I'm interested to know if the Rubicon trail can be done on a 5th gen 4R with a 3 inch lift, 33s tires, rear locker, winch and a full skid system.
Rubicon Trail on 4R (5 Viewers)
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Pretty sure you’d want 35-37s and expect some body damage.
You could make it through but it would be far from smooth. A lot of rocking, bouncing, winching and body damage would be part of your experience. I would consider 35s to be the absolute bare minimum I would consider attempting it with, if you have excellent protection and don't mind some body damage.
Yes. Ive done it twice. I'll give you more info tomorrow. I did it in my 2015 with 285/70/17s.
The main things you'll want is a great spotter who's been there, skids and sliders, winch, tolerance for body damage although I didn't have any, and some patience. It'll be slow going in a few parts. But it's very doable. I had a lot of fun.
The main things you'll want is a great spotter who's been there, skids and sliders, winch, tolerance for body damage although I didn't have any, and some patience. It'll be slow going in a few parts. But it's very doable. I had a lot of fun.
Not sure if this is still something you're looking at, but here's a trial report I did a few years ago.
Very doable with everything you describe you have. Only thing you may have but not listed you'll want is strong rock sliders and ideally the bump or kick out sliders. Specifically the first corner into Cadillac hill is extremely hard to get into that climb without putting a rear fender in to the rock on the passenger rear corner without bump out sliders. This is a picture of that spot. Without kickout sliders that slippery rock will want to slide you down into the boulder on the passenger side and it's really hard to avoid. I did it twice once with and once without kickout sliders. The other option to consider if you're worried about the body damage is to take a cheap moving blanket with you - then put on the rocks so you can make an attempt at a paintless repair if you end up in the rocks.
Just a few teaser pics to get you excited about it:
And a copy and paste from my last trip report:
I wanted to share a bit about this year's trip to the Rubicon trail in California. I haven't had enough time to do a more complete write up, but hopefully this will give folks who consider that trail a bit more info.
The trip was the Land Cruiser Association's Rubithon. The way it works in short is that people sign up and most everyone camps at the rubicon springs area on friday and saturday nights - there are events like a big bbq dinner and raffle on Friday night for everyone. But there's not a lot of other rules as far as how or when you come and go. Anyone can come or go at any time from any of the 3 trail heads. The shortest route into the "springs" area is from Tahoma down cadillac hill. Many people just go down the hill to camp and hang out for the weekend and go back out Cadillac hill on Sunday. Usually people get together and make a run with smaller groups of 3-5 vehicles into the springs. There are also half a dozen or so organized trail runs of various sizes.
The largest is usually the "wagon run" that has been led by a family that puts in a lot of work to make it a fun trip. To join the official "wagon run" there's a minimum spec list and set of safety equipment. The short version is 33" tires, 3" lift, lockers, winch, sliders, and safety gear. The couple and their two adult children have a dream overlanding FJ62 diesel on 37's with awesome custom coilover suspension and custom axles and 3 FJ80s on 35's. And they have a few other friends along that help stack rocks along the way too. They are what makes the trip work for wagons. Great spotters and very knowledgeable about the trail. They usually pre-run it the weekend before. And they are in some ways a mobile land cruiser repair shop. Without some very good spotting - even more so last year on my first trip - there's no way I'd still have straight body panels. I have a lot of offroad miles under my belt, and there's a few spots that I would not have believed the right line was where they spotted it. But they're Rubicon pro's. And they're just cool people too. Everyone is part of the family. So that's who I signed up to go with. Hoping to make it an annual trip for as long as I can.
I had a great photographer along this time - although he wasn't shooting my 4Runner primarily, we did get a bunch of good pics and some videos. Also there was a professional videographer there, but the video isn't done yet. I'll share when it is. I think there's a few shots of my 4Runner in there, but we'll see what comes out. I've been a TLCA member for a while and have been a land cruiser guy for a long time. So I tend to join TLCA events more often even though I'm in a 4runner.
