Outdoor Adventure USA

Rubicon Trail

The Rubicon Trails is the stuff of legends. It is considered the Granddaddy of trails. If your vehicle has a weakness, it will find it. Any serious four-wheeler needs to "Do the Con" at least once.

The Rubicon trail runs more or less east & west across the High Sierra Nevada in Northern California. It is located west of Lake Tahoe and east of Sacramento. It can be run in either direction but traditionally is run west to east ending at Tahoma, CA on Highway 89. Traditional the Jeep Jamboree and the Jeepers Jamboree runs it west to east. But it can be run in either direction.

It is rated as a level 10 difficulty on a scale of 1-10 (10 being most difficult). It is an unmaintained county road in El Dorado County. It runs through the El Dorado National Forest. There are no permits required to access the road. However, toward the end of July each year El Dorado County issues a parade permit to the Jeepers Jamboree and the Jeep Jamboree with gives them exclusive use of the trail for about 2 weeks.
The difficult portion of the trail is about 12 miles long.

There is no guarantee of avoiding vehicle damage. Even the most skilled driver can succumb to the fatigue of 12 unrelenting miles of rocks. Just bring a good attitude and the best prepared vehicle you can. This could be a once in a lifetime trip but a life-long of bragging rights.

There are no services on the trail and you are on your own for vehicle repair, medical emergencies, food, and shelter.
It is estimate that we can do 1 mile per hour under best conditions.
Add at least the last two frequencies into your radio before the trip. Rubi and Rubi +

RUBI 444.9875 +5.00 PL 156.7 The Rubicon repeater located near Spider Lake, coverage on all of the Rubicon Trail except east of Barker Meadows OHV trail.
RUBI+ 444.9875 +5.00 PL107.2 Same as RUBI except that when using this PL it links to 805ELD and 805 TAH.

Product Spotlight

Actually, this will be 4 related product spotlights. These will be of interest to anyone thinking of putting together their own backup power system for camping or emergency use.

Earlier this year I picked up an UBCO 2x2 Adventure electric moped (perhaps the subject of a future product spotlight) -

https://www.ubcobikes.com/us/

I wanted a way to keep it charged on extended off grid camping trips as well as having power for ham radios, lights, and even an induction cooktop. There was also another, perhaps more important, motive to have additional power backup capability during our infamous California Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS).


WARNING - Do not leave battery connections exposed. These batteries can provide potentially lethal levels of electrical current and a fire hazard!

Dakota Lithium 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Batteries

https://dakotalithium.com/product/dakot ... r-battery/

When I was piecing together my system Dakota Lithium had the best prices on Lithium Ion 12V batteries in this capacity range. They offered a bulk discount as well. Currently, they are available for as low as $679 if you order a minimum of 10 batteries so the price gets more reasonable if you can combine an order with a few friends.

I've just been trying them out in my den for now. My original plan was to mount them in the Pinzgauer but I decided that is too big of an investment to leave them in the truck all the time and it would be difficult to use them for backup power in the house. I'm working on solutions so I can keep them in the house most of the time and put them in the Pinzgauer and Tacoma as needed.

So far, they have functioned fine. Using the Renogy 2000W inverter (below) I've charged the UBCO battery a couple of times using it's supplied 120V AC charger, run a test with the refrigerator in the kitchen and boiled water with an induction cooktop. The batteries will easily power the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.

Each battery is rated at 1280Wh and comes with a 10A charger. Together the 4 batteries provide 5.1kWh of stored power. The 10A charger is very slow to charge the 4 batteries in parallel. Doing quick math it will take about 40 hours to completely charge the batteries. After charging the 3.1kWh UBCO battery it took a couple of days to fully recharge the Dakota batteries. Due to my time of use electric rate plan I don't charge between 4:00PM and 9:00PM. This works for now but eventually I want to use solar charging on the batteries at home and for camping. I have 4 800W solar panels and a 60A charge controllerI have yet to try out (another potential product spotlight).


Battery Cables USA


I was deciding between getting the equipment to make my own battery cables or get custom made battery cables on-line. After some Internet searching I found Battery Cables USA -

https://www.batterycablesusa.com

They make up custom battery cables at reasonable prices. They provided the cables between the batteries and the negative cable leading to the current monitoring shunt. They also provided some additional cables that will be used to connect up the solar charge controller.

There isn't too much to say about these other than they appear to be high quality cables and came exactly as ordered in about a week.


Renogy 2000W Full Sign Wave Inverter


Looking at my potential uses for this system I decided that a 2000W inverter would be sufficient for my purposes and it physically fits in the location where I planned to mount it in the Pinzgauer. The UBCO charger takes 6A at 120V (720W), the kitchen refrigerator is 240W (plus startup current), and the induction cooktop is 1800W at full power.


https://www.renogy.com/2000w-12v-pure-s ... -inverter/


So far the inverter has worked fine with everything I've plugged into it with no audible AC hum or other signs on the electronic devices or flicker with incandescent or LED lights.

