J1NX

Badlands
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Hello All,

I have had my 2022 Badlands for 17 months now and still love it. We recently completed a trip through Big Bend National Park. We stayed for 4 nights at 4 different backcountry campsites, so we did quite a bit of driving throughout the park. My vehicle is a stock Badlands with 235/65 Falken Wildpeaks.

I wasn't very concerned with getting to some of our campsites after playing around at a couple OHV parks here in North Texas prior to our trip. I consider my off road skills moderate at best, I had a Jeep Wrangler many years ago that I drove heavily off-road but haven't had any experience since. We went to Northwest OHV Park in Bridgeport and Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area prior to our trip where I quickly found myself in way over my head with no choice but to power on through. Power through it did, I was honestly shocked by the capability of this vehicle. The suspension on this beast is absolutely amazing, and if I could clear it, I could go up, over or through it. Clearance is the major (only?) limiting factor with this vehicle! If you can clear it, you will make it with ease as long as you can pick good lines. The maneuverability with its short wheelbase is a huge advantage, and the vehicle being narrow allows you to avoid *most* of the deep ruts that are left by the massive tires that most people have here in Texas. Where it struggles is when the road narrows and you have no choice but to ride in the ruts, needless to say I got a lot of use out of the skid plates underneath. This was worsened by the fact that my wife and I overpacked and we probably lost a couple of inches of ground clearance and even though the sounds were awful, the plates did their job and protected the underside from any damage.

One of our campsites was Telephone Canyon which is basically at the midpoint of Old Ore Road. We did end up driving the whole road from south to north. There are some really rough spots where you need to get out and plan your route meticulously, but once I had a line the BS never struggled. We were constantly coming across huge trucks, 4Runners, lifted Jeeps and some other full size Broncos. Nearly every vehicle we passed seemed surprised we were there and asked if we were struggling. I told everyone we came across that if I can make it, they shouldn't have any issues haha! The Badlands made me proud of its capability. I only wish there was a real way to give it the proper lift and tires it deserves

Prior to the trip I had considered taking a run at Black Gap Road but we decided against it. Honestly, if I didn't have my 6 year old with us and didn't have hundreds of pounds of extra weight dragging us down I would have went for it. Maybe next time...

Moral of the story - this vehicle is a beast!



Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands IMG_0149


Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands IMG_0122


Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands IMG_0120


Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands IMG_0118
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Tigger

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Nice write-up and great pics. Thatā€™s one helluva job on your first post!

Welcome to the forum and I look forward to reading/seeing your future adventures.
 

AmazingSieve

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Great write up and photos, sounds like the car did well. Iā€™m hoping to get mine up in the Eastern Sierra sometime soonā€¦not too high up the snowpack is still massive.

I agree about the clearance and truck trails. I noticed that as well. Itā€™s obvious the clearance on the Sport isnā€™t as high as it is in on a standard like 1500 so while driving on those roads and trails there is a lot of scarping going on due to like the raised middle under car untracked part.
 

Txsurfer13

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This is awesome, and timely. I'm planning a trip out there late this summer, then another in the fall.

I'm at the same clearance and same tires as you, so this is really useful information.

1) Do you have anything besides the factory skid plates? Any undercarriage damage?

2) I'm really curious about Black Gap - did you get an opportunity to have a look? Last time I drove that trail was ~25 years ago in an '89 Land Cruiser. I made it with no issues then, but I'm assuming the trail has changed. Also, my (below?) average abilities as an OH driver have gotten quite rusty since then, lol.

I remember only one real 'obstacle' being a fairly high ledge which was a bitch traveling in either direction. From what I've heard, that's mostly been nerfed by folks stacking rocks in front of it, but that source is less than reliable.

Regardless, great pics and an awesome writeup. Thanks!!
 

jofer

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Old ore road is awesome!! The way the sun lights up the rocks out at the telephone canyon campsites is amazing. It's by far my favorite trail in big bend! Here are a few photos from the other campsite at telephone canyon:

Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands PXL_20211105_211911291
Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands PXL_20211106_130750791
Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend in a Bronco Sport Badlands PXL_20211105_234817673
 


jofer

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I remember only one real 'obstacle' being a fairly high ledge which was a bitch traveling in either direction. From what I've heard, that's mostly been nerfed by folks stacking rocks in front of it, but that source is less than reliable.
"The step" is no big deal, but there's another set of exposed rocks with a dropoff on the side to the north of the step that are worse these days, i.m.o.

I posted a long write-up a year or so ago that has a description of black gap, if it helps: https://www.broncosportforum.com/forum/threads/long-trip-report-big-bend-national-park.4405/post-74603
 
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Txsurfer13

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"The step" is no big deal, but there's another set of exposed rocks with a dropoff on the side to the north of the step that are worse these days, i.m.o.

I posted a long write-up a year or so ago that has a description of black gap, if it helps: https://www.broncosportforum.com/forum/threads/long-trip-report-big-bend-national-park.4405/post-74603
Holy crap.... a well-written and annotated journal of pretty much the same trip I have planned, and in the same vehicle that I have!!

Thanks!
 

RogueRodney

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park. My vehicle is a stock Badlan
J1NX:

Excellent write up, and my observations exactly echo yours.

