Lee here! Thanks for all the help! The Subaru made it to Texas and back with no transmission leaks and no further issues. Let's go wheeling again soon (with more skidplates and less damage)! Really glad we had everything needed to get the Ridgeline back on the road without having to leave it on the trail to drive all the way back to town for parts, and super grateful for the help at the shop to repair my vehicle or carpool me and the wife part-way to get closer to Texas for the eclipse. I will admit, choosing better lines on that return trip and/or laying out some traction boards for both of us when needed would have prevented these issues in the first place, but we made the mistake of being in a rush to get off the trail before it got too late and not wanting to stop in the dark and walk the same obstacles we walked before for the reverse route. The pan damage on my vehicle was still minimal due to taking it slow - if I was going any faster, it would have been two trailside repairs in the morning instead of one! After we split up that night, the wife and I made it back to town, had dinner, resupplied oil/groceries, and drove for over an hour after the trailhead with the transmission working properly - I have no idea why it decided to fail at the top of the interstate onramp at the same 55 MPH speeds we hit on the "stroads" leading to that point, but I'm glad it happened while we still had cell service. It happened early enough in the evening that I was able to reach out to my parents who offered a tow with their tow vehicle if needed, researched the issue, reached out to friends in Texas to let them know we might not make it, found short-term car storage listings in the area if needed, reached out to the AZ Subaru community for help with parts if needed, and we slept in the car in a parking lot that night. I also treated the wife to the after-midnight Waffle House experience (our first time at a Waffle House!) but sadly we didn't see any fights 😂. We met up again with Jon after the trail repair the next morning at Bisbee Breakfast Club and the food was *so* much better than I expected. Would definitely go back again. Additional takeaways for viewers: keep a detailed vehicle repair manual handy - I used a Subaru Factory Service Manual on my computer for troubleshooting reference to partially follow the diagnostic procedure for the transmission error code that was being triggered & verify proper electrical resistance levels on the transmission solenoids using a multimeter to ensure they weren't burned out. Always punch/cut a large hole in the large RTV tube where the nozzle screws on when first opening the tube to ensure minimal effort when dispensing, smearing RTV in a thin layer works great if you can't lay a good bead fast enough (did my oil pan last year and trans pan in this video this way with no leaks thousands of miles later and no pickup tube clogs), Permatex Right Stuff instructions aren't lying when they say you can return the vehicle to service immediately, and Jon and Greg are great people you can trust.
Well said Lee! Thanks for telling more side of your experience and story. I would have included all the other details about your repair, and I had to cut out a lot of footage of Greg’s repair, because the video time was almost an hour, BUT, I think you did fantastic in your portion of the video. Good job explaining what you thought was wrong. In retrospect, between the total elipse, Carlsbad caverns and big bend, this is my favorite highlight of the trip. I just think it was amazing what we were all able to do. We rose to the occasion and made things happen, this was awesome!
@@JonDZ_Adventuring the video was great! Nothing of value was cut. Just adding some detail for the people that love to read the comments. Thanks for all the hard work.
Those Ridgeline prototype suspension/subframe mounts and high clearance control arms look seriously impressive! Can’t wait to see how that works out. Good job guys.
JB Weld the planet! Also for a trail repair that was great execution. I guess theoretically the Sube could have smacked clearance the other way on the pan but probably not worth the risk as cheap as they are to replace. Good stuff!
Hammer was definitely in the cards if no parts stores in town had a new pan. The pan was already slightly dented/ugly (previous owner of the transmission) so I was already planning on replacing it.
Great Video. You guys didn't tow it to a shop, you went the extra mile, had the presence of mind to have some emergency patch supplies. And very impressive to have diagnosed the tranny issue. You went the extra mile before giving up, and it paid off, in fact, I believe I heard "Never Give Up, Never Surrender". Yes, we can all benefit from the wisdom of Commander Taggart.
another great episode! This reaffirms me that skid plates are absolutely a must for any offroad activity. And I like how you used 3rd gen tacoma chassis to demonstrate 4x4 vs awd. I bought full set of aluminum skids from RCI and aluminum sliders from greenlane for my tacoma, the weight saving is insance and for what I do aluminum is more than enough.
