We just got back from a trip to the Rubicon Trail, Lake Tahoe, CA:

The trail took us two solid days covering Friday, July 15th and Saturday, July 16th. Our group of 8 rigs included three First Gen Xterras (one with a CALMINI solid axel conversion), a solid axel Frontier, another solid axel Toyota, a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, a Mazda B-Series truck, and myself, our 2005 Xterra Offroad. I was definitely the least built rig on the trail with only a factory rear locker, 2 inch suspension lift, 33 inch Xterrain tires, and front bumper and rocker panel skids by Shockworks.

First of all the trail is one of the most beautiful and easily the most challenging I’ve ever done. I required a lot of spotting and assistance (thanks to “Xterror” of Northern California). I’m glad we had the experience of doing the Rubicon with another Xterra owner who has completed the trial at number of times before and once just this year.

Doing the Rubicon in an IFS rig is a team effort. There is no way I could have done it without the help of the spotters and a few tugs or pushes from the team. We had a great group of folks, some young and some old, making the journey through the Rubicon even more enjoyable.

Body damage? Yes, mostly the fenders on the passenger side. The bulges make the new Xterra look a little beefier but that extra two inches of sheet metal just begs rocks to leap up from the trail and rub on them. The undercarriage… Oh man, I think the truck is five pounds lighter now with all the metal shavings I left on the Rubicon

My advice for anyone who wants to take a 2GENX of the Rubicon: More lift. Our mere two inches of lift caused a lot of undercarriage wear. Undercarriage wear included grinding the rear passenger shock mount down and bending it inwards. The muffler now has a couple small holes in it from being rubbed on the rocks. The rear sway bar mounds are useless now. I “tacoed” the drive shaft rear woke collar and dinged the rear differential more than a handful of times just due to the clearance issues.

Xterra reception on the trail? It’s a mixed bag, some appreciated seeing us take our family wagon on the trail; others thought the Rubicon was no place for a nearly stock Xterra. I would agree that our Xterra required some babying through the trail and that tends to slow things down. But broken rigs on the trail slow things down even more.

Anyways here are the photos: XSNOOPY LINKY

Enjoy