It Finally Happened: Torsion Bar Breakage

[GJarrett]

I guess Rick jinxed me by putting up that article on the main page stating that no IFS has ever broken yet. I suppose I am the first
:mattmoon: Here ya go, Rick

Dead Link Removed

This happened when I hit a dip on a residential street a little too fast during 28 degree weather last night. You can see the old scrape line on the bar where I always banged it fourwheeling on rocks, and the internal radial stress fracture ring where a particularly hard outside ding exerted stress into the interior of the bar.

I suppose it was waiting for an excuse to break at that deep ding, and the sudden twisting in very cold weather was just the ticket it needed to snap it. I doubt if it would have happened in 80 degree weather.

It's snowing right now as I write this and I am not in the mood to crawl on a freezing wet driveway to R&R a torsion bar, so I will wait until tomorrow to replace it before I move to Anderson, SC. I am beginning to think that God wants me to stay in Texas.

I still don't blame the bar. You all know I have banged the heck out of my Explorer rockcrawling, and you can't change the temper specs of metal and still have it keep the same suspensional properties. To my knowledge I am still the only one of us who has broken one, so unless you really abuse yours I don't anticipate anything that you have to worry about.

However, winter is coming on. Those of you living in colder areas that have wheeled hard and beat up your torsions on rocks might want to take a close look at the dings on them to see how deep they are.

 

[Rick]

 

[Michigander]

tough break.... but i guess sooner or later it was going to happen to someone.

 

[NoBoundaries]

Wow, I think you are right about Rick jinxing it. Although, what he stated is still correct, "I have yet to see someone break ANY component in their IFS system while offroading." Good thing you were on the street or he'd have to change that.

Regardless, sorry about the break.

 

[Yomie]

Just glad to see your safe

 

[Jefe]

RICK!!! What have you done? :exporange :fire: . . .
. . .Glad it didn't happen off-roading. . that would have been fun to limp home without.

I was wondering if all that scraping/banging on the torsion bars was bad. . .now I know.
Hmm.. . I wonder where you could fit a spare set of torsion bars
. . . That is, until RCD comes out with their Coil-Over Lift

 

[CBoug76]

So Who's going to be the First to come up with some Torsion Bar Skid Plates?

Sorry to hear about that Gerald!

Give Torrie an e-mail, im sure he'll have a new one in the mail to you tonight!

 

[Alec]

Sorry to hear about that, Gerald. At least the bar is easy to replace. Hopefully we won't get a second victim soon.

 

[Ray Lobato]

Gerald, leave it to you to be the first person in history to ever break a torsion bar. Man when it rains, it pours.

Originally posted by CBoug76
So Who's going to be the First to come up with some Torsion Bar Skid Plates?

I had this made along time ago, just to make sure that what happened to Gerald doesn't happen to me. :smoke: All 85 pounds of it works great, however I have been high centered on it before. Once at Truckhaven I got high centered on the top of this hill and Ray Hutchenson had to winch me off. I had graded the whole top of that hill off to a smooth trail the width of the skid plate. This is how my truck got the name of Grader, eventhough Tom Davis keeps wanting to call it Dozer instead.
On the serious side, This thing has really saved the underside of my truck on several occasions, as those that went to Frank Raines with Gerald and I can attest to all the metal scrapping sounds coming from the underside of Grader when we were playing on that bolder bed.

 

[JDraper]

Hmmmm, makes me think about putting some U-channel over my torsion bars. They would make nice sliders too. Maybe I'll have to take a peek at it on Saturday. Hopefully I won't ding mine Sunday at Paragon.

 

[TarHeel085]

man that sucks, but it least nothin REALLY bad came out of it. hey Ray, do you have a thread on that skid plate of yours? if not can you send me an e-mail on how you did it?

 

[Dannyboy]

Anybody ever herculined a torsion bar?

sorry I'm lmao so I thought someone else might too

 

[tdavis]

Gerald; I assume your going to at least inspect the other remaining torsion bar too, right?

I'd probably just replace it myself, to feel safe..

 

[XLT_66]

Man, first Hurculiner on your Hootus....now you broke your tosion bar......i would say your luck is actually getting better..

 

[GJarrett]

Yep, when it rains it pours, and this seems like monsoon season right now. I'll check the other one very closely before heading crosscountry to SC this weekend. Certainly I'm not unlucky enough to break two, when no one else at all has ever broken one, right?

Right?

 

[RFR2212]

Right!
Pete

 

[countrymz]

Moving to Anderson

Gerald,
Where are you moving to in Anderson? I go to college at Clemson University which is only 12 miles down the road. Its a great area. Lake Hartwell and Keeowee(sp?) are beautiful and there are some trails if you can find them. The mountains are too far at all either. Also the jamboree comes in October, but it is dominated by non-explorers. There are also a couple of decent four-by shops in the area. I have the highest modified explorer (Not lowered) on campus and would like to see all the mods you've done to yours. So when you get some free time and aren't exploring in the explorer.