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TTORA Rubicon Run 7/9-14

16K views 153 replies 53 participants last post by  OFRD_GRL 
#1 · (Edited)
Just attended the annual TTORA rubicon run in which two FJ's were present. One was a lifted FJ owned by Toyota and driven by a Toyota testing guru w/ racing experience and the ARB rep. The other was a private guy lifted and fully armored up.
The private one snapped the lower rear control arm, bent an upper arm, blew a shock, smashed both rear tail lights, sustained MAJOR body damage all over, crushed the exhaust, dented the gas tank somehow, and blew up his rear end differential. Marlin Crawler and the Toyota driver assisted in the repairs and Marlin dragged him up Cadillac hill. The Toyota FJ did fair much better due to super driver experience but still managed to gernade the rear end as well on Cadillac Hill. Demello offroad assisted him by dragging him up the rest of the way.
Pics should be up on TTORA in a few days.

Update: pics here
http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40466

http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40406
 
#27 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

SickTaco said:
also there is no Fj v.s. tacoma pissing match here. I would give the nod to the FJ as a better 4-wheeler than a tacoma.
No worries, mate just trying to clear the air, it was rather tense the first couple of posts. its better we bring it forward to move on, you get a chance to say what you need to, and we can enjoy the stories and pictures. I'm impressed by the couple of Tacos that were lifted to the hilt climbing up those rocks.
 
#28 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

I heard that you can actually RENT rigs to go through the Rubicon in! Wow. Old Land Cruiser, old jeeps. Now, that would be a blast. Just too stressful taking a new rig into that and coming out bashed to pieces unless you are so wealthy it does not matter. Could you imagine the resale
 
#29 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

Ah man, that yellow rig was nice.
I have been trying to get a hold of AJ too without any luck on getting the same jerry can mounts the yellow rig had on it, as I want to put up a set when I get mine.

This is good info to know.
Although I will never take mine on the 'Con, but we do have some good trails here in WA. state, and I would like to look into beefier control arms since you mentioned they were pretty thin.

Here's a good pic of the yellow one that I had saved.

 
#30 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

Noisycow said:
I heard that you can actually RENT rigs to go through the Rubicon in! Wow. Old Land Cruiser, old jeeps. Now, that would be a blast. Just too stressful taking a new rig into that and coming out bashed to pieces unless you are so wealthy it does not matter. Could you imagine the resale
"holy insurance rates batman"
 
#31 · (Edited)
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

Corey said:
Ah man, that yellow rig was nice.
I have been trying to get a hold of AJ too without any luck on getting the same jerry can mounts the yellow rig had on it, as I want to put up a set when I get mine.

This is good info to know.
Although I will never take mine on the 'Con, but we do have some good trails here in WA. state, and I would like to look into beefier control arms since you mentioned they were pretty thin.

Here's a good pic of the yellow one that I had saved.


wait till someone posts pics of that passanger side. it will make you cry. Someone needs to integrate those ARB style side bars that mount from the bumper to the sliders for the front and rear. would have helped save some sheet metal.
oh and if you run larger tires than you have lift for, the tires will rip the inner sheet metal in the back fenders.
 
#32 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

I can reference an article about a stock YJ (older wrangler) given 31 inch tires that had no real troubles. A quote from that article:

We were less than 100 yards into the trail when we were quickly attacked by a Rubicon know-it-all gnome who seemed to materialize out of nowhere and decided we wanted a spotter. Thankfully, we ditched him before we felt the need to go hunting. Stock Jeeps on the trail attract unwanted spotters like flies on, uh, dead animals. So once we warded off all of the redundant spotters we found that our YJ with 31s and open diffs worked really well on the Rubicon.

The greatest line is the gnome. I think we might have a bit of gnomeness here as I can point out dozens of articles of stock vehicles making the trail with good judgment around bypasses. If you are a sadomasochistic type I'm sure you can grenade any vehicle but as the FJ stock is far superior than a stock open diffed YJ I will hold out my opinion until my own attempt later on.

Good day all. Please don't ignite me over this. I'm just referring to facts. :)
 
#34 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

oldawg said:
Rat...have you wheeled Moab in the FJ yet ? Hows you baby girl doing ?
She's great and the prettiest girl ever lol. Proud papa. Haven't accumulated enough vacation but will be down in mid-august. I'm so stoked to go with all of the new articles with FJs all over my favorite trails and obstacles. I'll post an exact date over the next week or so and everyone is welcome. Mini Toyota meet or something. Looking at some new property down there though.......Sure need a vacation place.
 
