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Post Your Strange Trail fixes That Work!

I was at the drag strip one night and one of the 'ol timers there was running a Camaro he'd just got running again ('68 barn find). 2nd round he popped the radiator. He ran over to his son's big fancy trailer and grabbed a can of biscuits. Stuffed one through the core where the leak was and ran the rest of the night like that.

Worked for another 'ol timer at the truck repair shop. I was helping him rebuild his old International tractor he used to push the lots. Watched him lace up the rear tire with a leather shoe string and fix a tear that was about 8" long. I think he soaked it in water so it would shrink after he was done, but it's been a few years and I'm not 100% sure on that.

To pull a seal on a front hub, remove the locking mechanism and take off the spindle nuts. Pop the top of the rotor with your palm to unseat the front bearing and eject it outward and remove the bearing. Reinstall the outter spindle nut till it's flush with the end of the spindle. Then yank outward a couple times to pop out the inner bearing and seal. 9 times out of 10, you can reinstall the seal without any problem. The only time I've not been able to reuse the seal, the spring was pulled from the seal. I'm not sure this was caused by this process as they were pretty rough to begin with.
 
Boat Hull Plug

While on a short short local wheeling trip in the greenhorn access area of placer/nevada county with my brother in law and his newly purchased 77Jimmy, his transmission pan sprung a rather large leak. Previous owner im guessing installed a junkyard transmission, with the silly squishy rubber plug in the pan to stop the draining process. Anyhow going over rough scrub brushes that plug ripped out. The solution was found at NAPA in the way of a boat hull plug and more fluid, After getting back to his rig it was a simple 5 min fix. That was 6 months ago and evidently its still holding strong
 
I was in the middle of Nevada in my 18 wheeler and I look back and see my trailer tire squished, I pull over and I find a cutter blade stuck in the tread area. It was half an inch from the side and the pointy part was all the way in the tire.
I tried to plug it with my plug kit but every time I pumped it up to 60lbs it spit out the plug, so I had a sheet metal screw screwed in from the side to keep the cut from opening up and letting the plug spit out.
It's been a week and it's still holding. I had to keep it at 80lbs no more or it would leak.
I had 2 full loads on it that way so far that is 80k.
I have to fix it right now that I am back home but it got me out for free, usually I could call road service and pay around $500 for a tire repair I can do at a shop for $25.:D
 
A broken c-clip axle can be shoved back in and held with the beam of a Hi-Lift. We ratchet strapped the jack beam to the spring hangers and oiled the sidewall (would have used grease if we had any, but oil works). Just remember to leave it a little loose so it can bounce around. It'll try to twist the beam around with the tire if you pull the straps too tight. Then you can just drive out in 4wd. Done this on a burb and a Heep now.:D

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nv_k5 said:
my dad and i were exploring some hills around our house in a jeep j-10 pickup. We dropped the rear driveline after both u-joints gave out. Teh only tools we had were some open end wrenches and some pretty healthy chain. We used the u-bolt retainers to go through the chain on both ends and after a few seconds or twisting up the chain the truck started moving. We drove about 10 miles home on really crappy fire trails with a chain as a rear driveline.
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voted number 1 trail fix 2010

congratulations!
 
Ok so its kind of a trail fix, I met a bunch of friends up on the hill and one of them drove their car to the trail and locked his keys in the trunk. It has the trunk release button in the glove box but it doesn't work without the keys in the ign. so I grabbed some old wire and pulled the plug off the back of the cigarette lighter and the button and touched the two together with the wire and bingo bango he got his keys back. Like I told them I probably wouldn't have thought of it so quick if I didn't know there was a cooler in there full of ice cold beer!!!
 
Don't have any pictures of this, but my buddy and i were wheeling our rigs out in N Cali a few years back and he broke a body mount on the bed, and we didn't trailer up so we had to drive 2 hours home on the freeway with out rigs and the terrain in and out of the trails was pretty rugged. we limped his truck back to camp so that we didn't break any more body mounts. We found a tree that was about the width of the space between the frame and the body so we cut about an 8" section of the tree out with a saw i had in my camping gear and used ratchet straps to hold it to the bed...held so good the whole way home even with his gear in the bed of the truck...didn't flop around at all. It actually worked so great that he forgot about it being a trail fix for 3 months. It wasn't until i asked what he ended up doing to fix the bed mount that he actually remembered it had a piece of tree holding it together LOL.
 
