For those of you running Rusty's tracbar

Take it off and chuck it as far as you can. It is a piece of trash and cost my friend his jeep. I know that many of you already know this is true, but here is a reminder for those of you considering the Rusty's trac bar. Oh and my friend is physically ok, but emotionally scarred since it was his love.




ya, thats 0.25 steel

sorry for your friend's lost. just glad that is ok.

Glad he is ok to bad about the jeep though.

I had a rustys track bar for a really long time with zero issues other than wear and tear and when I parted out the jeep it was on my friend bought it and a year and a half later it is still in good shape.
You can bend break and wear out anything from any where

Did the TRE snap off, or did the bar itself break?

Looks like the tre broke. The one part not made by rustys and the part that has been reported as the main cause of issues with the track bar. Was your frind using limiting strap on the passenger side like a lot of guys do?

No limiting straps, only sway bar discos. It broke on the TRE after the jam nut. What does the limiting strap do? He was doing about 30 in a corner when the TRE broke and he lost steering. The jeep hit the bank, ripped off the wheel and climbed about 10ft into a tree. The jeep then flipped and slid backwards. Heres a video of a highway patrol pushing the jeep out of the road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLNc7Lfkktg

Limiting straps keep the suspension from over articulating and stressing the track bar and steering componets. any one building a lifted jeep should be using one of the propper length and size, cheap insurance in my opinon.

Im not about to defend rusty's, if I could do it again I wouldn't have his trac bar. But if it's a failure of the TRE, it should be more of a warning against using a bad TRE I suppose?

When Rusty designed the tracbar, shouldn't he have used a bigger and stronger tre?

xjcody said:

When Rusty designed the tracbar, shouldn't he have used a bigger and stronger tre?

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Let me ask you this
You build and test a product and it performs the way you intend it to, then you sell it to the masses and a small percentage have a issue with breaking it. Is it your fault they use it in a capacity you origonally didn't intend?

Maybe that is why the xj track bar they sell has 3 differnt tre's they used over the years. Could it also be a bad choice in a tre? I think it could. But then again some of the lifts now days go way beyond sane.so who is to say if they used even the biggest baddest tre ever built some one wouldn't bend or break it not to mention it would raise the price out of afordable for the most possible customers. I sell parts build parts and this is only a fraction of the junk to think about in doing so



Edit: I'm not defending rustys just trying to offer a differnt thought pattern than most end users of his products

Can't tell from the pic but it's possible he didnt have enough thread engagement.

Looks to me like it would have snapped either way. I wouldn't say that that rig was built out of the lines of sanity. Looks like a mild 3-4" LA lift; a lift that the tracbar should have perform properly with. Rusty should be receiving an email with those pictures in it. I've been lied to 2 times already, 2 times too many to defend him.

Ouch, That sucks.

Man this picture needs to be posted in every 4x4 forum on the net. Rusty's NEEDS TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS! I have had nothing but problems with his stuff in the past. 99% of posts about Rusty's at least on here are all negative. I think that speaks for itself...

And BTW, thats what these parts are sold for...MODS. That is the whole basis of the off-road industry. If they can't stand by their product they don't need to be in business. We buy products to enhance our Jeeps, not to make them worse. If anything these parts should be failing on the trail, not on the street, and especially not in a 30 mph turn.

I mean normally I would fault the driver in this case because insurance would say this was caused by a non OEM part but hell, the whole damn Jeep is totaled. He could have died because of this one stupid part!!!

Aftermarket parts are suppose to be stronger and better than OEM, thats one of the reasons we modify them. Should I de-lift etc. because of something like this? I think not...

Straight off Rusty's site:

Limited Warranty Rusty's Off Road products are warranted to be free from material and workmanship defects for as long as the original purchaser owns the vehicle. Rusty's limit of liability under this warranty is to repair or replace the defective product. Cost such as labor fees, loss of use, loss of time and freight charges are not covered. If you think you have a defective product, contact us for a return authorization.



If you ask me this should include a new TJ...:fuse:OK I'm done ranting

He's running about 5-6 lift with 36 Iroks. It doesn't sit too high considering the massive meats.

To prove xj's are better here is one of me pulling him out. In all fairness, the mud was too deep for me to even consider it.

I'm glad he's going to be fine.

scary wreck, i hope he gets back into another Jeep soon!

Jester99 said:

99% of posts about Rusty's at least on here are all negative.

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Prove it. I want to see your 99% before this post. No, not a poll after the fact, not posts after this one. You stated 99% of the posts regrding Rusty's stff are negative. I wanna see it.

Thanks.

I'm not wasting my time searching for Rusty's threads. I've been on this forum for years, only lately as an official member, but I've read enough over the years and bought enough from them to know that they sell junk. 99% is a figure of speech, an exaggeration...meaning a lot in Layman's. I haven't been on here longer than you Mr. 7,000+ poster because I have other things to attend too. I know what I've read and what other people have said. I don't need anything else.

I had a Rusty's tracbar and it too broke under very little pressure. Sure glad I didn;t wind up on my lid like that (very lucky)!

That definitely sucks regardless of who is at fault. But like Gerr said, limit straps, the amount of stress on a track bar fully extended till its at its binding point is bad, It will brake, maybe some easier than others. All the good fab guys I know strap the diff right at the point it just starts to bind. Why do so many Rock Crawlers use link setup with coil overs? No worries about Track Bars.