Java's 2020 Crewmax

They got the slider too, you can see the rub mark.... I think it was when I was parked at work, its the drivers door, I would have noticed.... Only other place I parked that day, drivers side was towards an island.

 

This was an adventure.


Trying to turn my trailer around to back up the driveway, I pulled into the snowbank a bit. It was soft and I didn't think it would be an issue. But it was hiding a nice stick....




Broke the grill, ok, it was aftermarket anyway. Not a huge issue. No obvious holes.




Drove up to the pass to ski the next day, arrive early and sitting in the truck idling and the heat goes away..... Crap. Shut down. I get out and I can see the coolant in the snow. Flashlight in hand and I cant find a hole..... Turn out the stick bent 90 degrees up, and went over all the way to the passenger side. I finally found the hole and its right behind the core support, at the very top crimp of the rad.... Great. I always have a 5 gallon jug of water in the back, but I dragged it into the cabin for drinking water and didn't throw it back in the truck in the morning. Ugh.


Skied for the morning, then took all my water bottles to the lodge a few times to try to refill. Since the hole was right at the top edge, it meant very slowly trickling the water in, otherwise half came out the hole. Its only 25 min back to the cabin, and all downhill. Got the radiator full and went for it. Well I guess the block was empty too, it overheated in just a couple minutes, shut down and pull over..... Rad empty. Dumped all the water bottles in again, hopefully the block filled. (I did leave the cap off) nope, overheats again in like 1/2 mile. Shut down and cost to the next pull off. Empty again. All I had left was seltzer waters. Well here goes. Start dumping them in. A good guy stopped and gave me his bottle of water also. Called the neighbor who is a nice guy, he was willing to come drag me home (we had made it about half way). Must have gotten more water in, at idle it did not overheat on the way home, and the heat came back on! It was COLD. Dropped it at the start to our road, and went and got the snowmobile.....


My thought was to try to slow the leak, and I could make it home. Its only ~100 miles. JB Weld putty came to mind. Well the hardware store only had plastic weld putty, not the stuff for metal.... Well worth a shot. 20minute ride on trhe snowmobile down to the gas station, got some heat to clean the radiator random coolant they had. Ran back to the truck. Sprayed the heat all over and lit it on fire.... I may have gotten more on there than I thought. But rad is not clean and warm, and I did not light anything on fire..... Smoosh JB weld into rad and go back to the cabin to let it cure for a couple hours. Going to spend one more night I guess.







Couple hours go by and I refill it and drive back to the cabin. Figured that would be a good first test if this would work. Make it back, but I lost the bushings for the top of the radiator, I had to remove the top mounted to tip it back enough to even get my fingers in behind the core support to work. It held, so I threw the bolts back in and we made some dinner. Morning comes and its still full. We waited until it was getting light to leave in case we had to pull over on the shoulder again. We pack up and I warm the truck up and check again.... Rad is full. Stopped at the top of the pass, its a little low, but only takes a pint or so to fill up. Not bad, and that should be the highest load area.


Stopped every 20-30 mins the rest of the way back. Needed a little top off each time, I think it was leaking a bit out of the back of the tubes. But made it home, no overheating and used 3/4 gallon in top offs. Not bad. I had 9 gallons on board. Trusty Tundra made it, and I now have JB weld putty in the truck, both the metal type and "water weld" which cures really fast and under water. Hope I never need it.