Night recovery! JLUR has electrical breakdown on badge of honor trail and pulled to trailhead until 2am

[blnewt]

Kudos @Wheelin Matt great job getting that disabled JL off the trail. Valuable thread and video bringing up points that should be considered should any of us be in a similar situation. I might have considered that battery swap, but in the eye of the storm you're just wanting to get yourself and your buddies off the trail back to a safe place, well done sir!

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[Danny1981]

I had a 18 jlu sport that had these same issues plus some, after replacing both batteries, checking every electrical connection including grounds, a new alternator, it would still randomly not start, it would shut it self off driving down the road, put it self in neutral driving down the road, shut off power steering driving down the road, plus all the electrical show with wipers etc. And it also booted itself up as a rubicon on the dash a few times.

 

[Peep the Jeep]

A group of 3 Jeeps (all JL’s) and a Bronco Wildtrak 2 door ran an afternoon Jeep badge of honor trail (Holcomb creek in Big Bear, CA rated 6/8 in difficulty) on Tuesday for a nice sunset rock crawl with friends. A couple hours into the trail after doing an obstacle one of the JL’s would not start back up. The lights on the dash were all going crazy and then the windshield wipers would go on randomly. We tried jumping it and that didn’t do anything. After looking at the map we decided best course of action would be to pull him out of the trail but we would have to pull him thru the hardest section of the trail to get to an escape route (which was not easy at all either, rated 4/5 in difficulty).

The middle rock garden was very wet and the boulders are huge and they move around with all the water and people driving and winching off them (which we had to do quite a bit of). It took us about 3 hours to get the whole group thru with the disabled JL taking the longest because no power steering or sway bar disconnect on 6/8 rated obstacles made it a winch fest getting it thru the massive garden. Once thru we hopped on the escape trail (Lower Larga flats) and the disabled JL really struggled on very off camber ruts and ravines that were torn up from the record snow this winter.

At around 1:45am we finally got him to the trailhead and he was able to call a tow truck!

We are thinking it’s the auxiliary battery failing and taking out the main battery…. I’ll post an update when we know for sure. This didn’t happen to my Jeep, lucky for me but unlucky for Anthony. The best part of this experience is that we all came together and worked our asses off to get Anthony’s Jeep to civilization. Team work kicks ass!

We got the whole thing on video since my son brought his drones and Sony to record us on the trail anyways….. check it out, fresh out of the YouTube oven

Crazy! See I want to be brave enough to do this kind of stuff but these are things that freak me out! I will stick to the nice scenery trails for now haha.

 

[C.Sco]

That aux battery, and ESS in general, is a menace. Jeep never should have put that in any vehicles, especially not wranglers. It's not helping anything or anyone, it's only ever a problem.

 

[tozalazz]

Good to know you finally pull it out by all yourselves without rescue team, so is it a battery issue after all?

 

[J0E]

That aux battery, and ESS in general, is a menace. Jeep never should have put that in any vehicles, especially not wranglers. It's not helping anything or anyone, it's only ever a problem.

Not TRUE!
It increases the carbon footprint of the JL. The EPA and CAFE standards have nothing to do with carbon footprint, they're only about mileage. Given the cost of replacement and fragility of the system, it incurs a far larger carbon footprint than the few pennies of fuel it saves.

ESS advantages:

1. For me, it got me into very aggressive on MSS (Manual Stop/Start). On rides with the club, we frequently stop to look at lines. Most folks keep their rigs running. ESS has trained me to usually shut down. Given the long shut downs, I do save a measurable amount of fuel. Note: on 6+ trails I don't shut down, too risky.
2. Provides opportunities to practice difficult recoveries. That experience could be invaluable.

ESS Disadvantages:

1. Highly unreliable system.
2. Higher carbon footprint.
3. High maintenance.
4. Anxiety producing.

So an economist would do a CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis). Clearly, ESS wins over not having it. Paid for my the committee to raise taxes and expand counterproductive regulation.

 

[REDCOMETJLUXR]

Good to know you finally pull it out by all yourselves without rescue team, so is it a battery issue after all?

