Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
The Rubicon – that’s a name to inspire dreams! Unquestionably the most famous trail in the country and possibly the world, the Rubicon is on every off-roader’s bucket list. It’s certainly been on mine for a while now.
Talk to any old timer and they’ll tell you the Rubicon ain’t what it used to be. It’s been paved; it’s a highway; anybody can do it. While it is true the trail has been tamed from its gnarliest years it’s nothing to be taken lightly. It’s still a long, difficult trail that breaks dozens if not hundreds of rigs every year.
The trail is always changing. Traditionally it’s at its roughest early in the season, just after the winter storms have done their work and the snows have cleared but before hundreds of rigs have had a chance to stack rocks and clear obstacles. And of course before the Jeepers Jamboree comes to town in the summer and ‘paves’ the trail to ensure they can get a huge number of rigs through in short order. 2016 was the first big winter northern California has seen in a few years thanks to our drought and several Rubicon veterans reported it was in rougher than usual shape when we made our run the first weekend of June.
For a couple of years now I’ve been telling people I thought I could get my LR3 through the Rubicon but not having done the trail myself I was really only basing that on what other people told me. My confidence level was medium/high, but at the same time there was considerable apprehension. One person would tell you ‘sure, no problem, you can do it!’ but then you realize they’re driving a rock buggy on 37” tires. Another person says ‘no way – you’ve got to be crazy!’ but they’re running a nearly stock truck and have never tried anything harder than a fire road. The Rubicon is a very different trail to each of these guys, so what sort of trail would it be for me in an LR3?
I know LR3s have been on parts of the trail. Just last winter I took mine to the Wentworth Springs campground and a bit beyond with the NCLR winter run. And I know Scott, the former president of SCLR and another friend of his brought their LR3s to the Rubicon a few years ago but only made it to Buck Island Lake before turning around. Scott’s about as experienced as anybody pushing an LR3 in the rocks, so his story was the best information I had to go on. From what he reported, I felt like I could do it.
About my truck – it’s built a bit more than the typical LR3 but really not that heavily mod’ed. I run Johnson rods for a 2.5” lift. I’ve done the requisite moderate trimming to run 33” Cooper STT Pro tires on stock 18” wheels. I have an ARB front bumper w/Smittybuilt XRC9000 lb winch (BTW, I would not recommend this bumper for heavy duty use like this) and a custom built rear bumper done by buddy Pedram of NCLR. Most importantly, I have Tactical Rovers rock sliders as well as their gas tank and transfer case skids. Where I building it again from scratch I’d do some minor changes to my rear bumper design for more strength and I’d change the ARB front for a Tactical Rovers part but otherwise I’d make the same mods.
In the planning stages of this trip I knew all along I’d want to do it early in the season before the crowds came, and mid-week to avoid traffic jams. I also knew I wouldn’t want to try it alone so I’d want some experienced Rover friends along who also had the patience to put up with a slow-moving LR3. This all came together when Tyler Mobraten suggested an NCLR Rubicon trip late last year. I’d been talking about it long enough – time to shut up or put up…..I was in. With the mid-week timing not everybody was able to attend and in the end even Tyler himself didn’t have his truck ready so we ended up with me, running solo; Lutzi Haas in a Discovery II with his mother and nephew; and Chuck Mobraten with his sister sharing driving duties with Tyler also in a Disco 2.
Our plan was to meet at the campground on the north shore of Loon Lake then take a leisurely 3 days on the trail, overnighting at Buck Island Lake and Rubicon Springs. Lutzi and I arrived Sunday evening at Loon Lake and had a nice evening before turning in around 10:30. The Mobratens were coming up later in the night and had discussed possibly staying in a hotel about an hour from the camp and just meeting us early Monday morning, but about midnight I awoke to lights and noises of people moving around when Chuck pulled in directly behind my parked LR3 where I was sleeping in the back. Though we had planned to get on the trail early I assumed that with their late arrival the Mobratens would be sleeping in. To my surprise when I awoke at first light about 5AM I peeked out to see them already stirring. OK then – an early start after all! A quick breakfast, pack up camp, air down, and we were off to the trailhead.
We ran with Chuck and Tyler in the lead, me in the middle, and Lutzi bringing up the rear figuring if anybody was going to need assistance it would be me in the LR3. The trail starts out easy enough as the original gate keeper is gone but it was still pulse-quickening to cross onto the rock and actually get onto the famed Rubicon. Within the first mile we came upon a broken Chevy Blazer with an empty tent next to it. We assumed the driver had hiked back to Loon Lake since it was so close, but it still set the mind to wandering…
I won’t try to give a point by point run down of the trail. It’s far too long and after 3 days of non-stop obstacles it’s all a bit of a blur in my mind. The trail quickly enough goes from moderate to hard and just keeps coming at you. Once you start, you’ll drop into 1st gear and just stay there pretty much all the way through. Average speeds are somewhere in the 1 mph range, at least for our slow moving crew of moderately built trucks. The first couple hours were all pretty straight forward with no huge surprises, just the usual trail obstacles and some beautiful sights along the way. During one climb where we were out spotting each other a guy approached us on foot from behind asking if we would be able to lend a hand if needed – his 15 year old daughter was driving his Jeep and had gotten it sideways and tippy on the trail and he was setting up to winch her out of the spot. Though it wasn’t too bad, he wanted to be sure we were available just in case. We gladly helped him sort it out, then let the two Jeeps go on by us as they had hopes of running the entire length of the trail that day. We never saw them again and since they were from Iowa I doubt we ever will, but whether one day or two they apparently made it through OK.
