AbqPatriot
10-29-2007, 12:23 PM
Hello All,
I have been out of town for an extended camping/hunting trip. As usual I killed nothing but I enjoyed the time in the mountains around Datil New Mexico. I saw more than my share of wild life, Elk, Deer, rabbits, coyote, and turkey to name a few. It is an annual ritual for me to go Elk hunting and never shoot an Elk. I like it that way. Some day I may come across a legal bull elk off of private land then I may have to spoil my perfect record of never putting meat on the table, we will see.
I bought the Patriot so I could drive on these trips and it did not let me down. I put 500 off-road miles on my Pat and it did wonderful on some awful forest "roads." I didn't get stuck once. I even had the opportunity to pull some trees off the road and to pass a guy in a huge dodge 4x4 who got stuck when his big ol' truck could not navigate around some really deep ruts (my friend in a F150 pulled him out). A great trip and I would give the Pat an A+ for off-roading. It is small an nimble and as long as you pay attention to clearance it goes wherever you need it to.
Now for the problem. When I first bought the Jeep a few months ago the sway bar linkage on the passengers side came disconnected on my first off-road trip. It happened again this time. The first time it was the lower bolt, this time it was the upper. I had to limp back to camp. I called Jeep and they were having fits about towing me out so I took pity on them and had a friend drive me into town and I spent .97 cents on a nut and fixed it myself. The dealer has since replaced it with the correct nut. I have included a picture of the linkage so you can see what I'm talking about. The dealer in Soccoro said he had seen this before. The dealer in Albuquerque said my Pat was the only one he had seen with the problem. You may want to check it before heading off the beaten track for a few weeks.
Tony
I have been out of town for an extended camping/hunting trip. As usual I killed nothing but I enjoyed the time in the mountains around Datil New Mexico. I saw more than my share of wild life, Elk, Deer, rabbits, coyote, and turkey to name a few. It is an annual ritual for me to go Elk hunting and never shoot an Elk. I like it that way. Some day I may come across a legal bull elk off of private land then I may have to spoil my perfect record of never putting meat on the table, we will see.
I bought the Patriot so I could drive on these trips and it did not let me down. I put 500 off-road miles on my Pat and it did wonderful on some awful forest "roads." I didn't get stuck once. I even had the opportunity to pull some trees off the road and to pass a guy in a huge dodge 4x4 who got stuck when his big ol' truck could not navigate around some really deep ruts (my friend in a F150 pulled him out). A great trip and I would give the Pat an A+ for off-roading. It is small an nimble and as long as you pay attention to clearance it goes wherever you need it to.
Now for the problem. When I first bought the Jeep a few months ago the sway bar linkage on the passengers side came disconnected on my first off-road trip. It happened again this time. The first time it was the lower bolt, this time it was the upper. I had to limp back to camp. I called Jeep and they were having fits about towing me out so I took pity on them and had a friend drive me into town and I spent .97 cents on a nut and fixed it myself. The dealer has since replaced it with the correct nut. I have included a picture of the linkage so you can see what I'm talking about. The dealer in Soccoro said he had seen this before. The dealer in Albuquerque said my Pat was the only one he had seen with the problem. You may want to check it before heading off the beaten track for a few weeks.
Tony