Funny you should ask. I would say that there were many times that the locker was required. Sure, you could probably winch yourself over a few of 'em, but then an obstacle that might take 20 seconds to cross with a locker would take 5 minutes with a winch.

I'd guess we had the locker engaged for a fair number of obstacles, even the random unnamed ones. I can't imagine how much more frustrating it might have been to drive that trail with open diffs.

On the bright side, if you really want to check out the Rubicon, you could probably do a good weekend trip from Loon Lake to Little Sluice and back, or from Tahoe to Rubicon Springs and back. By doing this you basically skip the most heinous sections (Big Sluice!)

After we completed Cadillac Hill, I was thinking that if you're looking for a bit more of a challenge than Deer Valley, you could run from Tahoe to Rubicon Springs, camp out there, then head back. Cadillac Hill is easy to get down. Getting back up is the tough part. Even with the rear locked, we had to break out the winch cable.