Our first ‘highlight’ was well down the trail, I believe it was at the Soupbowl, with Chuck in the lead and Tyler riding with me when Chuck came on the radio asking for a spot – he was in a tight squeeze and had touched the driver’s side rear of the bodywork against the rock wall. Tyler and I were able to push him over enough that he could continue with only a small scratch. Now I was worried about how I was going to get a 4” wider rig through the same spot without damage but with some very careful spotting I made it without touching any bodywork.
After getting up Walker Hill we were approaching the first major option – Little Sluice. Lutzi decided to run it with Tyler spotting him while Chuck and I took the long by-pass on the north side. About this time we also heard from some of the Friends of the Rubicon on the radio. We were surprised that they would be on the same simplex frequency we were on but it turns out some of the NCLR members had been trying to reach us on the repeater. When they couldn’t get ahold of us the Friends heard and asked what channel we would be using, then contacted us directly. After that we would be in regular contact with them both on simplex and on the repeater as well as with several members of our club who were following our progress from ‘the real world’. This would later prove helpful indeed.
After a bit of a struggle Lutzi got through Little Sluice and we had lunch at the picnic table at the top of Thousand Dollar Hill. So far nobody had suffered any major difficulties or damage and things were going well, though it was hotter than expected and the mosquitoes were out in force. On down the hill to Mud Lake and our first significant water crossing. Though it was not that deep, perhaps 2’, it was enough to make route finding more difficult and of course you can’t see what’s below the surface so it’s always a bit risky and tricky picking your way through water. Luckily my companions had been here before and we could be confident that though there may be some unexpected rocks or ledges lurking in the depths there weren’t any deep holes that would swallow the trucks.
Onward and now back upwards, past Arnold’s Rock and we came to the second major option, Old Sluice. This time we all took the long bypass on the north side on the slabs. It should be noted that even the ‘bypass’ routes are not a cakewalk, with plenty of obstacles, tight squeezes, and tippy off-camber spots along the route. They’re not ‘easy’, they’re just easy by comparison to the alternative.
Down we go toward another tight squeeze in a notch, I believe near Egg Rock this time. Now with Tyler driving in the lead and Chuck riding with me we hear Tyler on the radio asking for a spot. Chuck gets him over one obstacle and is helping spot me though when Tyler catches his rear diff on a rock, pushes sideways, and gets the passenger rear quarter into the rocks. All hands on deck, we manage to get him free but not without a bit of sheet metal ‘arrangement’. Not bad, but enough for Chuck to give him a little grief over. Of course Chuck rarely needs much encouragement in this department anyway, so Tyler’s used to it by now. Again I was able to get the LR3 though the tight spot without any body contact (I did rub the plastic right rear fender flare here) largely because without low hanging differentials I could take a more favorable line in the squeeze. As Chuck was guiding me through here Tyler was back up the hill spotting Lutzi on the previous obstacle when we heard them on the radio saying Lutzi had cut a sidewall. Despite a pretty big hole, Lutzi was able to stuff enough plug in it to hold air so we were able to continue without changing the tire.
At the bottom of this section we came across a couple of Jeep TJs parked to the side of the trail. The Friends of the Rubicon had asked us to keep an eye out for them as they’d broken and hiked out for parts. We took a brief look around their camp and found they weren’t back yet but clearly they’d had a tough time – one Jeep had snapped his steering and the other had a busted axle strapped to his rear rack that he’d already changed out. We updated the Friends on where they were and pushed on toward our camp.
Somewhere along here I began noticing a squeaking like a tire was rubbing. Odd, as I don’t normally have that but I didn’t think much about it as I didn’t see or feel anything far off. Then as we approached Buck Island Lake it became worse and I found my right rear tire had shifted forward in the wheel well and was rubbing against my slider. Something was clearly bent or broken but we were nearly at camp so I let it go for the short distance remaining. Once we set up camp in the shade and on level ground I pulled the tire off and found I had broken the fwd upper control arm at the bushing eye. Last year in AZ I had the exact same failure on the opposite side. At that time I considered it a fluke; this time, with the failures being mirror image of each other I decided it may be due to the stiffer poly bushings I’m running causing extra stress on the joint. Regardless, I wasn’t going anywhere until I fixed it. I had a lot of spares along, but not a new control arm.
Remember how we were able to contact some of our fellow club members via the HAM repeater? Here’s where that comes in really handy. We were able to reach Graeme Ware of RoverWare on the SF Peninsula. He searched around but could not locate a new control arm in the area, however he was able to contact another NCLR member, Justin of British Recyclers in Rancho Cordova who did have a used control arm on hand. Justin hand-delivered this to yet another club member, Jason Fuller of Folsom. While Jason was willing and able to run the part in to us on the trail it would mean taking a day or more off work. This time the Friends of the Rubicon came through for us, with one of their people meeting Jason in Pollock Pines and bringing the part to their cabin at Spider Lake. We would then hike back up the trail to pick up the part there. The whole time we were able to keep in touch with everybody by way of the Rubicon repeater.
