- First Name
- John
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2020
- Threads
- 12
- Messages
- 754
- Reaction score
- 1,328
- Location
- Central Virginia
- Vehicle(s)
- 04 F-350 CC dually, 97 Infiniti QX4, 21 Bronco BD
- Your Bronco Model
- Black Diamond
- Thread starter
- #1
This is going to be a short post with a few pictures.
Flight in on American was horrible. We ended up in Dallas instead of Austin and drove down. We arrived at our hotel at 3am. We had to cancel our original rental and pay more for the replacement. That was the bad part.
Now for the GREAT part. If you have not gone to an Off-Rodeo, YOU NEED TO GO!!!. I know lots of people have said this, but I will say it again. This place is beautiful.
Entrance
Base Camp
McKenna, Mike, Amy (L to R), and the amazing view.
We ended up with 4 guides for our group because there were a few cancellations and they took us out in one group instead of two. We had 12 Broncos in our group. Mike (Hammer) runs the whole thing and he was our main guide. We also had his wife Amy (Ace) along with Jessica (Hollywood) and McKenna (Big Mac -she is barely a buck but has a huge personality). The experience would have been great, but the four of them made it one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life, EVER. I had a close friend and his son with me. the two of us traded driving throughout the day. He plans to get a Bronco later, but I think the experience moved up his timeline significantly.
The way the guides handled everything was unbelievable. Ace gave us all directions for each main obstacle. We all started most every obstacle with the differentials open and only locked them when we had to... under the guides direction. This really showed us how capable our Broncos are. I was very excited because there was only one time that we used both lockers. I know that I can conquer most obstacles (that I would attempt) with just the rear lockers on my BD. I have done a small amount of driving off-road but there were people there that had done NONE. They were given the confidence they needed by the guides to overcome the obstacles.
There were a couple of situations where the "pucker factor" was high for those of us with little or no experience.
OK, now the features.
We drove a Wildtrak. We Loved It!!
No Sta-bar disconnect, so few comments on that. Saw the other vehicles taking full advantage and it looks pretty awesome.
Trail Control Assist- This feature is one of the coolest things I have seen. The hill we went down was so steep and rocky and rutted that I thought we could tip over at any point. The bronco crawled down with no trouble. A few slips, a few slides and a couple of times a rear tire was off the ground about 6-8 inches. On a hill of 60 degrees or more, that gets hairy.
On a couple of the rock obstacles, drivers did not lock the diffs unless the driver got "stuck" or took a bad line (sometimes rear, sometimes front). On "Two Step", we came to the bottom of the rock and then locked both under Ace's direction. After that, we drove up the rock that had the Bronco at a roughly 70-80 degree angle going up for a moment, then over the top.
After we finished the places we were driving, We all got to take a ride with Mike in the FE (his Baby) around the off-road track. We never got over "29mph"... This was a blast. Then it was time for dinner and to head out.
I cannot stress enough how fantastic our guides were. We talked to Mike for an hour after the event was over and he is one of the coolest people I have met. It amazes me how they can do this job for 12-14 hours per day 5 days a week and still show the enthusiasm for the participants that they do. By the way, they only started 5 days a week recently and were doing this 7 days a week for about 4 to 5 months.
The Bronco- this thing is a BEAST. We were blown away by the way that it handled off-road in every situation. We had the newest vehicle there. It was Race Red. I loved the color and knew that would have been fine for me if I had to take it, it was my second choice. Our Bronco had 191 miles when we started and we finished with almost 198. It does not seem like a lot, but it really was. If you are running anything less than 35's, plan to scrape your skid plates a lot.
Notice in the picture how much gas is in it and how many miles to empty. It cracks me up when people on this site complain about the gas mileage.
Again, I can't even begin to express my appreciation for the way this whole day was handled.
Thanks @Ford Motor Company, Bronco Off-Rodeo TX,Mike, Amy, Jessica, and McKenna!
Flight in on American was horrible. We ended up in Dallas instead of Austin and drove down. We arrived at our hotel at 3am. We had to cancel our original rental and pay more for the replacement. That was the bad part.
Now for the GREAT part. If you have not gone to an Off-Rodeo, YOU NEED TO GO!!!. I know lots of people have said this, but I will say it again. This place is beautiful.
Entrance
Base Camp
McKenna, Mike, Amy (L to R), and the amazing view.
We ended up with 4 guides for our group because there were a few cancellations and they took us out in one group instead of two. We had 12 Broncos in our group. Mike (Hammer) runs the whole thing and he was our main guide. We also had his wife Amy (Ace) along with Jessica (Hollywood) and McKenna (Big Mac -she is barely a buck but has a huge personality). The experience would have been great, but the four of them made it one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life, EVER. I had a close friend and his son with me. the two of us traded driving throughout the day. He plans to get a Bronco later, but I think the experience moved up his timeline significantly.
The way the guides handled everything was unbelievable. Ace gave us all directions for each main obstacle. We all started most every obstacle with the differentials open and only locked them when we had to... under the guides direction. This really showed us how capable our Broncos are. I was very excited because there was only one time that we used both lockers. I know that I can conquer most obstacles (that I would attempt) with just the rear lockers on my BD. I have done a small amount of driving off-road but there were people there that had done NONE. They were given the confidence they needed by the guides to overcome the obstacles.
There were a couple of situations where the "pucker factor" was high for those of us with little or no experience.
OK, now the features.
We drove a Wildtrak. We Loved It!!
No Sta-bar disconnect, so few comments on that. Saw the other vehicles taking full advantage and it looks pretty awesome.
Trail Control Assist- This feature is one of the coolest things I have seen. The hill we went down was so steep and rocky and rutted that I thought we could tip over at any point. The bronco crawled down with no trouble. A few slips, a few slides and a couple of times a rear tire was off the ground about 6-8 inches. On a hill of 60 degrees or more, that gets hairy.
On a couple of the rock obstacles, drivers did not lock the diffs unless the driver got "stuck" or took a bad line (sometimes rear, sometimes front). On "Two Step", we came to the bottom of the rock and then locked both under Ace's direction. After that, we drove up the rock that had the Bronco at a roughly 70-80 degree angle going up for a moment, then over the top.
After we finished the places we were driving, We all got to take a ride with Mike in the FE (his Baby) around the off-road track. We never got over "29mph"... This was a blast. Then it was time for dinner and to head out.
I cannot stress enough how fantastic our guides were. We talked to Mike for an hour after the event was over and he is one of the coolest people I have met. It amazes me how they can do this job for 12-14 hours per day 5 days a week and still show the enthusiasm for the participants that they do. By the way, they only started 5 days a week recently and were doing this 7 days a week for about 4 to 5 months.
The Bronco- this thing is a BEAST. We were blown away by the way that it handled off-road in every situation. We had the newest vehicle there. It was Race Red. I loved the color and knew that would have been fine for me if I had to take it, it was my second choice. Our Bronco had 191 miles when we started and we finished with almost 198. It does not seem like a lot, but it really was. If you are running anything less than 35's, plan to scrape your skid plates a lot.
Notice in the picture how much gas is in it and how many miles to empty. It cracks me up when people on this site complain about the gas mileage.
Again, I can't even begin to express my appreciation for the way this whole day was handled.
Thanks @Ford Motor Company, Bronco Off-Rodeo TX,Mike, Amy, Jessica, and McKenna!
Sponsored