Rubicon trip report

[yotajeeper]

Last week I ran the Rubicon Trail with @OBJLU. It is an amazing off road experience as it has amazing views, lots and lots of obstacles, slabs, drops, tight squeezes. Trees that just love to bang up your panels and hard top (ask me how I know).
Thankfully we made it through with no breakage. For those that are really interested in running the Con, I highly recommend joining the rubicon trail group on facebook. Just this past week you will see a guy with JLUR diesel that broke his fuel filter/water housing separator. Another dude in a JKU broke his steering box.
We saw a total of 6 broken jeeps including one with broken spider gears, another with broken track bar mount, broken driveline, we saw a very built JKU with both rear axles pulled at Buck Island Lake.
At the end of our trip I saw what looked like a JKU with a busted T case getting towed out.
The stories are real. This trail, although not the most extreme, will get you with its RELENTLESS obstacles.
We had some local guides with us which took us through some real nice lines. We bypassed the soup bowl and the little sluice but did some of the harder lines on the trail.
My JLU sahara with rubicon axles and the 4-1 case did great. Got high centered twice on 37s but this happened at the most difficult sections of the trail right after Buck Island dam. OBJLU with his 39s was able to clear the obstacles which got me. Lots of spotting. We took it easy and finished the trail on Thursday at noon and were all able to drive home in one piece!
Carnage: my hardtop took a little scraping coming down a ledge 50 yards from our campsight.
Steering stabilizer bracket got pushed back which moved the stabilizer, got bent a bit. Stabilizer got tossed in the trash.

Sponsored

 

[BDinTX]

Wow… sounds amazing. Glad you and your rig survived!

 

[av8or]

Thanks for the preview. Going with the Jeep jamboree in a few weeks and can’t wait.

 

[guarnibl]

Gnarly. Do two doors do better on the rubicon?

 

[yotajeeper]

Gnarly. Do two doors do better on the rubicon?

Yes they do!

 

[wibornz]

I ran the Rubicon Trail last year. I was able to get 4 JLURs through with zero damage to the three on 37s, the stock JLUR with no lift and 35s, had some minor damage. Well, he fucked up his rear stock plastic bumper dropping of ledges.. It required that I walked about 90% of the trail spotting.

I explain the Rubicon as more of a marathon. It is unrelenting. The obstacles just never seem to end. It took us 17 1/2 hours to run from Loon Lake to Lake Tahoe.

 

[BDinTX]

was watching a video yesterday where the guy says "It's a 22 mile trail. It takes 10 hour to drive, or 3 hours to walk. The vehicle takes a beating and so does the human spirit."
Thought that was funny as well as a good dose of discouragement for me trying lol

 

[yotajeeper]

was watching a video yesterday where the guy says "It's a 22 mile trail. It takes 10 hour to drive, or 3 hours to walk. The vehicle takes a beating and so does the human spirit."
Thought that was funny as well as a good dose of discouragement for me trying lol

Starting from loon lake it’s 9 miles of hard wheeling. Then another mile of moderate. Then 3 miles of fire road

 

[yotajeeper]

I ran the Rubicon Trail last year. I was able to get 4 JLURs through with zero damage to the three on 37s, the stock JLUR with no lift and 35s, had some minor damage. Well, he fucked up his rear stock plastic bumper dropping of ledges.. It required that I walked about 90% of the trail spotting.

I explain the Rubicon as more of a marathon. It is unrelenting. The obstacles just never seem to end. It took us 17 1/2 hours to run from Loon Lake to Lake Tahoe.

It’s a great trail. Makes our local ones look real soft haha

 

[Deleted member 59098]

I did Loon to Wentworth a few weeks back and doing the entire trail with Jeepers Jamboree this week. Taking the entire family. They’re going to be in for a surprise.

 

[broncoguy]

@Aframedweller sounds like the Hi-Landers poker run? Was there as well...good times. Seems like a nice small sampling of the trail.

 

[iboostgti335]

Too friggin cool. Thanks for sharing!

 

[tobyw]

Looks like you had a great time!!

I've run it several times and I'll stand by my initial observation in that some of the best wheeling lies in the section between Wentworth and the intersection with the entrance from Loon... 99% of people bypass this section but in my opinion, if you're making the trip from more than a few hours away, you might as well run the entire trail.

 

[limeade]

Thanks for the trip report and glad you made it with minimal damage. My son and I are going this Friday for the 3 day Jeep Jamboree.

 

[yotajeeper]

Looks like you had a great time!!

I've run it several times and I'll stand by my initial observation in that some of the best wheeling lies in the section between Wentworth and the intersection with the entrance from Loon... 99% of people bypass this section but in my opinion, if you're making the trip from more than a few hours away, you might as well run the entire trail.

For our first time we wanted to run it the popular way. Granite bowl poseur shots

Sponsored