I did the same trip last year, so this year I knew what to expect. I made a number of upgrades to my 4runner that all made the trip a lot easier in the 4runner. If you're thinking of going down into the Rubicon, these are what I think are worthwhile upgrades. The first of the upgrades was a new gas tank skid. Last year I was very late in planning and just welded a flat plate to the bottom of the OEM gas tank skid. It worked, but was pretty hammered and dented in. I didn't think it would survive another run through the Rubicon. So that was job #1. DIY Gas Tank Skid
Second prep item was to reinforce the lower control arms in the rear. I was still driving on a bent one from the prior year. Simple DIY Rear Lower Control Arm Upgrade
Third vehicle prep item was the transfer case skid. I'm on my third one. This year I ran with a locally made aluminum one. Worked well. I'll try to find some pics. I did bend it - and took it off just to press it flat again where I get a slight vibration from the exhaust in reverse. Otherwise i'm happy with it. Fits very tight, which I like. But it also means very close to the exhaust. My general approach is minimalist, reduce weight, and gain clearance from tight fitting parts as much as possible.
The fourth change from last year of note was a different rear suspension setup. Last year I had poly spacer rear plus OEM coils and air helper springs. This year I went with Dobinson 2" lift KDSS rear coils with no spacers and I did use the air bags again that I threw in the night before. I don't like air helper springs highway ride - but I knew I was going to be rolling extra heavy this year, more on that to come... I have fox extended travel rear 2.0 shocks. I also set the front coilovers up about 1" from last year. Overall I was probably around 1-1.5" taller at both ends. It helped a LOT. Fronts are Fox 2.5 Factory RR.
The fifth change was taller tires. I had a lot of issues with my toyo AT2's and Discount tire swapped me out for 285/75/17 Cooper AT3s. They are 34" tall vs 32.8 for the AT2's. That also helped a bit. The AT3's were fantastic in the rocks. I have no complaints whatsoever with them. And they are a joy to drive on the highway for the 700 miles each way too!
The sixth change was the sliders. I ran out of time as the trip came up, so I made some very quick and dirty kick outs for my very tight fitting sliders. They were just the ticket for keeping the rear fenders off the rocks. I would not go there without them if possible. Kick outs were a life saver a few times. I like the minimalist look for normal daily driving. As crude as they were, they worked perfect and I may just keep them. I didn't even have time to paint them.
I also quickly added a couple lower rear shock rock guards. Very simple - cut a piece of 2" round tube open. Weld in heavy duty washer. Flatten rear end in hydraulic press. Bolt on. Hard to make them any simpler. And they worked as expected.
Finally I setup the roof rack this year with my 100W solar panel, high lift, and awning. Tslot 8020 rails make it rally easy to put whatever you want up there in short order. I added a Dometic fridge since last year and it was awesome! I also use the fridge in my camp trailer along with the solar panel, so they do double duty. Perfect combo IMO.
I was going alone this year - my wife goes camping a lot, but isn't really into the offroading part of it, so she usually doesn't go on the these types of trips. And my two backpacking/camping buddies both had conflicts that week. Then, the day before leaving Utah for California I was on the Land Cruiser forum and a guy and his wife who had been putting together an FJ60 for the trip and were pretty excited to see the Rubicon. He's a marine and had been pretty much working 24/7 to get the cruiser ready in just a couple weeks he had on leave before the trip, so this was one the first real road trip since he had bought it. They were going on a tour through Yosemite and then meeting us to join the wagon run.
Sadly the FJ60 blew a head gasket in Yosemite. It was a bummer following their build up that they couldn't go. So I sent a few messages around and - long story short, they rented a car and met me at ice house (last turn off of the highway on the way to the trailhead at Loon Lake) at about 9:30pm the night before. So I had to re-think a few things about how I was going to pack and threw the air bags in for the ability to carry a lot more weight than I was originally planning for. But it was not a problem. Turns out they were super cool. Well prepared and packed light. We had a lot of fun. It was more fun for me than it would have been driving alone. Plus – what’s the point of a wagon if you don’t have passengers, right? And the Landcruiser community is pretty tight – so Marlin k (marlin crawler) was going to pick up the broke down land cruiser after the event and repair the head gasket. Should be ready in time for a fall offroad trip.