#36 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

MoabRat said:
I can reference an article about a stock YJ (older wrangler) given 31 inch tires that had no real troubles. A quote from that article:

We were less than 100 yards into the trail when we were quickly attacked by a Rubicon know-it-all gnome who seemed to materialize out of nowhere and decided we wanted a spotter. Thankfully, we ditched him before we felt the need to go hunting. Stock Jeeps on the trail attract unwanted spotters like flies on, uh, dead animals. So once we warded off all of the redundant spotters we found that our YJ with 31s and open diffs worked really well on the Rubicon.

The greatest line is the gnome. I think we might have a bit of gnomeness here as I can point out dozens of articles of stock vehicles making the trail with good judgment around bypasses. If you are a sadomasochistic type I'm sure you can grenade any vehicle but as the FJ stock is far superior than a stock open diffed YJ I will hold out my opinion until my own attempt later on.

Good day all. Please don't ignite me over this. I'm just referring to facts. :)
Exactly.

I had a similar situation when I went down there with my stock Taco...a jeeper comes up the hill and says..."how far you plannin to go with those little tires"...Well, I planned on going as far as my good judgement let me go. It just so happens that my good judgement had me turning around right there. :) But anyway, it always comes down to judgement. I would love to run the Rubicon for the scenery...I don't care about tackling the worst of the worst...I just want to make the trip in my own rig and see an amazing place!

Oh, and I would really really like to avoid the carnage that was bestowed upon the yellow FJ above. Ouch! My guess is that there was probably a bypass route that would have been a better idea.
 
#37 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

MissFJ said:
stolen from TTORA:

:eek:
Maybe he didn't want to scratch his armor :D
Well..... It looks like that BentUp rear bumper held up!

--Bill
 
#39 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

SickTaco said:
"...The control arms that snapped were .090 wall seamed tube....many others were just stupified by the undersized suspension links. They ended up sleeving the suspension link w/ a socket and welding angle.... Toyota dude also mentioned numerous failures of the FJ rear ring and pinion when it is pushed..
To me, these facts along with a supposed "grenaded rear end" are of more interest than anything else.
I can remember when purchasing one of the first '04 Yamaha Rhinos (weak cvs) how interested I was in learning the difference between how they marketed this somewhat groundbreaking machine vs the realites of an airborne 1700 lb. (w/passenger) glorified golf cart.

The problems above seem similiar to the fairly expensive beefed up shafts that probably should be a purchase priority on my Rhino. Sure would be nice if we could get some more info on the perceived inherent weaknesses in these basic parts or have these upcoming 'pictures' illustrate in detail the 3 or 4 problems discovered above.

Great post and can't thank you enough for the honest re-telling of what happened. I don't look at this as Toyota's fault any more than Yamaha's; it's just that I would rather spend my money fixing the basics first...then spend what's left over on everything that I can't afford anyways.:)
 
#42 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

Hanzo said:
is this some kind of alpha dog post, where tacos are better than FJ's. like whos got the bigger peepee? I sure hope no one in this forum is going to your forum to talk smack, its quite rude, after all we are all interested in the same things.

Yeah, that's all we do over at TTORA is bag on anybody that doesn't have a Taco! ;)

In all seriousness though, we are not just a 'Tacoma Site'. Granted, much of our memberbase consist of Tacomas, but the reason for that is that we originally started out as a Tacoma exclusive club. Now that our membership is open to all Toyota off-road vehicles, we have a variety of different Toyota models over at TTORA. If you ever decide to come to one of our events, you will see that we really don't care what you wheel...just as long as you wheel it! :D
 
#45 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

TACOZILLA said:
Yeah, that's all we do over at TTORA is bag on anybody that doesn't have a Taco! ;)

In all seriousness though, we are not just a 'Tacoma Site'. Granted, much of our memberbase consist of Tacomas, but the reason for that is that we originally started out as a Tacoma exclusive club. Now that our membership is open to all Toyota off-road vehicles, we have a variety of different Toyota models over at TTORA. If you ever decide to come to one of our events, you will see that we really don't care what you wheel...just as long as you wheel it! :D
:) I was over it about 3 hours ago, but thanks for stopping in and reassuring me, I mis took his tone for belittling, but he in fact cleared it up, so its all good. And I am registered over at TTORA, under the same name as here, and one of your members comes over here to give us good info on Jason Demello FJ stuff on a regular basis. Im just not over there alot because I belong to like 3 other forums, one of which Im a mod so I cant spend my entire day reading forums...I may get fired. :)
 
#47 ·
Re: So you think your FJ can wheel the Rubicon?

Thanks Taco Dudes. After checking the pics I commend both FJ Drivers for havin the big brass ones to attempt it. A little surprised Black FJ went in with stock Sliders and Rims, but at least it appears his sheetmetal is still intact.
TANX;
B
 
#51 ·
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