Austin's Supercharged Mid Travel Build

That sucks, and I was going to order one...

 

Ask for a refund and mail them back a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil.

 

And you said it’s gauge 12 now? What’s that like 3/32 so half as thick of 3/16, that’s pretty lame and arguably not robust enough to take a big hit.

 

Interesting they already updated the website, calling out “gage 11” lol so 1/8” I mean it’s better than nothing, could weld on another 1/8” to beef it up.

 

That blows. I was able to snag a RAT one before he stopped making them. Cant say it gets much damage tho

 

Yeah, I was kinda of thinking that too, doesn’t see a lot of damage in that area, I might pull the trigger if it goes on sale for Labor Day and maybe just weld in some beef

 

I got one ~3 years ago and its 1/8.

I never noticed it was advertised as 3/16 lol.

Given the mounting scheme, similar to OEM which is bolted to the rear strap, you really can't use it as a proper skid plate anyway. its mostly just there to prevent a tank puncture imo.

 

Damn that's shitty. Just went out and measured mine, and yea 1/8" thick
I ordered mine 5/19 so I wonder when they changed it and made it thinner.

Although it's not 3/16" thick, it's at least a lot thicker than the stock one.

I never noticed that either.

that's a good point. Don't see it really being able to support the weight of the entire truck. At that point I'd imagine the tank would collapse from the topside due to the crossmember pushing into it.

 

My buddy dented his tank (too many beers) it dented up. His fuel gauge only floats from F to 1/2 tank now . He’s too cheap to fix it

 

Looks like it's always been a typo, but just like the other guys posted, I bought mine back when they first came out and included them powder coated.
.152 thickness so nope appears they have never been 3/16th thick.

 

I see all the damage in that area! My tank is almost even with the frame rail from being smashed and my frame is dented/bent right there. That spot seems to be the breakover point of my truck.

 

The better solution is to raise the tank in addition to the skid...

 

That's a good point, I never thought of that. I might be able to change up how the rear of the skid plate mounts by tying it into the frame and gas tank cross member.

 

I learned how to rebuilt CV's yesterday thanks to the @turbodb write up. Did the boot slide mod on both the inner and outer while I was in there. I wish I would've done this along time ago instead of replacing them through CVJ, it's pretty easy and saves a lot of coin.

Does anyone know the part number for the metal ring that protects the seal on the hub side of the CV? One of mine is pretty messed up and I'd like to replace it if possible.

 

Wrapped up skid plate building for the Rubicon today. My other skid plate is 1/8'' and this new one is 1/4''. I'll probably use my thinner one most of the time, but throw my 1/4''on for wheeling trips and such.

 

Sexy

 

The rubicon trip was a success! Ran the whole trail East to West without any body damage or breakage. With that said, I certainly went into the trail thinking it was going to be easier than it really was. My friends that've done the trail a bunch of times said I would make it through no problem, but it turns out the trail was in the worst shape they had seen it and I certainly had a few spots I struggled to get through.

While I'm glad I did it, I don't think I'll do it again until I have 35's. It seems that if I had just a tiny bit more tire and ground clearance about 90% of the hang-ups I had would've been avoided.


All ready to go at the trailhead:



I didn't take many pictures from day one of the trip as we were pushing quickly through the afternoon and night to make it to camp at Rubicon Springs. Working down Cadillac Hill in the dark was an interesting way to kick off the trip. That night a lightning and thunder storm rolled in right smack dab above us and kept us all awake for a good portion of the night, not to mention soaking those that were sleeping out on cots under the stars.

A little swimming hole in the Rubicon Springs area:



It's pretty weird to roll up to a nice manicured lawn at Rubicon Springs Campground out in the middle of nowhere.




Squeeze!



Over Rubicon River with the whole crew in one shot:



This is where things got difficult in the big sluce. The little taco made it up a little ways past the spot in this picture and then got entirely high centered on a large rock ledge. After highlifting and stacking rocks to no avail, the unimog pulled it up and over the ledge no problem.






A few more difficult sections above the big sluce:






Right before rolling into Buck Island Lake we came across this abandoned tacoma that had no business being on the trail and had the damage to show for it, including broken tie rods and a bunch of body damage.



After a full day of going nowhere fast, we made it to Buck Island Lake for night 2.



After setting up camp, some grub, and a jump in the lake, we called it a night around 9pm as we were all pretty exhausted from the lightning and thunder storm the night before. That night a bear came into camp to steal some bacon, burgers, marshmallows, oreos, and a snack bag from various vehicles. Thankfully all my stuff was secured well and didn't get touched.



Day 3 on the trail and straight into some awesome granite slabs.



While we were nowhere close to tipping, crawling across this super exposed off-camber hill got the adrenaline flowing a bit. This ended up being one of my favorite sections of the trail due to its unique features and amazing views.





Getting spotted through an awkward little zig zag:



The final push to the end:






And... we made it out alive. The stoke level was high.



My copilot for the trip.

 

Interesting to hear your experience, what tire size do you have? I’ve been on the fence about running the rubicon for a while now.

 

looks like a blast! Can't wait to run this trail someday.