I had some fairly major trail damage about three weeks ago but have been on vacation so haven't posted about it until now.

It probably started when I was in Moab and my front wheels got in a wedgie enough to nick one of my front rims and peel the bead back a ways. When I returned home I noticed that the driver side tie rod was bent a little near the start of the threads (no photo, sorry). I thought, "I should try and sleeve that before I go out again." but I procrastinated. When I was in the Rio Puerco trying an obstacle I had done before, I ended up snapping the tie rod and ripping the CV out of the hub. After some work with the Hi-Lift, we managed to get the half shaft back in place enough to back down off the rock I was on and back on level ground. Some further work 'splinting' the tie rod with a wrench and some hose clamps and I was able to start the long drive out.

We ended up having to repair the splint a couple more times over the first five miles before the hose clamps started to fail and we couldn't get them tight enough to hold.

It was 10 PM by now, so I left it there and rode back into town (through a terrible sandstorm) with my buddy to get some food and find some more hose clamps and some U-bolt clamps. We drove back out that night and clamped the splint with the U-bolts and was able to get it out of the backcountry and back in my driveway.

A couple things may be of interest. First, it drove ok in 4-LO, but if I went to 4-HI, the broken CV would grind. Also, the ESP/BAS warning light had been on since Moab (three weeks earlier), but after the halfshaft and tie rod were replaced, the warning light went off and hasn't come on since.

The bottom line is that with 33's, I don't think the stock tie rods are nearly strong enough and see three options: aftermarket linkages, sending out the stock tie rods for heat-treating and hardening, and sleeving the stock linkages. Any recommendations?