Rubicon Report:
Last weekend I ran the Rubicon for my 1st time w/
@Alex01 as a guide. This iconic trail is a bucket lister for many off roaders and the namesake of of the top of the line Wrangler for the last 20 years. It did not disappoint. The weather was perfect (or slightly cool when the sun wasn’t up) and traffic was light. It was just the 2 of us and I was pretty focused on the driving so there aren’t as many pics or videos as I would’ve liked. I loaded up Thursday nite and took of Friday am for the 450 mi trip to Truckee where we agreed to meet.
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We met at 6am Friday. My Jeep looked a little small, a theme that would persist throughout.
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We decided to run the trail in the traditional manner, west to east. So we had an almost 3 hr drive to the west staging area. Alex had a sun shade top and that was all. I left my half door uppers in the truck. It was chilly. I ended up with hand warmers in my gloves.
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First, we went down the west side of Lake Tahoe while the sun was rising. Beautiful. And warming up, a little.
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Then east, paralleling the trail to the south, and back up to the western trail head. Time to hit the trail.
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Slabs were fun. I tried to follow Alex as much as possible. Although I didn’t do every hard/optional line, I took no bypasses.
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Some posing a little further along.
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Note the license plate and front bumper are already dinged up. Also note one of the many outhouses along the trail thanks to the Rubicon Trail Foundation for all their hard work! At the Soup Bowl, Alex tries and eventually makes the hard line but I didn’t get it on video.
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While we were there, several built rigs passed going the other way. About as much traffic as we saw. I liked this one:
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While doing the difficult line at the Soup Bowl, one of Alex’s front axle shaft U-joints tried to spit its cap off.
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This was a cool move using a log as a jackstand, unloading the tire so the cap could be pounded back in a re-clipped
(I did have to winch him off though).
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On the whole, it felt like most of the trail (22 miles) was like this.
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It is described as an endurance test and it is. Many of the granite rocks are mobile and always roll around so that that trail changes constantly. You’ve got to focus continuously, for a long time. I think I heard/felt my undercarriage land on rocks hundreds of times. More on that later.
For comparison, Alex let me drive his Jeep a couple of times (35s vs my 33s, 6psi with bead locks, a 5.0:1 Atlas and several other improvements compared to mine). It is a great Jeep (so much more capable) and I will be making some changes to mine.
One thing I was particularly happy with: After watching my guide, I successfully did Little Sluice. I think that was the hardest obstacle on the trail. For those that haven’t been, its a decently long climb in a field of mostly loose and some very large boulders that lay in a V-shaped valley between 2 big granite slabs. The left side is steep enough that upper body damage is a real concern. The right is steepish but usable as a bail out if necessary (which several JLs on 38s and 40s behind us did). It was all a challenge for me in my Jeep, but there is a tight 40 foot section that I’m still not sure how I got through. Even Alex’s Jeep did not make it look easy. Of course, I don’t have any pics or video because my mind was so preoccupied with the task that I forgot to ask any of the spectators to film it for me.
In total we spent 9 hours on the trail Saturday and made it to Rubicon Springs to camp. Here’s the famous bridge just before the campground with the sun getting low in the west behind us.
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There we also met
@Slim and 2 of his friends. That was cool and they seemed like nice guys. It was good to have a beer and a campfire.
The next day was short; about 3 hours to the end of the trail near Tahoma. We climbed Cadillac hill without a hitch.
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I thought we were done, but shortly after that, I somehow managed to turtle myself trying an Alex line and had to be winched off
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That crunch was my muffler on the long rock you can see under the Jeep at the start of the clip. I could’ve done better but I wasn’t focused. Anyhow, after that was some bumpy road before the pavement. When we got to the east staging area, we aired up, I switched the swayloc to on road mode and was shocked to discover the TJ went smoothly down the road with no vibes or new noises and a centered steering wheel. Just as if it hadn’t had the snot beat out of it for the last two days. I loaded it on the trailer said “so long” to my excellent trail guide Alex and made the the long drive home. The next day, I drove it to work like normal (except it was slightly dirtier than usual).
Up next: Damage assessment and re-thinking my build somewhat…
