NW Challenge Trip Report!!!

Well many of you know that I went up to Squamish BC to particapate in the NW Challange put on by the Roverlanders Club. I left Portland at 7AM on 9/17 and made it into Squamish at about 3pm. Got camp setup and went through the registration and tech inspection. First Challenge begins at 8pm. (Timed event) I successfully complete the first challenge and as I roll across the finish line there is a loud snap. While driving back down there are some rubbing/rattling noises and the steering is a little wierd. The guy following me says I have a bent rear wheel so I get out and look and the whole thing is sitting crooked!! I pop my head underneath to take a look and find that the (tierod?) is no longer attached at the wheel/hub end. I went ahead and removed it so I could continue down the hill slowly (was a steep section and not an ideal place to figure out what I am going to do). The bolt at the carrier had sheared off flush with the carrier. With a hammer and a punch we were able to remove the remainder of the damaged bolt and tiewrap the tierod back in place to safely return to camp. (Big thanks to Don & Rovertech for this work as he did the majority of this repair starting at 10:30pm!!!) The next morning I went into town and got a new bolt and was able to fully repair and continue on. I only missed one special Task on Saturday morning. There were many special tasks. 1)Remove and fix a simulated flat tire in the field in under 20 mins. 2) Simulated tree removal 3)Winching challenge - We were teamed up and one vehical had a simulated failure 4) Bridge bldg (i missed this one). It was a lot of fun and in between each special task was some challenging offroading of some sort. At the end of the Weekend I believe I was 5th or 6th out of 10 teams which isn't bad considering I missed a special task!! For Saturday we worked in teams and my teammate was a Defender 110. He broke is front axle on the first task and completed the remainder of the weekend in 2 wheel drive. (Obvious choice as to which vehicle was really the broken on one the winching challenge!!)

I wasn't able to take many pictures due to the speed of the event but as they get posted I'll add more to this posting!!! I should have a good one of the water crossing that I did a little too fast soon!!!



Total failures that I know of for the weekend
2 broken axels
1 failed fuel pump
1 suspension related failure (me)

The bolt on that control arm is really a weak spot in our suspension system, there are a lot of reported failures in that same exact spot. An unfortunate SCLR club member down here was stranded in the middle of Death Valley for hours, waiting for a tow truck because of the same issue you had, unfortunately he was hundreds of miles away from the nearest repair shop, and the loose control arm also destroyed his rim in the process.

Thanks for sharing.

Ooooofffff! That blows Ryan. Glad it was an easy fix. Do you remember the size bolt by any chance? I may carry a couple extra because most of my trips are solo, isolated and I don't have a Sat phone. The Challenge sounds really, really cool. We were supposed to have an event like that in NorCal but the organizer had a family emergency and it's been quiet ever since. Well done.

The bolt is an m14 80mm long. Unfortunatly I don't remember the thread pitch. Now that I am back I will get two new replacements (One for each side). The originals were rated at 10.9 my plan is to upgrade them to 12.9. You will definatly have to have a way to remove the broken piece in addition to the bolt I would carry a small punch and hammer to work it out with!!! Any idea if this is upgraded in the LR4?? If so may be worth replacing the whole assembly with a new one!!

If you can find upgraded bolts it might be a good replacement to do pre-emptively. If the bolt were not broken, would it need to be punched out? Or just removed with a wrench or whatever?

If it isn't broken you can remove it with a wrench 21 or 22mm don't remember which....Wheel will have to come off to remove the bolt..

...anything special after that? Or is it just a remove, replace, re-torque kind of deal?

Just remove the old bolt, screw the new one in (along with its washer) and torque it to 129 lb.ft. / 175 Nm. That's according to the shop manual... Wonder if that's too tight? Or too loose?

blackforestham said:

Ooooofffff! That blows Ryan. Glad it was an easy fix. Do you remember the size bolt by any chance? I may carry a couple extra because most of my trips are solo, isolated and I don't have a Sat phone. The Challenge sounds really, really cool. We were supposed to have an event like that in NorCal but the organizer had a family emergency and it's been quiet ever since. Well done.

Click to expand...

Well the NWC travels between Oregon, Washington and BC. Next year is Washingtons turn followed by Oregon. Sounds like an excuse for a road trip!!!

Sounds like a blast!! looking forward to more pictures. Did we decide what the thread pitch should be? Think I may replace mine as well as have a spare.

J.D.