Trip Report; Rubicon 2018 (TLCA Rubithon)

[Terrapod]

Fantastic trip report. Love it. Far beyond anything I will do. (Mostly Moab style for me). Great work on all the preparation. Dig it! :rockon:

 

[gm350reratliff]

Thanks for sharing! The Rubicon is definitely on my list of trails I want to do. I’m pretty sure 285/75/17’s will be my next tire size on both 4runners, maybe even my Tundra as well.

 

[tls3601]

So as another 40 owner I am betting the trail would have been a piece of cake in the FJ40?

 

[wfo9]

Nice trip.

I plan to try to make it next year possibly. I struggle though on bringing the 5th gen. It has the benefit of all the room and ability to sleep inside.. but the stress of trying to limit body damage can really wear on you. I think if the transfer case gearing could be lowered with some type of dual case setup would make it much more enjoyable as the control would get much better.

Taking a LC 100 would be miserable. IMHO.. Even the 5th gen is realistically out of its element.

 

[Jetboy]

So as another 40 owner I am betting the trail would have been a piece of cake in the FJ40?

With a built 40 - yeah, it would be pretty easy. In a stock one - I'm not sure. I think it would be a really hard trip in a totally stock FJ40 with no power steering and 235/75/15 tires. OTOH an FJ40 with a rear locker and 33" tires and power steering would probably do very well. Most of the trip I was within 1 car of a BJ46 with 33" tires. I think the 4runner was very comparable. The biggest advantage I had was the automatic. The 4runner can crawl really easily with how the auto is setup and the throttle map in 4lo. I still have stock gearing and never found myself wishing for lower gearing. There certainly are times it would be nice. But it's nothing like a manual with the same gearing. In my FJ40 even with 5.29 diffs - I'd still be dreaming of an SM420 or an Orion. (I can't really do dual cases in it with the wheel base it currently has- the rear shaft is just too short.) There's a few spots where longer wheel base helps. Even compared to an FJ Cruiser. For example this climb is the same spot in both pics. I was able to make this line. The yellow FJ Cruiser didn't. That's not to say the 4runner was better. Just did better at this one particular climb. But overall - yeah, FJ40 size would be nice.

 

[brian0128]

Nice write up! I like the rear bumper skid. What if any spares and tools did you take with you? Did you bring a spare driveshaft? What tire pressures did you run on the trail?

 

[Jetboy]

Nice trip.

I plan to try to make it next year possibly. I struggle though on bringing the 5th gen. It has the benefit of all the room and ability to sleep inside.. but the stress of trying to limit body damage can really wear on you. I think if the transfer case gearing could be lowered with some type of dual case setup would make it much more enjoyable as the control would get much better.

Taking a LC 100 would be miserable. IMHO.. Even the 5th gen is realistically out of its element.

I think if you were to go with a group of similar vehicles it would feel a lot better. That's one big advantage to going with a club like this for me. I get to watch a dozen LC80's go through in front of me. I know I'm narrower than them, so any line they can run clean, I can too. It would be even better to follow another 4Runner or GX460.

 

[Jetboy]

Nice write up! I like the rear bumper skid. What if any spares and tools did you take with you? Did you bring a spare driveshaft?

I have a pretty full set of hand tools for anything on the vehicle. I also bring a spare front axle assembly. It fits both sides. I don't have a spare drive shaft. I think it would be an okay idea - but the drive shaft is pretty well protected by the gas tank skid. I do want to get one though. I've yet to need one. I don't think it's really necessary to have for that trail. Only the buggies seem to have drive shaft issues mostly - but it's because they're taking much more challenging lines.

I normally bring a cordless grinder with a few cutoff discs. That has been used - but not on my 4runner.

I also take some small stuff. Assorted hardware - 6,8,10, and 12mm nuts and bolts. Just a few - maybe 1 or 2 of each. But you never know when something will work its way loose or you'll drop and lose one in the dirt. I also bring things like electrical tape and duct tape. Just kinda an assembly of stuff I've accumulated over the years.

Then just the other more regular stuff. I carry a spare valve stem - I've seen them ripped out plenty of times. The Trail wheels are awesome in that respect, it's very well protected. But just in case - even if you just drop the valve core when you're airing down, it's nice to have a spare or two around.

My entire tool kit and my offroad recovery gear other than the spare axle fit in a pair of these. One is for tools, the other offroad recover stuff like tow strap, shackles, gloves, etc. and spare small hardware. I leave them ready to go and use the tool kit also as my handy set of tools for thing like repairing the sink in the house, but don't carry them all the time when I'm daily driving.:

Also - FWIW, I've never done any trail repairs ever to my 4runner. In the 4 years I've owned it, I've had one flat tire. I also broke an upper control arm - in the Home Depot parking lot. It's never broken anything off roading ever.

 

[Jetboy]

There was suppose to be a group of a dozen or so GX460's this year - but it didn't work out. Maybe next year we could have an IFS group? My biggest problem is that I'm not local. So I don't feel very comfortable organizing a group. I'm 700 miles away and a it wouldn't be a great situation if I ended up breaking down along the way or having something else come up where I couldn't make it and then leave a bunch of folks stranded at the trail head. It also really helps to have a couple rock buggies along for support - if someone breaks something we don't have spare for - a built buggy can run out to the trail head in an hour or two for emergency parts. I'm hoping next year the GX460 group that was going to be led by metaltech will organize a group again. That would be pretty ideal for most of us.

If I do get enough time this winter to start re-building my FJ40 (it needs a some rehab to be ready for trail duty again) and I trailer it down. Then I'd be willing to lead a group of IFS trucks. I spent a few years as a trail master of an off road club (basically a trail guide for monthly trips), so I'm not totally new to playing that roll. Normally I'd pre-run the trail the day or weekend before the club trips so I knew the current conditions. I could probably do the Con with some help from the TLCA folks to give me a trip report before hand. I'd really like to have my FJ40 along as a second vehicle. I'd probably have my wife or a friend drive the FJ40 and also take the 4runner. The advantage there is I'd have at least one more dedicated rock crawler so I could make sure everyone has a good time. Something I could use to help tow out a broken truck if we really needed it. Basically a safety valve. Otherwise I really don't have a way to do that or local connections to just borrow a buggy on short notice.