Long Term Wheeling Trips

I am going on a 5 day 6 night expedition in the AZ desert with some nissan guys i wheel with...

We will be running Upper and Lower Woodpecker, Lower Ajax, Martinez Mine, Coke Ovens, Battle Axe, Hackberry Trail, and the Superstition Mtn loop.

I will have a 97 XLT on 31's with a 2" TT/Warior lift.

what should i take in spare parts.... stuff that breaks frequently. I am new to wheeling explorers since i have always wheeled in a nissan pickup. Since i will be wheeling with all nissans i figure i need to be well preped to repair mt junk should it break. So other than extra fluids and belts what all should i take with me?

Thanks you for any help you can provide.

If you go to explorer4x4.com there is a list of FAQ... there is a list of everything you could ever imagine from food to duct tape!! Good Luck

ok mabey i missed ti but that had nothing i needed.... i have already read all of that. Other than the wheel bearings i dont see anything that could be a problem.

Is that all i will have to worry about with my explorer while im on the trails?

maybe an extra cv

well **** i cant believe that is all im gonna need....

i figered this post would stretch out for a while so i posted a month in advance.

might want to try talking to gjerret he wheels a 99 eb really hard, see what he takes with him and then make your list, i am sure others will be in here, just give it time.

well i will prolly be up there with the hard wheelers by next summer... i wish i still ha dmy nissan but the exploder has its good points too.

ok any help on this will be much apreciated... im gonna be 2500 miels from home in a vehicle i have only wheeled twice.

Go to the junk yard and pick up an extra rear driveshaft. Rebuild that spare you picked up and strapit in the back.

Do you have rock sliders on your rig already. If you dont you may suffer much rocker, t-case skidplate, gas tank skidplate, and verious other damage. I suffered minor damage at truckhaven on a 1 day run that was not really hard. With the trails you are running you may want to look into these a little more.

Defenately take a spare cv shaft or two. Make sure you take a small box/bag of nuts and bolts. These are for the main conection areas of the suspention.

Extra key for the door/ignition put it on a necklace, locking yourself out of your truck in the middle of no where sucks (trust me).

You may also want to keep a spare front and rear brake line. You never know if you may snap one or get it hung on something strange.

Remember as you pointed out, you will be a very long way from home. Some of this may sound trivial or dumb, but you cant just have a buddy towstrap you home. Nor can you call you parents/signifcant other to bring you a key to get in your truck. Lets also not forget to take a extra two hundred or more dollors in any form (credit card, traveler checks, cash) may brake something really strange that you are not prepared for.

Hope this helps and does not discourage you from venturing out this way.

aint no way im gonna miss this run... i got the rock sliders built but i think im gonna gusset the mounting legs a little more b4 installing.

i also made skid plates for my entire undercarriage.

i got brake lies stuff and CV's per advise from this thread. Now i am off to get a driveshaft and nuts and bolts.

"what should i take in spare parts.... stuff that breaks frequently." Explorer stuff doesn't break frequently.

Your explorer is mostly stock. If you don't stupidly hammer it hard I don't think you'll break anything. I've driven cross country several times, wheeled hard, and still made it home. I cannot imagine how you would break a driveshaft unless you purposely went on a trail way more difficult than an almost-stock Explorer should be on in the first place. Stock and almost-stock Explorers by the dozens from around the country have gone to Moab for our events and made it home.

The following assumes you are going to stay on moderate trails since yours shouldn't be on an extreme trail in the first place: besides all of the equipment listed in my Trail Equipment article found on this site, the only things extra I could think of would be a spare hub and ujoint - you might blow a ujoint, but not a driveshaft. I've gone through three thermostats and it would not be nice to have one go out on the trail, so pack one of those. Spare serpentine belt, hoses, etc. Pack one of the centerpin bolts that line up your rear leafsprings onto the axle perch. One time someone bent an outer tie rod, you might think of packing one of those. CVs are going to cost - you have separate left and right front driveaxles and will have to pack one of each, and they ain't cheap, so if you want to plan for that, pick them up used at a junkyard for maybe $100 each as trail spares, with the 1/2" drive breakover and huge socket you'll need to take your axle nut off with. Since you don't have a front locker and big tires to add stress, your CVs should hold as long as you don't hammer it with the steering turned full left or right. The only CVs I've seen blown by any of us didn't occur until after we had modified way beyond the 31" tire/TT lift stage.

The thing is, your Explorer probably won't break. I've lost count of all of the Jeeps and other vehicles I've seen break stuff while I was wheeling my almost-stock Explorer with them. And most of the Explorer breakage I've seen involved modifications made to the Explorer, not the Explorer itself (lift kit brackets cracking, etc).