The only negative thing I've noticed is that the cooling fans are rather loud when drawing a heavy load such as the induction cooktop but that is not uncommon for any high power electronic device.



Renogy 500A Battery Monitor


https://www.renogy.com/500a-battery-monitor/


To keep track of the battery level and power consumption or charge level I included a Renogy 500A battery monitor with a 500A shunt. The unit is programmable to match the capacity of your batteries. The basic functionality is show below -





The shunt is a low ohm resistor that enables the electronic circuit to determine the amount of current going into or out of the battery. All of the current passes through the shunt and Ohm's law is used to determine the level (I=V/R).

Maps of the trail - Overview and Detail

The red is the 12 hard miles of the Rubicon trail. The Yellow is Hwy 50 from South Lake Tahoe to Ice House Road

The trail has a south gate keeper and a north gate keeper section.


Some Other Maps you may wish to acquire

AAA Mother load
AAA Central CA
Eldorado National Forest Service Map (order from the National Forest Store P.O. Box 8268, Missoula, MT 59807 or by phone : 406-329-3024)
Rick Russel’s Rubicon Trail Map http://www.sidekickoffroad.com/maps.htm


Getting There

About 440 miles from LA : two options

i. I-5 to 99, to 50
b. 405 North to 14 North to 395 North, to NV207 (near Minden, NV) and take the Kingsbury Grade to South Lake Tahoe.

If you have to drive through the central valley without doors and /or without Air conditioning, plan to leave at night due to the high heat.


Brief History

Native American tribes used the trail as a trading route, taking goodies from the Sacramento Valley to Tahoe and shells and valuables from Tahoe to the Valley area.

Cattlemen began using the trail during the gold rush and cattle days of California, pushing cows from the valley to Tahoe

In 1886 Rubicon (Soda) Springs was in full gear and the new owner, Mrs. Sierra Nevada Phillips Clark got El Dorado County to make the trail from McKinney’s over Burton’s Pass to the Rubicon a one-way road.

In the 1920’s the Studebaker crowd was flocking into the trail, headed to the resort, driving through what we now call Little Sluice with little or no effort. The mineral water from the springs were a “cure-all elixir” in those days.

1952 was an earmark year when several residents of Georgetown held a meeting to discuss the possibility of an organized Jeep tour from Georgetown to Lake Tahoe, via the Rubicon Trail. So on August 29, 1953, 55 Jeeps with 155 enthusiastic Participants left Georgetown on a two-day trip that is now known as Jeepers Jamboree.

Scenic High Sierra

Camp Sites

The trail runs through Eldorado National forest, Private Property and right over the border of Tahoe National Forest along Cadillac hill.
When camping at Buck Island we are required to park the vehicle within 25 feet of the center line of the road. Tents can be pitched at any distance into the woods.

Some camping spots:
Ellis Creek
Little Sluice
Little Sluice slab area
Buck Island
Rubicon Soda Springs (private & a fee)
Observation point area at top of Cadillac

In addition, there are many small pull out areas that will accommodate a small group (2-3).

The Jamboree does the segment to Rubicon Soda Springs the first days. May stay another day and pushes up Cadillac hill and out in one day.

Buck island is a favorite designation the first day with some camp sites right on the lake. These are too small for a large group.

Trail Pictures

Caldor Fire

Started Saturday August 14th, 2021 approx. 07:00 PM. This was about a day and half before we started on the Rubicon Trail. It was a small fire and over 26 miles from the trial with lots of granite slab between us.

Started 4 miles South of Grizzly Flats which is 10 miles from Ice House Road and US50.

216,646 Acres
49% contained as of 9-9-21
Fire fighters 4,723

Damage

This was our major problem. A new Anti-sway bar set up punctured both front tires the first day. We used a spare from another JK as the second spare tire.
2021 - Not in our Group

This happened the first night we were on the trail near Arnold's rock. When we arrived there on Day 2, the trail was completely blocked.
This is the same group who backed off the Clift. By Day three, they had both vehicles running and were in a hurry to pass us. So we let them.
Now they blocked us again.

From 2020 - Helping Other

This is just on the other side of the little sluice. The track bar bracket pulled a chunk of metal out of the frame.

From 2020 - Helping Ourselves
One of vehicles in our group broke the right lower rear control arm.

Please check-in -

John - KN6VL

Bruce - KD6GCO

Looks like a great write up!

On line check-in for Rick, KK6CTT for the 09/09/21 net. Thank you!