It was intense! We had 10 or so jeeps along for the ride. The adventure started two weeks ago when we started prepping the two jeeps for the run. Rounding up all of our camping gear and all that other good stuff. Anyways, we got all our junk packed into two jeeps and 1 suburban and we towed my jeep up there and my dad drove his. The reason we towed mine is because after we did the lift the driveshaft angle was really really steep. So I pulled the driveshaft.
We left my place at about 7 in the am on thursday morning. Met up with some friends at the flying J truck stop. Joe and Eric were out jeeping buddy's for the long drive to lake tahoe. 460 miles from our house to the icehouse. Evening was coming and more of our buds started showing up. We talked that night about rigs, told stories, and how excited we all were for the trail. The next morning we headed for the trail head. On the way Eric made a wrong turn. I followed him and was behind him. We stopped. He didnt look back and he backed right into me. :lol: No damage just a bent highlift mount. We got to this dam before gatekeeper, it was at loon lake. We aired down on the dam. Then we went on to do gatekeeper, the first obsticle.
Suposedly, if you cant do gate keeper under your own power you should turn around because the trail only gets harder. All of the jeeps in our group made it through with no problems. The ZJ had a little trouble getting through but he made it. The trail was amazing, non stop action. We made it to the rock slabs that are about a half of a mile across. Got to some off camber stuff that really made you pucker. Well at least me. On the way to the little sluice you could either do soupcan rock or go through this v-notch like thing. Welp, there was no way my jeep was getting over soup can without breakage so I took the vnotch. I had a bad line and layed it over into the rock on the left side. In doing so I dented my cb antenna mount right into the back of my jeep. Oops, chicks dig body damage so thats a good thing.
There were some tough little hill climbs filled with rocks and water running down the middle of the trail! It was just nuts and lots of fun! We pulled up to the little sluice and one of our brave jeepers said "Yup, I'll try that...." famous last words. Welp, the little sluice is not hard until you get to the massive rocks that are the size of a wrangler. Someone watching chris have a go at it locked front and rear with 33's said that you are suposed to have at least 36's for this. Oops. Well chris going through the little sluice was just as entertaining as it gets! He was getting damge and loving every minute of it! He even put a rock through the side of his passenger door! WOAH! He made it over those huge rocks only to get hung up on a little pepple. :roll:
While chris was doing the little sluice stevo managed to sheer all of the lug nuts off his front right front axle! Took the tire off and part of the brakes and changed the axle. But what we didnt know was that stevo had swapped in a high pinion 30 out of an xj in there and it required the use of spacers so that the wheel didnt hit the brake rotors. UH! Well he cracks all of his spacers so we made new ones from his sway bar washers.
Since the fix was holding the rest of the group up. Five of us moved on and told them we would meet at buck island. We moved out and made it to buck island with no problems. Everyone made it to buck island with no real trouble. We set up casmp and went swimming. We were all beat from our full day out on the trail. We made a fire and we all sat around it and just talked about our day.
The next day we ate breakfast and headed for rubicon springs. At the top of the hill before we climb down into the traditional sluice. We had to stop and wait for 2 hours while a scattered group of 30 rigs came up the sluice. It was nice but we were all hoping to get to rubicon springs by 12. Well its 1:30 I dont think we are gonna make it by 12. Finally all of the rigs made it up and we went down the sluice. This was my favortie part of the trail. It was very tough and there were rocks everywhere. Very flexy part of the trail. Eric snaped a brake line but to my suprise he had a spare. What a cool guy.
We all made it down the short stretch of trail pretty quick. Down more off camber and big rocks. A nice flex spot were someone got a pic of me. Then you will never believe this, there was actually a mud hole that was in the middle of the trail. Came up to my rocker and I got a little mud on my face watching the fronty tire. Wow that was great. :shock:
Past the helicopter pad and pulled up to rubicon springs. Unloaded all our junk. All of us worked on the ZJ cause it was not staying in 4wheel drive. We got it to stay in 4 wheel drive but then it would come out. Oh well, we will work things out when we hit the cement. We cooked food, ate food, swam, took pictures, talked around our last camp fire for this trip.