Thanks Cong! 🙏 love how you pointed that all out, I’m just trying to keep it 💯 with the differences between AWD and 4WD. I guess you can say that in a 4WD, you’ll be making the same (or maybe) even more contact, because there would be more of an inclination to take on harder trails. Aluminum is great for weight savings, but not as slidey. Sometime soon I think companies will start offering skid plates with HDPE inserts to increase that “slidiness”, I hear a lot of talk about it.
The weight savings between aluminum and steel is not much. I compared both from same manufacturer for 4 pieces not including gas tank skid. It was 60 lbs vs 90 lbs. I went for the steel ones since they can be repaired after some damage not like the aluminum ones, which means the aluminum ones are disposable.
@@mdgeist472 first of, based on your numbers, you are claiming aluminum saves 30% of weight. That’s very significant already. The more skids you have the more weight it saves. Second, I know for a fact the a pair of steel slider for Tacoma is 75lbs a side, 150lbs for a pair. And the aluminum slider weighs in at 35lbs a side and 70lbs a pair. That’s 50% of the weight saving. To me, that is a lot of weight saving especially for smaller trucks and rigs. Also like I mentioned before it’s all user need based, I don’t foresee a lot of time on the rock so aluminum works for me.
@@4WDisLife Reread your comment. Sorry, I thought you were talking skids, since the damage in the video was for lack of skids. But you are referring to sliders. The numbers I am referencing are only the 4 piece skids. I don't have anything on sliders.
@@mdgeist472 all good, I was referring to more of skid/sliders armors as a whole not specifically for any single piece. But good to know the numbers you provided. Thank you!
It'd be easy to throw shade at the vehicles in this video. But the effort involved in making parts for vehicles that need them off road is no small endeavor. So hats off to whomever is doing that and to you for highlighting them. And I see that the UV JB-Weld product a very useful thing on the trail. On order. Cheers and Happy Trails!
What luck. Sarah n Tuned had a review of the Ridgeline trailsport and pointed out the lack of skidplates along with no lift on it. Now this posts where even with the big lift, the lack of skidplate knocked the Ridgeline out.
Hey Jon D, Man it has been so long since we have caught up. Havent seen your vids since the San Diego trip you did a couple of years ago. That was an epic trail run you all did, Next time you are in out in the Utah area, let me know and Vice Versa. I am still wanting to do a a Mojave Run, hopefully soon. Cheers, Mike in SLC
I didn’t Honda Honda made one for the 2024 Ridgeline (which is the same as the 2017 Ridgeline except the ZF9. It probably would have done the trick. But it only protects the oil pan. Greg also hit his rear diff, and it’s a good thing that was protected
@JonDZ_Adventuring they will probably add the Pilot trailsport skidplate w/ recovery hooks soon, but yeah the skidplate in the 2024 Ridgeline trailsport is more of bash bar that covers the oil pan. Sarah'N tuned measured it at 4.9mms that being said everything else is exposed. Still far better than the skidplate "garnish" which is the equivalent to faux exhaust as it goes under the front lip giving the appearance of a skidplate..without the plate 🤣
Another great video, informative and entertaining. In order to clean the outside surface of the Ridgeline oil pan so the super-weld would stick, I'm assuming you had to remove the oil inside the pan such that there was no oil in the pan above the crack or hole where the oil had been escaping. How did you accomplish the removal of that oil...drain plug removal or did it just drip out over night to the point where there was no longer any oil above the crack? When the engine got to operating temp did the repair still hold....and for the whole drive back home?
Thanks Tim! 🙏 so, We removed the drain plug and let the oil drain. Because the hole was leaking, we let it drain all night long. In the morning we noticed that there was still a little oil. I found out while I was applying The UV resin that it will cure even if it’s surrounded by oil. As seen in the video, we just kept applying it until it totally engulfed the hole in the oil pan. I also did an at home experiment. I poured some oil out and then applied the resin on top of it. I used the UV light to cure the resin and it hardened, despite being on top of oil. I then did the opposite, I poured the resin and then put oil on top of it. The UV light still cured and hardened the resin.
@@JonDZ_Adventuring Thanks for that detail Jon! It's just another example of how thorough you are (behind the scenes) concerning the depth and detail and curiosity you bring to researching and testing and then informing your subscribers. Of course you have to balance all the technical details with the other elements of these productions and you are doing a good job of that. One more question, if you know, does the temperature of the surface (oil pan) have any effect on curing the resin? Could you do this repair on the spot with a hot oil pan or is it best for it to be cold Thanks for your reply it was very useful info.
