I have and 85 FJ-60 with 33" tires, OME lift and ARB lockers. My truck had straight sheet metal, until last week...the story starts back before Christmas, when on a christmas tree hunting trip in Mendocino NF, one of the guys mentions that he is thinking about organizing a Rubicon trip for near-stock (land rover) wagons. He's an old-school rover guy, and some other land rovers would be coming, but he says I should come along too. He thinks my truck should be able to make it through without any damage. So the seed is planted. Long preamble short, we went through last week, three rovers and my one land cruiser. No one made it through completely damage free, but everyone made it and we had a good time! I'm not sure if this thread is meant to be encouragement or a warning to those of you that might be still on the fence about doing a trail like the Rubicon. I'll let you decide.
I was accompanied by three long wheel base rovers, one pickup (open differentials) and two wagons (both with rear lockers). All vehicles had 33" tires of various widths. The rovers sit a little higher at the rockers than my cruiser, but they have more stuff hanging down under the chassis (exhaust pipes, etc.). The only drive train damage was a bent tie rod on the pickup as he was trying to bounce his way up a ledge.
Regarding the damage to my vehicle specifically, the only thing that broke was the rubber cushion that mounts the muffler. I put dents in each of the passenger side doors and creased the drivers side doors at the intermediate seam. My tail pipe was crushed.
I was lucky to have great rocker and quarter panel protection. My sliders and rear bumper took many hard hits and kept coming back for more. I dragged my long ass down every ledge and pulled the truck through rock passages on the sliders. Without these key pieces of armor my truck would be in much worse shape. My homemade front bumper took a few hard hits too, and it held firm.
I wasn't expecting the trail to be so tough. It was not so much the difficulty of any particular technical section, but the tough sections seemed to come one right after another. It took us 2 1/2 days to get through, but we purposely went slow to minimize damage.
I was accompanied by three long wheel base rovers, one pickup (open differentials) and two wagons (both with rear lockers). All vehicles had 33" tires of various widths. The rovers sit a little higher at the rockers than my cruiser, but they have more stuff hanging down under the chassis (exhaust pipes, etc.). The only drive train damage was a bent tie rod on the pickup as he was trying to bounce his way up a ledge.
Regarding the damage to my vehicle specifically, the only thing that broke was the rubber cushion that mounts the muffler. I put dents in each of the passenger side doors and creased the drivers side doors at the intermediate seam. My tail pipe was crushed.
I was lucky to have great rocker and quarter panel protection. My sliders and rear bumper took many hard hits and kept coming back for more. I dragged my long ass down every ledge and pulled the truck through rock passages on the sliders. Without these key pieces of armor my truck would be in much worse shape. My homemade front bumper took a few hard hits too, and it held firm.
I wasn't expecting the trail to be so tough. It was not so much the difficulty of any particular technical section, but the tough sections seemed to come one right after another. It took us 2 1/2 days to get through, but we purposely went slow to minimize damage.
Last edited:
