Cruzer vs The Rubicon Trail

Today is the day I’ve been rebuilding my truck for. She’s a little on the heavy side cuz I’m carrying food and supplies for 5 people. Hoping to unload some of it when I meet up with the others.



Rubicon Trail here I come!!!!
The plan is to meet up with my buddies in Jeeps, I’ll be the lone Yota leading the pack and camp at the Loon Lake entrance. Hoping there’s some reception there so that I can post up with the iconic Rubicon Trail sign.

 

Feels great when you unload a ton of weight.

 

Hope you have fun and man I love that color on the gladiator

 

Man nice build!

 

Oh shit. Here we go. Good luck Cruz.

 

I'm sure you'll have a blast up there.

 

Those 40s on there?

 

What a hoot. Make sure to take plenty of pics and post them.

 

Tundra + Rubicon What could go wrong?
Best of luck Cruz, I'm sure you'll have fun

 

Yes sir they are.

 

Eat up those trails, Buddy!

 

You got a build thread? I’m debating on 35s or 37s but damn never thought about 40s

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/cruzers-re-build-for-the-rubicon.79505/

If you click a members name, you can see what threads they have created. Just for future reference. His build thread is awesome!!

Edit: go to the members profile page, info, and then threads by them

 

Have fun Cruz!!! We're all rooting for you!!!

 

Hey, Buddy. Is there no internet anywhere?! Hook us up with a progress report. Stay safe!

 

I’M ALIVE AND I MADE IT!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!

The Rubicon Trail is a lot more difficult than it looks on videos. It was nonstop rocks and obstacles. I’ll post s more detailed trip when I get home. I literally just aired up and found a signal.


Here’s a teaser of me at Big Sluice. Only line was to straddle the boulders and slide on the sliders. I do have to say that if you don’t have sliders that stick out, then you will get body damage. I was less than a 1/4” from hitting the boulder on this obstacle - sliders saved me.

 

I’m ready

 

Freaking sweet!!!!

 

Good job, Cruz! I’m excited for the stories!

 

Page 1

I've got so much info to dump and the has got a laundry list of things for me to do that I will not be able to write everything out in one sitting so this writeup will be multiple pages long. Buckle up and get your ready.

We left the Bay Area and met up with the last vehicle in Manteca. We got onto Hwy50 and headed east towards South Lake Tahoe where we hit the last gas station on Hwy50 to fill up before we would turn off towards Loon Lake. I was also carrying two 5 gallon Jerry cans of gas in case I or my friends needed any. Between all 4 vehicles there were 16 gallons of spare fuel. My truck was full and very heavy, which would end up making the truck quite thirsty on the trail.



After leaving the gas station it would take us just a little over an hour of winding roads and switchbacks to reach Loon Lake. At this time of the year all of the campgrounds in the area were closed for the season, which ironically would open up the following week, so we had to find our own. The Forest Service allows primitive camping anywhere near a road/trail except where there is signage stating otherwise or within 100' of a water source. We ended up camping at the Loon Lake staging area just below the Loon Lake damn where someone had previously camped and made a fire ring. We could have went straight into the Rubicon Trail but since one of the Jeeps came up from SoCal I wanted to make sure we all had a good night's rest.

We were near toilets.


And a shit ton of firewood.





From left to right the vehicles we had were:
Jeep JK Rubicon on 35s, Jeep TJ (with lunchbox lockers) on 33s, my tiny truck, and a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon on 35s


Next morning we packed up and hit the trail at around 8am. The trail is not really well marked so we were immediately confused on which way to go and it didn't help that I didn't download my Gaia map for offline use because satellite view would've been very helpful. Anyways, after a quick scout we made a sharp right up the granite hill and headed towards the Gatekeeper. EDIT: GPS was pretty squirrely and was just all over the place, couldn't get a good reading at times.



I was expecting for there to be snow on the ground still, which there were but at a higher elevation. I was also expecting mud but it turned out to be drier than expected. We got to the Gatekeeper and the realization that I would be passing the point of no return kicked in and I honestly felt intimidated and worried that my truck will really get banged up. This is what I see pulling up to the Gatekeeper.



I pull myself together and scout out my line. After walking it out I feel confident about getting through this first section.


There are a lot of tight sections, for a Tundra, that I would just end up calling "squeezies." This one looked like it at first but was able to pass through without issues.


The pics and videos do not give the rocks any justice. Take for example these 3 rocks, they are about 18" tall. With my truck's height and 40s I was able to drive or slide over them. The Jeeps however had to eat them up if they couldn't get around them. The Gladiator, with its long wheelbase, was scraping through.


When you pop out the other side of the Gatekeeper there is a nice sized ledge. I want to point out that trail maintenance was recently performed where worn out rutted/eroded sections where filled in with rocks that were helicoptered in. The Tundra made it look easy. The smaller Jeeps had no problems but the Gladiator scraped its rear end pretty hard.



You'll noticed that there is a yellow reflector. They are sparsely placed along the trail.


It took us 1:20 to get to the Bowl.


From up here we see on the other end of the Bowl 3 Jeeps coming from the other direction. So we decide to take a break to see which lines they take but they end up doing the same thing and post up.


When we got to the Stair Steps I was surprised to see how steep they were. My truck made it look easy but the little Jeep TJ was spinning its wheels trying to go up. You can see him spinning away in the background.


to be continued....