The part didn’t make it to Spider Lake until nearly midnight so instead of trying the hike in the dark we agreed to take off at first light. That night I went ahead and removed to broken part – not especially difficult even when working in less than ideal trail-side conditions – and at 4:30AM the next morning I was up and after a quick breakfast it was time to start the hike. Tyler, being young and energetic, for some odd reason agreed to make the hike with me. It took us somewhere around 90 minutes each way to hike back and retrieve the part but we made it back and had the truck back together by about 9AM.
Day 2 on the trail would prove to be the toughest. Right off the bat as you cross the dam at Buck Island Lake you start into a series of obstacles that require a good deal of work to clear. Lutzi decided to try one particularly steep climb up a smooth granite face but couldn’t quite get enough grip. Several tries resulted in lots of tire spin and climbing part way up only to slide back down. It was steep enough that when he slid down he didn’t land on his rear tires. He didn’t land on his rear bumper. He landed on his spare tire which bent the carrier. Oh well, better that than the door bending I guess. No big deal…it still works and he has an extra at home anyway. At this point we had a large group of Jeeps coming up behind us and knowing we are slow movers and since there was a wide spot here we let them by. Of course this took longer than expected so after 90 minutes or so we got them all down the trail and continued ourselves. More rocks. More ledges. More squeezes. And then…Big Sluice.
Two spots in particular in Big Sluice stand out in my memory. First, at the hairpin at the top we came to an obstacle that I simply could not drive over regardless of line. The LR3 just doesn’t have the break-over clearance to make it, so I took the only option available to me and used my armor the way it was built for. I eased the front tires over until they were both hanging in the air and the rears had lost enough traction that they couldn’t push me forward on the skids, then winched myself forward the next foot or so until I could drop down onto my front tires again. Up till now I’d been making heavy use of my skids and especially my sliders but this was the most blatant use – there was simply no other way to get through. But hey, I expected as much going in and was prepared for it so it wasn’t a big deal, just annoying. It wasn’t the first and certainly wouldn’t be the last time I would be riding steel instead of tire on this trip.
The next really tight spot was about half way down Old Sluice where a tree grows in the middle of the trail making you pick a line around it and between some large boulders. There are several lines you can take but none of them presents a really good option for our rigs. Tyler tried option 1, going around the tree to the right then back left around the first boulder then right again past another but after several tries could not make it without risking heavy contact with the passenger side sheet metal. Eventually we backed him out and he went for option 2, the other way around the tree, passing it to the left then making a hard right down a drop. It wasn’t easy but we got him through. I ended up going the same route and again with heavy use of the under body armor got through as did Lutzi.
The end of Old Sluice is a series of tight tough obstacles and all of us had to use a winch at some point to get down but nobody broke anything, it was just slow going. Along the way we passed another group making repairs who we would meet up with in camp. One of them was in a very interesting buggy built on an old K5 Blazer chassis but equipped with lots of hydraulics. Later at camp I would see a demonstration of some of his build when he lowered he spare from a high position in the rear to lift the back of the truck off the ground then via a hydraulic motor he could spin the truck on just the fronts and the spare. Crazy stuff. Even better was when he wondered into our camp to check out the LR3 – it’s one thing to see radical built buggies on the Rubicon but a full bodied ‘street’ truck like the LR3 is a rare sight indeed! The Rubicon Springs staff also commented that though they had seen plenty of older Rovers this was the only time they’d seen a new one come through. Fitting, as I’m pretty sure this was the first full run of the trail by a late model (post ’05) Rover.
Back to where I left off- we had just come out of Old Sluice and the trail was easier as we headed north along the Rubicon River, crossing the famous steel bridge and nearing our destination for the evening at Rubicon Springs camp. One last squeeze remained but again we were able to tip-toe each truck through with no body contact. We finally made it to camp, had a brief dip in the river, then most of us promptly took a well-deserved nap before setting up camp and making dinner. Though the setting on the river was beautiful, I didn’t count on the pine trees raining sap down on everything. The next morning I could actually see it misting down like rain and every surface of the truck was covered in it. I spent about 15 minutes trying to clean the windshield enough that it wouldn’t attract every spec of dust on the trial. Ugh…next time I’ll have to remember to choose my spot more carefully.
