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

[Rick Astley]

Sorry your post was misplaced in the quote so it won't get linked directly above.

The sad part is, @Cheshire, that I don't actively troll you at all. Have never searched for any of your posts or taken a minute out of my life to see what you have to say.

It's that your constant humblebraging to poo on peoples posts about taking delivery of their ride or driving it in it's intended fashion is so constant, blatant and consistent that they get stumbled upon regularly simply by using the forum.

Sure, i'm down for talking some smack, but the way you're on everyone elses thread just to talk yourself up to larger proportions (5'4"?) is hilarious. So I called you out. That's what you're upset about. You didn't earn another follower.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Humble Brag

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[Cheshire]

how much more ground clearance does the fatsquach add over a BL on 33" tires ?

About 1.4 inches, 1 ish for tires and .4 ish extra lift. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm off.

 

[21BL2DR]

About 1.4 inches, 1 ish for tires and .4 ish extra lift. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm off.

thanks....I was thinking it was so minuscule it didn't really matter.

 

[Cheshire]

thanks....I was thinking it was so minuscule it didn't really matter.

This is a really good video that compares 31, 33 & 35 inch tires in different terrains/concditions.

 

[TeocaliMG]

Awesome! My wife and I decided to try Fins & Things the day after we finished our Offroadeo event. While it doesn’t compare to these trails, I’m glad to know my BaseSquatch can at least give these a shot!

Welcome to the orange D-Ring Gang! I'm sure there will be a lot of us lol

 

[SD_Bronco]

Woah! Awesome video! Way to using this truck like it’s meant to be used!

 

[mikonrad]

Hey @TeocaliMG, ty for the post! I see that you have at least the High Package. I have a question on the camera usage. I totally get that actual spotters should take priority but in the hypothetical case you didn't have spotters, did you play around with the cameras to get a feel for their effectivity while performing more challenging off-roading?

Outside of cresting hills, not sure how effective the front camera would be but I think the wheel cameras would be great for avoiding rocks or drop-offs, though not so sure how effective the front/wheel cameras would be for choosing lines (to clarify - the cameras obviously would give you a good idea of what's directly ahead but not sure how much reference you have to the front tire location and depth perception of obstacles). Would certainly be curious of your impressions.

 

[TeocaliMG]

Yes, it is the high package. I found all of the camera views gave me very useful information, especially the birds eye in general and the front view when cresting hills. Despite this, I found it very hard to "trust" the cameras and did my best to keep visual on the spotter and/or the obstacle at all times. I think with more practice I could get used to the cameras and trust them more but there's something about a direct line of sight is hard to for me to let go of.

 

[TRMFAM]

I can't decide if I like the Bronco climbing obstacles better or the lady's outbursts on the video the best! I loved hearing her exclamations...one question, did any of your passengers have a fitbit, apple watch, etc? I kept wondering how may steps and stair case equivalents they did the whole trip spotting / filming!

Awesome stuff, hats off to the whole team!

 

[TeocaliMG]

I can't decide if I like the Bronco climbing obstacles better or the lady's outbursts on the video the best! I loved hearing her exclamations...one question, did any of your passengers have a fitbit, apple watch, etc? I kept wondering how may steps and stair case equivalents they did the whole trip spotting / filming!

Awesome stuff, hats off to the whole team!

We did have smart watches, looks like my wife only got it 10-12,000 steps. I wouldnt be surprised if you could hike the whole thing faster lol, though there definitely were a lot of simpler sections where we all rode together.

 

[internationlriders]

Awesome wheeling looks like it was a ton of fun!

 

[Rezzak]

Yes, it is the high package. I found all of the camera views gave me very useful information, especially the birds eye in general and the front view when cresting hills. Despite this, I found it very hard to "trust" the cameras and did my best to keep visual on the spotter and/or the obstacle at all times. I think with more practice I could get used to the cameras and trust them more but there's something about a direct line of sight is hard to for me to let go of.

VERY COOL VIDEO! Thank you for testing these trails with an Unmodified Bronco.

 

[AlpineDescent]

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!

That was awesome. Sounds like you scared the crap out of your wife more than once, I can’t wait to do that to my wife. Were you off the gas and clutch completely for most of those? Looks like Crawler in low and just cruising along at 1 mph. Looks like it handled everything real well.

 

[TeocaliMG]

That was awesome. Sounds like you scared the crap out of your wife more than once, I can’t wait to do that to my wife. Were you off the gas and clutch completely for most of those? Looks like Crawler in low and just cruising along at 1 mph. Looks like it handled everything real well.

Off the clutch almost entirely, but I was between the gas and brake a lot. Brake on technical descents (while staying in gear) you can get the engine down to just several hundred RPM without stalling as long as its not demanding power. I used the gas quite a bit on the technical climbs mainly to help maintain a steady speed, the extra power is not necessary but I didn't want it to lug too much in the low RPM. The nice thing about the crawler gear is you can rev the engine quite a bit and it really doesn't speed up much. Its just so crazy low! Your instinct in the hairy stuff is to get of the gas to slow down but honestly I recommend staying in the gas to keep it from lugging because it is still very very slow.

 

[AlpineDescent]

Off the clutch almost entirely, but I was between the gas and brake a lot. Brake on technical descents (while staying in gear) you can get the engine down to just several hundred RPM without stalling as long as its not demanding power. I used the gas quite a bit on the technical climbs mainly to help maintain a steady speed, the extra power is not necessary but I didn't want it to lug too much in the low RPM. The nice thing about the crawler gear is you can rev the engine quite a bit and it really doesn't speed up much. Its just so crazy low! Your instinct in the hairy stuff is to get of the gas to slow down but honestly I recommend staying in the gas to keep it from lugging because it is still very very slow.

I can’t wait, this is pretty much the package we ordered in Green. Great to see another Michigander enjoying life to the fullest.

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