Sigh... It happened this past Saturday while doing some rock crawling. Felt the LR3 slipping sideways but I didn't think much of it. I kept creeping through but the vehicle kept slipping sideways. Then somebody yelled that a rock was stuck in the wheel. Tried pulling the rock out but it was too big to slip through any opening. Had to jack the vehicle to get the wheel to drop down, and then was able to pull the rock out. I'm guessing it weighed somewhere around 40 to 50 pounds. The muffler tube on the driver's side is now pinched, the fender where the driver side rear closes now juts out, the wheel well plastic is torn through in some spots, and there is a bit of coolant (pink fluid) weeping from a hose just above the muffler.
I'm guessing that somehow the rock was tipped up, perhaps having been caught by the muffler tubing, pinched between the wheel and the rear bumper, and then pulled up by the rotation of the wheel. Has anybody seen something like this happen before? I'll admit I'm a novice at the whole off roading thing, which is probably 99.9% of why this happened.
I'm guessing that somehow the rock was tipped up, perhaps having been caught by the muffler tubing, pinched between the wheel and the rear bumper, and then pulled up by the rotation of the wheel. Has anybody seen something like this happen before? I'll admit I'm a novice at the whole off roading thing, which is probably 99.9% of why this happened.