Day three didn’t start quite as early. Although I was up at 5 again Tyler proved a bit more difficult to raise this morning so we didn’t get on the trail at the crack of dawn though still early enough. Today we had one last major obstacle to get past, Cadillac Hill. Wet, steep, long, and narrow it’s a significant climb. The day before Chuck’s winch had died so today we put him in the middle with Lutzi leading and me bringing up the rear. By now we were pretty confident in the LR3 and worst case I could always winch. About 2/3 of the way up Lutzi was spotting Tyler through a tight area, then I was able to clear it with relative ease. Feeling a bit cocky, not to mention a bit tired after 2 days on the trail, I got sloppy on the next obstacle. I had been out of the truck watching Tyler work though the spot then hopped back into my rig to try it. I crawled up and began spinning and instead of getting out to look at the situation or asking for a spot I decided to just bump it – wrong move. The reason I was spinning was my driver’s front pushing against about an 18” ledge so when I bumped it I just slammed the wheel hard into the ledge and immediately felt the steering let go. I ended up bending the tie rod nearly 90*. I wasn’t in a position to make the repair there so I winched uphill about 100’ to a wide spot where I could get people past me and change out the part with a spare I had on hand. No big deal, just a little time lost then we were back to climbing.
After the repair the rest of Cadillac hill passed fairly uneventfully and we eventually made our way out to the overlook for the traditional celebratory photos. Along the way we passed a Jeep who had passed us while I was making tie rod repairs now making his own steering fix. Such is life on the trail – nobody is safe from damage.
From the overlook out is mostly moderate trail with a few obstacles of note. Lutzi sprinted ahead of us as he had bent a track rod and wanted to get to the staging area to change it before we caught up. He did give us warning about a pair of boulders in the middle of the trail that looked like you could easily run over the middle but in fact were tougher than they appeared and the best line was hard to the left. We found them and while Tyler got through on the left line it actually proved easier to get the LR3 though over the boulders. After that one last obstacle gave the LR3 fits. Tyler cleared it with a little work but I needed a fair bit of rock stacking and several tries. While doing this an older couple on a pair of quads came up headed toward Rubicon Springs. They were new to the trail and had plans to run all the way to Loon Lake that day. Possible perhaps, but certainly not something I’d recommend as they had no camping equipment and apparently little other gear with them. We cautioned them against it, saying Rubicon Springs was a better bet for their first time on the trail and to think it through carefully from there, then we went our separate ways.
Nearly home free, we picked up the pace on the fire roads, crossing numerous patches of standing water from the snow run-off ranging from a few inches to perhaps 18” deep and from 10 to 50 feet in length. None of them presented any significant challenge, but the higher speeds did. At one point Tyler mis-judged a whoop and hit it at about 30 mph, catapulting everything in the truck to the roof (including Disco the dog who was along for the ride) and launching their cooler out of its rack above the spare. No damage done other than some time spent recovering all the drinks scattered over the trail.
Finally at the staging area we found Lutzi finishing up his track rod replacement and we each assessed the state of our trucks while airing back up. Both Discos had taken some light hits above the tail lights. Chuck’s exhaust was making all sorts of bad rattles and noises and his winch was down but otherwise he was running fine. Lutzi had a damaged tire which he swapped for his spare as well as the bent tie rod that he replaced but was also in good shape for the long drive back to his home in Pismo Beach. The LR3 was out of alignment from working on both front and rear suspension/steering on the trail and the exhaust was loose from being drug over rocks but also was running fine. Over all, a successful run with minimal damage. We drove on into Tahoma and I headed south on 89 toward highway 50 while the other guys headed north to I80.
So how did the LR3 do compared to the Discos?
It was an interesting comparison to be sure. The Disco guys were surprised at how well it did as well as the differences in its performance compared to their more traditional rigs. In some instances I actually had an easier time on a given obstacle than they did, usually due to a tighter turning radius or the lack of low hanging differentials letting me take different lines. In other situations they clearly had the advantage over me with superior approach and break-over angles and more articulation. All three of us were running on 33” tires, though I was on 18” wheels while they were on 16s. It was also interesting to note how the Discos moved around much more on their suspension than the LR3 which gave them a softer ride but with more head-toss and also tended to let their trucks lean more in off-camber situations. This is part of how I could get through some areas without making body contact when they did. They were also surprised at how well the Terrain Response system worked…sometimes. With their traditional lockers they tried to avoid wheel spin at all costs and would stop and engage lockers as soon as they spun. With the LR3 you have no manual control of the lockers and if it loses traction the best technique is general to maintain a smooth throttle input and let it slowly spin. In a rotation of two the traction control typically figures out what’s going on and managed to pull the truck through. However in severe situations I clearly would have benefited from a front locker as occasionally when it was heavily bound it simply wouldn’t turn the wheel with traction no matter what I did. The computers would also sometimes limit power despite having the DSC disabled. I suspect this is a self-preservation strategy to prevent axle or CV damage when bound up, though again an experienced driver would prefer the ability to override the electronic nannies to get through a particularly difficult spot.
Would I do it again? Frankly, no. At least not in the LR3. It was just too much work and too much worry about damaging things. The truck lacks adequate clearance at the rockers to be comfortable on the obstacles and you too often end up riding the skids or sliders. The 2 breakages I did encounter were avoidable; I believe the control arm was due to the poly bushings (and have already replaced them with RRS bushings) and the tie rod was clearly down to driver error. But it was entirely too stressful to really enjoy a beautiful trail. So while I’m glad I did it and proud to say I was the first to get a late model Rover though the full length of the Rubicon, the next time I go back it will be with my Range Rover Classic rolling on 35” tires.
