fourstringfletch
Adventurer
Here's a tale of luck and thankfully overbuilt suspension components.
On Sunday I launched my 99 tacoma off the side of a gravel road on my way to welcome a new baby to the family (not mine but I was excited enough to be driving too fast from where we were camped to the hospital). My excitement got the best of me and then I over corrected, ramped over an irrigation ditch and into a field which was a ways below the road. My truck probably dropped through the air a good 3-4 feet and I compressed the suspension enough to barely puncture the wheel well with the top nut of the upper control arm. After taking a good look around I couldn't find anything wrong. Dropped it in 4 low, crawled over the ditch (no small bump!) and back on to the road. I inspected again at the pavement and it drove great all the way to the hospital (40 miles or so). All that I could notice was that my steering wheel was not centered. I had an alignment done ($53 with tires rotated and balanced) and it's almost as good as new. The only lingering issue is that when the tire stuffed up into my wheel well, it bent the floor slightly and I have to push the clutch pretty hard to engage the safety switch that cuts out the starter when the clutch pedal is out. Time to get out the mallet, and now I'm pretty reluctant to buy anything BUT a toyota truck again. I do have OME 882 coils which almost certainly contributed to my good fortune, especially with an ARB, M8000 and 2 people up front. I had no idea that my front suspension could compress that far without breaking anything and I'm open to suggestions of things to check on. Big O tires did the alignment and couldn't see any problems. Here are a few pictures. For any disbelievers that the puncture is from the UCA nut, I can include closeups of both sides showing precisely that.
Driver side, looking back
Driver side, looking back (outside of floor behind pedals)
Passenger side, looking forward
On Sunday I launched my 99 tacoma off the side of a gravel road on my way to welcome a new baby to the family (not mine but I was excited enough to be driving too fast from where we were camped to the hospital). My excitement got the best of me and then I over corrected, ramped over an irrigation ditch and into a field which was a ways below the road. My truck probably dropped through the air a good 3-4 feet and I compressed the suspension enough to barely puncture the wheel well with the top nut of the upper control arm. After taking a good look around I couldn't find anything wrong. Dropped it in 4 low, crawled over the ditch (no small bump!) and back on to the road. I inspected again at the pavement and it drove great all the way to the hospital (40 miles or so). All that I could notice was that my steering wheel was not centered. I had an alignment done ($53 with tires rotated and balanced) and it's almost as good as new. The only lingering issue is that when the tire stuffed up into my wheel well, it bent the floor slightly and I have to push the clutch pretty hard to engage the safety switch that cuts out the starter when the clutch pedal is out. Time to get out the mallet, and now I'm pretty reluctant to buy anything BUT a toyota truck again. I do have OME 882 coils which almost certainly contributed to my good fortune, especially with an ARB, M8000 and 2 people up front. I had no idea that my front suspension could compress that far without breaking anything and I'm open to suggestions of things to check on. Big O tires did the alignment and couldn't see any problems. Here are a few pictures. For any disbelievers that the puncture is from the UCA nut, I can include closeups of both sides showing precisely that.
Driver side, looking back
Driver side, looking back (outside of floor behind pedals)
Passenger side, looking forward
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