problems. It took the horrible roads in South Carolina to break it again. While waiting for the welder to arrive, we called Rusty and told him what had happened. He agreed to send another one out via Fed Ex overnight to our campground. The next day, it arrived by 2pm and although it was an inch shorter than the one we were replacing, I had enough length on the frame mount bushing to make up the difference, or so it appears for now.
I am going to send the original track bar back to Rusty for him to look at, as requested and hopefully he will be able to see what happened. He told me that he had never seen one break before, when it happened the first time.
I have had issues with stuff being shipped to my home from Rusty in the past, as many others have stated on this forum. It was frustrating, I admit. But, when the real need for parts that meant being stranded in the middle of nowhere or not, Rusty came through and got the parts to me that I needed.
Thank you Rusty! This saved our trip and allowed us to continue on to our next destination as scheduled.
(Sorry for the long post...)