Photo/video gallery:
https://goo.gl/photos/jWHxnecygy65o4ZV8
The Rubicon – that’s a name to inspire dreams! Unquestionably the most famous trail in the country and possibly the world, the Rubicon is on every off-roader’s bucket list. It’s certainly been on mine for a while now.
Talk to any old timer and they’ll tell you the Rubicon ain’t what it used to be. It’s been paved; it’s a highway; anybody can do it. While it is true the trail has been tamed from its gnarliest years it’s nothing to be taken lightly. It’s still a long, difficult trail that breaks dozens if not hundreds of rigs every year.
The trail is always changing. Traditionally it’s at its roughest early in the season, just after the winter storms have done their work and the snows have cleared but before hundreds of rigs have had a chance to stack rocks and clear obstacles. And of course before the Jeepers Jamboree comes to town in the summer and ‘paves’ the trail to ensure they can get a huge number of rigs through in short order. 2016 was the first big winter northern California has seen in a few years thanks to our drought and several Rubicon veterans reported it was in rougher than usual shape when we made our run the first weekend of June.
For a couple of years now I’ve been telling people I thought I could get my LR3 through the Rubicon but not having done the trail myself I was really only basing that on what other people told me. My confidence level was medium/high, but at the same time there was considerable apprehension. One person would tell you ‘sure, no problem, you can do it!’ but then you realize they’re driving a rock buggy on 37” tires. Another person says ‘no way – you’ve got to be crazy!’ but they’re running a nearly stock truck and have never tried anything harder than a fire road. The Rubicon is a very different trail to each of these guys, so what sort of trail would it be for me in an LR3?
I know LR3s have been on parts of the trail. Just last winter I took mine to the Wentworth Springs campground and a bit beyond with the NCLR winter run. And I know Scott, the former president of SCLR and another friend of his brought their LR3s to the Rubicon a few years ago but only made it to Buck Island Lake before turning around. Scott’s about as experienced as anybody pushing an LR3 in the rocks, so his story was the best information I had to go on. From what he reported, I felt like I could do it.
About my truck – it’s built a bit more than the typical LR3 but really not that heavily mod’ed. I run Johnson rods for a 2.5” lift. I’ve done the requisite moderate trimming to run 33” Cooper STT Pro tires on stock 18” wheels. I have an ARB front bumper w/Smittybuilt XRC9000 lb winch (BTW, I would not recommend this bumper for heavy duty use like this) and a custom built rear bumper done by buddy Pedram of NCLR. Most importantly, I have Tactical Rovers rock sliders as well as their gas tank and transfer case skids. Where I building it again from scratch I’d do some minor changes to my rear bumper design for more strength and I’d change the ARB front for a Tactical Rovers part but otherwise I’d make the same mods.
In the planning stages of this trip I knew all along I’d want to do it early in the season before the crowds came, and mid-week to avoid traffic jams. I also knew I wouldn’t want to try it alone so I’d want some experienced Rover friends along who also had the patience to put up with a slow-moving LR3. This all came together when Tyler Mobraten suggested an NCLR Rubicon trip late last year. I’d been talking about it long enough – time to shut up or put up…..I was in. With the mid-week timing not everybody was able to attend and in the end even Tyler himself didn’t have his truck ready so we ended up with me, running solo; Lutzi Haas in a Discovery II with his mother and nephew; and Chuck Mobraten with his sister sharing driving duties with Tyler also in a Disco 2.
Our plan was to meet at the campground on the north shore of Loon Lake then take a leisurely 3 days on the trail, overnighting at Buck Island Lake and Rubicon Springs. Lutzi and I arrived Sunday evening at Loon Lake and had a nice evening before turning in around 10:30. The Mobratens were coming up later in the night and had discussed possibly staying in a hotel about an hour from the camp and just meeting us early Monday morning, but about midnight I awoke to lights and noises of people moving around when Chuck pulled in directly behind my parked LR3 where I was sleeping in the back. Though we had planned to get on the trail early I assumed that with their late arrival the Mobratens would be sleeping in. To my surprise when I awoke at first light about 5AM I peeked out to see them already stirring. OK then – an early start after all! A quick breakfast, pack up camp, air down, and we were off to the trailhead.
We ran with Chuck and Tyler in the lead, me in the middle, and Lutzi bringing up the rear figuring if anybody was going to need assistance it would be me in the LR3. The trail starts out easy enough as the original gate keeper is gone but it was still pulse-quickening to cross onto the rock and actually get onto the famed Rubicon. Within the first mile we came upon a broken Chevy Blazer with an empty tent next to it. We assumed the driver had hiked back to Loon Lake since it was so close, but it still set the mind to wandering…
I won’t try to give a point by point run down of the trail. It’s far too long and after 3 days of non-stop obstacles it’s all a bit of a blur in my mind. The trail quickly enough goes from moderate to hard and just keeps coming at you. Once you start, you’ll drop into 1st gear and just stay there pretty much all the way through. Average speeds are somewhere in the 1 mph range, at least for our slow moving crew of moderately built trucks. The first couple hours were all pretty straight forward with no huge surprises, just the usual trail obstacles and some beautiful sights along the way. During one climb where we were out spotting each other a guy approached us on foot from behind asking if we would be able to lend a hand if needed – his 15 year old daughter was driving his Jeep and had gotten it sideways and tippy on the trail and he was setting up to winch her out of the spot. Though it wasn’t too bad, he wanted to be sure we were available just in case. We gladly helped him sort it out, then let the two Jeeps go on by us as they had hopes of running the entire length of the trail that day. We never saw them again and since they were from Iowa I doubt we ever will, but whether one day or two they apparently made it through OK.
