This is the second year I have run the Rubicon. Last year Bill Hughes and I ran the trail and we had a great time, so to improve it this year we invited more people. Some of the people we invited asked their friends, so we ended up with 18 trucks in all. We wheeled in smaller groups of 5 to 10 trucks and then all regrouped in camp at night. This allowed one group to make progress while others had stopped. For Big and Little Sluice, we all came together to watch the fun. The first night we stayed on the back side of Spider Lake.
The next day we split up into two groups, the first of which set out down the old sluice. The second group headed out over the slab route. We met together again at Buck Island Lake for lunch and then on down to Big Sluice. After that we spent the night in Rubicon Springs and headed up Cadillac Hill and out the next day. As we were leaving we all stopped at the top of Lookout Hill. Bill thought it would be cool to park his little Sammy on the 38" tires of Troy's truck. Before you knew it, we had 4 trucks each parked on a tire of Troy's truck! We all had a good time and are looking forward to doing it again next year.
This is a shot of my truck in camp the first night. I noticed that I had an axle oil leak at the rear left and thought long and hard about not running the trail and going home to fix the leak. I decided to remove the wheel and drum to see how bad it really was. As it turned out, it was not a problem and I was able to complete the trail and drive home (500+ miles) to do the repairs. Now I wished I had done the Little Sluice too.
The room in my 4Runner allowed me to also bring along my mother and father who saw last years tape and wanted to come along this year. They enjoyed the trip so much they are now looking to purchase a truck of their own to run the Rubicon next year. Maybe I can get my wife to go along too. I kept wishing for lower gears to get through the tight spots. The 49 to 1 crawl gears are just not low enough. Trail damage: Dent on passenger side rear door and sliced tire side wall.
Low transfer case gears by Marlin, lots of travel, along with limited slip units helped Brian Elliott's '85 4Runner go most places with ease, the 33" tires and EZ Locker in the rear don't hurt either. As we were going across the slab, Brian dropped his front left tire into a hole and then tried to turn out of it only to bend the steering link between the steering arm and the box. He removed the bent part and I hammered it back into shape. Darrell welded some plate steel and an allen wrench onto it to prevent it from bending again. It looked stronger then the original. Trail Damage: Bent steering link.
Mike's Pickup did a great job of driving up and over the large rocks on the trail. I noticed he often took the hard lines, targeting the larger rocks. The rest of us were left with large tire/lift envy. Trail Damage: None.
Roger Brown is running a Marlin Ultimate (dual) transfer case and 5:29 gears for a 224 to 1 crawl ratio. These lower gears allowed him to drive slowly through the hard sections. It seemed to make it almost easy. Roger and I were caught off the trail in some thick trees located close together. His low gears allowed him to move much slower than I with less wear on the clutch. Well built custom bumpers and nerf bars allowed him to drive the entire trip without damage. Someone made the comment that he looked like he had the least trouble of any on the trip. Trail Damage: None (and left the trail with an extra mud flap!).
The first obstacle (when starting at Loon lake) is "Pinch Rock". This narrow set of rocks is very hard to get through without sliding one side of your truck. If you have good rocker panel protection you can slip through on one side. Trail Damage: None.
With open diffs and stock gears, Darren Sinkey had the first of many failures at Walker Hill. A broken motor mount & throttle return spring were the first victims but that was only the beginning. After seeing him power through Pinch Rock, most people kept their distance for safety sake. Later that day he unfortunately took a bad line up a rock and twisted his drive shaft into a "L" shape destroying the rear U joint in the process. After a tough day he fell asleep before darkness fell. That night the Rubicon elves (the rest of us) pressed in a new U joint and straightened the drive shaft. We also located and installed a replacement motor mount. In the morning Darrell welded some angle iron onto the drive shaft. After one day on the Rubicon, Darren was forced to return home. Trail Damage: Motor mount, drive shaft, U joint, radiator, bent wheels, dented gas tank. Drove home 140 miles with only the front drive line after removing the unbalanced rear drive shaft at the end of the trail.
Scott's bright red truck looks like a fire truck, I guess working as an EMT/Fireman entitled him to deal on red paint. This is an interesting side obstacle called Soup Bowl. Two Toyotas tried to climb it but failed, Bill's Samurai was the only one to make it up. Scott was able to get as far as the picture above before his front drive shaft let go at the slip joint. He was hanging on the transfer case skid plate and this allowed his front drive line to hang down to the point of allowing the front shaft to separate into two parts. Trail Damage: Front drive shaft slipped apart, quickly reassembled.
Steve also tried the Soup Bowl challenge and failed. He stacked rocks and tried a few different lines up, but the wheel base of the Toyota was just wrong for this climb. His wheelbase allowed the front and rear wheels to hit a vertical step at the same time. As you would expect, he did very well with the rest of the trail. While most of us were content with driving the trail, you could see him looking around for larger rocks to climb. He went quickly through the sluices. Clearly he has been through this trail before. Trail Damage: None.