Slept and woke up in the morning. Packed all of our junk. Headed for catalac hill only to find a huge traffic jam. It was bumper to bumper up all of catalac hill. All because a bronco that had no lockers was having a bear of a time trying to get up the hill. And a guy in a wrangler with mtrs wouldnt air down. Dummy.They got past all of the hard stuff and were gone. I tryed one of the weird shaped rocks to the right and I got hung up. I couldnt move period. Whiped out the winch cable and yanked myself off of that rock. 20 minutes later our whole group was at the top of the hill. We all posed for a group picture. Then we headed out on the long dirt road that seams like it never ends. On the way to the road my jeep started making noise in the front end. Everyone said its just an old jeep, old jeeps make noise. Well I knew something was wrong but i couldnt figure it out. Well not to much time later I was looking at the front tire while I was driveing and I was saying to myself "Did my wheelbase get shorter?" And the I hit a rock with that tire and the whole axle came back and hit my body. Oops. Turns out my centering pin snaped. Pulled the winch out and wrapped it around the axle. Tighted the line and pulled the axle into the right position. Drove it about 3 miles till we hit the staging area. Took the tire off and borrowed a spare centering pin from our buddy Rick and we had it changed in no time. Everyone said there goodbye's until another run. Aired up and we were off.
All I can say about this trail is it is fun! Rocks, sand, mud, water, it has it all. The lakes were great and bring bug spray because there are bugs all around the lake and the springs. The carnage could have been alot worse. My dad bent his drag link and his highlift, a few new gashes in his front bumper, a dent in his hood from when he layed it into a tree, and his front flare is bunched in. I bent my tie rod, blew a seal on my steering box, at the start of the trail my axle truss was pointed towards the front of the jeep by the end it was pointed straight down and really tweaked and I snapped a centering pin. Eric snapped a brake line. Steve broke an axle. Chris put a rock through his door. Some body damage here and there. And all of my skids got hit! You can never be too prepaired. BRING SPARES! Have a nice day.
Oh yea here are the pics my friends took.
Eric's pics - http://pierviews.com/photogallery/rubicon 04/rubicon 04.htm
We left my place at about 7 in the am on thursday morning. Met up with some friends at the flying J truck stop. Joe and Eric were out jeeping buddy's for the long drive to lake tahoe. 460 miles from our house to the icehouse. Evening was coming and more of our buds started showing up. We talked that night about rigs, told stories, and how excited we all were for the trail. The next morning we headed for the trail head. On the way Eric made a wrong turn. I followed him and was behind him. We stopped. He didnt look back and he backed right into me. :lol: No damage just a bent highlift mount. We got to this dam before gatekeeper, it was at loon lake. We aired down on the dam. Then we went on to do gatekeeper, the first obsticle.
Suposedly, if you cant do gate keeper under your own power you should turn around because the trail only gets harder. All of the jeeps in our group made it through with no problems. The ZJ had a little trouble getting through but he made it. The trail was amazing, non stop action. We made it to the rock slabs that are about a half of a mile across. Got to some off camber stuff that really made you pucker. Well at least me. On the way to the little sluice you could either do soupcan rock or go through this v-notch like thing. Welp, there was no way my jeep was getting over soup can without breakage so I took the vnotch. I had a bad line and layed it over into the rock on the left side. In doing so I dented my cb antenna mount right into the back of my jeep. Oops, chicks dig body damage so thats a good thing.
There were some tough little hill climbs filled with rocks and water running down the middle of the trail! It was just nuts and lots of fun! We pulled up to the little sluice and one of our brave jeepers said "Yup, I'll try that...." famous last words. Welp, the little sluice is not hard until you get to the massive rocks that are the size of a wrangler. Someone watching chris have a go at it locked front and rear with 33's said that you are suposed to have at least 36's for this. Oops. Well chris going through the little sluice was just as entertaining as it gets! He was getting damge and loving every minute of it! He even put a rock through the side of his passenger door! WOAH! He made it over those huge rocks only to get hung up on a little pepple. :roll:
While chris was doing the little sluice stevo managed to sheer all of the lug nuts off his front right front axle! Took the tire off and part of the brakes and changed the axle. But what we didnt know was that stevo had swapped in a high pinion 30 out of an xj in there and it required the use of spacers so that the wheel didnt hit the brake rotors. UH! Well he cracks all of his spacers so we made new ones from his sway bar washers.