Our first ‘highlight’ was well down the trail, I believe it was at the Soupbowl, with Chuck in the lead and Tyler riding with me when Chuck came on the radio asking for a spot – he was in a tight squeeze and had touched the driver’s side rear of the bodywork against the rock wall. Tyler and I were able to push him over enough that he could continue with only a small scratch. Now I was worried about how I was going to get a 4” wider rig through the same spot without damage but with some very careful spotting I made it without touching any bodywork.
After getting up Walker Hill we were approaching the first major option – Little Sluice. Lutzi decided to run it with Tyler spotting him while Chuck and I took the long by-pass on the north side. About this time we also heard from some of the Friends of the Rubicon on the radio. We were surprised that they would be on the same simplex frequency we were on but it turns out some of the NCLR members had been trying to reach us on the repeater. When they couldn’t get ahold of us the Friends heard and asked what channel we would be using, then contacted us directly. After that we would be in regular contact with them both on simplex and on the repeater as well as with several members of our club who were following our progress from ‘the real world’. This would later prove helpful indeed.
After a bit of a struggle Lutzi got through Little Sluice and we had lunch at the picnic table at the top of Thousand Dollar Hill. So far nobody had suffered any major difficulties or damage and things were going well, though it was hotter than expected and the mosquitoes were out in force. On down the hill to Mud Lake and our first significant water crossing. Though it was not that deep, perhaps 2’, it was enough to make route finding more difficult and of course you can’t see what’s below the surface so it’s always a bit risky and tricky picking your way through water. Luckily my companions had been here before and we could be confident that though there may be some unexpected rocks or ledges lurking in the depths there weren’t any deep holes that would swallow the trucks.
Onward and now back upwards, past Arnold’s Rock and we came to the second major option, Old Sluice. This time we all took the long bypass on the north side on the slabs. It should be noted that even the ‘bypass’ routes are not a cakewalk, with plenty of obstacles, tight squeezes, and tippy off-camber spots along the route. They’re not ‘easy’, they’re just easy by comparison to the alternative.
Down we go toward another tight squeeze in a notch, I believe near Egg Rock this time. Now with Tyler driving in the lead and Chuck riding with me we hear Tyler on the radio asking for a spot. Chuck gets him over one obstacle and is helping spot me though when Tyler catches his rear diff on a rock, pushes sideways, and gets the passenger rear quarter into the rocks. All hands on deck, we manage to get him free but not without a bit of sheet metal ‘arrangement’. Not bad, but enough for Chuck to give him a little grief over. Of course Chuck rarely needs much encouragement in this department anyway, so Tyler’s used to it by now. Again I was able to get the LR3 though the tight spot without any body contact (I did rub the plastic right rear fender flare here) largely because without low hanging differentials I could take a more favorable line in the squeeze. As Chuck was guiding me through here Tyler was back up the hill spotting Lutzi on the previous obstacle when we heard them on the radio saying Lutzi had cut a sidewall. Despite a pretty big hole, Lutzi was able to stuff enough plug in it to hold air so we were able to continue without changing the tire.
At the bottom of this section we came across a couple of Jeep TJs parked to the side of the trail. The Friends of the Rubicon had asked us to keep an eye out for them as they’d broken and hiked out for parts. We took a brief look around their camp and found they weren’t back yet but clearly they’d had a tough time – one Jeep had snapped his steering and the other had a busted axle strapped to his rear rack that he’d already changed out. We updated the Friends on where they were and pushed on toward our camp.
Somewhere along here I began noticing a squeaking like a tire was rubbing. Odd, as I don’t normally have that but I didn’t think much about it as I didn’t see or feel anything far off. Then as we approached Buck Island Lake it became worse and I found my right rear tire had shifted forward in the wheel well and was rubbing against my slider. Something was clearly bent or broken but we were nearly at camp so I let it go for the short distance remaining. Once we set up camp in the shade and on level ground I pulled the tire off and found I had broken the fwd upper control arm at the bushing eye. Last year in AZ I had the exact same failure on the opposite side. At that time I considered it a fluke; this time, with the failures being mirror image of each other I decided it may be due to the stiffer poly bushings I’m running causing extra stress on the joint. Regardless, I wasn’t going anywhere until I fixed it. I had a lot of spares along, but not a new control arm.
Remember how we were able to contact some of our fellow club members via the HAM repeater? Here’s where that comes in really handy. We were able to reach Graeme Ware of RoverWare on the SF Peninsula. He searched around but could not locate a new control arm in the area, however he was able to contact another NCLR member, Justin of British Recyclers in Rancho Cordova who did have a used control arm on hand. Justin hand-delivered this to yet another club member, Jason Fuller of Folsom. While Jason was willing and able to run the part in to us on the trail it would mean taking a day or more off work. This time the Friends of the Rubicon came through for us, with one of their people meeting Jason in Pollock Pines and bringing the part to their cabin at Spider Lake. We would then hike back up the trail to pick up the part there. The whole time we were able to keep in touch with everybody by way of the Rubicon repeater.