@@timhardman4764 the resin is only UV light activated, so the temperature shouldn’t matter. Eventually, the resin will harden (I’m not sure how hard) without the UV light. But the UV light instantly cures this resin.
I also wanted to add - Greg was driving the Ridgeline around town after the trail repair and said it was holding up fine. It definitely got up to operating temp for two cycles and didn't experience total failure, so I'd say it's a solid fix. I'm going to get some of the UV resin as well to keep in my repair kit next to the SteelStik.
Proper equipment and judgement… Need a proper low range and its associated torque along with other bits like skid plates for make for better wheeling. Overloading and technical obstacles are not a good combination. And knowing the vehicle’s/driver’s limitations coupled with the sense of when to turn around is the final components of safe off roading. The local intel should inform the latter.
Light wheels (mine are 24 lb. Rotary forged aluminum. As far as tires, it depends on what you want to do. To do the stuff I do, I highly recommend the Toyo Open Country AT3
Another vote for Toyo Open Country AT3 - it's what I run as well. Almost 20k miles now with lots of rocks, gravel, potholes, railroad crossings, and jumps, with zero leaks/sidewall bubbling.
Lee here! Thanks for all the help! The Subaru made it to Texas and back with no transmission leaks and no further issues. Let's go wheeling again soon (with more skidplates and less damage)!
Really glad we had everything needed to get the Ridgeline back on the road without having to leave it on the trail to drive all the way back to town for parts, and super grateful for the help at the shop to repair my vehicle or carpool me and the wife part-way to get closer to Texas for the eclipse.
I will admit, choosing better lines on that return trip and/or laying out some traction boards for both of us when needed would have prevented these issues in the first place, but we made the mistake of being in a rush to get off the trail before it got too late and not wanting to stop in the dark and walk the same obstacles we walked before for the reverse route. The pan damage on my vehicle was still minimal due to taking it slow - if I was going any faster, it would have been two trailside repairs in the morning instead of one!
After we split up that night, the wife and I made it back to town, had dinner, resupplied oil/groceries, and drove for over an hour after the trailhead with the transmission working properly - I have no idea why it decided to fail at the top of the interstate onramp at the same 55 MPH speeds we hit on the "stroads" leading to that point, but I'm glad it happened while we still had cell service. It happened early enough in the evening that I was able to reach out to my parents who offered a tow with their tow vehicle if needed, researched the issue, reached out to friends in Texas to let them know we might not make it, found short-term car storage listings in the area if needed, reached out to the AZ Subaru community for help with parts if needed, and we slept in the car in a parking lot that night. I also treated the wife to the after-midnight Waffle House experience (our first time at a Waffle House!) but sadly we didn't see any fights 😂. We met up again with Jon after the trail repair the next morning at Bisbee Breakfast Club and the food was *so* much better than I expected. Would definitely go back again.
Additional takeaways for viewers: keep a detailed vehicle repair manual handy - I used a Subaru Factory Service Manual on my computer for troubleshooting reference to partially follow the diagnostic procedure for the transmission error code that was being triggered & verify proper electrical resistance levels on the transmission solenoids using a multimeter to ensure they weren't burned out. Always punch/cut a large hole in the large RTV tube where the nozzle screws on when first opening the tube to ensure minimal effort when dispensing, smearing RTV in a thin layer works great if you can't lay a good bead fast enough (did my oil pan last year and trans pan in this video this way with no leaks thousands of miles later and no pickup tube clogs), Permatex Right Stuff instructions aren't lying when they say you can return the vehicle to service immediately, and Jon and Greg are great people you can trust.
Well said Lee! Thanks for telling more side of your experience and story. I would have included all the other details about your repair, and I had to cut out a lot of footage of Greg’s repair, because the video time was almost an hour, BUT, I think you did fantastic in your portion of the video. Good job explaining what you thought was wrong.
In retrospect, between the total elipse, Carlsbad caverns and big bend, this is my favorite highlight of the trip. I just think it was amazing what we were all able to do. We rose to the occasion and made things happen, this was awesome!