I had abit different route that I took on 4/21-4/24. I left McKinney Texas and headed East to Hot Springs Arkansas (the wildflowers were surprisingly beautiful). There I hit Hot Springs Off Road park with a guided tour by Melvin in his awesome Jeep Rubicon Cochise.

From my reading of the map/suggestions at Hot Springs Off Road Park, I figured that the Bronco Sport Badlands could only handle the 1-2 Star Routes. Melvin is an awesome offroader, but he didn't even look at the vehicles before we set out, and he took us on a 3 star (about mid-grade) route that from my reading the Bronco Sport likely couldn't handle.

Note: I believe Melvin said the trail was Snake rated at 3 Stars, here is a video (not mine, I have one from inside I'll try to post later (gf has it on her phone):

I didn't see the obstacle I reference below time mark 1:42 looks similar but doesn't seem to be as steep on the upswing as I remember and without as many rocks. But this is defintely the type of terrain we covered.


I was on the trail with a Toyota Tocoma that I think was stock and didn't have off-roading tires....

Melvin was not impressed with the Bronco Sport's capabilities, but it was clear that he was a devoted Off-Roader that travels widely and Off Roads in his $100K beast almost daily. He also talked about how well his Jeep drove at 100 mph, which anyone who has driven a jeep at 100 mph should find laughable...

What the Bronco Sport did on the trail in my opinion was nothing short of incredible and well outside of what it was marketed as (something to get you to a trail head) and this with someone that had never off-roaded before! (Admittedly Melvin as a spotter/guide greatly helped).

In fact, I think my Bronco Sport handled the obstacles it could clear far better than the Toyota Tocoma (keep in mind it was on street tires), especially on one section where we went down a 60-65 degree slope, through a creek/minor pond, where it looked like I was driving into the ground, and up a 60-65 degree rock slope that was wet. With sharp right turns on both the downslope and upslope. On the up slope, I heard the Taco's tires spinning (again it was on street tires). The Bronco Sport Badlands on my 235/65/R17 Falken's didn't even seem stressed, felt like it was laughing at the obstacle...

I'm going to introduce my ride in another post/thread, but wanted to pile on. The Bronco Sport Badlands is a great offroader, held back by it's clearance. My ride is a Badlands, with the 1.75" Ford Ranger Lifts Lift Kit (https://fordrangerlifts.com/shop/ols/products/bronco-sport-badlands-first-edition). And it is no where near tall enough for serious offroading by inexperienced off roaders, but that isn't what you likely bought it for and its not what it is marketed as.

Being inexperienced, I tried to take the same line as the Jeep/Taco and found I was scraping seriously. Which made me VERY THANKFUL that I had invested in the JCR Skid Plates and Rock Rails (Especially the Evap Plate) (the only JCR Skid I don't have is the Bash Plate because it doesn't work on the Badlands). As J1NX said, and Melvin Instructed, I ended up riding on the ridge between the tires and one of the berms and the Sport performed flawlessly once I started doing that.

Note: My Clearance is heavily impacted by the Rock Rails but the first solid thud that shakes the vehicle you will be thankful for them.... So I was carrying a few hundred pounts of gear in the trunk, then several hundred pounds of skid plates distributed across the bottom of the vehicle.

On that ride the above was likely the most aggressive obstacle but we also did a steep rock strewn slope and several other things that just amazed me.

Everyone on the trail teased me about how shinny my ride was (Only had about 3K miles on it at that time), but it handled everything on the tracks we did (admittedly we went back to the 1-2 star trails after some serious scraping as I think Melvin was worries he would rip my cars innards out).

Once back in the parking lot, I aired my tires back up, and went back out on the highway, where the Badlands performed incredibly driving at speeds around 85 mph on windy roads up to Mount Nebo where it crushed the steep twisty ascent... This vehicle drives great at high speed and has incredible passing capabilities.

There are some serious scrapes on my skids, so I would definitely suggest them especially given the clearance concerns that will become readily apparent on the trail.

Happy Trails Everyone and Thanks for Starting an Awesome thread!

RR
 
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Mark S.

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Thanks for the great report! A couple of thoughts:

What the Bronco Sport did on the trail in my opinion was nothing short of incredible and well outside of what it was marketed as (something to get you to a trail head) and this with someone that had never off-roaded before! (Admittedly Melvin as a spotter/guide greatly helped).
This is something that I don't think gets enough attention. The Bronco Sport's sophisticated 4WD system can in many cases give it the edge over more dedicated off-road vehicles when the drivers of both are inexperienced. Having a center diff, diff lockers on the axles, a granny gear, etc. doesn't do you much good if you don't know how and when to use them. Ford's system doesn't really require a great deal of knowledge, either of the system or what's needed to get from here to there in the dirt. It figures out what needs to be done to get the most traction in a given situation and simply does it for you.

Note: My Clearance is heavily impacted by the Rock Rails but the first solid thud that shakes the vehicle you will be thankful for them.... So I was carrying a few hundred pounts of gear in the trunk, then several hundred pounds of skid plates distributed across the bottom of the vehicle.
If you're gonna add weight, adding it to the bottom of the vehicle has the least effect on handling and roll-over resistance. I would say more weight on the bottom is and ADVANTAGE for off-roading.
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