oh the Rubicon..... I can sum it up in 3 short words..... FAWK THAT TRAIL.

I broke 6 times on the trail, and had to fix it 7 different times. A trail that people do in 11 hours, took me over 30. Short wheel base is KING of the Con. Long wheel base may kick *** in Moab, it does not here. This is a trail for the ones who come up a little short :)

3 driveshafts, blew my front hub, sheered 2 leaf spring center pins, bent a rim, blew a front axle u-joint, and enough body damage to make John and Kyle say "damn".

When i said Bumblebee was going to run the con as her last trip, she definitely made it memorable.

This was the first time i couldn't drive home. 3 different groups of people helped me out, and one even offered his trailer to haul me the 600 miles back home. Pictures are coming next....

 

here are a couple from Mammoth Mountain



Then it was off to the Rubicon Trail. I was confident, i had extra shafts, tools, bolts, leafs, and even an extra driveshaft. That wasn't enough....

Here is how it began....

 

dam nice truck man. awesome build to. looking forward to (i guess?) seeing the pics.. might be sad to see it so beat up tho haha

 

then **** started to hit the fan....


I high centered and ripped the first driveshaft into 2 separate chunks....


This became a very common position for this trip....

Then i replaced it with my spare, and kept going...


then i found out i was only running in 3 wheel drive when i couldn't pull up on this rock....


So we pulled off the trail, and swapped in a slug i had bought a while ago from ZainyD and it worked like a charm. 2 breaks within 2 miles... Not looking to promising, but easy and quick fixes, so we were back on our way.

 

Right after Little Sluice is when it got REAL fun.... The center pin on my driver leaf spring sheered....




(Forgive the pics, we were more interested in fixing it and not blocking the trail)

After a new pin, removal of the overload and busted shim, recentering the leaf pack, lining the axle back up, and gettign the driveshaft back in (about an hour or so), we were back cruising the rocks again. By this time, i was done. 3 breaks in 1 day on 1 trail is enough. Although i was fed up, the groups i had met that helped me out told me it was easier to just keep going than turn around, so i listened (dumbass....)

 

Well, we finally made it to Buck Island Camp, where i met the guys from Extreme Offroad. These guys were awesome. They had everything you would ever need on the trail. A shower that made hot water, portable toilets, full breakfast, welder, grinders, press, drills, easy outs, ect. Other groups nicknamed them "The Machine Shop". We camped with them and headed out to finish the last 4 miles which included Big Sluice, Rubicon Springs, and Cadillac Hill the next morning.



(If you notice, my driveshaft is VERY close to a rock... I didn't see that until it was too late...)
1/2 mile out of camp, I highcentered again.... This time twisting my last driveshaft into a u/v shape...

We cut the bad section out, rewelded in some scrap tubing they had, and continued on.
(for those keeping track, this is the 4th time i broke. While we were in camp, i pulled the other overload to find that center pin bent all to hell too, so i replaced it with a spare)

 

I jumped in with this group, and they showed me the way until Rubicon Springs, where everything went well (for me at least)

Here are some shots coming down Big Sluice






As for others in the group... Here is there story...





These were the last pics we took from the trail. We "V'ed" my front rim coming through the mud hole at the springs where we took a sledge and beat it back "round" to hold the bead and limped the rest of the way out on a blown axle. Once i made it to pavement, i could only go 38 MPH, so it took another 1.5 hours to make it to our "hotel".

Some guys from San Diego offered to haul Bee back and let me follow them in their rig...

Here is Bee on the trailer. Beaten, Bruised, Broken, and ready to just kill over.


Here is the rig i was blessed to drive back home in.... Yes, it is the cover rig for JP Magaizine's November issue....


All in all, it was a shitty rock crawling experience. the people i was blessed to meet that helped will forever be remembered, and i know i have now made lifelong friends with a couple of them, but I have never broken so much in so little time (The trail is only 11.5 miles....)

Well, there ya'll go. Bee's last trip was a hellofa one....

 

Thanks brother. It has been a good rig, but now its time to hang its gloves up. Once it gets back to KY, its gettign the full teardown, and rebuild to a street queen again. Going to make it all pretty and throw a v8 in it and just enjoy it. Tired of destroying it.

 

Ah your crazy! But hey I guess you've been there done that so now it's time to move onto something else. No regrets tho right??

And awesome pictures man. Great quality, great angles, and great story. That rubicon trail looks insane to say the least.. Just to say your ranger made it thru it still rolling at the end is impressive as hell. Thanks for posting everything up so we can see!

 

Nice pics! That's quite the carnage... good thing you come to the trail prepared!

 

Looks like a hell of a fun time, besides the destruction.

Can't wait to see the Expo take on some sick trails

 

Sick! I want that truck!!

 

Nice pics !

 

Thanks guys. Yea, it was a rough trip. I guess Bee went out with a bang. I just got all the broken pieces/trash cleaned out of the ol gal, and am pulling the slug I had to install today so I can limp the truck down to the base to fix everything.

The trail is rough. Jeeps and short wheelbase rigs rule. All the long wheel base rigs I seen out there were breaking including the JK 4 doors, 4runners and Cherokees.

SGT Ex will be trailered every time after this experience.

 

Here are some pics after she is all rinsed off. Maybe not as bad as others, but way worse than i ever intended....




Yea... the bumper is bent....



here is some cab carnage. Nothing too bad



Then there is the bed.....

 

I'll still take it!!!

 

Your truck is a beast man. Next time I plan a trip to SD I'm gonna have to hit you up, maybe haul the Ranger down there for some fun. That looks like a freaking blast. Mine probably wouldn't last long out there though lol.

 

Thanks brother. Its going on a truck to be shipped back to KY on the 16th of this month

 

stop beating on my truck like that!

you don't know it yet but the shipper is gonna drop the truck off here in MS.

 

For your sake, i hope not

Remember, I manned a .50 Cal machine gun off the side of an aircraft while i was active duty.... and I'm a pretty damn good shot

 

I saw drop a 6bt in it and use that as your tow rig for the ex!

 

I would have gone 4BT if I were to do that, but I know nothing about diesels, so i decided to just stick with the 5.3/4L80E combo.

 

What do ya wanna know? 4bt is a one wire hook up motor. The sell all the adapters to make our ford sensors work. No need for electric fuel pumps but it helps. No need for computer anything. Fits nicely in there and can make 500ft/lbs easily at high 20s to a gallon

 

hmm..... I wish someone who was very familiar with them could help me out with installing one, because i would happily go that route, especially since the price of the motors are declining drastically.

 

nothing different than installing a 4 cylinder gasser with mechanical injection