The part didn’t make it to Spider Lake until nearly midnight so instead of trying the hike in the dark we agreed to take off at first light. That night I went ahead and removed to broken part – not especially difficult even when working in less than ideal trail-side conditions – and at 4:30AM the next morning I was up and after a quick breakfast it was time to start the hike. Tyler, being young and energetic, for some odd reason agreed to make the hike with me. It took us somewhere around 90 minutes each way to hike back and retrieve the part but we made it back and had the truck back together by about 9AM.
Day 2 on the trail would prove to be the toughest. Right off the bat as you cross the dam at Buck Island Lake you start into a series of obstacles that require a good deal of work to clear. Lutzi decided to try one particularly steep climb up a smooth granite face but couldn’t quite get enough grip. Several tries resulted in lots of tire spin and climbing part way up only to slide back down. It was steep enough that when he slid down he didn’t land on his rear tires. He didn’t land on his rear bumper. He landed on his spare tire which bent the carrier. Oh well, better that than the door bending I guess. No big deal…it still works and he has an extra at home anyway. At this point we had a large group of Jeeps coming up behind us and knowing we are slow movers and since there was a wide spot here we let them by. Of course this took longer than expected so after 90 minutes or so we got them all down the trail and continued ourselves. More rocks. More ledges. More squeezes. And then…Big Sluice.
Two spots in particular in Big Sluice stand out in my memory. First, at the hairpin at the top we came to an obstacle that I simply could not drive over regardless of line. The LR3 just doesn’t have the break-over clearance to make it, so I took the only option available to me and used my armor the way it was built for. I eased the front tires over until they were both hanging in the air and the rears had lost enough traction that they couldn’t push me forward on the skids, then winched myself forward the next foot or so until I could drop down onto my front tires again. Up till now I’d been making heavy use of my skids and especially my sliders but this was the most blatant use – there was simply no other way to get through. But hey, I expected as much going in and was prepared for it so it wasn’t a big deal, just annoying. It wasn’t the first and certainly wouldn’t be the last time I would be riding steel instead of tire on this trip.
The next really tight spot was about half way down Old Sluice where a tree grows in the middle of the trail making you pick a line around it and between some large boulders. There are several lines you can take but none of them presents a really good option for our rigs. Tyler tried option 1, going around the tree to the right then back left around the first boulder then right again past another but after several tries could not make it without risking heavy contact with the passenger side sheet metal. Eventually we backed him out and he went for option 2, the other way around the tree, passing it to the left then making a hard right down a drop. It wasn’t easy but we got him through. I ended up going the same route and again with heavy use of the under body armor got through as did Lutzi.
The end of Old Sluice is a series of tight tough obstacles and all of us had to use a winch at some point to get down but nobody broke anything, it was just slow going. Along the way we passed another group making repairs who we would meet up with in camp. One of them was in a very interesting buggy built on an old K5 Blazer chassis but equipped with lots of hydraulics. Later at camp I would see a demonstration of some of his build when he lowered he spare from a high position in the rear to lift the back of the truck off the ground then via a hydraulic motor he could spin the truck on just the fronts and the spare. Crazy stuff. Even better was when he wondered into our camp to check out the LR3 – it’s one thing to see radical built buggies on the Rubicon but a full bodied ‘street’ truck like the LR3 is a rare sight indeed! The Rubicon Springs staff also commented that though they had seen plenty of older Rovers this was the only time they’d seen a new one come through. Fitting, as I’m pretty sure this was the first full run of the trail by a late model (post ’05) Rover.
Back to where I left off- we had just come out of Old Sluice and the trail was easier as we headed north along the Rubicon River, crossing the famous steel bridge and nearing our destination for the evening at Rubicon Springs camp. One last squeeze remained but again we were able to tip-toe each truck through with no body contact. We finally made it to camp, had a brief dip in the river, then most of us promptly took a well-deserved nap before setting up camp and making dinner. Though the setting on the river was beautiful, I didn’t count on the pine trees raining sap down on everything. The next morning I could actually see it misting down like rain and every surface of the truck was covered in it. I spent about 15 minutes trying to clean the windshield enough that it wouldn’t attract every spec of dust on the trial. Ugh…next time I’ll have to remember to choose my spot more carefully.
