Tuesday morning of last week we get a call from Joe, a V8 Tundra customer, who is up on Rubicon. "I think I broke your Crawler, Marlin!"

In his usual fashion, Marlin requested time off and after a short shop meeting, was granted permission to help the customer on the trail. Marlin checked his truck over and began loading it. At this point we are not sure what broke, so spare parts were gathered including a good used chain drive t/case.

Late Tuesday afternoon Marlin is finally ready to leave for Rubicon, about a 6 hour drive. A customer and family friend James "Craftsman" joins Marlin and they head north in Marlin's 1980 Crawler Truck towards the con.

Marlin arrived at Rubicon around midnight. The initial report was that the customer had broke down at the north end of the Bowl. So they aired down and headed for the bowl. When they got to the Bowl, the customer was no where to be found. At this time it was very late, 1 or 2 am, so they decided to call it a night and out came the sleeping bags. Marlin said it was cold and wet up there, raining Tuesday on the con.



The next morning (Wednesday) they decided to head towards Ellis Creek. On the way in, they ran into a Jeep in the Bowl with a broken D35 rear axle. Out came the tools and Marlin and Craftsman quickly got to business.

Here is Craftsman welding on the rear axle shaft:




Throughout the entire day, Marlin and James exercised proper safety precautions. Here welding in a large open area far from any fire hazards. They brought oil spill kits, two fire extinguishers, and hauled more trash out than they brought in with them. Thanks for that guys!

The axle fractured before it broke, so there was ample surface area to weld to. The Jeep had a detroit rear locker, so the decision was made to grind down the splines turning the truck into a 3WD, and have the C-clip hold the axle and tire in place. Everything went well and Marlin and Craftsman were soon on their way.

They got to the creek, but there still was no sign of the Tundra. Continuing on they finally found the broken rig just beyond Walker Hill. The customer was very grateful when he realized that Marlin had drove his Crawler truck all the way from Fresno to help him out!





When they pulled the transfer case, here is what they saw! (Craftsman says he is sorry for the blurry image )


He sheared the input to his transfer case!





The piece of input that broke off into our coupler was just 3/4"!


I would LOVE to see a single row bearing give the coupler enough support to hold onto that input without stripping out!!

This has actually become a recent concern with the Tacoma/4Runner and Tundra transfer cases. We have had Tacoma customers break their t/case input gear, but this is the first of our Tundra Crawler owners to break theirs. Being in a V8 adds more intrigue to it all

Marlin said the coupler looked perfect so back together the truck went! They got the Toyota transfer case that Marlin brought with him installed and the job was done.




It was a beautiful day up there (always is when it rains) and the Automatic Tundra was back to normal Crawling at 173:1 once again




On their way back out, they came across a 1973 International Scout with a broken driveline. Little did these guys know what this red Toyota truck with Marlin Crawler badges all over it was all about

So out came the grinder and welder, and Marlin and Craftsman got back to work and repaired the Scout.




Great work Marlin and Craftsman! Wish I could have joined ya on a weekday nonetheless!

Regards,
BigMike

Infernal posted  the other side of this  great story  just  the other day

Just about everyone knows the quality of  Marlin as a person,so here's another great story to add to the many,taken right out of the TTORA board from this past weekend:








