Jury Rigging

Jury Rig Your Way Home

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Well now you’ve done it. You just broke down, you forgot to tell people where you’re going, and your buddy called to say he couldn’t make it but you went ‘wheelin’ anyway. Now you’re 20 miles from pavement and looks to be a cold night; what do you do? If you were smart you brought some equipment with you that you can jury rig a quick fix to get you back to pavement and you can flag down a passing car with a cell phone to call in a tow truck. Whatever saves you from spending the night freezing in the mountains and hiking out 20 miles the next morning. There's not a specific way to fix every problem, hopefully this page will give you a few ideas to get your imagination going.

Scenarios like the one above aren’t uncommon, and they can be a lot worse. If whatever broke down on your vehicle also injured you may not be able to effect repairs and the situation can turn fatal. Luckily you have a very powerful brain to think of a way out. Even if it's the first time you’ve had to use it since High School your brain can come up with some whacked out things to get you out of a bind. And if your life is on the line anything is a good idea.

Rescue

The first and most important way to save yourself if you get stuck is to tell somebody where you’re going and when you expect to be back. I can’t stress enough how important this is, that way if you get stuck getting out is only a matter of curling up in a ball and waiting to be rescued. Try to tell people specifically where you're going to be and try to stay in that general area, even if they have to search the whole mountain range for you they'll get you eventually. And if you're waiting for help try to make yourself as visible from the air as possible. If you're hidden under the trees they won't see you, but moving the Xterra into the open probably isn't an option either (that's why your stuck). So take highly reflective things to a near by field or string them up in the trees. If you don't have anything reflective use high contrast, unnatural colors, this is where that ugly hunter orange blanket you picked up at the military surplus store comes in handy. Rear view mirrors can also be broken off and used as signaling devices, spending $120 to fix your mirror when you get home is a small price to pay for your life.

Survival

One word on surviving while waiting for rescue; stay with the Xterra, it’s your best hope of staying alive. First it serves as shelter, if the engine is still running you even have access to heating and air conditioning. And when the authorities are flying over in their Search and Rescue Helicopters it'll be a lot easier to spot a Shiny Xterra that it is to find a tiny person on foot. If for some strange reason you leave your vehicle leave a detailed note telling people where you went and how to spot you. That way if the S&R teams find the Xterra they know were to look next, and if somebody else happens along and sees your abandoned vehicle they’ll know that its due to an emergency and they can help S&R to find you. But try to stay with the Xterra, how many stories have you heard where they find the lost person before they find the abandoned vehicle.

Communication

Carrying radios with you will increase your chance of getting help too, many people use FRS radios when hiking now, and if there's a highway nearby it's only a matter of time before somebody with a CB radio drives by. Most authorities and rangers monitor CB emergency bands for calls for help, channel 9 is typically used as the emergency channel for CB and FRS.

Waiting for Search and Rescue is one way out but if you can it would be a lot better to be home by dinner time without the help of authorities. All you need to do is carry a few items that you can use to help fix or patch up damage suffered on the trail, see my page on what I carry in the Xterra for some things you can use for impromptu trail repairs. There are alot of products out there that can seal holes or repair damage temporarily, remember all you need to do is make it back to where a tow truck can get you.

My torn CV Boot, it still worked but the longer its used the more of a chance it has of failing

Spares

Plus a few spares for parts that regularly break down will help but they weigh a bit more than the tools on my list. Good ideas of spare Xterra parts to bring are tie rod adjusters, front wheel hubs, a torsion bar, and a CV axle (trans axle). The CV axles can go on either side so you only need one, the repair is pretty straightforward and can be done with basic tools and a jack. The rear drive shaft and rear axle shafts are other ideas but they’re pretty big and take up a lot of space so only bring them if you expect to be doing damage, plus they don't break as often as the front driveline.

Jury Rig

One of the most versatile things to bring is Mechanics Wire, there are thousands of things that can break on the Xterra and mechanics wire can hold a lot of them together. I’ve even heard stories of people using Wire to sew a 6in gash in a tire together, then they used a tire plug set to fill the holes and the tire was able to hold 18 lbs of pressure and get them off the trail. Another group had catastrophic damage to the suspension, basically the whole coil spring was ripped off and they had to find a way to support that corner of the vehicle on the axle. The solution, a 6in diameter block of wood from a tree trunk put on the spring perch holding the frame off the axle, and mechanics wire wound around the frame and the axle to keep the wood from falling out; the ride home was bumpy without any suspension but it made it out. Once a Wrangler even broke his axle (due to the type of axle this caused the wheel to come off) but he was able to make it out with 3 wheels by lashing a 2x4 under the corner with no wheel to act as a slider. It may not be the kindest solution to the trail (it dragged a deep 4in wide furrow down the trail) but sometimes crazy solutions are needed to get you out.

Cheap Welding

Another extreme idea is using the battery and a set of jumper cables to make an impromptu spot welder, if the frame breaks you can jack it back into shape, slap a patch of 6”x3” steel and use the battery to weld it on. It may take some time to get the battery to weld the patch firmly on but it’s better than nothing, you can even put some 2x4’s along the frame and wrap the whole thing with mechanics wire like a splint to give it more strength.

Driving without the broken part

Some things don’t even need to be fixed if they break down. If something in the front driveline breaks and you don’t have any parts to fix it just remove the broken piece and proceed in 2WD, it’ll be a lot harder to get out without 4WD but you’ll just need to use your extraction equipment a little more on the way out. The same works on the rear driveline as well, if you break an axle remove it if it might cause more damage; then disconnect the rear drive axle from the transfer case and proceed in 4WD (now limited to front wheel drive).

Some parts aren't even required for driving, my cousin had her AC Compressor seize and damage the AC clutch while on vacation. The solution was simple, cut off the belt powering the compressor and proceed without AC (if you have a serpentine belt DO NOT cut the belt, you'll have to find another solution).

One last word on trail repairs, remember that you're sharing the trail with everybody on it and everybody that will come on it in the future. This means follow proper trail etiquette, if you break down try to pull off the trail so others can pass you. If your damage involved spilling alot of fluids clean the mess up, carry some plastic grocery bags and fill them up with the contaminated dirt from your spill and haul them out to be disposed of where they won't leak into the ground water. By keeping up the trail you're protecting it from being shut down.