Bill Hughes made it through the Little Sluice in about 10 minutes this year. Compared to last year's experience with only P225 tires on the Sammy, that's a 2 hour and 50 minute improvement!. He also made it up Soup Bowl, the only one of three trucks that made the attempt. This was a small path through a pile of large rocks. To get to the top you have to drive up a 45 degree slope and make a right turn near the top, roll the truck level and continue on. Look for a link to his "Soup Bowl" page here soon. Trail Damage: Bent rear drive shaft, bent rear axle shaft, minor body dents, bent rear bumper.
Darrell and Jennifer Creeks going through Little Sluice (with Jennifer Driving). This is the first time I have seen a woman finish Little Sluice. Way to go Jennifer! Along with acing Little Sluice, Jennifer would yell at the top of her lungs after each truck made it over the hard spots, sort of a one woman cheering section. Darrell did all of the welding for our trip. Thanks, we needed it! Trail Damage: Broken shock mount, broken steering mount bolt, broken tie rod, flat bed cut up for parts to fix Darren's bent drive shaft. It's interesting to note that all of the damage occurred while Darrell was driving, no failures occurred when Jennifer was driving.
(This section written by Kevin M. Carey)
Tuesdays trip through Big Sluice was fun because it offers about 45 minutes of solid technical driving with lots of off camber drop-offs. I watched Mike and Todd with the white Toyota pickups both put the exact same dent and scratches from the big rock on their rigs!
After I negotiated the tough section I made a stupid move by letting go of the steering wheel and letting the tires take their own line thereby breaking my steering arm! We did a quick NASCAR change with my spare. Our little group didn't end up staying at the Springs Tues. night, we motored out to Tahoe got a quick bite and headed home on Highway 50. One last piece of info that was a lesson learner, while going down Highway 50 at 45-50 MPH at 1 AM Steve's drivers side rear wheel feel off the truck! It then passed him going faster than him! This is a 35 by 14.50 Bogger by the way! After all was said and done, we found the rim and tire 1/4 mile down the road and it was toast along with his custom rear disc on the drivers side. This is a part of 50 where the drop off to the Feather River is 200 ft. on the right! This could have been total disaster.
Lesson learned; trust your intuition and drive with proper sleep and take the 10-12 minutes to go over your rigs and tighten wheels steering arms, lug nuts, etc. once on pavement! Thanks to all who came and thanks to Chris Geiger for putting it together!
Eric Schulz did a great job for having only a stock limited slip and he still got through the Little Sluice (with some help). To get traction in the Little Sluice, a rope was tied to the roll cage and a group of people would pull the truck down onto the rock when he needed more traction. Here he is pictured climbing the steep rock near Buck Island Lake. Trail Damage: None, however he was hit in a parking lot at the end of the trail when we were eating pizza. Just proving people are dumber and more dangerous than rocks.
Todd Steele and son came in their '97 pickup setup with a Marlin crawler and 33" tires. Todd ran his truck hard and completed all three sluices. Trail damage: hood and right fender dented, and scrapes along the right side of the truck.
Keith Williamson's truck was the other open diff truck on this run. His '84 Toy pickup did well, having lots of wheel travel and large tires (approx. 36") made up for not being locked. Some time he did need a little speed to get up over the rocks. Trail Damage: None.
This was Ron's first real trail run, both he and his Samurai did very well. He was setup with a rear locker and GRS I transfer case gears driving 31" tires. Here you can see him coming down the Big Sluice. He also did the Old Sluice. His nerf bars were a little weak and not able to take the full weight of the truck causing a little bend the body near the rocker panel. His home made bumpers were built well and did a great job of protecting the front and rear of his truck. Trail Damage: Minor body dents, broken exhaust pipe.
Eric Stegall's Land Cruiser did the trail with little trouble. Tracy did a lot of the driving including Cadillac Hill. They would often bring up the rear of the group, picking up parts as they went along. New custom built nerf bars did a good job of protecting the sides of the Cruiser in the deep rock pits. They did find that the stock Land Cruiser gas tank does not carry enough gas to complete the trail. They needed another 5 gallons to get to the gas station. Trail Damage: None.
Luke Miller was so quiet the only way I know he had a good time was the big smile on his face. He donated his spare U joint to fix Darren's broken drive shaft. The custom rear bumper he put on the truck for this trip did a good job of protecting the rear. With only a few modifications Luke was able to do the trail with only 2 dents. His '85 4Runner was running 4:88 gears turning 32" tires on a 3" lift, Lock Right in the rear and open front. Trail Damage: 2 large dents in the right rear quarter panel.
Troy Muse of the "Pirates of the Rubicon" came along with us and was very helpful in fixing broken trucks. We was also a lot of fun in camp. This guy seems to just live on the trail. His '84 Toyota extended cab has a full size Corporate 14 bolt full floater rear axle with 5.13 gears and a Detroit. Up front is a D44 HD with mini spool. He does most of the trail in 3WD. A Marlin Crawler transfer case and Nissan transfer case give him a 200 to 1 crawl ratio. Trail Damage: None that could be seen. He says he hits stuff every time he goes through the trail but there is not a straight body panel on the truck so you can't tell the new dings from the old. This is a true trail rig!
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