FJ Cruisers of Northern California

Rubicon Trail OCT 2014 Trip Pictures

So I finally did the Rubicon Trail in the FJ. It was by far the most difficult wheeling I've ever done. Lucky for me I had a few guys from TTORA that had done the trail recently...they did some great spotting. We went in on the Loon Lake side, rolled to Spider Lake (Buck Island) then went back to the Little Sluice trail head to camp. All in all it was awesome! I did take some damage, mostly to the IFS, bent both Tie Rod, bent both PROCOMP front end frame links and broke the drivers side mirror. Oh and the new skids took a pounding...

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Permalink Reply by Back in Black (FJ4 Tahoe) on October 13, 2014 at 11:10am

The Damage...

I was suprissed the taillight guard did it's job.

Bigtime Rim

rash

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Permalink Reply by PBn'FJ on October 14, 2014 at 10:05am

looks like you drug the belly of that thing quite a bit...

Is that one skid plate under the front suspension cross member only attached in the front?

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Permalink Reply by Back in Black (FJ4 Tahoe) on October 14, 2014 at 10:39am

Hey Paul (PBnFJ)

Yeah, the front skid was tacked down by two bolts (they snapped). You are right, I was scraping the undercarriage around every corner. I thought that the underbelly was going to look a lot worst than it does. The skids definitely did their job. The B.A.M.F. Lower control arm skids were key and the BOZTEC Dif Skid saved the day.. I did land hard a few (many) times...the lesson learned was to come off the rocks a little slower. All in all, it was a great learning experience. I am getting better at laying off of the skinny pedal. Now I just need to work on my crawling skills.

Hey TSY87,

If it wasn't for Phil ( the Taco I followed in and out of the trail), I would have never made it... I would strongly advise going with an experienced wheeler that knows the trail. Also, I would run the trail in daylight. The Rubicon is a very hard trail and not clearly marked for night time wheeling.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hope on October 15, 2014 at 6:13pm

That's neat. My plumber buddy at work runs this direction on Fathers Day every year with a Toyo group. I seem to be always away on vacay on that weekend.

I should try that in a year or so when I don't care about damage the way I do today :)

Steve. Hey great pics bud. Good testimonial for full skid plates.