Most common things to break

rayra

Expedition Leader
Change your S-belt / belts TODAY and put your used ones in your vehicle as emergency spares.
Cooling system hoses, clamps, and related hose repair kits / methods.
bronzeseal, alumnaseal, some form of radiator stop leak / sealant.
vehicle fluids, oil, water, trans, hydraulic.
toolkit.
ground tarp for rolling around in the dirt / mud trying to fix things.
duct tape. bailing wire. various hose clamps. sturdy big zip ties. large and small ViseGrips.
disposable gloves, as well as work gloves.
A BFH. A 3-lb maul will do.
Appropriate jack and whatever additions you need to change a tire in off-road terrain.
Emergency set of relays and fuzes for your vehicle.
Set of bulbs for your vehicle and the tools to get at and change them.

I carry that crap and a lot more in my vehicles, all the time. Lot of recovery gear, roadside emergency stuff, flares, additional tools, OBDII reader, some comfort items and calories, first aid kit, and weather / season appropriate outer gear. The further away from home or off paved roads I intend to go, the more I carry.
 

Root Moose

Expedition Leader
I've been stranded by:

  • the accessory drive on the front of the engine failing such that a pulley is missing (disintegrated PS pump),
  • lack of or generally poor maintenance,
  • weak alternator/charging, and
  • load control failures (e.g. stuff falling off the trailer/truck and not having more gear to restrap the load - drove over my own canoe one time - that sucked).
Surprisingly one spare has always been more than adequate but I still carry plugs and tools. I'm a big fan of on-board air systems also.

In all the years I've been travelling I've never had to use a hi-lift jack for changing a tire... factory bottle jack is always the right tool for the job even if a little bit of stacking/basing is required. Don't remove it from your vehicle. I have had to use a hi-lift for "trailer issues" however.

There is an argument for spare axle shafts and such. My Jeep was set up with a full floating rear end and locking hubs in the front so that in theory if an axle shaft broke I could still drive the vehicle. It happened, broke a front shaft, was still able to drive but in retrospect between the PITA factor of custom parts and the effort to get it setup I wouldn't bother again. For the type of driving I realistically do when 1000s of kms away from home base it's over-kill and not necessary. If I was really worried about it I'd carry spare OEM parts or drive something that has spares in any town I'll be near (yay Ford).

For telecomms and navigation I make sure whatever mapping I have on the nav unit in the truck is also on the rest of the family's devices with working downloaded maps; also covers the comms between two cell phones and cell enabled tablets. Plus paper maps that I can get locally before getting off the pavement if I'm unfamiliar with the area. One thing I haven't done is design a way to get all the batteries in the truck and trailer accessible easily to recharge the devices but that's something that can be kludged together if things really went pear shaped.

I don't typically travel with any other vehicles so don't bother with CB radio any more and don't really have an interest in pursuing SW.

Spare work clothes, ground tarp for a work area, etc. It's not really things that break but when things do break it's ok to try to deal with the breakage and cleanup in the most comfortable manner possible.


 

GR8ADV

Explorer
Without a doubt non factory items have caused me the most grief. Seems like the more cool stuff add the greater the liability.
 

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
Vehicles are not made to be fixed and repaired. They are a disposable good. When was the last time you filed a set of points, cleaned and gapped them, cleaned a spark plug?

More importantly - when is the last time you needed to?

Modern vehicles are so much more reliable than they were 30 years ago. Anyone who wants to go back to filing & setting the gap on a set of points every year is welcome to it - I'll take a modern ignition system over that antiquated junk any day of the week.

30 years ago, when you were pushing 100K miles, you were looking for a new vehicle. Today, 100,000 miles is just another number that rolls across the odometer.
 

jeep-N-montero

Expedition Leader
Google search using your vehicle model and the words 'most likely to break' or 'most common to break', may even try the Jeep section of the forum where there are numerous threads discussing trail spares.
 

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