Rubicon trip 6/2004

[crazy4mopar]

Well another trip to the Rubicon is history....
Everyone that went post up!
Overall it was fun , Except the Butt puckers when I almost went over 3 or 4 times:shiver:
Only Justin and myself showed up from our chapter. The SoCal guys are an interesting bunch and I'd be happy to wheel with them anytime.
As for me Friday was fun going from Loon to Spider, I had the pleasure of leading the gang It was like the blind leading the blind (GPS rule!). It was only my 3 time in and only the second time past spider lake.But we made it, Went swimming, BBQ'd and BS'd the night away.
It was a LONGGGGG Saturday, Way to many toyotas:soapbox:
I'll let Joe explain this one:anon:
Check this out:

 

[XJJPR]

WAY too ugly, now we have pics what is the story!

hinkley

 

[Mike L]

Yeah, inquiring minds want to know. One of the MANY reasons you saw so many Toys there was because it was their annual Rubithon: http://www.rubithon.com/

-Mike

 

[Gary E]

Ouch, how did that happen and how did the trail fix go? I assume you pulled the pan somehow sealed it and put it back on?

 

[Jes]

:shocked:
Man, that doesn't look good at all!

 

[ChuckD]

aHH, You were carrying a spare right. Just swap it out and get back moving down the trail.

 

[JeepFreak21]

That sucks that all the NorCal boys chickened out! :anon:
Where's the rest of the pics??
Billy

 

[Goatman]

Oh yeah, gotta get the rest of the story on that one. I can imagine that it would quickly turn into a looooong day!


:bawl:

 

[crazy4mopar]

In about 3 hrs he was back on the trail from rubi springs all the way out cadillac AND driving it back to SoCal!!

on 5 cylinders...

 

[TRNDRVR]

aHH, You were carrying a spare right. Just swap it out and get back moving down the trail.

I'd bet you a buck Rick Norman or DW Joe probably has a spare one of those when they're on the trail. Heck, when I wheeled with them, they had just about everything anybody needed that day for spare parts. I can't imagine how you got that out of the Rubicon. Do tell.
Dan.

 

[Goatman]

Well, if the rest of the motor isn't hurt, and the pan can be fixed, that cylinder's plug wire can be removed and it can be run on 5 cylinders. I'd like to hear the reast of the story on how it was patched together and why the rod blew. Thankfully, it went through the pan and not the block. :scared:

 

[crazy4mopar]

Joe submarined it, hydrolocked the motor, broke a conn. rod and shredded the oil pan. the oil pan was removed,I chopped a piece of my fender off to weld up the pan, locked the piston in place, put the pan back on, added oil and drove it out.

 

[JeepFreak21]

Well, if the rest of the motor isn't hurt, and the pan can be fixed, that cylinder's plug wire can be removed and it can be run on 5 cylinders. I'd like to hear the reast of the story on how it was patched together and why the rod blew. Thankfully, it went through the pan and not the block. :scared:

Do you just leave the injector plugged in at that cylinder?
Billy

 

[basalt51]

I chopped a piece of my fender off to weld up the pan

That was generous of you! why didn't you use a piece of his fender?

 

[crazy4mopar]

That was generous of you! why didn't you use a piece of his fender?

Mine is chopped up already, Plus mine was rubbing there :greensmok

 

[crazy4mopar]

Do you just leave the injector plugged in at that cylinder?
Billy

I don't know if he did...

 

[Big Red]

Sorry I missed you guys. I started the rubicon about 9 p.m. and the group I was with just got into camp between the slabs and the little sluice. We were waken up a few times as rigs came 15 feet or so from us. We slept behind some double logs on the side of the trail and a big bronco on 52" micheline tires came very close to us and scared us to death, we didn't know if we was going to go across the logs and on top of us with his big tires and rockwell 2-1/2 axles. His truck kept dying because of his carb so he had to keep starting it right as we tried to sleep. After 1 hour, he gave up finally. I kept asking people for you guys and was told I missed you by 45 minutes at Buck Island Lake. I got there at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and my group camped there and then went a little further up the trail before we returned to the camp and then headed back out of the trail the way we came in so, I think we did the trail 1-1/2 times in and back out Loon Lake. My jeep did awesome with the front arb and rear detroit, I got through middle sluice with just a little scrap on my driver door and a broken driver side tail light. I heard someone in the group fell off a ledge and smashed their tailgate? Who was it? It was quite the news, a guy in a Rusty's offroad shirt with a red 2 door cherokee camped at Buck Island told me. Dud you guys do Fordyce too? When did you finish the trail? The rubicon is everything I thought is was and more, I want to do it a few more times this summer.
Troy

 

[Kejtar]

Finally got home and we had a blast. Couple things: the 5cylinder XJ made it to about 60 miles away from home in SoCal till it grenaded. Our working theory is that the guys driving it didn't add oil as it was leaking out a hole in the pan (the rewelded stuff potentially cracked right up again the bolt when it got reattached). ANyways we will know more soon.

Another unfortunate casualty is MikeyL: As we were driving up the pass coming towards LA on S 5, his rig caught fire (about 90 miles from home). We are not 100% sure what caused it but it was located forward in the engine bay (there are few theories but nothing solid). Luckily it was spotted early and with 3 extinguishers we were able to put it out and it looks like damage is minimal (1 wire harness to the injectors, 1 fuel line and some little things from what I can remember). Btw, FYI cannot dispatch to GPS coordinates while FireDept can (go figure). In any case, right now Mike is on a flatbed probably nearing his home in Yorba Linda

Oh, another thing: I think that the SIerra folks have been hanging out with th Coorado folks fo too long as mostly they were no shows . On the other hand, the guys that showed up (FullTime Lee, Justin and Travis) were great. Btw, 2 of the rigs that showed up from SoCal (Dan's friends Joe and Jason) drove straight through the night to meet with us on the trail on Fri 9am!! (btw one rig had a freshly rebuilt engine and it was it's "virgin trip")

I'm uploding the pics from the digi cam right now onto my comp and might post them later on tonight (this morning??).

 

[Kejtar]

WOOHOO Pics are in
Btw, I still need to make adjustments to the album: there is at least 1 panoramic set that didn't get reassembled yet.

Remi aka Kejtar

 

[sintax]

I am beyond impressed. Sounds like it was quite an eventful trip. Some day when I get a tow rig I'll make it up there and join you guys for some fun. Lucky you guys caught that fire when you did, it could have really been bad. I guess thats one good reason to always travel in goups and carry large amounts of fire extinguishers. Awesome pics too.

-Scott