We met up on Tuesday night and loaded all the gear in my 4Runner and headed up to the slabs at the trail head at Loon Lake. I removed the driver's side rear seat for more room. And we were totally maxed out on space. Had to carry two bags of clothes on the solar panel on the roof up to the first nights camp. - The wagon run leaves at 7am on Wed. so normally we camp on the slabs at the trail head tuesday night. No difference this year. On wed. one of the FJ80's had room for our two bags from the roof, so we were able to lighten the load a bit. In retrospect I should have put my basket on the roof. But, given more than a day's notice we also could have combined a lot of stuff we carried two of - like coolers. We had both my Fridge and a big Yeti in the back. But we just didn't have time to pre-plan meals and all of that which I would normally do. Otherwise I think everything would fit comfortably inside. There's a few spots that are very tippy - so keeping stuff off the roof is ideal if possible.
Anyway - on to the trail. We roll out early because a group of 15 long wheel base vehicles is just slow. And we split the trail into 3 segments. The first day we go to Buck Island and spend the night there. Buck island is beautiful. And a nice stopping point especially for the less capable trucks like mine. In the 4runner it would be a long day to run all the way down to Rubicon Springs. OTOH in my FJ40 - it would be something like 4-6 hours I'd guess to go all the way to the springs. I've heard that one of the Ultra 4 guys did the entire trail, end to end, in about an hour - doing 40mph on some parts. That's insane! But we go slow and enjoy the beauty of the area. Over a few hours the group strings out into two or three smaller sub groups. For me, that's ideal. I can watch a the other vehicles lines and get a good idea of what my best choice is.
We all communicate on HAM radio. And have a satellite phone for emergency in the group. Registration includes a CALSTAR helicopter rescue insurance if something really bad happens - and it did this year. Guy fell hiking and hit his head - hard enough he was unresponsive - so he got a ride out and is doing fine, two years ago a woman fell on a rock and had a compound fracture and was flown out. Last year someone died the weekend before I was there in a jeep roll over accident (no seat belt, drunk, ejected and crushed). So it's not without risk. There's also an abnormal amount of rattle snakes. Never been bit - but I do like to go hiking while I'm there, so it's always something I think about.
The Rubicon is hard to compare to other trails I normally drive on. It's more consistently hard than any other trail I've ever been on. It's like a 20 mile long obstacle. In Moab - a 20 mile trail is 19 miles of two track and a combined mile of real obstacles. I would rate it as about a 7 or 8 on technical difficulty. But more like a 9 in terms of durability testing. A very durable vehicle that's less capable is better than a very capable vehicle that's less durable. For example there are plenty of blown pinions, axles, drive shafts, broken suspension parts, and things like that on very capable vehicles that happen every year. The BJ46 that was with us had a shock actually come off because it hit just right and pushed the shock eyelet over the rubber bushing that it mounts to. Nothing actually broke. It just knocked the bushing out of the eyelet. I've never seen that happen before. One FJ60 with a cummins diesel sheered all the knuckle studs off on one side of the front axle. Another FJ60 that was a SEMA show truck for an off road shop on 37's broke both front axle shafts and we had to go back up to rescue it and limp it down into camp and find spare parts to get it put back together. I think they were a bit unprepared for what the Rubicon is actually like not having spare front axle parts. $$ Lights and roof racks are not as important as strong axles. If you're running it in a solid axle Toyota - get yourself some RCVs or similar. Stock birfields are not adequate for a 7,000lb truck on 37's. Frankly I'm kinda surprised they made it past the gate keeper. At least one snapped pinion I know of. And an FJ80 broke a track bar mount off the frame and had to get it welded back up.
But on the other side of the coin - my 4Runner has run through twice with no meaningful damage other than some skid plates and a few scratches on the plastic. If you're well prepared in a durable vehicle you should be okay. I'm not bragging here - but being an experienced driver and having a good spotter goes a long way to preventing major body damage. So does going at the back of the pack to watch and learn from others. If you're new to offroading, which a lot of 4Runner owners are - the Rubicon can be a very painful place to learn. You can get into a lot of damage really quickly if you're not paying attention or try to race through.
So we drive to Buck Island and camp the first night. Then continue on to Rubicon Springs on Thursday and set up a full camp in the springs until Sunday. I can't describe every obstacle along the way because there are so many. But the biggest challenges are all the named obstacles. Typically the big climbs actually go really easy in the 4runner. It's low and long compared to a SWB jeep. The spots I get hung up the most are the big boulder fields. For folks who are familiar the rock garden below the big sluice is really tricky in a low rider like a 4Runner. That was the only place I had to pull out the winch. I got totally turtled on the gas tank. I also had to get out a high lift once to put some rocks under a tire where I had gotten turtled on a rock under the transfer case at a different spot earlier on the trail. Cadillac hill was actually a breeze this year. Not sure why - but it went really smoothly without any issues. The road out beyond lookout point was really chewed up this year. It was probably as hard as anything else on the trail in a few spots. Last year it was pretty easy. So it changes a lot year to year. Being that extra 1.5" higher made a world of difference this year.
