Conventional wisdom says that anyone crazy enough to drive a fullsize through the Rubicon Trail deserves any accumulation of unwelcome carnage and/or mechanical quagmires they might experience along the way. For our group of seven seasoned trail veterans, one fearless quad rider, and a legendary truck fabricator, this posed a challenge. It was the kind of challenge worthy of its own television show. So with cameras rolling, we headed off across the granite slabs surrounding Loon Lake. We were out to prove that our Mega Titan could prevail over the crown jewel of all off-highway trails.
For those who don't know, the 'Con, as it's called, is better suited to Suzuki Samurais and CJ-5s. Yet, amidst a spectacular Sierra Nevada backdrop, our convoy crept deeper into the backcountry, further from civilization and everyday responsibility.
Our Mega Titan was borne from Top Truck Challenge. As a necessity to the event, it was intended to give judges and course-builders a prerunner and extraction tool for what some call the Olympics of four-wheeling. Often criticized for its excessive mass, many said the truck would never work in the real world. What better place to vindicate a larger-than-life vehicle than the Rubicon?
Shortly before hitting the trail, our group-minus one late-arriving Four Wheeler TV crew member-posed for a group photo. The mid-July weather was perfect. | 
Rubicon Express marketing director Scott Becker brought out his canoe-laden XJ for the adventure. The Rubicon is in Scott's backyard, so we let him lead the pack out of the gate. | 
Top Truck extraction expert Rodney Hill came along to lend a helping hand and teach a few of us new tricks about trail repairs. |
Some of you may remember our "Ultimate Unlimited" buildup (Aug. '06). Driver Edwin Sargenti and passenger Mark Train of Salinas, California, made even the steepest of ledges look like child's play in this point-and-shoot rig. The Jeep features a Rubicon Express long-arm kit and 37-inch BFG Krawlers mounted to Walker Evans bead-locked wheels. | 
Tony Becker of Four Wheeler TV caught up to our group within the first 15 minutes. Tony brought along cameraman Hilaire Brosio and sidekick snooper Theo. Tony's Jeep CJ is a marvel of eye candy on wheels. This rig was built by the 4xDoctor in Burbank, California, as part of a two-part television buildup. It features some of the coolest componentry available today. | 
Master fabricator Toby Lavender gladly paraded the Mega Titan through Little Sluice for our camera crew. It was quite a spectacle to see such a mammoth machine walking over 4-foot boulders with ease. Toby told us, "Wheeling a rig on 46-inch tires changes everything. What used to be impossible on 38s is practically a cakewalk on 46s." |
Here, our Mega Titan is shown in the hands of its creator tackling an obstacle known as "Soup Kitchen." No drama here, thanks in part to Detroit'ed Dynatrac 60s and 46-inch 'Claws on double-bead-locked Stazworks wheels. | 
Jerry Sparkman from Gilroy, California, was along for our trip, proving that even Jeeps with square headlights can conquer tough sections like "Soup Can Rock." Not shown here is the trailer Jerry hauled behind his '93 YJ to handle trash collection and evacuation duties. | 
Old Sluice Box (aka the True Big Sluice) is about as tight as they come. We wondered if the Mega Titan would even fit through this section where granite rock forces the trail down to about 7 1/2 feet in width. As you can see, it was a tight fit. |
Our project Teal-J, sporting a brand-new Teraflex suspension system, piloted by the author. It's shown here attempting the infamous "Little Sluice" boulder garden. Unfortunately, a damaged transmission pan prevented Teal-J from completing the obstacle. | 
Necessity breeds innovation: Teal's tranny pan was so badly mangled by Little Sluice's rock demons that the internal pickup couldn't even lift ATF from the pan anymore. This resulted in no forward or reverse gears. So we had to improvise, tack-welding a nut to the bent area of the pan and threading a long bolt/heavy socket arrangement to fashion a makeshift slide-hammer setup. Rodney Hill came up with the idea, and in the end it actually worked. A few slides with the large socket pulled the metal pan away from the transmission's valve body, enabling Teal to run on her own again. | |
A Memorable Time for All
Our Rubicon trip consisted of a wonderful group of friends brought together in honor of one special accomplishment: building the Mega Titan. However, it wasn't until a month and a half later that we all realized how precious the memories made on this particular outing actually were.
This photo, taken on the Rubicon, represents the last father-son outing for Four Wheeler friends Miles and Greg Boardman. Unfortunately, Greg was killed in a tragic auto accident on September 5, 2006. His father Miles, shown in the background, had always wanted to 'wheel the Rubicon. Greg, being the kind-hearted guy that he was, insisted that his father ride along in what was originally supposed to be his seat with Feature Editor Robin Stover in Project Teal-J. Greg was never one to miss a part of the action, so he simply brought along his quad and rode alongside our convoy, snapping pictures whenever an opportunity presented itself. Greg took this photo while the two rested near Loon Lake at the end of the trip.
Losing Greg was an unfortunate and significant blow to our industry, as his company-Desert Racing Concepts-was at the forefront of modifying trucks for outback adventures. His contributions were numerous, from Off-Road Magazine's project "Great White," to former Four Wheeler Tech Editor Craig Perronne's project "Heavy Metal" in Dirt Sports Magazine, to helping us out with the fiberglass bed sides for the project Mega Titan. Greg had a big heart and will be missed by many. He is survived by his wife Rebecca, who assured us at his memorial, "That Rubicon trip you guys took, he couldn't stop talking about it. He had the time of his life with you guys." We couldn't agree more.