TNF Stage Two Fire Restrictions
Posted: August 25, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: campfire, fire, welding Leave a commentThe Tahoe National Forest has implemented Stage two fire restrictions. For us, that means no welding.
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https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/tahoe/alerts/stage-2-fire-restrictions
Forest Order
Pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 551 and 36 C.F.R. § 261.50(a), and to provide for public safety and protect natural resources, the following acts are prohibited on National Forest System lands within or administered by the Tahoe National Forest. This Order is effective from August 22, 2025, through October 31, 2025.
1. Building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire, campfire, or stove fire, except within a charcoal grill or fire ring provided within a recreation site maintained by a campground host listed in Exhibit A. 36 C.F.R. § 261.52(a).
2. Smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, within a recreation site maintained by a campground host listed in Exhibit A, or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material. 36 C.F.R. § 261.52(d).
3. Operating an internal combustion engine off paved, gravel or dirt National Forest System roads and trails, except within the Prosser Pits Developed Off-Highway Vehicle Area and boats on a water surface. 36 C.F.R. § 261.52(g).
4. Welding, or operating an acetylene or other torch with open flame. 36 C.F.R. § 261.52(h).
Pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 261.50(e), the following persons are exempt from this Order:
1. Any Federal, State, or local officer, or member of an organized rescue or fire-fighting force in the performance of an official duty.
2. Persons with a valid California Campfire Permit are not exempt from the prohibitions listed above. However, persons with a valid California Campfire Permit may use a portable campfire ring/pit, stove, or lantern in an area at least three feet from any flammable materials provided that the portable campfire ring/pit, stove, or lantern only burns gas, kerosene, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel and has a with a shut-off valve.
3. Persons engaged in Forest Products Removal (fuelwood) are not exempt from the prohibitions listed above but may operate an internal combustion engine off National Forest System roads and trails only to the extent necessary to cut fuelwood, provided the cutting of fuelwood is done in compliance with daily fire danger project activity levels.
4. Persons with Forest Service Permit No. FS-7700-48 (Permit for Use of Roads, Trails, or Areas Restricted by Regulation or Order), specifically exempting them from this Order.
These prohibitions are in addition to the general prohibitions contained in 36 C.F.R. Part 261, Subpart A.
A violation of these prohibitions is punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 for an individual or $10,000 for an organization, or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both. 16 U.S.C. § 551 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 3559, 3571, and 3581.
Executed in Nevada City, California, this 20th day of August, 2025
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Be safe out there.
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Rubicon Ronin
A day on the trail…
Posted: August 5, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: explore, trails Leave a commentWhat a wonderful day on our trails. No tress to clear. No trail maintenance to do. No garbage to pick up.
Just me and my girlfriend on the trail enjoying life. And life doesn’t get any better.
So, the LTBMU found a way to drop the hazard tree they were worried about. But they left the rounds and the orange stanchions all over the staging area.
Liz and I headed up the Richardson Lake trail to the top of Sourdough Hill. We bumped into a few members of the Tahoe Donner 4-Wheelers. A wonderful lunch was had by all. I never get tired of that view.
Desolation Wilderness off to the left. Rockbound Lake. Rubicon Reservoir. Buck Island Lake.
Loon WAY off in the distance. Not shown but we could see Spider Lake and Hell Hole Reservoir.
At the top of Sourdough hill there is an antenna and the shed that goes with it. I’m wondering how I get that weather information and the camera fed.
Further up the Rubicon we stayed right on to Forest Road 03-04. Just a little way up, we turned right on to 03-04-12 toward Ellis Lake and Ellis Peak.
A short hike from Ellis Lake I found what reminded me of the “Lone Cypress” in Monterey.
Sarge made it to Ellis Peak!
Sarge looking down on Ellis Lake from Ellis Peak.
We took the buck Lake Trail down to the staging area.
It is steeper than it looks.
Get out and explore.
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Rubicon Ronin
Cooler upgrade: lift, axle, tires and wheels
Posted: August 1, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cooler, project Leave a commentSo, I got bored.