My other general thoughts were that the TRD Pro skid plate was not as strong as I thought it was. I didn't notice having a lot of impacts on it - but it was pretty well busted up at the end. The gas tank skid and sliders took a ton of abuse, but worked fine. I still have the OEM transmission pan skid. It's dented - but no problems. Works as it should. I have custom rear trans and transfer case skids. No problems there. And the rear bumper custom skid I built works great. I still have the OEM plastic front and rear bumper covers. I put a few scratches in the front cover by not paying attention while watching the guy behind me and ran into a rock. Otherwise the OEM front bumper has plenty of clearance for the Rubicon trail with careful driving. The rear would be destroyed without a skid plate protecting it. You don't need to carry extra fuel. I used less than half a tank from South Tahoe all the way around to Loon lake, through the trail, and back to Tahoma. My net fuel mpg on the dash was 14.7 for the entire 1400 mile road trip and the Rubicon trail offroading. Corrected for 34" tires, it's about 16mpg. I have no complaints about that. For next year the only thing I think I'll do differently is to have a different engine skid. Not much choice on that. And a few changes to my camping gear setup. But vehicle wise it's pretty dialed in.
KDSS works great. It makes everything look easy. The difference in body composure on off camber stuff is significant. I can't compare to a long travel setup as no-one had one. The GX group kinda dissolved and I think only one GX showed up - but I only saw it once at Buck Island. I didn't see them again at all during the trip so I don't know much about how it went for the GX. There were two FJ Cruisers with us - one very similar height to mine, and one with a 6" bracket lift. Both did just fine. There was also a mildly built LC100 that took a beating even with a very good driver behind the wheel. It's just a big truck to fit through. It was on 35's with a relatively low lift. But it was durable and went through without breaking anything. In that respect it was better than a number of 37" tire wearing solid axle land cruisers. And as far as other newer trucks Big Mike from Marlin Crawler was there in his '16 Tacoma on 40" tires (with IFS) and triple transfer cases. It's not really comparable in terms of trail performance, but it's also nice to know that the IFS holds up to 40" tires pretty well.
So that's my general thoughts and trip report. I have a ton of photos this year from the guy who rode with me and others. I'll share a handful. If anyone has more specific questions let me know and Ill try to answer them. I know it's a popular trail with a lot of history.
Very doable with everything you describe you have. Only thing you may have but not listed you'll want is strong rock sliders and ideally the bump or kick out sliders. Specifically the first corner into Cadillac hill is extremely hard to get into that climb without putting a rear fender in to the rock on the passenger rear corner without bump out sliders. This is a picture of that spot. Without kickout sliders that slippery rock will want to slide you down into the boulder on the passenger side and it's really hard to avoid. I did it twice once with and once without kickout sliders. The other option to consider if you're worried about the body damage is to take a cheap moving blanket with you - then put on the rocks so you can make an attempt at a paintless repair if you end up in the rocks.
Just a few teaser pics to get you excited about it:
And a copy and paste from my last trip report:
I wanted to share a bit about this year's trip to the Rubicon trail in California. I haven't had enough time to do a more complete write up, but hopefully this will give folks who consider that trail a bit more info.
The trip was the Land Cruiser Association's Rubithon. The way it works in short is that people sign up and most everyone camps at the rubicon springs area on friday and saturday nights - there are events like a big bbq dinner and raffle on Friday night for everyone. But there's not a lot of other rules as far as how or when you come and go. Anyone can come or go at any time from any of the 3 trail heads. The shortest route into the "springs" area is from Tahoma down cadillac hill. Many people just go down the hill to camp and hang out for the weekend and go back out Cadillac hill on Sunday. Usually people get together and make a run with smaller groups of 3-5 vehicles into the springs. There are also half a dozen or so organized trail runs of various sizes.
