Took my Badlands on the trails and found its limits (...unintentionally)

[Winds of Change]

I just came across these also

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[Mark S.]

I am considering Land between the lakes or The MarknTwain National Forest. These have more forest road options i believe.

Both of those are close to me. Let me know when you decide to go.

 

[AmazingSieve]

And I got a better photo of my car being stuck in the mud. Those tow hooks came in handy there.

See that nice patch of grass to the right in the photo? Thats where I wanted to go...but was directed back into that line and of course got stuck.

 

[Winds of Change]

They maybe didn't have you go to the grass so as to stay on the trail. That's how trails get made bigger than the are meant to be. It damaging to the environment. Tread Lightly is a popular off road campaign.

 

[sciurus]

I looked this area up on Trails Offroad. They rate the loop as easy except for the top section, Espinosa Trail. That gets a "difficult" rating and is summarized as

a moderate-rated trail with some rocks up to 1' in height, but Waypoint #4 garners a rating of 5 due to the number of rocks and difficulty at navigating the off-camber area without sustaining some body damage.

Sounds like you made the right call by turning around.

 

[AmazingSieve]

I look this area up on Trails Offroad. They rate the loop as easy except for the top section, Espinosa Trail. That gets a difficult rating and is summarized as



Sounds like you made the right call by turning around.

Funny you mention that. The family friend ended up going back to that trail and completing it last week but while doing that ended up bashing the shit out of their rear passenger door on a tree. As that summary describes, he slipped into an off camber rut and slid into a tree and as we all know tree beats car.

I will head back to that trail though, it really was ok and the slick rock portion was fun. As for my car, turns out it came out unscathed except for needing a new tire. It looks like my front left tire the bead went bad I guess. All in all not too bad. I was pretty happy to hear the underbody was fine.

 

[Goinbroke2]

Great story, love seeing others out actually off roading too. I’ve posted some pictures in the “snorkel” thread, but we’ve been above the front bumper in water/mud and got the camera wet!

 

[Goinbroke2]

Another hole washes it off!

 

[Goinbroke2]

If anyone has Facebook, one of my cousins already has a quick clip up.

 

[Goinbroke2]

Nope videos won’t load.

 

[Winds of Change]

Be careful in the muddy water. From what I've heard with the 6G it isn't so much the water that kills the alternator, it seems to be when it's thicker water and the mud kills it.

 

[Goinbroke2]

Be careful in the muddy water. From what I've heard with the 6G it isn't so much the water that kills the alternator, it seems to be when it's thicker water and the mud kills it.

Yeah I’m thinking of giving it a full inspection now that we’re home. Wife took it to work today so all it got was a car wash on the way home. 5hrs there, two days of mud, drove 5hrs home.
No issues.

 

[ScareCrow]

A family friend has a Big Bronco Badlands Sasquatch and offered to take us out on some nearby trails. I thought hey that'd be fun. The intention was to take me on some moderate trails while they lead. What I didn't really know was that this person has never been on this trail before and that they were using the Bronco App which proved to be unreliable.

The trail started out smoothly enough but as time progressed it got harder, steeper, more rocky, more rutted and got to the point where my car absolutely could not go further. I watched this person in their kitted out Big Bronco slide into rut on an uphill pitch, with rocks I knew I would get stuck on and there was just no way. The person was convinced we were near the end of the trail and I was convinced I was going to break my car trying to get over that climb and most likely get stuck. Baby bronco is a great car but it only has 8.8in of clearance and if a Big Bronco on 35 is looking like its having fun on an off-camber uphill pitch....just sometimes you have to draw the line and head back.

So we did. I was firm that was it. What that meant was that we had to go all the way back the way we just came, literally have to spend hours backtracking to get out. But I was ok with that, I knew what we were going to drive, we had done it earlier and I knew it wouldn't break my car. It also meant going back over the bog I got stuck in on the way out, which again I was ok with, because I didn't take the line I wanted to the first time and was very confident (and correctly so apparently) that on the way back I would take it and be fine. I was.

