IFS Doublecabs on the Rubicon??? You bet.

For the right price I would sell it, but it's not listed at the moment.

 

oh i was just wondering i swear i saw an add on rme for it.

 

285/70R17

And 3" OME suspension lift - I sorta figured that went without saying

 

slickrock is conventionally reckoned to be *mucho* easier than rubicon.

 

You'd be great, especially with the short wheelbase. That's the same tire size the other two guys had on their rigs, and they did awesome. I'd say your truck is plenty capable if you have the driving skill.

Is yours an auto or a manual?

 

As you say then, just a matter of racking up enough off-road experience. Not there yet either.

 

fwiw, we turned on our front lockers maybe twice for the trip. We would have been fine without them (except we would have been left with the weak stock spider gears). If a vendor sold aftermarket cromo replacement spider gears, we would have installed those instead of ARBs.

 

I see you have a 5 speed. The first time I ran the rubicon was in a standard cab 5-speed, but I had dual cases in it, which made a world of a difference. It's definitely trickier in a 5-speed with stock gearing in both the t-case and axles. Then factor in the larger tires and it gets even harder to crawl slow.

I'd recommend learning how to crawl with the clutch all the way out, then just use the throttle to keep it from stalling. A lot of noobs slip the clutch over and over with each rock or obstacle (and I don't blame them if they're new to wheeling). Don't do that, you'll just fry your clutch and get frustrated. Just let the clutch out in 1st in 4-lo, no throttle, then use the skinny pedal to keep it from dying when you get on a rock. I'm talking minimal RPM, like almost stalled but you saved it. To me, that means running at 500-700 rpm with zero throttle, then giving it a little gas to keep it from stalling (still keeping it under 1100-1300 or so when you get to an obstacle). Easier said than done, but it'll save your clutch and teach you how to crawl better.

If you get dual t-cases (which I wouldn't recommend unless you do a lot of crawling), it only gets cleaner and smoother and easier. With duals, you can let the clutch out without the gas pedal at all. I wish my current truck had duals and a 5-speed, but I don't crawl enough anymore to justify the cost.

 

I'm geared a little lower than stock at 4.88.

And yeah, I try and keep it all the way out when possible. I've been known to feather it a bit over obstacles tho.

 

You're truck is plenty capable enough for the Rubicon Trail. Just keep wheeling and getting the experience under our belt 'till you feel ready. You'll learn how your truck likes to climb and descend different things, and eventually the two of you will speak each others language and you'll know exactly what will happen before, during, and after each obstacle.

I guarantee everyone is a better wheeler at the end of the rubicon than when they started the trail. And that's not to say you have to be an expert to run the trail, plenty of noobs have done it. However, a seasoned driver will know which line to pick, when to compression brake vs use the pedal, when to bump it and when to crawl it. A seasoned driver will get your rig through without any scratches, body damage, or straps/winching.


Fortunately the trail gradually gets tougher and tougher (when you start at loon), so if you get in over your head, turn around and go back.

 

Good to know! Ill start there then, get some seat time before attempting the Rubicon!

Thanks man!

 

At some point earlier this spring some folks were agitating around doing hell hole jeep trail sometime - that might be a fun one to plan a tw run for sometime this summer too.

 

Awesome video, i am digging the soundtrack.

 

Thanks. Good music can make a boring video a lot more exciting to watch.

 

This looks FANTASTIC! I will have to come here one day. Ahh.. One day.

 

Living in Concord, you're under 3 hours away. I envy you.

 

i noticed the 35s seemed to roll over obsticles pretty easily, and the smallest anyone ever runs seems to be 33s. wonder if a fairly stock truck with 265/75/16 would have a lot of trouble... would definitely get sliders first

 

Not knowing your driving experience, I would strongly recommend against it. Can it be done? Sure, I'll bet somebody's done it once, but I'm guessing they were expert drivers. If you don't have sliders yet, I'm going to assume you don't have a ton of rock crawling experience, and this is not a good first trail. The Rubicon is a fantastic trail, but not a good trail to cut your teeth on rock crawling.

While you may be comfortable running it in your current condition, remember that breakage or failure impacts others who are using the trail. There are sections of the trail that if you break down, you stop traffic for people going both ways. That's not to say a breakage is always inconsiderate, but attempting a trail you're not prepared for is. My friend ran the Rubicon with us, and rolled his rig. It clogged traffic both ways for 3 hours. The rest of the people behind him were NOT happy.

Work your way up to it. I highly recommend you get this book and drive a handful of trails starting with the easiest, then working your way up to the Rubicon.

 

Wasn't planning on tackling the rubicon as my first trail, but definitely will be out exploring around the rubicon area on some easier trails first. Are there any easier trails in that area that you would recommend?

 

Nice vid!