The largest is usually the "wagon run" that has been led by a family that puts in a lot of work to make it a fun trip. To join the official "wagon run" there's a minimum spec list and set of safety equipment. The short version is 33" tires, 3" lift, lockers, winch, sliders, and safety gear. The couple and their two adult children have a dream overlanding FJ62 diesel on 37's with awesome custom coilover suspension and custom axles and 3 FJ80s on 35's. And they have a few other friends along that help stack rocks along the way too. They are what makes the trip work for wagons. Great spotters and very knowledgeable about the trail. They usually pre-run it the weekend before. And they are in some ways a mobile land cruiser repair shop. Without some very good spotting - even more so last year on my first trip - there's no way I'd still have straight body panels. I have a lot of offroad miles under my belt, and there's a few spots that I would not have believed the right line was where they spotted it. But they're Rubicon pro's. And they're just cool people too. Everyone is part of the family. So that's who I signed up to go with. Hoping to make it an annual trip for as long as I can.
I had a great photographer along this time - although he wasn't shooting my 4Runner primarily, we did get a bunch of good pics and some videos. Also there was a professional videographer there, but the video isn't done yet. I'll share when it is. I think there's a few shots of my 4Runner in there, but we'll see what comes out. I've been a TLCA member for a while and have been a land cruiser guy for a long time. So I tend to join TLCA events more often even though I'm in a 4runner.
I did the same trip last year, so this year I knew what to expect. I made a number of upgrades to my 4runner that all made the trip a lot easier in the 4runner. If you're thinking of going down into the Rubicon, these are what I think are worthwhile upgrades. The first of the upgrades was a new gas tank skid. Last year I was very late in planning and just welded a flat plate to the bottom of the OEM gas tank skid. It worked, but was pretty hammered and dented in. I didn't think it would survive another run through the Rubicon. So that was job #1. DIY Gas Tank Skid
Second prep item was to reinforce the lower control arms in the rear. I was still driving on a bent one from the prior year. Simple DIY Rear Lower Control Arm Upgrade
Third vehicle prep item was the transfer case skid. I'm on my third one. This year I ran with a locally made aluminum one. Worked well. I'll try to find some pics. I did bend it - and took it off just to press it flat again where I get a slight vibration from the exhaust in reverse. Otherwise i'm happy with it. Fits very tight, which I like. But it also means very close to the exhaust. My general approach is minimalist, reduce weight, and gain clearance from tight fitting parts as much as possible.
The fourth change from last year of note was a different rear suspension setup. Last year I had poly spacer rear plus OEM coils and air helper springs. This year I went with Dobinson 2" lift KDSS rear coils with no spacers and I did use the air bags again that I threw in the night before. I don't like air helper springs highway ride - but I knew I was going to be rolling extra heavy this year, more on that to come... I have fox extended travel rear 2.0 shocks. I also set the front coilovers up about 1" from last year. Overall I was probably around 1-1.5" taller at both ends. It helped a LOT. Fronts are Fox 2.5 Factory RR.
The fifth change was taller tires. I had a lot of issues with my toyo AT2's and Discount tire swapped me out for 285/75/17 Cooper AT3s. They are 34" tall vs 32.8 for the AT2's. That also helped a bit. The AT3's were fantastic in the rocks. I have no complaints whatsoever with them. And they are a joy to drive on the highway for the 700 miles each way too!
The sixth change was the sliders. I ran out of time as the trip came up, so I made some very quick and dirty kick outs for my very tight fitting sliders. They were just the ticket for keeping the rear fenders off the rocks. I would not go there without them if possible. Kick outs were a life saver a few times. I like the minimalist look for normal daily driving. As crude as they were, they worked perfect and I may just keep them. I didn't even have time to paint them.
I also quickly added a couple lower rear shock rock guards. Very simple - cut a piece of 2" round tube open. Weld in heavy duty washer. Flatten rear end in hydraulic press. Bolt on. Hard to make them any simpler. And they worked as expected.
Finally I setup the roof rack this year with my 100W solar panel, high lift, and awning. Tslot 8020 rails make it rally easy to put whatever you want up there in short order. I added a Dometic fridge since last year and it was awesome! I also use the fridge in my camp trailer along with the solar panel, so they do double duty. Perfect combo IMO.
