Badlands vs. Heritage Limited for oversand (ground clearance? water fording?)

[Andi C]

Hi all,

I'm going to test drive a Bronco Sport Badlands in Cyber Orange in a couple of days. I need a car that can handle driving on sand in summer and in the city the rest of the year. I drive over dunes to get to my summer place -- no paved roads. But I also need something that makes sense in the city and on the highway, so the Badlands hits a sweet spot.

There are no trees at my place and the car will sit in the sun, so I'm looking at lighter colors with the painted roof. I don't want gray or white, would rather have something more fun. The Cyber Orange is cool but maybe people will try to hail me like a taxi in the city?

The Heritage Limited is great-looking, but expensive -- and I can't find anything about the ground clearance? That would be a deal breaker. I need the extra height to clear the hump between the sand ruts. My last car took a lot of hits to the undercarriage.

Also there is often flooding in the winter when I go check on the place so I need it to be able to handle some water. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Andi

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[GulfCoastBronco]

Heritage Limited is Badlands with white roof, grill, and a few minor cosmetic differences and basically every add on a Badlands can option. Ground clearance and specs will all be the same.

 

[Andi C]

Heritage Limited is Badlands with white roof, grill, and a few minor cosmetic differences and basically every add on a Badlands can option. Ground clearance and specs will all be the same.

Great news, thank you!

 

[69cuda340s]

My neighbor next street over has a Badlands Sport. They drive it onto the beach through deep sand no problem.

 

[RSH]

Because the Heritage limited comes with the 235/65R17 Falken Wildpeak tires standard, the ground clearance is 8.8 inches. Water-fording is 23.6 inches.

 

[Andi C]

Because the Heritage limited comes with the 235/65R17 Falken Wildpeak tires standard, the ground clearance is 8.8 inches. Water-fording is 23.6 inches.

Interesting, thanks!
Wondering about the Falken Wildpeak -- taking a car oversand you have to let the air out of your tires, which causes them to have more contact with the ground and prevents them from digging. I've noticed it helps to have thin tire walls that are able to "go flat" and go over sand more easily. I'm wondering if the heavy-duty tires make sense, especially with all the city/highway driving in the off-season. I'm guessing they're made more for rocky terrain.

 

[Andi C]

PS This is me learning to drive our little yellow Willys oversand when I was 9 years old. ;-)

 

[NEFKANO]

Not much sand where I drive... but I have driven on very sandy river beds with my OEM Pirelli Scorpion ATRs ( not the more aggressive Plus version) and they did just fine on rocky and sandy desert type terrain. I'll admit I was surprised and did not even air them down. I think once you've taken delivery of a BS you will be able to make your own determinations quite quickly.

I would not imagine overall clearance should be an issue on what I imagine is a sandy beach... meaning flatter than the rocky stuff I often contend with : )

 

[Andi C]

The sand roads out at our place get deep ruts, especially when it's hot and dry, and at the end of the summer after months of churning tires. We're in a National Park so we have to stick to the official oversand route. There's a hump in between the tire tracks, so you really do need the clearance. (First pic is of my mom driving same Willys, kicking up sand).

Turkeys in our road. You can see the hump -- it gets way worse than that. Every summer I have to get the bash plate of my Rav-4 re-attached. Finally I just gave up and left it off.

 

[Andi C]

Not much sand where I drive... but I have driven on very sandy river beds with my OEM Pirelli Scorpion ATRs ( not the more aggressive Plus version) and they did just fine on rocky and sandy desert type terrain. I'll admit I was surprised and did not even air them down. I think once you've taken delivery of a BS you will be able to make your own determinations quite quickly.

I would not imagine overall clearance should be an issue on what I imagine is a sandy beach... meaning flatter than the rocky stuff I often contend with : )

Beautiful car. Glad it gets you where you want to go!

 

[Jmuns]

If you air down you’ll be fine. I’ve driven in deep sand with 245/65/17 Toyo AT3 without airing down just fine. Plus you already know how to drive in the sand.

 

[RSH]

Interesting, thanks!
Wondering about the Falken Wildpeak -- taking a car oversand you have to let the air out of your tires, which causes them to have more contact with the ground and prevents them from digging. I've noticed it helps to have thin tire walls that are able to "go flat" and go over sand more easily. I'm wondering if the heavy-duty tires make sense, especially with all the city/highway driving in the off-season. I'm guessing they're made more for rocky terrain.

The Falken Wildpeaks Ford is using are not LT rated tires, meaning they are not necessarily a heavy duty tire. As far as sand driving, the BS will do fine as long as you know how to drive on sand.

I have a Badlands with a slightly different Falken tires (Rubitrek) that is 245/65R17 in size, they have much more city driving on them than offroad and they do fine.

Whatever BS you choose will handle more driving situations than most drivers are willing to try.

 

[Andi C]

This is all terrible news for my bank account because it's becoming very clear that I need that HL in Yellowstone ;-)

 

[Dude]

This might not apply to you depending on the water situation you will drive through: As stated in an earlier post, the Water Fording spec is 23.6". But just a warning that has been noted in other postings - there is an Engine Control Module that is going to be submerged. It’s a “sealed” module but others have found leaving submerged in water for “too long” can damage the module.

EDITED: 69cuda340s posted “At 17 inches of water the engine ECU mounted just forward of driver side front tire is 100 percent under water.”

I don’t know for how long the ECU can be submerged before damage to the ECU may occur.

 

[Andi C]

This might not apply to you depending on the water situation you will drive through: As stated in an earlier post, the Water Fording spec is 23.6". But just a warning that has been noted in other postings - there is an engine control module that is going to be submerged. It’s a “sealed” module but others have found leaving submerged in water for “too long” can damage the module. I don’t know at what depth and I don’t know for how long. I believe the module is mounted on the front (to the engine side of the front drivers side tire).

Thank you, good advice, I'll watch for that. It's mostly fording big deep puddles on the road in the winter -- usually no more than a foot or so, but it can be hard to gauge how deep they are before you drive through one.

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