what happens when you're towing a TJ and the D35 blows up?

heres the dope.....

So I bought this motorhome on Friday and was planning to take it to the Baertrax run for it's inaugral camping trip. I've been flat towing my Jeep for many years behind what ever else I had around the house. After a few years in the pop-up, needing people to help me get all my **** to the trail, the motorhome is the perfect scenario for us. So... I proceed to hook the Jeep to the 35 foot class A I just bought. I bought the thing in Denton at Ancira. I headed south on 35W about 3:30 PM. The Jeep was tracking perfectly behind the MH. Charlotte had come over to the camper place in her car so she was behind me. We were through Denton and about to TMS when I called Char and had here go on ahead of me to get to her sisters in FW where we were going to leave her car for the weekend. MH was cruising nicely at about 65 mph. I had owned it about 1 hour. So I've got this big I have arrived grin on my face while I cruise down 35 at about Alliance Gateway, when this lady with a crazed and frantic look on her face pulls up beside me and was waving me over. I immediately checked my rear monitor thinking perhaps something had gone wrong with my Jeep back there. In the monitor everthing seemed OK. The monitor has a bit of a wide angle lense and distorts the image some what. But considering the look in that lady's eyes, I thought it prudent to stop and check things out. As I slowed and moved to the shoulder the Jeep wiggled some.

THIS IS WHEN I NOTICED JUST HOW WRONG THINGS HAD GONE.

The back tires and wheels were gone, and I don't mean ruined, I mean not there, GONE! I jumped out of the MH and ran to the Jeep. It was sitting on what was left of the diff. I looked behingd me, some folks had stopped behind me and were fighting the grass fire I had started on the shoulder. The lady that stopped me ran up to me and said, "you wheel came off and went across the median and hit some body." Well, my heart sunk. I can see from what was left behind that not only did my wheel cross the intersated at 65 mph, but it had an axle shaft and brake drum attached to it. I just knew I had killed someone in rush hour traffic. She saw the panic in my eyes and quickly followed up with, "but he's OK, he got out to look at the damage." That was a relief. I called 911 and called Char to come back. Wes was asleep in the MH. As I surveyed the damage and looked behind me for the north bound acciedent I had caused I realized I must have drug the Jeep a couple of miles before anyone stopped me. I couldn't see the accident or the traffic jam it caused and the pumpkin was shaved about 1.5 to 2 inches. The shock mounts were ground off and the shocks were wrapped under the fuel tank. I have pictures. The police showed up and we called a wrecker. The policeman and I walked back to where the fire had started and found what probably started it. One of the bolts tha holds the carrier brackets in the diff was shaved in half length wise and had fallen out of the bottom of the diff into the grass. I should have kept it but it was too hot to touch and I forgot to go back and get it. It took 3.5 hours for a tow truck to show up. The fellow my tire hit, hit the flat side of the tire and dug the axle shaft into the asfault. The passenger side tire was never recovered.

In conclusion, on the trail Saturday, someone I didn't know mentioned my bad luck. I say my luck could not have been better. A mile before the wheels came off, my wife and one year old were right behind me, the had passed me just in time. A 65 mph wheel crossed the median on 35 W and didn't hurt anyone. I waited 3 hours for a tow truck but I was in an air conditioned motorhome not a broke down civic. And finally, my Jeep is fully insured and I wanted a better axle for a really long time.

Wow!

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Pi-Eyed Piper wrote:

Pi-Eyed Piper did pass the time by typing:

And you can sell the old axle one ebay as a custom "high clearance" job. :)

"You will never have to worry about draging the diff on rocks again."

Man, the whole bottom is gone from the differential. Was it running dry?

Imagine if you were on a lonely stretch of road, no one behind you to warn you what happened, and your diff wore down to the point when the gas tank would be in contact with the ground and eventually rupture.

Yikes.

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!! So glad that no one was hurt!

It looked to me like in that first pic the gas tank had already contacted the ground. What exactly caused this? Why did the wheels come off the axle?

I am sitting here thinking that the guy is also quite lucky that the dragging gas tank did not wear all the way through, spilling gas all over and lighting it all up. That tank went for a slide there.

Would this be called a design flaw w/Dana 35's? What are better rear axles the Dana 44's?

More photos can be found here:

I don't think you can call it a design "flaw", when it is intentionally designed that way to save money. Jeep isn't the only manufacturer to use this trick, either.

Earle

I was in Utah last summer looking at petroglyphs, and a diesel pusher came in pulling a heavily modified TJ with smoking front tires. Turns out one of the family members had locked the column at the last stop, and the front tires were down to the cords, but the rears looked new. He said he didn't feel a thing. You have to check on things, and if you have passengers, have them watch the towed vehicle thru a few turns.