mbakerwh

So this weekend I took my new (well, new to me) '99 tacoma out on some trails in the Cibola National Forest. I spent most of the time out on dirt roads in 4h (it was raining the whole time and muddddddyyyyy) and didnt have any problems--The truck was awesome, had a great night sleeping in the camper shell, and overall a fantastic trip. One slightly concerning thing did happen though--

At one point, we came down a dirt trail toward a stream crossing only to find a full size dodge 4x4 stuck in the mud and two yahoos trying to dig it out. We chatted with them and established that crossing was not a good choice (I dont have a winch...yet) and even offered to help them dig their rig out. I did a 3 point turn to head back and get some logs and rocks for them to use as support in the two feet of wet mud and silt they were in. While I was doing the 3 point turn, the front end of my truck got stuck in a ditch--And I couldnt reverse out of it. I tried three times to gun my way out of it and each time the engine died. The 4th time, I let the clutch out more and ended up with quite a bit of white smoke coming from the clutch and that godawful smell. It was at that point I thought to put it in 4L and creep my way out--Which worked just fine. We got them some rocks and dead trees, made sure they were out alright, and then headed home. The drive home, btw, was about 10 minutes on dirt trail (10-15 mph), 40 minutes on dirt road (40-50 mph) and then 30 minutes on highway (70-80 mph). The clutch didnt smell bad or have any other misbehaviors and felt just like it did before I "smoked" it. A little more background on my rig--It's a 1999 Ext Cab 4x4 3.4 SR5 with 225,000 miles on it. It had three owners before me, two of which put about 110k on it each and were older gentlemen. The 3rd owner was younger and needed to get a full size bed and a crew cab.

So--What are the chances I did any kind of long-term damage to my clutch, or, quite frankly, anything else? I tried to find a similar story in other forums and couldnt--I'm new to YT so if there is one, please point me that way!

--matt

maachine

you're good. its alright to burn up a clutch every so often. sure it shortens the life some but as long as you didnt burn it for a long period of time........ i doubt you did any moderate damage to it.

maachine

here's home boy thinking he's burning his rear tires but he ate up the clutch instead.