Day three didn’t start quite as early. Although I was up at 5 again Tyler proved a bit more difficult to raise this morning so we didn’t get on the trail at the crack of dawn though still early enough. Today we had one last major obstacle to get past, Cadillac Hill. Wet, steep, long, and narrow it’s a significant climb. The day before Chuck’s winch had died so today we put him in the middle with Lutzi leading and me bringing up the rear. By now we were pretty confident in the LR3 and worst case I could always winch. About 2/3 of the way up Lutzi was spotting Tyler through a tight area, then I was able to clear it with relative ease. Feeling a bit cocky, not to mention a bit tired after 2 days on the trail, I got sloppy on the next obstacle. I had been out of the truck watching Tyler work though the spot then hopped back into my rig to try it. I crawled up and began spinning and instead of getting out to look at the situation or asking for a spot I decided to just bump it – wrong move. The reason I was spinning was my driver’s front pushing against about an 18” ledge so when I bumped it I just slammed the wheel hard into the ledge and immediately felt the steering let go. I ended up bending the tie rod nearly 90*. I wasn’t in a position to make the repair there so I winched uphill about 100’ to a wide spot where I could get people past me and change out the part with a spare I had on hand. No big deal, just a little time lost then we were back to climbing.
After the repair the rest of Cadillac hill passed fairly uneventfully and we eventually made our way out to the overlook for the traditional celebratory photos. Along the way we passed a Jeep who had passed us while I was making tie rod repairs now making his own steering fix. Such is life on the trail – nobody is safe from damage.
From the overlook out is mostly moderate trail with a few obstacles of note. Lutzi sprinted ahead of us as he had bent a track rod and wanted to get to the staging area to change it before we caught up. He did give us warning about a pair of boulders in the middle of the trail that looked like you could easily run over the middle but in fact were tougher than they appeared and the best line was hard to the left. We found them and while Tyler got through on the left line it actually proved easier to get the LR3 though over the boulders. After that one last obstacle gave the LR3 fits. Tyler cleared it with a little work but I needed a fair bit of rock stacking and several tries. While doing this an older couple on a pair of quads came up headed toward Rubicon Springs. They were new to the trail and had plans to run all the way to Loon Lake that day. Possible perhaps, but certainly not something I’d recommend as they had no camping equipment and apparently little other gear with them. We cautioned them against it, saying Rubicon Springs was a better bet for their first time on the trail and to think it through carefully from there, then we went our separate ways.
Nearly home free, we picked up the pace on the fire roads, crossing numerous patches of standing water from the snow run-off ranging from a few inches to perhaps 18” deep and from 10 to 50 feet in length. None of them presented any significant challenge, but the higher speeds did. At one point Tyler mis-judged a whoop and hit it at about 30 mph, catapulting everything in the truck to the roof (including Disco the dog who was along for the ride) and launching their cooler out of its rack above the spare. No damage done other than some time spent recovering all the drinks scattered over the trail.
Finally at the staging area we found Lutzi finishing up his track rod replacement and we each assessed the state of our trucks while airing back up. Both Discos had taken some light hits above the tail lights. Chuck’s exhaust was making all sorts of bad rattles and noises and his winch was down but otherwise he was running fine. Lutzi had a damaged tire which he swapped for his spare as well as the bent tie rod that he replaced but was also in good shape for the long drive back to his home in Pismo Beach. The LR3 was out of alignment from working on both front and rear suspension/steering on the trail and the exhaust was loose from being drug over rocks but also was running fine. Over all, a successful run with minimal damage. We drove on into Tahoma and I headed south on 89 toward highway 50 while the other guys headed north to I80.
So how did the LR3 do compared to the Discos?
It was an interesting comparison to be sure. The Disco guys were surprised at how well it did as well as the differences in its performance compared to their more traditional rigs. In some instances I actually had an easier time on a given obstacle than they did, usually due to a tighter turning radius or the lack of low hanging differentials letting me take different lines. In other situations they clearly had the advantage over me with superior approach and break-over angles and more articulation. All three of us were running on 33” tires, though I was on 18” wheels while they were on 16s. It was also interesting to note how the Discos moved around much more on their suspension than the LR3 which gave them a softer ride but with more head-toss and also tended to let their trucks lean more in off-camber situations. This is part of how I could get through some areas without making body contact when they did. They were also surprised at how well the Terrain Response system worked…sometimes. With their traditional lockers they tried to avoid wheel spin at all costs and would stop and engage lockers as soon as they spun. With the LR3 you have no manual control of the lockers and if it loses traction the best technique is general to maintain a smooth throttle input and let it slowly spin. In a rotation of two the traction control typically figures out what’s going on and managed to pull the truck through. However in severe situations I clearly would have benefited from a front locker as occasionally when it was heavily bound it simply wouldn’t turn the wheel with traction no matter what I did. The computers would also sometimes limit power despite having the DSC disabled. I suspect this is a self-preservation strategy to prevent axle or CV damage when bound up, though again an experienced driver would prefer the ability to override the electronic nannies to get through a particularly difficult spot.
Would I do it again? Frankly, no. At least not in the LR3. It was just too much work and too much worry about damaging things. The truck lacks adequate clearance at the rockers to be comfortable on the obstacles and you too often end up riding the skids or sliders. The 2 breakages I did encounter were avoidable; I believe the control arm was due to the poly bushings (and have already replaced them with RRS bushings) and the tie rod was clearly down to driver error. But it was entirely too stressful to really enjoy a beautiful trail. So while I’m glad I did it and proud to say I was the first to get a late model Rover though the full length of the Rubicon, the next time I go back it will be with my Range Rover Classic rolling on 35” tires.
Photo/video gallery:
https://goo.gl/photos/jWHxnecygy65o4ZV8