It was just a battery issue, no tell tale sign before hand just literally died while out on the trail. We drove up to the trail no issues, aired downed no issues, it wasn’t until almost midway through the trail when we shut off the jeeps for a quick cool down after a V notch. The day after this we had the jeep home and pulled apart to remove/replace the aux battery but it was already removed/not included from factory. Jeep was purchased brand new but to the owner’s knowledge he’s never requested it to be removed if it was included from factory. His jeep isn’t what I was call a daily, maybe see’s 100-150 miles in week so could be a case of it “sitting”. We have a Moab/Co trip upcoming we’re now joking to pack extra batteries for the jeep

 

[J0E]

It was just a battery issue, no tell tale sign before hand just literally died while out on the trail. We drove up to the trail no issues, aired downed no issues, it wasn’t until almost midway through the trail when we shut off the jeeps for a quick cool down after a V notch. The day after this we had the jeep home and pulled apart to remove/replace the aux battery but it was already removed/not included from factory. Jeep was purchased brand new but to the owner’s knowledge he’s never requested it to be removed if it was included from factory. His jeep isn’t what I was call a daily, maybe see’s 100-150 miles in week so could be a case of it “sitting”. We have a Moab/Co trip upcoming we’re now joking to pack extra batteries for the jeep

no tell tale sign before hand just literally died while out on the trai

But no load testing either, right? I load test my battery with this $25, 100 A tester at least twice a month and before big rides. I also carry these 1 Ga cables.

Even so, if I could figure out a good way to strap an extra battery down, I'd probably carry one. I do have a pair of 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Batteries in my trailer. They're very light compared to LA and don't leak acid. Maybe I should carry one.

 

[Rangemaster]

A group of 3 Jeeps (all JL’s) and a Bronco Wildtrak 2 door ran an afternoon Jeep badge of honor trail (Holcomb creek in Big Bear, CA rated 6/8 in difficulty) on Tuesday for a nice sunset rock crawl with friends. A couple hours into the trail after doing an obstacle one of the JL’s would not start back up. The lights on the dash were all going crazy and then the windshield wipers would go on randomly. We tried jumping it and that didn’t do anything. After looking at the map we decided best course of action would be to pull him out of the trail but we would have to pull him thru the hardest section of the trail to get to an escape route (which was not easy at all either, rated 4/5 in difficulty).

The middle rock garden was very wet and the boulders are huge and they move around with all the water and people driving and winching off them (which we had to do quite a bit of). It took us about 3 hours to get the whole group thru with the disabled JL taking the longest because no power steering or sway bar disconnect on 6/8 rated obstacles made it a winch fest getting it thru the massive garden. Once thru we hopped on the escape trail (Lower Larga flats) and the disabled JL really struggled on very off camber ruts and ravines that were torn up from the record snow this winter.

At around 1:45am we finally got him to the trailhead and he was able to call a tow truck!

We are thinking it’s the auxiliary battery failing and taking out the main battery…. I’ll post an update when we know for sure. This didn’t happen to my Jeep, lucky for me but unlucky for Anthony. The best part of this experience is that we all came together and worked our asses off to get Anthony’s Jeep to civilization. Team work kicks ass!

We got the whole thing on video since my son brought his drones and Sony to record us on the trail anyways….. check it out, fresh out of the YouTube oven

Nice video, your son is great with the drone.

 

[REDCOMETJLUXR]

no tell tale sign before hand just literally died while out on the trai

But no load testing either, right? I load test my battery with this $25, 100 A tester at least twice a month and before big rides. I also carry these 1 Ga cables.

Even so, if I could figure out a good way to strap an extra battery down, I'd probably carry one. I do have a pair of 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Batteries in my trailer. They're very light compared to LA and don't leak acid. Maybe I should carry one.

Correct, he's never had an issue with the electronics so to him wasn't a reason to check it. I picked up a load tester yesterday I'm gonna test out his tomorrow when I get the chance and mine for good caution now. I think he's looking into the extra battery or portable jump starter.

 

[Curcurt]

no tell tale sign before hand just literally died while out on the trai

But no load testing either, right? I load test my battery with this $25, 100 A tester at least twice a month and before big rides. I also carry these 1 Ga cables.

Even so, if I could figure out a good way to strap an extra battery down, I'd probably carry one. I do have a pair of 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Batteries in my trailer. They're very light compared to LA and don't leak acid. Maybe I should carry one.

I have a load tester just like this that is about 40 years old. Just used it last month checking my JL's batteries. I had a warning light that came on in the dash with an A in a circle with an exclamation point ! It turned out to be a bent door pin on the driver's door harness. I thought for sure it was a bad aux battery even though both batteries tested good.

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