Trailhead Trouble

[JTOlson26]

I carry a booster pack for just that reason. It's a lot less work than bump starting, especially if you're traveling alone.

I've read varying reviews on the booster packs.

Which one do you carry and have you ever had to use it?

[Will_E]

Last summer I blew a tire driving down 390 on my way to Huron. It was still dark and I was only 1.5 miles from Winfield, so I decided to climb first and fix the tire later. Figured it would be quick and easy. I did the Lulu Gulch route and returned to my truck and started working on the tire. Turns out it was the furthest from easy. I quickly discovered that one of my lug nuts needed a key to loosen. I knew nothing of a key and couldn't find one anywhere. I hitched to Leadville and called my buddy who I was supposed to meet at Little Bear later that night. He said he'd bring some tools to break it off and it shouldn't be a problem. We spent a good hour working on it with no luck and headed for Little Bear leaving my truck. After climbing LB on no sleep, we returned to my truck with some more tools purchased in Salida and still couldn't get the nut off. Even watching YouTube videos didn't help. I stayed in Leadville that night and returned to my truck the next day with another friend and fresh ideas. Still no luck. I stayed another night in Leadville at the Rodeway and hired a tow truck driver the next day. Took him all of 5 minutes to remove the lug and change my tire. He charged me $1200 and said I was getting a deal. I had been stuck in Leadville for 4 days. A week later I found the key in a junk drawer

Ugh. Those damn locking lug nuts. I had a Mazda RX7 years ago, the key broke off in the locking lug nut, fortunately while working on it in the garage. Any car I’ve bought since I’ve removed the stupid locking nuts if equipped as soon as I got it home.

[Voshkm]

Paris Mills parking. On one occasion a front end loader removing snow stacked large chunks of ice/gravel/snow around my truck denting some panels.
Also at Paris Mills separate occasion, (many winter attempts on Demo) stick shift linkage came undone, didnt have much tools but a hammer and linesmans, got home with duct taped, rag connected linkage.
Going to Paris Mills had transfer case give out.
Demo has provided many fine memories and lessons learned.

Basic tools is part of necesary list for vehicle like the list of 10 for your pack

[Will_E]

Paris Mills parking. On one occasion a front end loader removing snow stacked large chunks of ice/gravel/snow around my truck denting some panels.
Also at Paris Mills separate occasion, (many winter attempts on Demo) stick shift linkage came undone, didnt have much tools but a hammer and linesmans, got home with duct taped, rag connected linkage.
Going to Paris Mills had transfer case give out.
Demo has provided many fine memories and lessons learned.

Basic tools is part of necesary list for vehicle like the list of 10 for your pack

What’s the vehicle? I’d like to add it to my “never purchase” list.

[nsaladin]

Left a dome light on in the truck in Lead King Basin, away from the trailhead and across the river. No one was camping in the area when we drove in and setup camp. I quickly realized what I did and tried to start it... dead. We hiked around at like 8pm hoping to see someone near the trailhead, another party happened to arrive sometime after us just down the road and came and jumped us.

I love my 2014 4Runner, but I miss my 1999 4Runner with a 5spd for that reason. Not that I'm trying to drain my battery accidentally, but always felt good knowing in most situations I could at least bump start the old 4Runner.

Yeah it was bad battery anyways, shouldn’t of died with just a few hours of dome light being on. Replaced it immediately after testing it back in the city. My land cruiser now has a dual battery setup that I can jump myself, as well as leave any and all lights including headlights on for days, and it does not drain the starting/main battery... lol

I wish they made the 100 series in stick in North America.

[handonbroward]

Blew a brake line and lost my brakes...on the way down the Mt. Princeton road! When the brake light turned on and the pedal started going to the floor, I couldn't believe it. And I couldn't believe the fact that I made it down without going off the side of the road and killing myself.

Somehow I was able to get extremely minimal brake pressure by absolutely bottoming the s**t out of my brake pedal over and over, even though mechanical logic says that once you pump out all of the pressure you are SOL. Went to the autoparts store in BV and the recommendation was find the leak, vise grip it closed, refill fluid and get back to Denver, or pay $$$$ and wait like a week for the brake repair to be finished up there. And having to bum a ride home and then back up there to pick up my truck.

Couldn't find the leak, and wouldn't have made a difference anyways because my repeated pedal mashing with no pressure had almost completely worn out the master cylinder. So, logically, I did the next best thing and drove back to Denver, while staying miles behind any vehicles and far below the speed limit. Whatever was left of the master cylinder was now completely gone, and my mechanic's jaw literally almost hit the floor when I told him I had driven all the way back from BV in the state it was in.

Stupid? Absolutely, but I have some semblance of mechanical knowledge and knew I could use my e-brake if I really got into trouble. I actually assumed that would happen at some point, and I would have to pay for a tow, I was just trying to get as much mileage in to defray the cost of that.

So many things have happened with my truck that in writing this I completely forgot that I also completely sheared a shock (yes, the actual shock arm, not a shock mount) overcoming the obstacle that is the very hairpin to the top of Argentine Pass this summer. Thought it felt a little floaty and couldn't figure out why I hit my skid plate so many times on the way back down...turns out I had lost about 1.5" - 2" of lift on the driver side.

