Rubicon in a day? (1 Viewer)

[OREGON85]

My mom hatched this plan to rent a place at Tahoe for a week to get her kids/grand kids together. I immediately went to work trying to figure out how to run the Rubicon (without disrupting my mom's plan too much). My dad did the Land Cruiser and later the Jeeper's Jamboree every year for the first ten years after he bought his FJ-40 new in '75. Additionally, he told me he'd take me on the trail after I turned 14, and now that is 20 years over due. In any case we really need to do the trail. He was thinking of driving his '75 FJ-40 that is in excellent original condition, '34's, limited slip differentials, and stock otherwise. I'm going to try to talk him into running my '85 pickup with 33's, lockers, sliders, LOW gears etc. and I'm taking my '96 80 with 35's, lockers, lower gears etc. Would it be a stretch to try to run this in one day? It would go faster with the '85 pickup vs. the FJ-40, but thoughts on either one? I'll also have my kids in tow who will be 2.5, 5, and 7 next summer.

If we take more time we would have to do it outside of the week the house is rented, which would be: A. harder for me to get the time off work and B. I'm towing my ski boat down with the 80 and I wouldn't have a safe place to park it without the house.

I've been reading up on the Rubicon, but some recent experience/perspectives would be super helpful.

Thanks!

 

[vman07]

Not super recent, but I ran the Rubicon in a day a few years back:

Halloween on The Rubicon

I was solo and didn't run into any significant issues. It's definitely doable, but it's a lot of seat time. I'd be prepared to stay overnight even if you plan a day run, I brought some sleeping gear and extra food etc. just in case.

 

[reddingcruiser]

It's all work and no play to run the Rubi in a day.

How's that for poetry.

 

[OREGON85]

Nice poetry. Maybe we'll have to plan on the Thursday/Friday before. I'm just not sure what I would do with the boat while on the trail.

How doable is the trail for the FJ-40 described above? It seems like when I read it sounds like the trail has changed a lot in the last 10 years so it is hard to know how difficult it actually is.

 

[reddingcruiser]

33's are at the bottom end of the tire limits for the Rubicon. As equipped, i think any of them are 'capable', but I doubt those rigs would easily run the trail in a day just from a clearance consideration. You'll be stacking a few rocks.
Driver ability is typically more important than how well the rig is prepared. Experienced guys can take a stock 40 on 33's through with little problem. Some folks can't drive (or take direction )and struggle even with the best prepped rig.
When do you plan to do this?

 

[peesalot]

You can bounce thru in a day, start early, see if you can hook up with experienced trail users, be able to communicate and enjoy. Communications are very important , especially if you are inexperienced on the trail. HAM (best opt) or an inreach unit with SOS & text capability so you can talk to family while on trail. Wheres the house your in ?

However, you should pack and prepare for not getting thru in a day, just in case.

 

[Jason hansen]

I tried to run it in a day but there was a broke down Jeep blocking the trail. They where going to be working on it till late in the evening. So we ended up camping.

 

[OREGON85]

I think we'll plan on doing this the Fri/Sat before the week at the lake. I'm not sure where the house is; I haven't been involved in that part of the planning. Close to Lake Tahoe somewhere is all I know. This is planned for August 2019. I need to figure out a place to store my boat while we do the trail.

 

[Ronny Grady]

I drove it in two days this summer with my dad and daughter.

Two ~5 hour off road days with lots of photos.

“No play in one day” is a recipe for kids with bad memories of the trail. I suggest taking two days and letting the kids have fun.

If you want a day trip just go down and back up Cadillac Hill.

 

[Devil's Slide Doug]

Just a couple well built rigs with good drivers should move relatively quickly. Sounds like your trucks are definitely adequate but "merely average" and you dont have much experience on the Rubicon. Two days would definitely be better, if not three, especially for the younger passengers.

 

[Jetboy]

I'd echo what everyone else has said. Sounds like you're on the right track. The first issue is simply getting to the trailhead. IIRC I'd plan on 2+ hours from South Tahoe to the trailhead at Loon. So that means rolling out of tahoe at 5am to get to the trailhead by 7 for a full day. Then you have a lot of what-if's regarding breakage - both your group and others on the trail. It happens. The other is trail condition. If a group of 40" buggies went through ahead of you they could really tear up the trail. OTOH if you happen to hit right after a jamboree where it's been "paved" by a group of smaller tire'd vehicles it could go really fast. You just won't know until you get there. Your vehicles are perfectly capable of going through with good driving and small groups go a lot faster.

In a 40" tire buggy with high body clearance, a trip through in a day would be no problem. With open trails you could probably do it in 8 hours at a leisurely pace. In a 35" tire wagon - it's going to be a lot harder. I would say - yes it's doable if you don't get stuck for any reason. I'm not sure how fun it would be. Two days would make it a lot more fun.

I would not take a clean original body FJ40 myself. It's so easy to damage and expensive to repair these days.

Good luck!