for the “book” but I feel this story should be told. I drove over 1700 miles (one-way) in my red '01 Tundra to meet, party and wheel with ya all and instead I met up with ole man Murphy and he kicked my ass a little. I had previously e-mailed Mike and advised I would be late getting to the starting gate but I would catch up to the group before Buck Lake. I've done the Rubicon previously with this Tundra and I felt I could easily make up a couple hours on a large group. My rig is 3-linked up front with a Spidertrac 9" housing and tubes with a Hi9 3rd - solid axle 60 knuckles and C's on the corners and Bobby's Dana 60 birfs and axles, 4-linked rear with the same housing and 3rd member, ARB lockers and coilovers all around on 35" Krawlers. She's also got the Marlin Crawler 4.7 coupled to a Taco V6 transfer case with twin sticks (done by Marlin) and is well armored. I was planning on running everything clean as a whistle and hoping I could get a good spot from one of you through little sluice, as I didn't attempt that puppy last time around. Well, everything was going fine and I had just breezed up Walker hill and on that little tiny good for nothing rock pile about a quarter mile west of little sluice I broke the output shaft on my transfer case. I was dead in the water and flat flopped at that point. I'm grateful to Matt (a TTora member) who came along and winched me back to a location off the trail so others could get past. (I was monitoring the CB ch and heard the last group was just talking about taking the bypass around little sluice, so I was real close at that point to catching up.) I then called Richard Stubbs who advised he would make a couple calls looking for my type of set up and upon locating one he would be on his way. He suggested I call Marlin and get some parts coming his way as a backup. I then called Marlin and after explaining my dilemma he just flat out stated "It will take me a couple hours to finish up a project here, load my truck up with everything you might need and I'll be on my way to your location." Marlin has a reputation second to none for customer service and is well respected in the 4X4 community as you all know but this type of service from anyone but Marlin is unheard of. I then called Stubbs back and advised Marlin was on his way to which Richard replied something like I would expect that from Marlin as that’s just the way that guy does business. I then got back to Marlin about an hour later and advised Marlin that a rig needed an 80 series tie rod end and he said he would pack a couple ends along and other parts for anyone else needing parts that he stocks. Marlin showed up with enough parts and equipment to sink a battleship. What a terrific person he is, on his way to me he and James (a friend of Marlin's and a great guy) stopped and repaired a couple of jeeps, as one needed his driveshaft welded while the other snapped an axle, which both were welded back into working condition. He then swaps out my transfer case after taking a look at the crawler, which was still in perfect shape. (Marlin advised he's only seen one other snapped output shaft like mine - that was on richard Foster's rig - so you're not alone out there richard) On our way out we roll up on a group of jeeps from Arizona and a guy walks up to Marlin with a sad face and asks "you wouldn't just happen to have an on-bound welder would you?" They snapped an axle, which Marlin welded up and everything was good with the group in less than half an hour and everyone was grateful for Marlin’s help and expertise. The guy owning the broke jeep offered Marlin $$$$ and in his typical style he would say "If you put that damn money back in your pocket I will shake your hand." He absolutely refused to accept money from anyone, including me. He spent a lot of money just for gas on this rescue mission let alone his time and expertise. I somehow will make it right with Marlin even though I know he will give me over it. He and his shop, Marlin Crawler, http://www.marlincrawler.com/ will always be the best of the best in my book. Wish I could have caught up with you guys but maybe next year I’ll get to the starting gate on time, mean while just join me in letting everyone know that Marlin Crawler customer service is the best on the planet.

Joe 

He's got a job to do too, gotta make sure everything is covered. I don't think I could arrange to get myself some free time right now and I run the place I'm in.

I heard about that from Joe. TREs are simple enough to carry and yet even I don't have one. I think your experience has also motivated me to do the same.

The last time I ran Dusy, I rolled my passengers front outer beed off the rim without knowing and continued to drive. It was in a very slow and technical area, so I didn't exactly go far with it like that, but I noticed that my drivers front tire seemed to be working really hard for traction. That is when I got out and discovered the cause.

Because I drove on it like that, I ended up damaging a valve steam. A simple little valve stem. I had to use permatex and sand paper to get it to seat properly, and even was unsure if it would stay in place once air pressure returned.

Well, my permatex fix got me home safely, and now I carry like 10 valve stems.

It's sometimes the small little stuff that can ruin an entire weekend! And the crazy thing is that Marlin always seems to have everything needed for a proper repair. 

Now that is customer service!

I heard about that from Joe. TREs are simple enough to carry and yet even I don't have one. I think your experience has also motivated me to do the same.

The last time I ran Dusy, I rolled my passengers front outer beed off the rim without knowing and continued to drive. It was in a very slow and technical area, so I didn't exactly go far with it like that, but I noticed that my drivers front tire seemed to be working really hard for traction. That is when I got out and discovered the cause.

Because I drove on it like that, I ended up damaging a valve steam. A simple little valve stem. I had to use permatex and sand paper to get it to seat properly, and even was unsure if it would stay in place once air pressure returned.

Well, my permatex fix got me home safely, and now I carry like 10 valve stems.

It's sometimes the small little stuff that can ruin an entire weekend! And the crazy thing is that Marlin always seems to have everything needed for a proper repair. 

This all sounds very familiar, like a bad dream I once had.


As you know Mike your Dad is the best. This is just one more story about a guy who's life is all about helping people & not just those who buy from him.

Thanks Marlin for helping me out all those times in the past when I couldn't afford to buy anything from you or pay you for your advice , You are the Best.

Oh & a bigger Thanks to Christine the one who puts up with all of Marlins giving, giving & more giving  & all the last minute overnight rescues.

Awesome.   Oh - the important thing in those pictures is the camping gear with several days backup supply and the CB radio/Cellphone. 

MC could just do that every 2-3 months and do enough word of mouth advertizing to probably open a second shop in a short time iof they wanted to

MC could just do that every 2-3 months and do enough word of mouth advertizing to probably open a second shop in a short time iof they wanted to

So you haven't heard about the new satellite shop opening up at Robbs Resort?

 now that is what I call great customer service, my hats off to you marlin hope to see you on the trail sometime

thats awesome, i bet marlin jsut wanted to go wheelin though...

but seriously that is AWESOME, dorve 6 hours and fixed a buinch of different rigs, regardless of who they were.

I'd say thats .... Top Notch customer service

Marlin is the man i hope someone tipped him