[Cruiserdrew]

I'll post up a bit, since I have done the Rubicon Trail 10+ times and am going through again starting tomorrow. I had the Yellow FJC trail team rig in my group at Rubithon.

Most people going "through" the Rubicon avoid Little Sluice. It has huge truck-sized gnarly boulders that basically can't be done in a normal truck. I take the upper bypass in my 40, then traverse the upper half of the Sluice. The lower part has almost become "buggy only". Most normal street driven trucks will tip over or break in there. Seriously, it's fun to watch, but not for the people who want to drive home. The Big Sluice is more doable, but none of the FJCs went through there as far as I know. I have done that, and broke an axle, despite being careful and cautious.

The FJCs I saw go through at Rubithon, went the same way. They tended to stack more rocks, and take longer, but they ran the whole trail to their credit. This is not to say that the Rubicon was easy for the FJCs-the drivers had to work hard to make it happen. The FJC has too much body and too little clearence to do the trail easily. RObbie, Gustave and those guys are really skilled with these trucks.

The bit about skid plates vs solid axle is just uninformed. The skid plates got trashed at Rubithon, and in fact at Buck Island Lake, one of the trail team rigs was looking for hardware to repair the skid plates that had been installed. The advantage of a solid axle was very appearent. With a solid axle, your wheel and tire will lift the axle, body and undercarriage away from the bad stuff. With IFS, that doesn't happen. Your average guy driving an FJC will be very sorry he attempted the Rubicon Trail. It's doable, but not without significant risk. And yes, a Jeep Rubicon, is far better suited to this trail than an FJC, don't kid yourself.

In the future, I hope to see more FJCs on the Rubicon, just be realistic, and leave the macho posturing at home. Breaking something serious SUCKS, and it happens to all of us. Bring spares!