The joys of owning an almost 15 year old Taco that drove on NY salt roads for the first 10 years of its life. Since then I have rebuilt / am continuing to rebuild many, many parts of the truck. Fortunately I have a garage and the flexibility of working from home. Spending money on tools and truck parts is almost as good as spending money on gear

[Snow_Dog_frassati]

https://14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58059

Thats my story with it from this summer

[Lioness]

There used to be a lot of stories about car break-ins and thefts.

[JTOlson26]

Somehow I was able to get extremely minimal brake pressure by absolutely bottoming the s**t out of my brake pedal over and over, even though mechanical logic says that once you pump out all of the pressure you are SOL.

I had this happen once in Raleigh, NC (far from home but not in the BC) and it caused me to rear-end someone, unfortunately.

After that I experienced the same thing: a little bit of brakes by mashing to the floor. I found out that depending on the brake-line routing and design, you can still retain a little bit of fluid and mechanical advantage even when you've lost most of it due to the entire thing not being on a single circuit.

[DeTour]

Last summer I blew a tire driving down 390 on my way to Huron ... quickly discovered that one of my lug nuts needed a key to loosen ... hired a tow truck driver ... charged me $1200 a... A week later I found the key in a junk drawer

Ugh. Those damn locking lug nuts. I had a Mazda RX7 years ago, the key broke off in the locking lug nut, fortunately while working on it in the garage. Any car I’ve bought since I’ve removed the stupid locking nuts if equipped as soon as I got it home.

Ah, the dreaded locking lug nut. Learned what those are when we blew a tire at 11,000 feet in Montezuma Basin in a rented VW Touareg. It was an afternoon "scouting trip" for a planned climb of Castle and Conundrum the next day. Checked every nook and cranny in the vehicle, no key to be found. A few hilariously futile attempts to loosen the nut with a Leatherman and pocket knife succeeded only in destroying the tools. Just when we thought we were walking back to Aspen, a group of young folks from Georgia came by on their way down from playing up higher in Montezuma Basin. We happily accepted a bone-jarring ride in the back of their pickup, and they graciously took us right to the rental office at the Aspen airport.

There we learned the guy at the one-person office didn't have the key and couldn't even order it to ship from someplace back east for three days (it was Labor Day weekend). We also learned the rental car road service coverage ended 75 yards off of a paved road, and we weren't too keen on paying out-of-pocket for that type of tow, which presumably would have rivaled the Captain's bill. So, keeping our eye on the ball, we rented another vehicle (Jeep this time) and drove back up the basin to climb the next day - stopping at the Touareg, which we now called our "mobile base camp," for our gear.

When Tuesday finally arrived, we were at the service desk of the VW dealership in Glenwood Springs bright and early, hoping they would have the key. When the manager "Duane" emerged from the back with a case of the various shapes of keys, it was Christmas in September as far as we were concerned. That guy will always be a hero in my book. In a few hours the tire was changed, the vehicle returned to the rental office, and we were on our way to Lead King Basin for a great day on the S Ridge of Snowmass.

The crazy thing about the whole experience was that a different guy had an even dumber car problem the day we climbed Castle: broken gas gauge, forgot to fuel up in Aspen, ran out of gas at 11,000 feet. Wait, it gets better: tried to roll backward down the 4wd road at night, and (surprise!) hung up his truck on the back axle by rolling down onto a big boulder, which he couldn't see because it was, you know, dark out - thereby blocking the road for everyone else trying to drive up. "I'm a (bleeping) idiot" he said to the three groups of hikers blocked by his truck. Nobody disagreed with him.

[CaptainSuburbia]

Last summer I blew a tire driving down 390 on my way to Huron. It was still dark and I was only 1.5 miles from Winfield, so I decided to climb first and fix the tire later. Figured it would be quick and easy. I did the Lulu Gulch route and returned to my truck and started working on the tire. Turns out it was the furthest from easy. I quickly discovered that one of my lug nuts needed a key to loosen. I knew nothing of a key and couldn't find one anywhere. I hitched to Leadville and called my buddy who I was supposed to meet at Little Bear later that night. He said he'd bring some tools to break it off and it shouldn't be a problem. We spent a good hour working on it with no luck and headed for Little Bear leaving my truck. After climbing LB on no sleep, we returned to my truck with some more tools purchased in Salida and still couldn't get the nut off. Even watching YouTube videos didn't help. I stayed in Leadville that night and returned to my truck the next day with another friend and fresh ideas. Still no luck. I stayed another night in Leadville at the Rodeway and hired a tow truck driver the next day. Took him all of 5 minutes to remove the lug and change my tire. He charged me $1200 and said I was getting a deal. I had been stuck in Leadville for 4 days. A week later I found the key in a junk drawer

Oh man that’s rough Judd. I have been stuck deep, cold, and dark a few times but nothing too noteworthy

Yeah, very frustrating and dumb on my part for not knowing I had wheel locks. At least I got my peaks climbed which is all that really matters.

[Will_E]

I carry a booster pack for just that reason. It's a lot less work than bump starting, especially if you're traveling alone.

I've read varying reviews on the booster packs.

Which one do you carry and have you ever had to use it?

I have this one: https://www.amazon.com/TOPVISION-2200A- ... 60&sr=8-11

It works great, I have a 12v refrigerator that I run 24/7 while camping, it usually won't drain the battery all the way overnight, but a few times it has and I needed to use it. One caution, Lithium batteries like this don't like the cold, so you want to keep it in the house, especially if your vehicle isn't garaged, in the wintertime. Using it, each jump tends to decrease its battery level by about 12%.