A guy I know has a Land Rover Defender, and he says that when using one vehicle to rescue another vehicle it is important to be in forward gear. He says vehicles are designed to take that kind of stress in forward and not reverse.
Anyone know if that is really true for Land Rovers? Or, more importantly, for Jeeps?
Bob
Generally that is correct 'they say'.
The gears are broken in in the forward direction and they are generally cut so they mesh stronger in a forward direction I think.
That said, the only time I have broken things is pulling forward and 99% of the pulls I see and do are in the reverse direction. Winches are on the front, so if I am extracting anyone else it has to be done in reverse, etc...
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'sBob wrote:
just to add a little about Landys:
LandRover diffs are much stronger than Jeep ones - even the small Land Rovers have a 9" ring gear. Ok, I have to admit I broke one when a teenager, but that was probably due to me abusing it. Some of the bigger ones came with a Salisbury rear axle (probably more familiar to you as an early version of the Dana 60). Landy gearboxes have pretty well always been weak and prone to outright failure. Still are, I think. Transfer cases - I have never heard any problems with them.
Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ
While on the Landy topic this is a cool video that I ran across the other day. About 10 megs of low quality, but cool to watch. Especially when the windshield wipers come on
That's very definitely true. The ring & pinion gears are definitely stronger when running in one direction vs. the other.
Jerry
Do they actually break often when run opposite or is it just they break when extracting and usually the extraction is done in reverse so it seems that way?
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'sJerry Bransford wrote:
The R&P gears just have a much bigger chance of breaking when you're trying to retrieve a stuck vehicle if you are also in Reverse.
Before I knew about this problem, I was attempting to extract a stuck vehicle 6-7 years ago while my TJ was in in Reverse. He was really stuck and I was really trying, using momentum and a snatch-strap in an effort to un-stick him. All of a sudden, several guys ran up to me and hollered to stop doing it as I was doing and to turn around. One of them was an axle guy and explained the issue. I've since had that confirmed by other
4x4-oriented R&P techs and others who know far more than I. :)Jerry
Gotcha!
It's the lateral stress on the bearings. Easy to vision with a photo.
Mike
"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:
Yes, it is true.
The ring and pinion gears are designed to take the load in one direction more so than in the other. Sometimes there is no other way but to pull in Reverse, but when given the option, ALWAYS pull forward.
If you look at a freeze frame about half way thru the video in the deepest part of the crossing you will notice that the inlet for his snorkle gets to within about 1 inch of the water - he is one lucky driver. Or maybe he had a serious "onboard air" source.
John
John Davies TLCA 14732
That has got to be a diesel...
Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ
The only bad experience that I have had doing something like this was trying to pull a tree out of the creek up at Mom's farm with the '49 Willys pickup. I put a nylon strap from one side of the frame out and around the tree trunk and then back to the other side of the frame. I put her into reverse gear and low range on the transfer case and started backwards. This was a 50 foot plus tree that was about the diameter of a telephone pole and I was trying to pull it the wrong direction and up hill. The ground was mostly sand and Molly just sat there spinning first one tire and then another. Next I would pull forward and then back up as fast and the sixty horsey power 134 Fhead would do until I snapped and spun. I ended up with a pair of bent rims on the back. Those Timkins are pretty tough.
I like this one:
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