Be prepared, but enjoy your trip. You'll do fine. The only thing extra I can think of is that it might be a good idea to learn about the trails you will be on. I don't know most of those trails, you might contact Rick or Hammer or other Arizonians to find out if any of those may be too extreme for you.

EDIT: Check and tighten all bolts, etc. I asked this same question awhile back after nearly having a critical one back out and wanted to know what else I should pack. Not too much response on that thread either; like I said, your Explorer is pretty tough.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=48040&highlight=break

well all of the trails for the first half of the week will be rated 4.0+ so i will probably break something... i should be on 32's with 2" of lift by the run and hopefully have at least my fron diff locked if not both, just depends on how fast i get the stuff in from the place i ordered em.

If you mean 4+ on the Moab scale of trail difficulty you are going to tear the helloutta your undercarriage with that setup (and if you don't have a locker by then you will spend all day getting strapped by others, not a good way to make a good impression for yourself). In addition to rocksliders and full skid plates, weld a strip of plate steel to the bottom of your front crossmember to protect it some. Mine is so bent up and destroyed that I'll never be able to realign correctly or install a lift kit since it's so bent that the attachment points would be too far off.

If we took a group on 4+ Moab trails and you showed up on 31's or 32's and weren't even locked, I wouldn't let you join us. You would easily double or triple the amount of time it would take the group to finish the trail and possibly destroy enough to end up spending the night on the trail. That's like inviting yourself along on a SCUBA trip and coming with just a snorkel and expecting the others to share their tanks and stay attached to you - it kinda ruins the fun for everyone else and will guarantee that you won't get invited again on future trips. I'm not trying to be hard, just stating fact and being practical. If you are really doing this, go to 33" tires and a locker, or consider tackling a set of slightly lesser trails. Locked on 33's you will be able to go almost anywhere. Take the trouble to go to 33's and a locker and you will surprize everyone in your group on this run with how well you perform and shock most of them with your Explorer's abilities, but will small tires and unlocked you will just be a burden. Lock the rear and there will be no loss of reliability; the 8.8 will do fine and will not break. If you lock the front that means you will be one of maybe only ten of us in the nation with an IFS front locker in a 2nd generation Explorer and then yes you absolutely will need to buy spare frontaxleshaft CV assemblies because of the added stress.

I strongly advise you to wait for your further buildup and stay on trails that won't destroy your vehicle until you are built for them. It's your vehicle though so good luck, be safe, and have fun whatever your decision.

Excellent advice as always Gerald

Thanks Been there, done that, and know what to expect; I just want people to have a great time on their fourwheeling trips and make it back home (so I hope my post came across with the concern intended and not as arrogance).

I've been following your posts from the first day I discovered this site. You are very articulate and communicate your thoughts very well. You also provide a lot of useful information based on experience and age that others tend to leave off.

im not sure what scale they were using but the trails are rated on a 6 point scale. The guys who scouted were running nissans which are very similar in strength, aftermarket support, and IFS front end limitations and werer running mostly 31-33's with a rear locker or limited slip.... albeit the limited slip guys had to winch and use lots of skinny they made it OK.

these are all major trails in the AZ area so a google search should turn up a good amount of pictures and info on each. They look reasonable if you are willing to follow a spotter. I think.

Whew, that sounds better on a 6 point scale (the Moab scale is 4+ for the toughest doable trails requiring extensive vehicle mods and expectation of body damage and 5 is reserved for impossible rockcrawling winchathon trails). I do believe Charles Wells has written a book now for AZ trails; if you don't already have it, I highly recommend his books and you will get specific descriptions of the trails, their difficulty, etc.

yeah i got that book an dgot some videos from each of the trails we are running.... looks like it should be a fun time... might break something but that is the risk we run in wheeling.

Originally posted by DEROCHA
Excellent advice as always Gerald

Click to expand...

Here Here. I've leared a lot from reading your posts.

Nissanboy, from what I've seen on the site in terms of what people are breaking, its front end parts. Bring one hub, its the same for both sides. CVs... well they're different for each side. Most places around me will sell you a reman axle for $90+core. Tie rods? i'd say thats a must have. Maybe a lower ball joint? Ujoints front and rear are a definite must have, they are small, cheap, easy to replace and usually the first to break.

Make sure you have the tools to replace all of these parts, otherwise they're useless. I've found my most usefull tool is a 2 foot long 1" diameter pipe that I can slip over the end of a wratchet. Also a shop manual. Ford is preferable, Chiltons is quite good. When you jack up the truck to work under it, place a tire under the frame rail close to where you are working; offroad you'll be jacking up on loose dirt and a high-lift or the stock jack is NOT SAFE for working under the vehicle.

With the 31s I think the best advice is to have a good spotter and be careful when chosing the right line. Don't be macho and do something that you can't. Use your skidplates, but don't abuse them.