@@JonDZ_Adventuring the video was great! Nothing of value was cut. Just adding some detail for the people that love to read the comments. Thanks for all the hard work.
Those Ridgeline prototype suspension/subframe mounts and high clearance control arms look seriously impressive! Can’t wait to see how that works out. Good job guys.
my boy Lee runs through like a BOSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you JonDZ for this skid plate episode.
It’s more like a “lack of skid plate” episode
@@JonDZ_Adventuring 😂
These videos are extremely valuable for their lessons and how fun they are to watch.
Keep doing what you're doing. 👍
JB Weld the planet!
Also for a trail repair that was great execution. I guess theoretically the Sube could have smacked clearance the other way on the pan but probably not worth the risk as cheap as they are to replace.
Good stuff!
Hammer was definitely in the cards if no parts stores in town had a new pan. The pan was already slightly dented/ugly (previous owner of the transmission) so I was already planning on replacing it.
Great Video. You guys didn't tow it to a shop, you went the extra mile, had the presence of mind to have some emergency patch supplies. And very impressive to have diagnosed the tranny issue. You went the extra mile before giving up, and it paid off, in fact, I believe I heard "Never Give Up, Never Surrender". Yes, we can all benefit from the wisdom of Commander Taggart.
another great episode! This reaffirms me that skid plates are absolutely a must for any offroad activity. And I like how you used 3rd gen tacoma chassis to demonstrate 4x4 vs awd.
I bought full set of aluminum skids from RCI and aluminum sliders from greenlane for my tacoma, the weight saving is insance and for what I do aluminum is more than enough.
Thanks Cong! 🙏 love how you pointed that all out, I’m just trying to keep it 💯 with the differences between AWD and 4WD. I guess you can say that in a 4WD, you’ll be making the same (or maybe) even more contact, because there would be more of an inclination to take on harder trails.
Aluminum is great for weight savings, but not as slidey. Sometime soon I think companies will start offering skid plates with HDPE inserts to increase that “slidiness”, I hear a lot of talk about it.
The weight savings between aluminum and steel is not much. I compared both from same manufacturer for 4 pieces not including gas tank skid. It was 60 lbs vs 90 lbs. I went for the steel ones since they can be repaired after some damage not like the aluminum ones, which means the aluminum ones are disposable.
@@mdgeist472 first of, based on your numbers, you are claiming aluminum saves 30% of weight. That’s very significant already. The more skids you have the more weight it saves. Second, I know for a fact the a pair of steel slider for Tacoma is 75lbs a side, 150lbs for a pair. And the aluminum slider weighs in at 35lbs a side and 70lbs a pair. That’s 50% of the weight saving. To me, that is a lot of weight saving especially for smaller trucks and rigs. Also like I mentioned before it’s all user need based, I don’t foresee a lot of time on the rock so aluminum works for me.
@@4WDisLife Reread your comment. Sorry, I thought you were talking skids, since the damage in the video was for lack of skids. But you are referring to sliders. The numbers I am referencing are only the 4 piece skids. I don't have anything on sliders.
@@mdgeist472 all good, I was referring to more of skid/sliders armors as a whole not specifically for any single piece. But good to know the numbers you provided. Thank you!
It'd be easy to throw shade at the vehicles in this video. But the effort involved in making parts for vehicles that need them off road is no small endeavor. So hats off to whomever is doing that and to you for highlighting them.
And I see that the UV JB-Weld product a very useful thing on the trail. On order.
Cheers and Happy Trails!
What luck. Sarah n Tuned had a review of the Ridgeline trailsport and pointed out the lack of skidplates along with no lift on it.
Now this posts where even with the big lift, the lack of skidplate knocked the Ridgeline out.
The 2024 Ridgeline is basically the same as the 2017, just has the ZF9 like all 2020+ models
WHooo hoooo! I'm watching this with Limp Bizkit's "break stuff" playing in the back ground!
Haha!
I'm not sure how that could be such a difficult challenge. It's just steep only.
It's not difficult to better describe what you are referring to.
Hey Jon D,
Man it has been so long since we have caught up. Havent seen your vids since the San Diego trip you did a couple of years ago. That was an epic trail run you all did, Next time you are in out in the Utah area, let me know and Vice Versa. I am still wanting to do a a Mojave Run, hopefully soon.