 

Has always been ony to do list, now at my age it's a bucket list thing ! Looks like sooooo much fun !!!

 

Page 2



We get passed the Stair Steps and make our way to Whale Bones. FYI, in between named obstacles are a possible variety/combination of rock gardens, squeezies, ledges, off camber shit, and un-named obstacles - you really don't get to relax. Before Whale Bone there is a squeezy I have to navigate. This is the first actual tight squeezy. Going through the squeeze was the best line. My gut told me to go up and over the driver side rock but I wanted to try going in between.

Here you can see the passenger side rock is about as tall as my 40s and it slopes inwards, towards the vehicle - which I didn't realize from the driver's seat.


Here the boulder ate my lunch.




Backed out and took the line my gut told me to take. At least I've got a story to tell


to be continued....

 

Was on my bucket list as well.

 

More of a tease than Anna Nicole

 

Soooo awesome @Cruzer !

Biting my nails waiting for the next page.

 

Page 3

After that squeeze you have to go through a mini rock garden to get to Whale Bone.


As I get to the bottom of Whale Bone I see that rocks were filled on the passenger side. After having previously driven over those trail maintenance rocks I know that they are loose and makes driving sketchy. This steep and slippery climb cambers off to the passenger side so I chose my line to stay towards the middle and avoid getting anywhere near that big ass lunch eating boulder.



Unfortunately, my friend didn't hit the record button so I do not have outside footage of me trying to climb. So the camera on my hood has this view, which doesn't look steep at all but this is where I found out that the 4Lo delete that I did with my HP Tuners did not work as I had hoped. I had the gas pedal all the way down and the truck could not get up the hill - felt like it wasn't even trying.



"4Lo Delete" what does that mean? The Tundra ECU is programmed to limit the amount of oxygen it sends into the engine when you are in 4Lo, by tying the percentage the gas pedal is depressed to the engine RPMs, to prevent you from revving hard, spinning your tires, and breaking shit. Below is an example of how the gas pedal and engine RPMs are mapped on an OEM ECU. At 100% (pedal to the metal) the engine will only go up to 825 RPMs. I thought I used the HP Tuner to eliminate that - guess I did something wrong



Anyways, after several attempts of bumping it I finally made it but was very pissed cuz I knew it would haunt me for the rest of this trip. I brought my HP Tuner with me but there's no signal out there - the HP Tuner requires internet connectivity in order to check the validity of your tuner before each use.

We continue on the rocky trail towards the Rock Garden. We find out that the Rock Garden had been filled in with maintenance rocks, which starts to make me feel cheated at this point because I'm not getting the full glory of the Con



With the ruts in place these slippery bastards would've been quite formidable. I just ride down the middle unscathed.


The small Jeeps get through fine but the Gladiator, the last vehicle, slips off the driver side rock and gets turtled. I had to get my floor jack out to lift the rear end in order to stack rocks under it - couldn't use a high lift jack as there was nothing solid for it to stand on. The steering tie rod was right up against that rock in front.


We head towards the Inter-Tie where the Wentworth Springs road entrance connects. These ledges I approach were interesting. Doesn't look like much. I drive straight through with the 2' stepped ledge on the driver side.


I climb up and I see 1.5 foot ledge on my driver with a taller angled up one on the passenger, with a dip behind it.


As I crest over I am now faced with a 3' ledge that I am approaching at an angle while coming down from the previous ledge. The best line to take was to square up with the ledge and go straight up it otherwise approaching that ledge at an angle would've gotten very tipsy. The Jeeps with their tight turning radius just went off to the right and climbed a shorter ledge.


Afterward the trail narrowed and we were back to water and rocks.




We finally get to the Inter-Tie. It took us 3 hours to get this far and my fuel gauge was already down to 2/3's full.


to be continued...

 

all very cool cruz

 

Page 4

After the Inter-Tie onto Ellis Creek Bridge and about a 1/4 mile before Walker Hill was the "smoothest" 1 mile section of the trail at that point. It was still rocky but it didn't have boulders or squeezes to contend with.



As we get closer to Walker Hill the water, rocks, and hills return. This next sequence is steep but doesn't look like it. The 2 door Jeeps, with their short wheelbase, were slipping, sliding, and spinning - I just walked right up it.








I seem to have missed out on footage of the actual Walker Hill. So after Walker Hill was a squeezy section. First approach was a little too close.


So I went wide on passenger


After more of the same rocks and stuff we finally get to the infamous Soup Bowl. An obstacle I've researched online for a long time and had figured out the line I should take.


This is what Soup Bowl looks like on the approach


The line I wanted to take was this, which would position my passenger slider on the part of the boulder that juts out on top and allow me to pivot towards passenger while my driver front tire catches the next ledge


I lined up as planned but this 2' tall part of the ledge + the 4Lo Delete problem wouldn't allow me to crawl up. I was pissed.
EDIT: I did not want to stack any rocks as it would have taken away some of the glory if I had completed it.


I didn't want to give up right away so I tried approaching the far left side. Which I was able to get up but could not cross over the right side where I needed to be.


Here you can see I was about 3-4' from where I should've been


I could tell some of my friends were worried that I would roll or break something so I backed off - didn't want to ruin everyone's fun.
The bypass around Soup Bowl is very slippery. The proper line for a Tundra is to straddle the opposite side of this hump.


Which will prevent you from sliding into the rock wall on the driver side


to be continued...