I’m involved with a few clubs, not all Rubicon related. Many gatherings are BYOB at someone’s house or outside at a local park. Rather than continue to carry a cooler full of beer, I mean soda, no, I mean beer. I picked up a rolling Igloo cooler from Facebook Marketplace.
Like almost everything else in my life, I can’t leave anything stock. So, how to upgrade an Igloo?
Let’s start with a tire/wheel upgrade. The stock wheels were only 3.5″ tall.
The new tires are 8″ tall. That’s more than twice the height of the original tires.
Now you can’t just slide on the new wheels, you have to upgrade the axle. What I did was like going to one-tons on a Suzuki Samuri.
I welded a 1/2″ all thread rod along side the original axle. You can see the really bad tack weld. (Let’s not talk about my poor welding skills.)
With larger wheels you need to lift the rig. In this case, you at least need to lift the front end to level the cooler. So, technically, it’s probably more of a leveling kit.
At this point, you’ve probably noticed that the wheels are no longer white. Although the white wheels matched, I need to take it a step further. I wanted to create a “cooler” cooler. What other way to upgrade a wheel than to make it “HOT”? So, I made a cool Hot Wheel, redline and all.
If I haven’t told the story, I have a toy Willys collection going, with more than 200 of them.
I think it turned out pretty good. but don’t look too close.
The first test it tonight.
The reno Ski and Recreation Club is gathering at a local park.
There’s already a ‘The Other Rubicon’ sticker onboard. A Hot Wheels sticker is on order.
It was a fun distraction from the real world for a few days.
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Rubicon Ronin
Accurate Speedometer…Finally
Posted: July 18, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: speedometer, yellow box Leave a commentFor those regular readers, you’re familiar with my recent trail Jeep saga. Transmission went out (violently) and that took out the engine. But I’m back on the road, I mean trail.
Since I bought this Jeep in August of 2019, a 2006 TJ Rubicon, the speedometer has read high, about ten percent. I figured I’d try to get the speedometer to read a little closer. The Jeep had stupid low mileage, less than 21k, and I wanted to keep it low.
I can’t remember what I looked into back then, but I ended up ordering a “Yellow Box” out of Australia. I must have realized that the Rubicon model has an electronic pick up for the speed sensor not a gear driven sensor. So, no simple gear swap.
So, I ordered it up in 2019 and read the directions. It required cutting into the speedometer wiring and splicing in the unit. Rather than doing this under the Jeep at the speedometer sensor, where it was susceptible to water, dirt, mud, etc., I wanted to trace the wires back to the engine compartment and splice it in there. But the wire loom coming into the engine compartment has like 100 wires!
I put the Yellow Box on the shelf and figured I’d get back to it. I didn’t.
Six years later, I blew up the engine and trans. I figured this would be the time to get the speedometer reading correctly.
Because I’m running an Nth Degree lift kit, my rear suspension is actually a three link. Yes, a three link. At the front there is one connection to the frame. It’s right in the way of the speedometer sensor.
But I pulled the sensor, spliced in the Yellow Box and replaced everything. I soldered the wires. I tightly wrapped the connections individually with electrical tape, twice. I took the time to do it right.
It didn’t work. For those of you that don’t know, I have an electronics background. I can still read a basic schematic. I can solder wires. I was frustrated. I took it all apart and everything seemed correct. I double checked all the wiring and put it back together. It still didn’t work.
Rereading the directions and their website, again and again, I came across this…”We can only provide a small amount of tech support time per customer, so please check your installation carefully!” I reached out anyway.
My email was titled “Help…I messed up.” I confessed to ordering their Yellow Box years ago but I swear I wired it correctly, and it still doesn’t work. At the time, the 2-wire unit was the only one available.
Jennifer at Yellow Box could not have been a better customer support person. She sent out more technical documents, photographs, updated installation instructions, troubleshooting steps, etc. Many emails were exchanged.
Nothing worked.
She volunteered to send out a plug-and-play unit. I knew that I had wired it correctly, but I used it anyway. And at this point, I had cut and soldered the wires between the sensor and the plug so many times that I ordered a new speedometer sensor.
