Start of Trip:

Left my house at 6pm on Friday evening after work and arrived in San Antonio, TX at 11:30pm and spent the night.

Day 1:

Got up and headed west at 8am, stopped off in Boerne, TX at The Cave Without A Name. Then we got back on the road and I took a scenic route to Comfort, TX and I got back onto I-10. A cold front had passed thru so I battled a gusty 30mph headwind the entire way to Sonora, TX where I stopped to take a tour of the cave. We caught the last tour which ended up just my wife and I. Besides the tour guide we had the entire cave to ourselves. He took us to a ton of places the public isn't allowed and it was beautiful. After that it was back on I-10 to Fort Stockton, TX which was my final destination. Checked into the hotel and called it a night.​​​​

Day 2:

We headed up to Carlsbad Caverns, and the size of that cavern is just insane! Then we went by Guadalupe National Park, but the off road trail was closed so we took some pictures and headed back. On the way back I though I smelled something, but at the same time I passed so many big rigs I thought it was one of them. We made it back and had a nice Anniversary dinner.







Day 3:

Woke up with the intention to off road at Big Bend. However when I walked out side there was a solid red puddle all down the driver's side of the XD. The BRAND new short AT line which was maybe on the XD for a week had completely failed. It was NOT crimped and could be simply pulled apart. I was 4qt low on ATF and I had to act fast. Limped to Walmart, and picked up some Valvoline MaxLife ATF, added some until the level kinda showed up. Then Oriellys was right down the street from there. I removed the POS line and it pulled apart 100% by hand on both ends with no effort at all. That left me with 2 1 1/2 ends of the metal line where the crimped sleeve was supposed to be. Went inside the auto parts store grabbed some AT line, light lubed the hose and pressed it on. Then I double clamped it with hose clamps. I then finally about 10:30am started to head towards Big Bend. I was maybe down the road 70 miles when a Texas DPS officer pulled me over for a missing front plate..... I was given a warning as I explained it either fell off on the way up here or it was stolen at the hotel in San Antonio.





Finally made it to Big Bend and we hiked the Window Trail which was absolutely beautiful and once again we had it all to ourselves. After we hiked back and saw the sun set we headed back. I had been checking the hose clamps about every 50 miles and tightening them until finally the line stopped seeping. My repair is doing very well and it's MUCH better than the POS Allmakes4x4 hose Lucky8 sent me!!! Made it back to Fort Stockton to hear a weird sound. Found the LR caliper was allowing the pad to barely contact the rotor and the pads little shim was bouncing causing the noise. Got to the hotel and removed the shim. New Caliper will get ordered when I get back as it's a used one I tossed on before the last HCRR event.





Day 4:

I got up checked the fluids, checked the repaired line and it's perfect now. So hopefully today I get some off road time in before our sunset horse ride later in the day.

 

Day 4 Continuation:

Well the day started with me once again getting pulled over by DPS for a missing front license plate.... Which seems to be a jinx as shortly after I started hearing a rock tumbler sound from the LR. Pulled over and inner pad was wedged funny and smoking. Removed entire caliper, brake line, and placed Bleed Valve at the T. That stopped the sound for about another 45 miles when it started up again this time only around curves. I already had my suspicions it was the LR wheel bearing. Limped to the Big Bend Park Headquarters and yep sure enough I now had a little play in the LR. Off Road plans, and going down by the Rio Grande were scrubbed. We had horse riding reservations near Terlingua so I decided to limp along and then see what the stores outside the park had in stock as the gas station inside the park is complete joke when it comes to any auto supplies like grease or a hose clamp. We made it to Terlingua and the small grocery store had some grease! When I walked out of the store I also noticed a nice shiny screw sticking out of the center of my LF tire. I checked it and it was barely leaking so I decided to leave it alone for the time being (had a patch/plug kit and air compressor). I found a nice spot and set to work. Removed the axle shaft and basically all I saw was rusty water and what was left of some grease. I then removed the outer washers and bearing which was still hanging in there. The inner bearing was 99.9% gone and all the rollers were just rolling around inside the hub just like a rock tumbler. I removed all the debris, packed the entire thing with grease, and put the outer bearing back. The ABS sensor, and ABS reluctor ring were already trashed from all the play.



A nice man offered to stop off in Alpine the next morning and pick up the new bearings for me and he also had an RV he rents out which was vacant. I told him thanks and after the horse ride I'd let him know. We enjoyed the horse ride and once again it was just us and the trail guide. We talked it over about what to do, and I figured with me packing the bearing and the rest of it full of grease along with removing all the debris we should just try to limp along the 80 miles to Alpine, TX I text the nice man and said we were gonna try to make it to Alpine (putting all my faith in my repairs and my Land Rover). His ranch ended up being nearly 20 miles outside of town anyways so at that point we just limped along at 35-45MPH and I was driving like Ace Venture Pet Detective listening for any rock tumbler aka the end of the road for us and the XD. It was quiet as can be and we got in Alpine 30min before the Auto Parts store closed. I grabbed a 1/2 to 3/4 adapter for my large wheel hub socket, and a dremel tool to grind off the remains of the rear bearing race. It was another 67 miles back to Fort Stockton and we both agreed to just try and keep going as Fort Stockton had a lot more places to find for possible repairs or help with getting the remains of the bearing race off the stub axle. We made it to Fort Stockton once again without a peep coming from the LR. We ordered a pizza which we picked up as we got into town, and settled in for the night.