I was going alone this year - my wife goes camping a lot, but isn't really into the offroading part of it, so she usually doesn't go on the these types of trips. And my two backpacking/camping buddies both had conflicts that week. Then, the day before leaving Utah for California I was on the Land Cruiser forum and a guy and his wife who had been putting together an FJ60 for the trip and were pretty excited to see the Rubicon. He's a marine and had been pretty much working 24/7 to get the cruiser ready in just a couple weeks he had on leave before the trip, so this was one the first real road trip since he had bought it. They were going on a tour through Yosemite and then meeting us to join the wagon run.
Sadly the FJ60 blew a head gasket in Yosemite. It was a bummer following their build up that they couldn't go. So I sent a few messages around and - long story short, they rented a car and met me at ice house (last turn off of the highway on the way to the trailhead at Loon Lake) at about 9:30pm the night before. So I had to re-think a few things about how I was going to pack and threw the air bags in for the ability to carry a lot more weight than I was originally planning for. But it was not a problem. Turns out they were super cool. Well prepared and packed light. We had a lot of fun. It was more fun for me than it would have been driving alone. Plus – what’s the point of a wagon if you don’t have passengers, right? And the Landcruiser community is pretty tight – so Marlin k (marlin crawler) was going to pick up the broke down land cruiser after the event and repair the head gasket. Should be ready in time for a fall offroad trip.
We met up on Tuesday night and loaded all the gear in my 4Runner and headed up to the slabs at the trail head at Loon Lake. I removed the driver's side rear seat for more room. And we were totally maxed out on space. Had to carry two bags of clothes on the solar panel on the roof up to the first nights camp. - The wagon run leaves at 7am on Wed. so normally we camp on the slabs at the trail head tuesday night. No difference this year. On wed. one of the FJ80's had room for our two bags from the roof, so we were able to lighten the load a bit. In retrospect I should have put my basket on the roof. But, given more than a day's notice we also could have combined a lot of stuff we carried two of - like coolers. We had both my Fridge and a big Yeti in the back. But we just didn't have time to pre-plan meals and all of that which I would normally do. Otherwise I think everything would fit comfortably inside. There's a few spots that are very tippy - so keeping stuff off the roof is ideal if possible.
Anyway - on to the trail. We roll out early because a group of 15 long wheel base vehicles is just slow. And we split the trail into 3 segments. The first day we go to Buck Island and spend the night there. Buck island is beautiful. And a nice stopping point especially for the less capable trucks like mine. In the 4runner it would be a long day to run all the way down to Rubicon Springs. OTOH in my FJ40 - it would be something like 4-6 hours I'd guess to go all the way to the springs. I've heard that one of the Ultra 4 guys did the entire trail, end to end, in about an hour - doing 40mph on some parts. That's insane! But we go slow and enjoy the beauty of the area. Over a few hours the group strings out into two or three smaller sub groups. For me, that's ideal. I can watch a the other vehicles lines and get a good idea of what my best choice is.
We all communicate on HAM radio. And have a satellite phone for emergency in the group. Registration includes a CALSTAR helicopter rescue insurance if something really bad happens - and it did this year. Guy fell hiking and hit his head - hard enough he was unresponsive - so he got a ride out and is doing fine, two years ago a woman fell on a rock and had a compound fracture and was flown out. Last year someone died the weekend before I was there in a jeep roll over accident (no seat belt, drunk, ejected and crushed). So it's not without risk. There's also an abnormal amount of rattle snakes. Never been bit - but I do like to go hiking while I'm there, so it's always something I think about.
The Rubicon is hard to compare to other trails I normally drive on. It's more consistently hard than any other trail I've ever been on. It's like a 20 mile long obstacle. In Moab - a 20 mile trail is 19 miles of two track and a combined mile of real obstacles. I would rate it as about a 7 or 8 on technical difficulty. But more like a 9 in terms of durability testing. A very durable vehicle that's less capable is better than a very capable vehicle that's less durable. For example there are plenty of blown pinions, axles, drive shafts, broken suspension parts, and things like that on very capable vehicles that happen every year. The BJ46 that was with us had a shock actually come off because it hit just right and pushed the shock eyelet over the rubber bushing that it mounts to. Nothing actually broke. It just knocked the bushing out of the eyelet. I've never seen that happen before. One FJ60 with a cummins diesel sheered all the knuckle studs off on one side of the front axle. Another FJ60 that was a SEMA show truck for an off road shop on 37's broke both front axle shafts and we had to go back up to rescue it and limp it down into camp and find spare parts to get it put back together. I think they were a bit unprepared for what the Rubicon is actually like not having spare front axle parts. $$ Lights and roof racks are not as important as strong axles. If you're running it in a solid axle Toyota - get yourself some RCVs or similar. Stock birfields are not adequate for a 7,000lb truck on 37's. Frankly I'm kinda surprised they made it past the gate keeper. At least one snapped pinion I know of. And an FJ80 broke a track bar mount off the frame and had to get it welded back up.
