BajaSportsmobile
Baja Ironman
I just returned from a trip to Baja and stopped to offer help, but no one was there.
Down for the count in Gonzaga Bay, Baja
- Thread starter BajaSportsmobile
- Start date
Hondaslayer
Adventurer
Oof,
Yeah, that's a catastrophic failure. On the plus side it looks like they are (relatively) near civilization.
Yeah, that's a catastrophic failure. On the plus side it looks like they are (relatively) near civilization.
BajaSportsmobile
Baja Ironman
Right at the end of the "Black Doom" and beginning of the real Baja - don't know exactly where it happened or how they got to the spot it was sitting at (Rancho Grande) but they must have gone back to San Felipe for help.
digitaldelay
Explorer
I'm surprised they would leave their generator out in the open if they went into town.
Jason
Jason
ZukiCAMPER
Banned
This is a rig that Chris and I built early last year. It's a drw axle, converted to singles per the customer's request. It broke earlier this week.
Hondaslayer
Adventurer
Not sure how the conversion was performed, but basically with a single wheel you have a smaller contact patch that is further away from the center of the bearing. Every time you hit a bump in the road it transmits more force to the bearing than the dual wheels (larger contact patch, centered over the bearing) which can lead to premature failure.
Edit: That said it should only cause premature failure, not catastrophic failure. These bearings may have been noisy for a long time before finally saying **** it. Either that or something else failed (sheared bolt, failed weld whatever) If you're not breaking something then you probably aren't having enough fun
Edit: That said it should only cause premature failure, not catastrophic failure. These bearings may have been noisy for a long time before finally saying **** it. Either that or something else failed (sheared bolt, failed weld whatever) If you're not breaking something then you probably aren't having enough fun
Unless I'm missing something that would only hold true if you continued to use a dually rim as your single outside wheel. Dually rim/tire loads are more or less centered right over the the rim mounting surface As long as your new single wheel rim stays with a reasonable offset, it should place no more stress on the bearings than the original dually config, because the load is still going to be concentrated in the same place it was prior to the conversion.
I dont know what Ujoints conversion process is either, but as long as he's been in business I can't imagine him doing a conversion, even requested, that he knows is going to lead to total failure. I've had customers request some fairly ridiculous stuff (non-automotive) and I've refused, because at the end of the day it's my name on that job and that is all people are going to hear. Failure, my name. No thanks.
If I had to guess I'd wager that was one of those "uh oh, got a big problem, gonna try to limp it home" situations that ended badly.
Hondaslayer
Adventurer
Like I said, I don't know how the conversion is done. I would hope that it's running a longer axle and relocated bearings. The ambulances that I have seen on here that do have the single conversion have the wheel placed fairly flush with the body, so not sure how they convert them. I agree though, that the conversion is probably not what caused the catastrophic failure and it was probably noisy for a good while leading up to the kablooey.
BajaSportsmobile
Baja Ironman
Looked to me like the axle nuts came loose... Single or dual, the results would have been the same.
BajaSportsmobile
Baja Ironman
Generator was locked up (not that it would stop someone) and other items were out - they may have been close by, but we were around for a while and didn't see anyone.
