Bone Stock Badlands does Poison Spider and Golden Spike, Moab UT (Level 7 Trails)

[Roll Sound]

I like the commentary. "Oh shit!" That's an honest reaction. She didn't think the Bronco would make it a few times. Such a good feeling to just see it plow through everything.

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[Cheshire]

Nice video. Badlands is capable, but the video made me appreciate how much Sasquatch adds when it comes to going over rocks. Nothing can substitute for ground clearance! I think it's fair to say that any lower trim w/Squatch would gobble up those lines better than a BL on 33s. Just sayin.

 

[RedHotFuzz]

Clideo.com? Oof, that's some unfortunate branding...

Great vid though!

 

[Busterbronco1]

NICE!!!

 

[TeocaliMG]

Nice video. Badlands is capable, but the video made me appreciate how much Sasquatch adds when it comes to going over rocks. Nothing can substitute for ground clearance! I think it's fair to say that any lower trim w/Squatch would gobble up those lines better than a BL on 33s. Just sayin.

You are probably right in general, but I really did use up every last bit of wheel travel. With squatch pkg it would have been picking up a tire slightly more often. With lockers its not a big deal, but I liked how stable this was. Now the real goal is to just throw 35's on the Badlands anyway lol

Without badlands I would absolutely recommend you disconnect the sway bar manually before doing anything like this.

 

[TeocaliMG]

Clideo.com? Oof, that's some unfortunate branding...

Great vid though!

I tried splicing it together manually on my computer but it couldn't reconcile MP4 files from different phones, so I just did it online, and free generally means watermark...

 

[mjohnso3]

Awesome video. I was in Moab last year and I rode the Whole Enchilada however I bailed at Porcupine Rim Trail so it's technically not the Whole Enchilada? Anyway I will go back in 22 and at least ride Porcupine Rim Trail but I need to know are there any sections of that trail you can lose your life or rather fall to your death if you make 1 mistake? My wife won't do it if there are.

 

[PatioDaddio78]

2.3L with manual. used crawler gear on all the hardcore obstacles, some of the tamer ones I used 1 or 2. All in low range of course.

I've got the same setup (Badlands 2.3L manual) but haven't been brave enough to take my bronco out in the wild yet. How do you feel the manual did? Any fear of burning it up? I've taken my 15 year old out a few times and he has been pretty tough on it...probably can take the abuse. I learned manual trans on a 1930s farm tractor and he's learning on a bronco!

 

[ScoutandBronco]

Awesome video -- thanks for sharing!

Awesome write up and video!

 

[Hey19]

Did many of those trails last year and look forward to doing them next year. I think the two door may not scrape as much?? Anyhoo great vid and looked like an awesome time! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rick Astley]

Thanks for the thread. Really enjoyed your write up and pics/video. Looks like you guys had a fantastic time!

Have you driven the slick rock before? My first time to Moab was earlier in the year and we had to rent a Jeep (no Bronco yet!) And it was tons of fun.

Your BL is doing great on those obstacles, if we had to believe everything we read on these forums then it would be impossible for you to have done anything you posted.... Because driving a manual offroad is impossible (just like the lads had to push the jeeps everywhere in WWII).

Nice video. Badlands is capable, but the video made me appreciate how much Sasquatch adds when it comes to going over rocks. Nothing can substitute for ground clearance! I think it's fair to say that any lower trim w/Squatch would gobble up those lines better than a BL on 33s. Just sayin.

Well for you specifically the extra ground clearance would be mandatory to hard park your rig at the Applebee's.

You have given a massive amount of credit to the lift yet volunteered to ignore the fact Ford put the cheapest and worst performing tires possible on Sasquatch package. The K02's that come stock on Badlands are actual off road tires with a drastically higher envelope. People actually buy K02's to put on their rigs to drive off road. Applebee's allows sasquatch equipped Broncos just for the look and so families will come in.

 

[Jalgieri]

Excellent! The video was fantastic.

 

[Squatch]

Loved it. Those tires and the gearing were perfect for the trails. Sometimes extra height, a couple of inches or even feet, makes all the difference between being a rockstar or a total failure. The manual transmission Badlands with the KO2s, however, is the right tool for getting away from the parking lots and hitting the trails.

 

[DieselSmack]

We took our bone stock manual badlands bronco through the Poison Spider-Golden Spike-Gold Bar Rim trails!