But on the other side of the coin - my 4Runner has run through twice with no meaningful damage other than some skid plates and a few scratches on the plastic. If you're well prepared in a durable vehicle you should be okay. I'm not bragging here - but being an experienced driver and having a good spotter goes a long way to preventing major body damage. So does going at the back of the pack to watch and learn from others. If you're new to offroading, which a lot of 4Runner owners are - the Rubicon can be a very painful place to learn. You can get into a lot of damage really quickly if you're not paying attention or try to race through.
So we drive to Buck Island and camp the first night. Then continue on to Rubicon Springs on Thursday and set up a full camp in the springs until Sunday. I can't describe every obstacle along the way because there are so many. But the biggest challenges are all the named obstacles. Typically the big climbs actually go really easy in the 4runner. It's low and long compared to a SWB jeep. The spots I get hung up the most are the big boulder fields. For folks who are familiar the rock garden below the big sluice is really tricky in a low rider like a 4Runner. That was the only place I had to pull out the winch. I got totally turtled on the gas tank. I also had to get out a high lift once to put some rocks under a tire where I had gotten turtled on a rock under the transfer case at a different spot earlier on the trail. Cadillac hill was actually a breeze this year. Not sure why - but it went really smoothly without any issues. The road out beyond lookout point was really chewed up this year. It was probably as hard as anything else on the trail in a few spots. Last year it was pretty easy. So it changes a lot year to year. Being that extra 1.5" higher made a world of difference this year.
My other general thoughts were that the TRD Pro skid plate was not as strong as I thought it was. I didn't notice having a lot of impacts on it - but it was pretty well busted up at the end. The gas tank skid and sliders took a ton of abuse, but worked fine. I still have the OEM transmission pan skid. It's dented - but no problems. Works as it should. I have custom rear trans and transfer case skids. No problems there. And the rear bumper custom skid I built works great. I still have the OEM plastic front and rear bumper covers. I put a few scratches in the front cover by not paying attention while watching the guy behind me and ran into a rock. Otherwise the OEM front bumper has plenty of clearance for the Rubicon trail with careful driving. The rear would be destroyed without a skid plate protecting it. You don't need to carry extra fuel. I used less than half a tank from South Tahoe all the way around to Loon lake, through the trail, and back to Tahoma. My net fuel mpg on the dash was 14.7 for the entire 1400 mile road trip and the Rubicon trail offroading. Corrected for 34" tires, it's about 16mpg. I have no complaints about that. For next year the only thing I think I'll do differently is to have a different engine skid. Not much choice on that. And a few changes to my camping gear setup. But vehicle wise it's pretty dialed in.
KDSS works great. It makes everything look easy. The difference in body composure on off camber stuff is significant. I can't compare to a long travel setup as no-one had one. The GX group kinda dissolved and I think only one GX showed up - but I only saw it once at Buck Island. I didn't see them again at all during the trip so I don't know much about how it went for the GX. There were two FJ Cruisers with us - one very similar height to mine, and one with a 6" bracket lift. Both did just fine. There was also a mildly built LC100 that took a beating even with a very good driver behind the wheel. It's just a big truck to fit through. It was on 35's with a relatively low lift. But it was durable and went through without breaking anything. In that respect it was better than a number of 37" tire wearing solid axle land cruisers. And as far as other newer trucks Big Mike from Marlin Crawler was there in his '16 Tacoma on 40" tires (with IFS) and triple transfer cases. It's not really comparable in terms of trail performance, but it's also nice to know that the IFS holds up to 40" tires pretty well.
So that's my general thoughts and trip report. I have a ton of photos this year from the guy who rode with me and others. I'll share a handful. If anyone has more specific questions let me know and Ill try to answer them. I know it's a popular trail with a lot of history.
