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Yup, and one stud still intact. My engineering opinion is that the studs and dowels don't provide enough clamping force to keep the flange from sliding on the mating surfaces. Over time ( in this case about 3 years ) this causes the studs to crack where the threads stop going into the drive...

Most of them are running 33-35s in the rocks. They do try and run 37s when snow wheeling. I wouldn't say they are abusive drivers in the rocks....if anything they are cautious and just trying to tip toe to prevent front end issues. They are running ARB lockers in the front diff, but use them...

Install as many plugs in the hole as you can. Trim off to about 1/2-3/4" long. Light on fire. Poke with a stick to get them all worked together. Blow out when they have all congealed into a lump of molted plastic. Seems to help bond them to themselves and the tire. Works well on sidewall issues.

Just a fun little video of the #LX45 popping out of one of the Hot Tubs along Hells Revenge Trail in Moab, Utah.

Oh....and the Tacoma/4runners wheeling with us aren't just popping CVs. They are commonly breaking the front diffs in to lots of little pieces. Being turned one way or the other and pushing on the tire breaks CVs.....both tires straight and any kind of bounce seems to break the front diff...

So far for me....weak point has been the 8mm hub studs on the J80. I do run stock 4.10 gears in the diffs with an underdrive 1.22 high range in the T-case, but I also have a 5.3 GM V8 and 40" half sticky black label tires. I wouldn't call the front diff 'weak' at this point. The stock 8" HP...

Post Rubicon Trip Update...and repairs.... Overall the trip went well. The original plan was to run the Rubicon twice in a big loop. Tahoe out Wentworth and then loop around to Loon Lake and run back to Tahoe again. Day 2-3 on the trail went from a 20% chance of rain to 20 hours of rain...

The amount of front axle issues on the Tacoma's and 4runners of that vintage that wheel with us is terrible. At least one or two axles pop on just about any trip we do to Moab, Rubicon, or Sand Hollow level hard stuff.....and not even THAT hard of trails in those areas. There just isn't many...

I have had good luck using fire ( small butane torch or lighter ) to melt the plugs to themselves and into the hole. This seems to drastically help when more than one or two plugs are needed to plug a larger hole. The orange color plugs seem to work better than the black for some reason.

In my experience, a 'blowout' (total tire failure) is a pretty darn rare event with even average quality tires. What 'blowout' type failures I did see in my time as a Schwaby where mostly caused by driving either completely overloaded for the tire load/pressure. That causes heat which causes...

My general thought on this is that a spare tire only fixes one issue. Knowledge and a few tools ( that take up less space than a spare tire ) have the potential to fix many tire issues. Spotting those issues early is key when doing repairs.

I haven't used the larger versions, but some of the most impressive winches I have worked with lately have been from Come-up Winch. I believe it is an offshoot with some of the old engineers from Superwinch. http://www.comeupwinch.com/ I'm a big fan of their external ( to the drum ) brakes...

What is the general opinion on polyurethane dipped eyes on synthetic rigging?

Have to have the proper free air space in the can to prevent over-expansion.

A cross section view of the SSRA -Soft entry radius in all directions. -Gentle reverse bell mouth to provide the best possible transition to the pin -Well supported pin to keep the hitch junction in double shear -Largest possible pin diameter possible for the soft shackle -Generous radii on...

The big ones for me.....solid front axle, full floating rear axle, larger manual transmission options, more payload, more towing capacity. I do like unicorns though....smaller 1ton trucks.....Regular cab with a 8' bed. Manual transmissions. Crank windows. Vinyl Floors. Stuff like that. I do...

A few interesting pics from my recent Rubicon trip. One is just a good reminder of how the SSRA device works. This was a simple winch connection when pulling a vehicle backwards after it had bellied out on a large boulder. I find myself using the winch more for recoveries like this lately...

Surprisingly it does pretty well in the rain/snow. The water runs off between the seal and the tent ( to a point) on the front half. The rear half doesn't seem to have many issues. It does seem to be sensitive to which way the wind is blowing and that has led to some water getting in under the...

Putting the truck to work hauling the #LX45 out to California and back for a Rubicon trip. This is pretty much exactly what I built the truck for, basically a daily driver that I don't have to do major re-configurations on to support trips like this. The Flippac lives on the truck full time and...

Nothing crazy, but I finally had to install some new shocks. The fronts where almost completely blown along with the steering stabilizer. I decided to go with a simple Bilstein 5100 upgrade as everything was bolt-in simple and pretty affordable. As much as I wanted to go with something crazy...