Day 5:

I slept in until about 9AM and then I hit up the other auto parts store in town and got 2 more bearings for my trail box/spare parts box. Then I grabbed some hand cleaner and a few other misc things I thought I'd need like a 25ft long extension cord from good old Wal-Mart. I got to work on the XD around 10AM and had the remains of the bearing race off about an hour later taking my time as to not hurt anything. I then set to work on cleaning the surface of the stub axle so the new bearings would slide on. There was absolutely zero damage to the bearing surfaces inside the hub itself which was AWESOME. Greased the heck out of everything and slapped it together. The XD is once again mobile! We've decided to cut the trip short by a day and to start heading back east. If I'm tired we'll once again stop in San Antonio for the night and then continue on in the morning.




Yes I am sad the XD didn't get to hit the trails like I had planned, but the trip was already cut short since my wife had to be back by Friday at 8AM to report for work, then the traffic stops for the darn missing front plate which I am 99.9% sure was stolen off the front of the XD as the screw holes are perfectly fine. Then the worse thing was the POS Allmakes4x4 short AT line failure without a doubt!!!! I specifically swapped out the original seepy one because I wanted to avoid a failure and by actually installing that POS I created a failure which could have led to the death of my HP22 especially in all those 6200FT mountain ranges..... But the HP22 and the XD held in there and I managed to fix that BS. I got in touch with where I bought that hose and demanded a replacement ASAP and I NEVER got a single reply back.... Some stickers, a hat, and a beenie will be going into the fire when I get home no doubt.

The scenery was amazing out here, and even with all the issues the XD did very well in my opinion. I don't know of many vehicles that could go 400 miles on a totally destroyed wheel bearing without any true damage. The ABS sensor, and ABS reluctor ring were just in the line of fire when the bearing developed enough play to grind into them. I will most certainly make more fall/winter plans to come out here again. Also DO NOT believe the NPS website saying the park is full. I had specifically looked online for the week of my trip and it showed all primitive campsites booked. However once at the park the darn place was nearly empty minus a few 5th wheel campers, and one small RV.

 

Day 5 Continuation:

After the repairs were made we packed up, and started heading east. Trip was 100% uneventful with zero issues. Made it to San Antonio where we decided to spend the night down by the San Antonio Riverwalk. We walked down from our hotel and had a nice dinner at The Republic of TX.

Day 6:

Then we slept in and once checked out of our hotel we walked back down to the riverwalk and ate lunch at Casa Rio. After that we toured the Alamo, chilled out for a bit enjoying the beautiful day and then got back onto the road where the trip home was once again uneventful. It was still an awesome trip and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'll be looking into going back this fall/winter and camping for sure.

 

Today I ordered some new brake pads, and I will re-install the caliper and bleed it once the pads come in. Got the tire fixed as well today, and washed all the nasty ATF from underneath the XD.

 

XD is back up and operational, did all the repairs to the LR and the ABS, Brakes, and Wheel Bearings = all good to go. She is ready for SCARR, but now I'm not sure with work I'll be able to make it.

 

What pads and bearings did you get?

 

I just used Oreilly's for the bearings and pads. I wasn't going to wait 3 days in Alpine, TX for Timken's to show up so I went with what they had in stock. The originals minus the one that died were 25 years old so I would expect the new ones to last a decent amount of time no matter what brand. I used Lucas Red & Tacky for the wheel bearing grease.Brake pad wise I also just used Oreilly's. I have had really good brake performance with their front pads (installed those before the HCRR event in 2021) so I just used them again for the rear.

 

Cool. Thanks. I plan to do mine as soon as the weather levels out here.

 

Super easy job, I got my big old socket for the hub nuts at Tractor Supply. All the Auto Part stores = had nothing big enough for the hub nut. My LR bearing was probably going out for the last 1,000 miles and I just didn't know it until we were out in the middle of nowhere lol. All I had left was up in the pic above in an earlier post. So it had been on it's way out for a while & just didn't show itself until the cage finally crumbled to bits. She's old, she's rusty, but she has always got me home. Most of her mishaps have been due to poor quality parts and stuff I was pro active to replace and should have just left alone like the 25 year old drop a day AT line. The off road stuff on my trip was cute short, but it was still an adventure and not very many people take 25 year old rusty LR's on 2,500 mile trips these days. If gas prices ever settle back down I'll be going back out there in a heartbeat!

 

Gas prices are about to hurt a lot of things at a time when the country really wants to get out this Spring and Summer and stretch its legs. I really can't imagine prices staying above $4 for the rest of the year. This will likely reign in a GOP victory in the House and Senate, which will make Mr. Potato Head-in-Chief even more lame. He'll basically spend the next 3 years staring at pond geese eating ice cream. But in the meantime, we will be paying dearly at the pump and grocery stores.