freerider15
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- FoCo, Crawlorado
So there I am, making great time coming back from Moab, doing 70-75 the whole way home. Well I had gotten the dreaded deathwobble on the way home going through Vail (hit the bridge stressors and it sent me into the wobble). Well those weren't THAT bad, but still come to a full stop fits of DW. So Im about home, I'm turning off I-70 to head to Fort Collins...im close...1 hour left. Hit one of the uneven rises in the road on the turn... and BAM, DW HARD! almost sent me into one of the barriers as I tried to avoid the car next to me, and the one merging. This time it was overly bad. I looked in my rearview mirror and there was a dense cloud of tire smoke from the tires :bug:. Alright, so I keep going and hit a SMALL bump and the thing shakes horribly, which just realllly wasn't right, that and there was less response in the steering. SO I pulled over and looked to see what was wrong. Crouched down and and said my heart just kind of sank. Anyone else notice something wrong with the picture :dunno: 
I think it started to go coming back down Moab rim. I noticed for some reason my steering wheel was sitting cockeyed, and with my setup that means something is wrong, since that coulndt happen without something moving when it shouldn't. I looked at at everything when I came off the trail but couldn't see anything, and it still drove fine...
So, after pulling off in North Denver (waterworld exit) I just kinda sat there at a gas station thinking about WTF to do. My cell phone had decided to stop charging ever again, so no cell phone to call roomates or buddy with trailer (left earlier in the week from Moab) to come get me. Didn't have another battery so my welding sticks were useless. Finally remembered my ratchet straps and managed to ratchet strap the OAB back to the axle like so:
I got DW a couple times driving home, and had to re-ratchet it down. THankfully this all happened about 2:00 in the morning so there was pretty much no traffic on I-25. I limped the Jeep home at about 35 MPH all the way from Denver to Fort Collins, and took me about 2.5 hours...
Well when I got home, I took a look a closer look the next day. I thought maybe the welds broke, man was I wrong. The DW was severe enough that it RIPPED the 1/4" metal in half, taking half the coil bucket with it. You can kind of see in the pics just how much damage was done :shock:
I think it started to go coming back down Moab rim. I noticed for some reason my steering wheel was sitting cockeyed, and with my setup that means something is wrong, since that coulndt happen without something moving when it shouldn't. I looked at at everything when I came off the trail but couldn't see anything, and it still drove fine...
So, after pulling off in North Denver (waterworld exit) I just kinda sat there at a gas station thinking about WTF to do. My cell phone had decided to stop charging ever again, so no cell phone to call roomates or buddy with trailer (left earlier in the week from Moab) to come get me. Didn't have another battery so my welding sticks were useless. Finally remembered my ratchet straps and managed to ratchet strap the OAB back to the axle like so:
I got DW a couple times driving home, and had to re-ratchet it down. THankfully this all happened about 2:00 in the morning so there was pretty much no traffic on I-25. I limped the Jeep home at about 35 MPH all the way from Denver to Fort Collins, and took me about 2.5 hours...
Well when I got home, I took a look a closer look the next day. I thought maybe the welds broke, man was I wrong. The DW was severe enough that it RIPPED the 1/4" metal in half, taking half the coil bucket with it. You can kind of see in the pics just how much damage was done :shock:
