The Ice Cream Truck 2.0!
Posted: May 26, 2017 Filed under: Access, Maintenance | Tags: education, Rubicon Leave a commentYears ago, I think it was for a very early “Cantina for the ‘Con”, Matt & Shannon made an epic entrance with the ice cream truck music blaring and the truck (and ice cream) to back it up. Since then they have made many fundraisers for the Rubicon and other OHV causes.
Work has begun on the “Ice Cream Truck 2.0”. Although the previous truck was 4wd, it wasn’t really trail worthy. Truck 2.0 will be fully capable of traversing the Rubicon.
Matt & Shannon have always been there for our trails. Matt has sat on the Rubicon Trail Foundation (RTF) Board of Directors. Shannon is the current Friends of the Rubicon (FOTR) Trail Boss. Both have been volunteering for a long time.
Shannon & Matt in the back of the original Ice Cream Truck:
They are building this new truck on their own with help from friends and family. The proceeds from the sale of the ice cream goes to our trail, troops (Wheeling for the Wounded) or wherever they decide to donate. They do not keep the profits.
If you think you can help them out, they have created a “Go Fund Me” account, the link is below:
“Ice Cream Truck 2.0” Go Fund Me link
It’s efforts like this that keep our trails open and make the maintenance events a fun experience.
Thank you Matt & Shannon!
Rubicon Ronin
Rubicon Closure
Posted: May 21, 2017 Filed under: Access, Maintenance | Tags: education, snow, winter Leave a commentJust received from Vickie Sander of El Dorado County:
Sun, May 21 2017 2:35 PM
Condition exist on the Rubicon Trail that warrant closure. The monitoring protocols have been met. I am sending this to the ROC email list to get the information out as soon as possible and will post to the County website tomorrow. Loon Lake to the Intertie is not effected by this closure. With the upcoming holiday it is important that we get this information out.
My understanding is that this is a water running on the trail issue. With the warm temperatures, the excessive snow melt over runs the rolling dips and water bars. There are certain spots that get measured on a regular basis during the melt and it the water is deeper than allowed, motor vehicle traffic is temporarily suspended.
Hopefully these ‘trouble’ spots are documented and better features are placed on the trail to prevent future closures.
This only effects the Wentworth Springs section of the trail. I assume Airport Flat to the Ellis Creek (Loon Lake) intertie.
Vickie will email users when the conditions change and the trail is reopened.
Rubicon Ronin
New Spring Hangers
Posted: May 18, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentBack in 2009, when I bought my current CJ-7 trail rig, I noticed the U-bolt protection plates hanging down well below the axles. I thought I needed to get more clearance there before too long.
Well, seven years later, countless broken U-bolts later, I finally got rid of those low hanging hangers.
Thank you to Ruff Stuff for make a product I had been thinking about for years.
Spring Under U-Bolt Plates http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/R2198.html
The clearance is clear. The wood represents the leaf spring (sprung under). The old on the right, the new on the left. (It’s only a 1/4″ piece of steel under the spring. The block is to get the ‘springs’ at the same height for demonstration purposes.)
I have a problem that I can’t leave anything stock. I’m not always the one to come up with an idea but I can always figure out a way to make it better. So, in this case, I welded a thick washer in order to better protect the leaf spring bolt (actually the nut) from getting scraped or broken off.
Since I was relocating my anti-sway bar mounts, I had to fab up a new mount. This was an early version, the later version had two cross braces to prevent the bending of the plate. This involves a system to move the axle 1″ forward on the spring for better tire clearance with the back of the front fender.
I have these products on the rear axle of my CJ-7. I think I had to move the brake line mount because the U-bolts are spaced wider with this application. On the front, since this is made for 2 1/2″ spring, I had to install spaces to keep the springs aligned in the center of the bracket. The ‘seams’ of the new bracket were also welded for more strength.
On the front axle, the diff is off to the passenger side so I had to make room for the diff and cover. There was a little grinding of the front diff to get better clearance for the plate and the U-bolts.
Once making the clearance, I had to make braces to make up for my cuts in the original product. The results of my welding shows I’m a little out of practice.
Installed under the rig.
You can sort-of see the extra braces on the anti-sway bar mounts.
The heavy duty steering and tie rod went in at the same time. (see previous ‘knuckle’ post)
It has survived a mellow day of runs in the area. I’ll soon take it out for a true pre-season ruin. There’s still a ton of snow in the mountains so I have time to dial things in.
Rubicon Ronin
The 'Other' Rubicon 