Cheers, Mike in SLC
Way to handle the trail damage like champs. I keep the JB Weld Stick but just ordered the UV stuff on Amazon for the SHF kit.
Huh wonder how the 2024 Ridgeline Trailsports "skidplate" would have faired
I didn’t Honda Honda made one for the 2024 Ridgeline (which is the same as the 2017 Ridgeline except the ZF9. It probably would have done the trick. But it only protects the oil pan. Greg also hit his rear diff, and it’s a good thing that was protected
@JonDZ_Adventuring they will probably add the Pilot trailsport skidplate w/ recovery hooks soon, but yeah the skidplate in the 2024 Ridgeline trailsport is more of bash bar that covers the oil pan. Sarah'N tuned measured it at 4.9mms that being said everything else is exposed. Still far better than the skidplate "garnish" which is the equivalent to faux exhaust as it goes under the front lip giving the appearance of a skidplate..without the plate 🤣
Another great video, informative and entertaining. In order to clean the outside surface of the Ridgeline oil pan so the super-weld would stick, I'm assuming you had to remove the oil inside the pan such that there was no oil in the pan above the crack or hole where the oil had been escaping. How did you accomplish the removal of that oil...drain plug removal or did it just drip out over night to the point where there was no longer any oil above the crack? When the engine got to operating temp did the repair still hold....and for the whole drive back home?
Thanks Tim! 🙏 so, We removed the drain plug and let the oil drain. Because the hole was leaking, we let it drain all night long. In the morning we noticed that there was still a little oil.
I found out while I was applying The UV resin that it will cure even if it’s surrounded by oil. As seen in the video, we just kept applying it until it totally engulfed the hole in the oil pan.
I also did an at home experiment. I poured some oil out and then applied the resin on top of it. I used the UV light to cure the resin and it hardened, despite being on top of oil. I then did the opposite, I poured the resin and then put oil on top of it. The UV light still cured and hardened the resin.
@@JonDZ_Adventuring Thanks for that detail Jon! It's just another example of how thorough you are (behind the scenes) concerning the depth and detail and curiosity you bring to researching and testing and then informing your subscribers. Of course you have to balance all the technical details with the other elements of these productions and you are doing a good job of that. One more question, if you know, does the temperature of the surface (oil pan) have any effect on curing the resin? Could you do this repair on the spot with a hot oil pan or is it best for it to be cold Thanks for your reply it was very useful info.
@@timhardman4764 the resin is only UV light activated, so the temperature shouldn’t matter. Eventually, the resin will harden (I’m not sure how hard) without the UV light. But the UV light instantly cures this resin.
I also wanted to add - Greg was driving the Ridgeline around town after the trail repair and said it was holding up fine. It definitely got up to operating temp for two cycles and didn't experience total failure, so I'd say it's a solid fix. I'm going to get some of the UV resin as well to keep in my repair kit next to the SteelStik.
Proper equipment and judgement… Need a proper low range and its associated torque along with other bits like skid plates for make for better wheeling. Overloading and technical obstacles are not a good combination. And knowing the vehicle’s/driver’s limitations coupled with the sense of when to turn around is the final components of safe off roading. The local intel should inform the latter.
How did you create that picture of your Passport for your channel photo?
I plan on lifting my 2017 Pilot. Any recommendations on what wheels tires I should get?
Light wheels (mine are 24 lb. Rotary forged aluminum. As far as tires, it depends on what you want to do. To do the stuff I do, I highly recommend the Toyo Open Country AT3
Another vote for Toyo Open Country AT3 - it's what I run as well. Almost 20k miles now with lots of rocks, gravel, potholes, railroad crossings, and jumps, with zero leaks/sidewall bubbling.
what do you have powering your microwave? lol I was not ready to see you pop in a tv dinner.
🤣🤣🤣
An EcoFlow River 2 Max. 2048 WH with 2400 watt output.
@@JonDZ_Adventuring Very nice! Thanks for the content and the reply back. ☺Happy trailing!
Great video.. that trail needs a higher rating than 3. I would rate it a 5-6. That's some big rocky ruts.
It was definitely more than we signed up for! But we made the best of it.
Greg was not driving that slow and not being careful at all
16:18 bro is that a microwave? That’s baller af
700w of pure power