So, new sensor, new wiring…still didn’t work.
She ran me through one last set of testing, and with my electronics background I was able to send her the details of my step-by-step testing. Still nothing.
It turns out the older 2-wire Yellow Box will not work with my Rubicon model. So, I returned the older box, bought six years ago, and Yellow Box sent me a brand-new current model. This model is much easier to configure once installed.
Success!
The latest Yellow Box could not be simpler to install and configure with the plug-n-play wiring harness. The instructions have thousands of settings to dial in your speedometer to the exact ratio you need to get an accurate speedometer.
I fully recommend Yellow Box for calibrating your Rubicon speedometer, or any speedometer for that matter. The 2006 Rubicon is an odd duck with an older computer but newer electronic speedometer pick-up. I looked into aftermarket ‘power chips’ that allow you to adjust many things on the stock computer. They would not work. I went to my local speedometer shop and he couldn’t do anything. I went to my local speed shop to reconfigure the computer, nope. I even asked at the Jeep dealership. No luck.
Yellow Box worked.
Customer service in America has been on the decline for years. Nobody seems to want to do their job, especially in the service industry. Yellow Box has the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Customer service in Australia lives on. Jennifer put in more time than she probably should have, and I very much appreciate that.
Thank you again, Jennifer!
For the record, Yellow Box has not asked me to do this. I was not compensated for this although I did get the ‘plug-n-play’ harness at no charge. This is an honest recommendation for an awesome product and company.
If your speedometer is off and you want it accurate, get in touch with Yellow Box…
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Rubicon Ronin
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For those 3-link non-believers…
Two regular arms off the axle. The diff skid plate actually has an arm that goes forward to the crossmember. There is a trackbar on the backside from the passenger side of the frame to the axle behind/above the diff. Nth Degree even installed new upper coil spring cups to relocate the top of the spring for the best possible angle for improved flex without binding.
Unfortunately, Nth Degree is no longer around. Replacement parts might be hard to find.
The 'Other' Rubicon 
Comments and Questions
Posted: August 16, 2025 | Author: Rubicon Ronin | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: comments, questions | Leave a commentOccasionally, I get a question about the Tahoe side of the Rubicon Trail. I’m happy to answer any questions that I can but the trouble is how to answer. I don’t mean the actual answer, I mean how do I get back to the individual who asked.
The email for the website is: TheOtherRubicon@Charter.net
If you email me, I can email back. If you leave a question using the comment button, I can’t really get back to you. If it’s something I think the OHV community will benefit from, I’ll make a whole new post answering the question.
The latest question/comment was about the level of difficulty of the side trails. Across the board, the side trails are going to be easier. The Hobbit Trail (Barker Meadow OHV Trail 16E76) is easier than Cadillac Hill because it doesn’t have the boulders to crawl over. But it’s challenging because it’s narrow and runs between trees and is NEVER straight. I took me years to finally run that trail without finding reverse. I felt that was a huge accomplishment. And on that run, I was pulling a trailer.
The only other real challenge on a side trail would be going up the Buck Lake Trail (14N40). The first section off the Rubicon to Buck Lake is pretty basic but keeps your attention. Just above the turn to the lake is a very steep, rocky climb. I suggest trying it going downhill first from Ellis Peak or Ellis Lake. Once you’re aware of the challenge, try it going up hill. This section has been such a problem for wheelers there is an anchor above that section if you need a little help getting up it.
As always, the picture doesn’t do the obstacle justice. It’s very short but tricky. Did I mention the steep drop off if you roll backwards too far?
A lot of the other comments I get are about certain trails being open. Check the opening dates on the Forest Service MVUMs. Most trails don’t have gates, so they open with the opening date. Unfortunately, gates have historically not opened on time. I try and keep people informed if that is the case.
Remember, the different forests can issue a later opening date for “natural surface roads” as The Eldorado did this summer. Again, I try and keep you informed. It is the users’ responsibility to know if trails are open or not.
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Rubicon Ronin