Noob looking for company at Big Bear around July 4

[El Zilcho]

Hi, I going to be at Big Bear from July 1 to 5. I really want to try Gold Mountain trail, but I'm a total noob. I did several easy and intermediate trails in Anza Borrego and around San Diego, but thats it. I have a JLU Sport (so no lockers yet) with Rubicon lift and tires and a winch. Anybody gonna do Gold Mountain Trail around this time and dont mind a total noob tagging along?

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[jessedacri]

Hi, I going to be at Big Bear from July 1 to 5. I really want to try Gold Mountain trail, but I'm a total noob. I did several easy and intermediate trails in Anza Borrego and around San Diego, but thats it. I have a JLU Sport (so no lockers yet) with Rubicon lift and tires and a winch. Anybody gonna do Gold Mountain Trail around this time and dont mind a total noob tagging along?

Try joining all of the local Facebook groups too, lots of activity on those. Socal Jeeps, Socal 4x4 trail, socal off road trail reports, socal off road recovery, etc. The groups are pretty active and always have runs happening either impromptu or planned.

I'd also recommend at a minimum you have the Rubicon takeoff sliders to protect the sport's bare pinch seam. You'll most likely be bumping that area a little on Gold Mountain and you definitely want a little protection there if you're running bare pinch seams. The rubi sliders aren't the best option for sliders due to where they mount up but mine have so far taken a beating and been okay.

 

[El Zilcho]

Try joining all of the local Facebook groups too, lots of activity on those. Socal Jeeps, Socal 4x4 trail, socal off road trail reports, socal off road recovery, etc. The groups are pretty active and always have runs happening either impromptu or planned.

I'd also recommend at a minimum you have the Rubicon takeoff sliders to protect the sport's bare pinch seam. You'll most likely be bumping that area a little on Gold Mountain and you definitely want a little protection there if you're running bare pinch seams. The rubi sliders aren't the best option for sliders due to where they mount up but mine have so far taken a beating and been okay.

Thank you for great suggestions! I already have Rugged Ridge XHD sliders, they should be a bit better than Rubicon, plus sliders on all control arm lower points and diffs.

 

[El Zilcho]

So just to report back. Did Gold mountain trail July 4 in the morning and my Jeep still in one piece So from a position of total noob here are some of my observations.
I aired down to 18 psi and disconnected my front sway bar. The most important thing on a trail is a good spotter. I did this trail alone. Had no trouble with the first waterfall, but second one looked more intimidating to me. Thankfully some much more experienced guys were on top of the waterfall and spotted me. With some rock stacking and great spotter I made it up like it was nothing.
Next thing you need are some rock sliders. I extensively used mine on this trail. Again with good spotter, you might not use them as much as I did, but you most likely will regret not having them. Diff sliders are a good to have for a sport with our protruding drain plugs.
Rock garden was fun.
Most trouble I had were were 2 hard corners after the rock garden. First left hand one is mentioned on trails offroad website as been torn up pretty bad, but it was in a lot worse condition than on the pictures and videos that I saw, and the second right hand one after this was not mentioned anywhere, but it was very torn up and that was the obstacle where I used all of mine sliders and skid plates. Looking at the video that my wife made, I did all the wrong things that I could there. Good spotter would helped a lot. To me those two corners were on par difficulty wise with waterfalls.
Jeep did amazing on the trail, way better than I expected. Did not need lockers at all. I felt like brake lock differentials did have to work a little on last 2 obstacles, but it was more than adequate. Other thing, Rubicon transfer case with lower low gear would helped to make things easier. Oh and if you did not do steering dumper relocation, say buy-buy to it
I will post some videos later when I have some time to edit.

 

[Winesmile]

Get your wife to spot you!

 

[El Zilcho]

Get your wife to spot you!

I tried. Worked only partially . I told her the line I need to take, we discussed it in detail. She did a good job leading me at the start, but for some reason did not tell me I was off my line in the middle and end. I guess we all need experience Plus she likes mild trails and really does not enjoy harder stuff.

 

[Fsttanks]

Dang wish I would have seen this post sooner. We were up there giving our still stock 2020 JLUR on a “shake down” run doing Horse Thief Cannon(not far from GM). Would have loved to run GM with you and showed you around to a few other trails well within your JLU capabilities.

 

[JimLee]

Get your wife to spot you!

Wow dude, are you a divorce lawyer?

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