Jeep Celebrates 70-Year Love Affair With The Rubicon Trail

Off-Road /评论

A match made in heaven.

The Rubicon Trail has become so synonymous with Jeep that it's hard to think of a time when the name didn't invoke images of seven-slot grilles and beefy off-road tires. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of this relationship, Jeep and Jeep Jamboree USA again joined forces this past summer to celebrate such an inseparable relationship by embarking on the challenging trail with 450 enthusiasts and 125吉普牧马人sand Gladiators.

Although Jeep and Jeep Jamboree USA are two different entities, their stories are inextricably linked. Legendary Jeep enthusiast Mark Smith embarked on a fishing trip in the early 50s with some friends in his Willys Jeep and discovered what he considered heaven on earth. He fell so in love that in 1953, he and his friendsstarted the first Jeep Jamboree, which consisted of a trek across the Sierra on the Rubicon to Lake Tahoe in 55 Willys Jeeps. The very next year, Willys Motors got involved, and the two have been linked ever since.

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Located in northern California in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Rubicon Trail consists of 22 miles of some of the toughest off-road terrain on the planet. The yearly Rubicon Trail Jeep Jamboree covers 17.5 miles of that, where participants traverse rocky terrain with elevation changes of 5,400 feet to upwards of 7,000 feet.

The Rubicon Trail is the ultimate test for Jeep products and used to be the benchmark test for a Jeep to get the "Trail Rated" badge. That standard may have changed, but the Trail itself is still the ultimate test for Jeep owners and has been used by rivals to prove themselves fitto compete against the Wrangler.

"For more than 80 years, the Jeep brand community has defined the Jeep brand and, for 70 of those years, the Rubicon Trail has been heralded by the community as one of the toughest off-road trails in the world, which combined with its beauty has put the Rubicon Trail on every Jeep 4x4 customer's bucket list," said Jim Morrison, head of Jeep brand North America. "Conquering the Rubicon Trail is tangible proof that these Jeep vehicles can literally go anywhere and do anything."

Jeep Jeep

Throughout the video of the celebrations, you can see images of smiling faces, thick forests, and Jeeps as far as the eye can see. While Jeep Jamboree USA holds Jamborees throughout the country, this is the premier event and the most difficult. On the company's website, it says that any 4x4 Jeep with a 4-LO transfer case is allowed at a jamboree, but the Rubicon Trail event only allows Wranglers with skid plates and rock rails. The vehicle can be as modded as you like, but if it's too big, it will be turned away at the company's discretion.

We know these rules are for the protection of the participants as much as the protection of the history of the event, but we can't help but smile imagining a liftedJeep Renegade Trailhawk尽力跟上。这将是一个如果ght to see.

Jeep Jeep

There are Wranglers of all kinds in the video, some new and some old. As to be expected, many of them are the Rubicon trims, with Jeep taking a special moment to highlighta 20th Anniversary Rubicon 4xe. Fully kitted out with an integrated front winch, the driver espouses the wonders of being able to tackle the trail in full-electric mode, allowing him to talk to the camera without the noisy interruption of an engine.

It's a clever bit of marketing, as Jeep envisions a future filled with electric Jeep off-roaders. Unfortunately, it has some catching up to do, as the Rivian R1S recently became the firstproduction EV to conquer the trail. We imagine once the Jeep Recon arrives next year, it will put the Rubicon Trail dead in its sights to clap back.

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