Badlands Deep Snow Performance

bluebabybronc

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Ford Bronco Sport Badlands Deep Snow Performance IMG_6499

Hello, lifelong nerd here. Maybe you are too. In which case, you might be interested to know some experiential data on the performance of the vehicle in snow off road.

Took the new baby out to shoot some guns on BLM land on a -10F day. Lots of breaking trail through snow of various inclines and depths.

235/65/R17 AT3W with splash guards and no other mods that might alter performance

In this instance, I found she can do:

15 degree slope, 4in snow, Normal mode. No problem.

Flat. 9 inches of snow, 4WD, no problem.

8 degree incline. 12 inches of snow, Sand mode. Rear locked. A couple tries.

12 degree incline with 11 inches of snow on top of an already moderate uneven trail in sand mode. Rear locked. Took 2 tries. Very impressive.

Can’t do:

Push through a bank of (edit, typo) *over* a foot of snow (above tow hooks, about 16 inches) on a 7+ incline with chains on rear and all the 4x4 goodies enabled. Limited by clearance. Was able to back down just fine though.

Maybe this will help someone know the limitations. I’m going to lift it a bit and do some experimenting again.
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SnoopyBroncoSport

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Interesting. I wonder how winter tires would fare in this experiment.
 
AmazingSieve

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Mwittke5857 said:
I found out (the hard way) that my BB will shove through 4 foot of snow only so far. Thank goodness for AAA
Click to expand...
Cheapest tow out there. 10yrs ago I had a really unreliable car and whenever it broke down I’d renew my AAA membership and they’d head on out no questions asked.
 


Escape2Bronco

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Having silica in the compound plus the open tread design I think puts them on par with most snow tires. I'm sure those with softer compounds would be better depending on tread design.
 
Mwittke5857

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It's been really snowy here in Western NY this past week (3 foot a day almost), the roads are absolutely crapy and slick, I'm VERY happy with my BFGs thus far. Had I still been on my Continentals, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Prolly one of my better purchase decisions.
 
apholdefer

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The AT3Ws 245/70/17 (yes I trimmed the Pinch welds) in about 12" snow. I had to try out Sand Mode to do any drifting. Great Traction!
 
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OP

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apholdefer said:
The AT3Ws 245/70/17 (yes I trimmed the Pinch welds) in about 12" snow. I had to try out Sand Mode to do any drifting. Great Traction!
Click to expand...

245/70! Did you trim the pinch weld? I’m kidding :) Looks like a blast.

I use to endlessly drive around deep snow in wranglers on lonely weekend nights growing up. You’re bringing me back.

I just bought my new 235/65s. Didn’t go bigger because I wanted to keep the responsiveness and figured I could get most of the ground clearance I need with a lift, but I forgot to take into account the added traction that comes with width. My ideal vehicle is something between a rubicon and a wrx… which is like asking for a bulldozer that can zip down mountain bike trails :D. The sport does manage to get close to filling that niche though.

Hard decisions with tires for me. Did you notice a difference in acceleration with those?
 
NMhunter

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In my experience, narrow tires cut through mud and snow and get down to solid ground (assuming there is solid ground). Wide tires are great for sand & rock, and help to smooth out the ride. So far, my 235/65's Falkens have performed well in mud, snow, and on rock. When I replace them, I'll try to get another 1" of height, but I'm very happy with these tires. They've been getting good mileage on the road as well.
 


fsjdw2

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I did some deep stuff here in north Maine last week (photo thread on here). It performed admirably. Lightly modified wranglers got stuck befor me.
 
Jrl

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NMhunter said:
In my experience, narrow tires cut through mud and snow and get down to solid ground (assuming there is solid ground). Wide tires are great for sand & rock, and help to smooth out the ride. So far, my 235/65's Falkens have performed well in mud, snow, and on rock. When I replace them, I'll try to get another 1" of height, but I'm very happy with these tires. They've been getting good mileage on the road as well.
Click to expand...
I added 1 inch to my tire size 235/70/17 Goodyear wranglers 30.13 actual diameter.
 
BravoAlpha

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Awesome. I’ve had mine on a lot of snow and variety of slick stuff but not that deep yet. That’s really good.

I really like the AT3Ws.
 
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