Since the fix was holding the rest of the group up. Five of us moved on and told them we would meet at buck island. We moved out and made it to buck island with no problems. Everyone made it to buck island with no real trouble. We set up casmp and went swimming. We were all beat from our full day out on the trail. We made a fire and we all sat around it and just talked about our day.
The next day we ate breakfast and headed for rubicon springs. At the top of the hill before we climb down into the traditional sluice. We had to stop and wait for 2 hours while a scattered group of 30 rigs came up the sluice. It was nice but we were all hoping to get to rubicon springs by 12. Well its 1:30 I dont think we are gonna make it by 12. Finally all of the rigs made it up and we went down the sluice. This was my favortie part of the trail. It was very tough and there were rocks everywhere. Very flexy part of the trail. Eric snaped a brake line but to my suprise he had a spare. What a cool guy.
We all made it down the short stretch of trail pretty quick. Down more off camber and big rocks. A nice flex spot were someone got a pic of me. Then you will never believe this, there was actually a mud hole that was in the middle of the trail. Came up to my rocker and I got a little mud on my face watching the fronty tire. Wow that was great. :shock: Past the helicopter pad and pulled up to rubicon springs. Unloaded all our junk. All of us worked on the ZJ cause it was not staying in 4wheel drive. We got it to stay in 4 wheel drive but then it would come out. Oh well, we will work things out when we hit the cement. We cooked food, ate food, swam, took pictures, talked around our last camp fire for this trip.
Slept and woke up in the morning. Packed all of our junk. Headed for catalac hill only to find a huge traffic jam. It was bumper to bumper up all of catalac hill. All because a bronco that had no lockers was having a bear of a time trying to get up the hill. And a guy in a wrangler with mtrs wouldnt air down. Dummy.They got past all of the hard stuff and were gone. I tryed one of the weird shaped rocks to the right and I got hung up. I couldnt move period. Whiped out the winch cable and yanked myself off of that rock. 20 minutes later our whole group was at the top of the hill. We all posed for a group picture.
Then we headed out on the long dirt road that seams like it never ends. On the way to the road my jeep started making noise in the front end. Everyone said its just an old jeep, old jeeps make noise. Well I knew something was wrong but i couldnt figure it out. Well not to much time later I was looking at the front tire while I was driveing and I was saying to myself "Did my wheelbase get shorter?" And the I hit a rock with that tire and the whole axle came back and hit my body. Oops. Turns out my centering pin snaped. Pulled the winch out and wrapped it around the axle. Tighted the line and pulled the axle into the right position. Drove it about 3 miles till we hit the staging area. Took the tire off and borrowed a spare centering pin from our buddy Rick and we had it changed in no time. Everyone said there goodbye's until another run. Aired up and we were off.All I can say about this trail is it is fun! Rocks, sand, mud, water, it has it all. The lakes were great and bring bug spray because there are bugs all around the lake and the springs. The carnage could have been alot worse. My dad bent his drag link and his highlift, a few new gashes in his front bumper, a dent in his hood from when he layed it into a tree, and his front flare is bunched in. I bent my tie rod, blew a seal on my steering box, at the start of the trail my axle truss was pointed towards the front of the jeep by the end it was pointed straight down and really tweaked and I snapped a centering pin. Eric snapped a brake line. Steve broke an axle. Chris put a rock through his door. Some body damage here and there. And all of my skids got hit! You can never be too prepaired. BRING SPARES! Have a nice day.
Oh yea here are the pics my friends took.
Eric's pics - http://pierviews.com/photogallery/rubicon 04/rubicon 04.htm