We ended up spending 7hrs and over 30mi on the trails , near continuous driving, a massive variety of terrain including slick rock, muddy bogs (in the San Diego mountains...who knew), riding massive ruts with very real consequences for a fuck up and I was able to give the car a really good work through. Even got stuck once because my spotter gave me a shitty line in a bog. Good times.

My takeaways are that the car is phenomenal for what it is. No its not a purpose built off roader and could use more clearance but I didn't buy it to be a purpose built off roader. The AWD system is stellar, it never overheated, the rear locker worked. Ford really has done good work with that. The liquid cooled transmission/transfer case, I'm sure Mark will correct me, was amazing. The car never once baulked or complained despite getting a fairly good beating, again I was in a bit over my head at the end but no one saw that coming just was what it was I guess. The bump stops on the shocks were very much needed, good job Ford.

I found the GOAT modes a bit unnecessary. I ended up using them just to keep the camera on, but what was really annoying was once I got a bit of experience I prefered driving in normal mode, the front camera would turn off super quick. So I keep it in sand or mud/ruts mode in order to keep it on but that wasn't a perfect compromise as that would keep the revs up which wasn't ideal while going up a technical hill or after descending one.

One thing that made me about crap myself was my dads phone was connect via the usb and he randomly got a call in the middle of nowhere. While the call was being received and we were unaware it was incoming, the car turned down the AC and the radio and it seemed like we had a major problem. This happened twice and gave me a dam good scare each time especially considering we had the dogs in the back (remember we thought it'd be a simple trail ride, it wasn't).

And I feel like I've given this car a fairly good torture test and am almost certain no one will push it that hard. There was some damage, lost a mud flap, there was pinstripping (so much pinstripping the trail got really narrow and on the hills, it was either get pinstripes or fall into a rut and risk damaging the car, didn't like it at first but eventually accepted it was going to happen in order for me to drive the safest line), there were bumps (so many bumps, you learn to drive on top of the rocks not over them) and bruises but no warning lights came on and again the car did really dam well. I would do that trail again just turn around much much earlier and maybe spend more time on the slick rock. The BroncoSport Badlands is fully capable of doing a 2 on the Bronco trail App (like I said we were following the other guy and he had it) but dont be stupid with the car and it'll treat you far better than any little CUV should.

Also, on the first photo, thats a 23 degree pitch. I saw the Big Bronco do it and thought that was impressive, didn't think could do it but I figured what the hell I'll give it a shot. Car did great and climbed up easily. AWD system really worked well there.
Approach angle was good enough, departure angle was problem. I’m certain I’m have damage there.

For or anyone who's read this far, just know the car is incredibly capable, more than any CUV has the right to be and the car will take you places you want to go. No it’s not a dedicated off roader but with a lift and bigger tires, it will keep up with the body on frame guys and the Badlands really is an impressive car. I'm glad I got to push it, now I appreciate it more and I genuinely think Ford has done a great job engineering it. Again, the AWD system, the cooling system all fantastic and worked flawlessly. Any car critic and cynic will have a hard time finding flaws in those systems.

I could really talk more about the experience and the car but thats probably enough for now.

You made it on Ford Authority now with this post, good info.

 

[AmazingSieve]

You made it on Ford Authority now with this post, good info.

No shit, thats kinda cool. We were wondering if Ford would take notice of our experience, good to see they did.

 

[gatornek]

so it forced wider lines and at one point had to accept the car was going to scrapped like a cats scratching post in order to take safe lines.

My gosh. I would've been having a heart attack. I can't believe he told you it was 'moderate' and actually did't know where he was going.

I've never done that trail, but I am familiar with East County SD as I was stationed at Camp Pendleton for a long time, and had a girlfriend who lived in Alpine. Some great off roading in East County.

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