Broken Tie Rod

[DirtDigler]

Curious, has anyone with a 4x4 and larger tires ever broken a tie rod? If so, what was the damage? I guess I've been lucky in that I've been wheeling "the beast" since '07 and have had 0 issues. Living on borrowed time? Gonna pull the trigger on the Kryptonites soon just because I want to prevent the inevitable.

 

[wjburken]

Curious, has anyone with a 4x4 and larger tires ever broken a tie rod? If so, what was the damage? I guess I've been lucky in that I've been wheeling "the beast" since '07 and have had 0 issues. Living on borrowed time? Gonna pull the trigger on the Kryptonites soon just because I want to prevent the inevitable.

Well....I've never seen things go well when a tie rod breaks. I've never broken one, but I have seen anywhere from just the tie rod needing replaced to complete spontaneous separation of knuckle from the control arms or worse.

 

[DirtDigler]

Yea trying to prevent this! Especially out in the sticks. He also broke font cv shaft. Told my wife it's to prevent future costs!

 

[Doubeleive]

Curious, has anyone with a 4x4 and larger tires ever broken a tie rod? If so, what was the damage? I guess I've been lucky in that I've been wheeling "the beast" since '07 and have had 0 issues. Living on borrowed time? Gonna pull the trigger on the Kryptonites soon just because I want to prevent the inevitable.

I kind of tossed the same question around at 4wheel parts and they said you are better off just throwing a spare tire rod in your gear bag because even though the tire rods are a weak spot on IFS you want a weak spot, strengthening that up means you could break something else instead that is not so easily replaced.
sort of made sense to me, eyeballing a new tie rod on would at least get you back on the road and a alignment could be done later. I would imagine a gear box would be harder to break than a rack n pinion though.

 

[DirtDigler]

I was thinking that too. They've held up nice through slot of abuse so far and with having almost bulletproof tie rods, something else is bound to give. Hmmmm, decisions , decisions

 

[OR VietVet]

Yep, steering goes away and that weak link is pretty easy to replace. Carry a spare. Weak spot is like the u-joints on driveshafts.

 

[89Suburban]

I was thinking that too. They've held up nice through slot of abuse so far and with having almost bulletproof tie rods, something else is bound to give. Hmmmm, decisions , decisions

Yup K.I.S.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle


Go with the spare.

 

[DirtDigler]

I was actually about to round up spare parts when I started looking at Kryptonite . I'm all for keeping it simple, but in the back of my mind I'm afraid of collateral damage if and when a tie rod decides to call it a day. That could end up costing a lot more, like front diff stuff, ya know? You guys are probably right though.

 

[89Suburban]

I was actually about to round up spare parts when I started looking at Kryptonite . I'm all for keeping it simple, but in the back of my mind I'm afraid of collateral damage if and when a tie rod decides to call it a day. That could end up costing a lot more, like front diff stuff, ya know? You guys are probably right though.

We behind ya either way bro.

 

[DirtDigler]

.

 

[DirtDigler]

Thanks

 

[OR VietVet]

I was actually about to round up spare parts when I started looking at Kryptonite . I'm all for keeping it simple, but in the back of my mind I'm afraid of collateral damage if and when a tie rod decides to call it a day. That could end up costing a lot more, like front diff stuff, ya know? You guys are probably right though.

Typically, the only way you suffer something catastrophic is at speed but if you are crawling or going slow enough, the loss of steering is the damage. I used to own a 73 Blazer that was set up for rock crawling and had one ton set ups front and rear. The only steering component that ever broke while I was doing knarly stuff was the attaching bolts that attached the special adaptor block to account for the lift, at the driver's side steering knuckle. I was able to tighten the remaining bolts and get off the trail and back to camp.

 

[DirtDigler]

Typically, the only way you suffer something catastrophic is at speed but if you are crawling or going slow enough, the loss of steering is the damage

Good point.

 

[DirtDigler]

I think I should be more concerned with ball joints.

 

[OR VietVet]

Yep, replacing ball joints or control arm is a lot more work.