throttleissues said:
A broken c-clip axle can be shoved back in and held with the beam of a Hi-Lift. We ratchet strapped the jack beam to the spring hangers and oiled the sidewall (would have used grease if we had any, but oil works). Just remember to leave it a little loose so it can bounce around. It'll try to twist the beam around with the tire if you pull the straps too tight. Then you can just drive out in 4wd. Done this on a burb and a Heep now.:D
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Thats one I have to see. I just don't get how it doesn't bind on the sidewall?? I have toyo m/ts and it seams like it would bind too much.I guess its things like that that at first glance seams like it wouldn't work but its good to know that it does. Its definitely one for the memory bank ;)
 
smartcarkiller said:
Thats one I have to see. I just don't get how it doesn't bind on the sidewall?? I have toyo m/ts and it seams like it would bind too much.I guess its things like that that at first glance seams like it wouldn't work but its good to know that it does. Its definitely one for the memory bank ;)
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I watched a guy do this with a stock TJ he was running in Las Cruces. He didn't have aggressive sidewalls so it wasn't that hard to keep the ture spinning on the Jack. He dumped a bunch of oil on it and added a little a he went back to his trailer.
 
Trail fixes

I have braided rope together to make fan belts after they have broken, the instructions where in an old boy scout handbook my father gave me. I always carry zipties and bailing wire in my rig. Have made diffs that cracked hold together with both. Self adhesive electrical tape works well for sealing blown hoses and brake lines, just use the bailing wire as a splint after you connect the hose back together. Drove home 35 miles after I tore off a front brake line. Used my wifes good stainless steel camping pan for a gas tank after I put a hole in the trucks. Used the gravity feed method with the hood in the back of the truck and my buddy hanging on to the pot out the window.
 
I've used the bolts from my fog lights to replace the ones on my crossmember that vibrated their way out.

I've also wrapped a tow strap around my tire and tied off to a tree to pull my self up some trails. (no winch)
 
Metrodps said:
Tire tricks there has to be more "hillbilly" fixes.
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Loss of pressure on the valve: if the valve cap can't stop the pressure loss, put some soap inside of the cap (almost half full; not liquid soap!!!), make the pressure on the tire and put the cap with soap inside; the valve will not lose the pressure anymore (can put the valve cap in this way, even w/o valve inside and won't lose the pressure!).


Metrodps said:
Tire bead won't seat:
Take some either and spray inside tire. Stand back and toss a match at it. *POOF* Bead pops up to rim and you can get air into it now.
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Tire bead won't seat: if you don't have spray/gas to put inside and toss a match, or, don't know how to do that, but you have an air supply and the gap between tire bead and rim, it's not so big, use soft paper (table/towels/toilet paper) to fill the gap around and pour (wet) with water; this moisture, will keep the air inside, enough time, to get enough pressure to seat the bead on rim.
 
mudrunnr said:
I read about this as a kid.then finally i got to put it to practice...i started my truck with a chainsaw!!! my girlfriend thot i lost my mind.we were out gettin wood and usin the wench and ran the battery down and we were high on the mountain with no way out but to walk and i remembered what i read when i was a teenager and took the blade off the saw and the belt off the alternater and connected the belt to the drive gear for the chain and spun the thing till it charged the battery enough to start the truck! my girlfriend was amazed and i was glad we didnt have to walk down the mountain.--------p.s. make sure the key is in the running position before you spin the alternater:wink1:
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that is the most amazing thing i have ever heard of
 
I was out wheelin my dads 79 full size long bed at a gravel pit years and years ago when I hit a 3 foot jump in the road that jumped out in front of me so I had to show it who's boss...:doah: Well the battery flew out of the mount tore a hole in the radiator and the positive cable tore out the side post and the fan punctured a hole in the battery and threw a fan belt which I couldn't find.. With Duct tape I fixed the leak in the battery and pounded the post back in the battery and crimped the radiator fins to stop the leak in the rad.Used some parachute cord to make a fan belt. Drove straight to my dads and dropped it off and told him I hit a speed bump at the Fred Meyers parking lot. I also told him it was his fault the batt. flew out cause he didn't tighten the hold down clamp when he put the batt. in. I felt like such an ass that I just had to tell him about 8 years later when I was sure he wouldn't punch me.;) Turns out he knew what happened about a week after it had happened after offering my best friend a beer he spilled the beans, friends are awesome.
 
t-shirt and duct tape

i tied my shirt around the air intake hose and duck taped it drove it for about a year that way :haha:
 
I guess there is always a way to McGiver your way out of a situation...
 
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