As in overland adventures, as in life. There will be times where you are out on your own, there is no one to help you, the situation is yours! What you have, what you know, what you have prepared for is all that will get you home.  You can think that you can get help, but too much reliance on others becomes an addiction and a dependency. You stop thinking, you stop anticipating what could happen and what you would do, IF.  We can’t predict the future, but we can plan for it, and that makes the next mile a little less intimidating.

That happened to the Tortuga coming back from North Padre Island National Seashore a while back.  In the old Tortuga Truck configuration, there was a large construction box on the hydraulic lift in the back.  

Well, sorry to say during a coastal flood advisory, the Tortuga had to bounce around on the dunes a little, and it was too much stress for the old joints on the lift, and one of the joints failed. (This led to a reconfiguration of the lift and storage boxes, described here in the post “Almost Right, but Now it is”.)

To get home, the Tortuga had to use what she had, so we strapped the box down to the chassis not to dump it on the Interstate.  (Pretty sure that if a big orange box dropped down in front of you at 70 mph, you just might not think nicely of the Tortuga.) Orange ratchet straps are the next best thing to Duct Tape. (Little side bar here:  during the BTB adventure, passing through Van Horn, we saw a sign that said “Silence is golden, Duct Tape is silver.”)  The Tortuga Loves ratchet straps and duct tape, but sometimes it’s not going to work as a long-term solution.

 

The Tortuga was able to get home safely, the ratchet straps worked, but there had to be a better answer for overland applications.  After some research, the answer appears to be: Trail Weld.

Packaged nice and small, there are welding rods in the red container and the cables you would need to hook up three batteries to weld. There are also a small pair of “trick” goggles.  Not as good as Lincoln welding equipment, but better than super glue (or ratchet straps or duct tape).  Be sure to take the batteries out your truck before you attempt any welding. Doesn’t do you any good to have your broken metal piece welded together when you burn down your trucks electrical system in the process.

Included is everything you need to set up three batteries in series that will increase the voltage so you can weld the broken metal and get down the trail.

The next time something metal breaks, three of the Tortuga’s Red Tops are coming out and the Tortuga is going to melt some metal to get us home. HOPE THAT NEVER HAPPENS!  In fact, nothing would make the Tortuga happier than to never use (or evaluate this kit base on a real “OH SUGAR” requirement.)  But, this kit is now on the load plan for the Tortuga Truck.