4x4: Basic Maintenance

Off road maintainace

Although hard and heavy, even off road trucks need care, every now and again. Long periods of use in mud, sand and water can damage the bodywork, as well as the integrity of the engine components. For this reason, I chose to exemplify a little of what should be periodically done to maintain the whole of the truck in good order.

 

Deposits

If you're serious about off roading, it's more than likely that you've upgraded your rig with front and rear bullbars, rock sliders and underbody protection. Each of these is, in its part, a perfect place for mud to be stored over long periods of time. Preferably twice a year, these components need taking down. Such a task requires a whole day's work, at best. Having taken them down, the mud and roots need to be taken away. If this operation has not been done for a few years, you will notice rust having been gathered around the most "active" parts of the bodywork. A good repainting job is in order, which, in time, will save you on the long run from timely restoration of the chassis and other crucial body work.

 

Transmission lubrication

When going through water and mud, the lube that is supposed to keep your transmission in check gets washed away. With the cleansing of the prop shafts and their adjacent crosses, the fast motion that defines the working regime of these parts helps increase the wear and tear. In this particular category we should also consider the CV joint lubrication. Most trucks these days come with standard "shots"which are exactly the needed amount for lubing one joint. This way, the whole approximation and spilling is taken out of the equation, leaving for a cleaner, more exact process.

Paint chips and scratches

The more you go off roading, the more the body parts get damaged. Panels, rock sliders, front and rear full bars have direct impact with trees and rocks in the process. Taking care of these small chips saves you a whole load of problems on the long run. Even the best coats of paint (i.e.: electrostatic painting) are prone to rust, if not tended to every now and again. Water or moist creeps under any imperfection and rots the whole thing from underneath. This is especially visible in areas of larger coverage, such as the bull bar or aluminum panels. The latter ones suffer from a peculiar "rusting"method. When coming in contact with air, at higher speeds, aluminum will get an electrostatic charge and thus corrode. This can happen even at the smallest tears in the paint cover, so tending to it is most important. If the truck is not used for extreme class challenges, a vinyl sheet might be something worth looking at.

 

Take care of your engine and it’ll take care of you, basically. It’s a partnership. The older the car gets, the more … indulgent one becomes with changing the oil and such. Wrong. Older cars need more tender loving care. More advanced, better lasting and less polluting lubricants have appeared on the market. But this is a subject that we will hopefully discuss soon enough, in another article. Really, all the rules for the lubricants apply just as well for the filters and such. They need to be in tip top shape all the time, considering the simple fact that their working conditions differ, to some extent at least, from those of regular passenger cars. An off road car may see 4-5000 rpm more often than a regular car, which makes for a whole lot more air and fuel to pass through their respective filters. Parts will be changed, problems will appear along the way but the periodical replacement of all the items mentioned here will help your car live a long and problem free life.