Some Background: My wife and I took a trip out to Moab to visit her sister while she is working in Utah. This was a very loosely planned trip with only some details planned ahead of time. For example we knew we wanted to go mountain biking, and that we wanted to try at least one of the off-road trails there, as well as explore the backcountry and do some hiking. We left Michigan after work on Wednesday (11/10/21) and were in Moab Friday afternoon. We kicked things off with an awesome bike ride on the Porcupine Rim Trail. This is one of the few double black diamonds I have been on where it really felt earned. Most of the trail was reasonable but some sections felt like pro lines.

Saturday we decided to try a dedicated off-road trail. I have some off-road experience in Michigan, between a few trips to Bundy hill and Holly Oaks and a lot of time spent in the UP, but nothing quite like Moab and certainly not much of anything with our Bronco yet. Before our trip I had started looking up the trail rating system which lays out the requirements and recommendations for each trail quite nicely and decided that I would be happy with level 5 or 6 trails. I figured a 7 might be possible (not recommended without 35's or lockers) but wanted to play it safe. Well, I changed my mind and that morning I decided I wanted to try Poison Spider (7) which feeds out to Golden Spike (7) and eventually Gold Bar Rim (6). There are even some optional level 8 trails within that trail system but I decided to count my blessings.

The Bronco Killed it! My primary concern was body damage or a potential rollover, neither of which happened. I had a tow strap and camping gear for 4 so I wasn’t too concerned about getting "stuck" as there would be plenty of built rigs on the trail to help out if needed. I am happy to report that no assistance was necessary. Since we started a bit late in the morning, 10am, we ended up camping out on the trail. This may be frowned upon but its BLM land and the trails took much longer than I anticipated, and sunset was only 5:30.

I often went out of my way to take the more challenging and fun line so long as it was still roughly a "level 7". There are many optional lines on this trail that are level 8 or higher for more advanced rigs to fool around on. I was very fortunate to have my sister in law, her boyfriend and my wife to spot me on the trail. It would have been much more challenging and risky to go it alone.

There was lots of undercarriage contact on this trail but nothing truly cringeworthy in my opinion. Skid plates are meant to be used after all! As you can see we popped our license plate holder loose, but nothing i'm too concerned about. I did some obstacles without lockers, but the hardest ones required at least one, if not both. I generally used both if I needed them at all. 35's would have helped but the 33's were fine and I loved having every bit of flex and wheel travel available from the standard Badlands. I also aired down to 20 PSI. This made a huge difference, I would almost say that it is completely necessary, at least for smaller tires.

In this post are a number of photos from our ride. I also crudely spliced together a bunch of MP4 files from our phones and uploaded them to YouTube. I am not a video editor so apologies for the low quality, though to be fair we were there first and foremost to have a good time, not to film a documentary or an advertisement.

As you can see in the video, we didn't film every single obstacle, and a couple times the video cuts before the obstacle was completed. In the case where I was high centered. I just locked the differentials and Jed hopped on the bumper and that's all she needed to pull herself free.

This was the first real obstacle on the trail (actually to the right of the frame out of view), right after the first couple switchbacks. I was very nervous and almost turned back. However, getting through this gave me the confidence to push forward to much harder obstacles that made this one seem rather tame.

The middle and upper sections of the "waterfall" obstacles

The "wedgy", this is actually pretty easy, but high risk of body damage if you get careless.

I just thought this was a really cool looking part of the trail.

Love this shot at almost full droop.

As seen in the video, this is what I thought was the trickiest drop/ledge. Luckily I only had to go down.

Fresh coffee in the morning!

1mph obviously includes the overnight. But we certainly weren't moving crazy fast.

Heres the video!

Dude.... You guys are badass for wheeling your Bronco like it was designed!! Hopefully someone (Mike Levine) sees this and hooks you up! Nicely done, some of those challenges would've scared me away in a brand new rig.

 

[TeocaliMG]

I've got the same setup (Badlands 2.3L manual) but haven't been brave enough to take my bronco out in the wild yet. How do you feel the manual did? Any fear of burning it up? I've taken my 15 year old out a few times and he has been pretty tough on it...probably can take the abuse. I learned manual trans on a 1930s farm tractor and he's learning on a bronco!

No issues with burning it up. The crawler gear is so low you just let it engage and control your speed with gas or brake. If you need to stop then just hit the clutch.

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