Creek Trail @ Badlands in the Black Diamond, following Jeeps with Open Air Offroad

[BroncoRick]

Spent the day out with the club at the Badlands in Indiana, and as usual we hit the Creek Trail. It was unbelievably windy; between the dropping limbs and the usual branches it was a trick avoiding pinstriping on the Eruption Green I am still getting used to the exterior clearances of this thing vs. my old Jeep, but it does follow the Jeeps pretty well. I remain surprised at how well Ford dialed in the suspension, including the stock front swaybar, which is a much lighter rate than a Jeep front swaybar and posed us no problems. I am increasingly getting deeper into the tight woods trails with the Bronco and it is doing pretty well so far--just have to watch all that extra sheet metal. All in all a good day out with my son and the friends from Open Air Offroad.

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[Cobrafang]

Very nice, what kind of mount do you have for the camera, did a great job stabilization.

 

[BroncoRick]

Very nice, what kind of mount do you have for the camera, did a great job stabilization.

I just use the GoPro suction cup mount hight up on the windshield, with a Hero 7 Black

 

[BroncoRick]

Same trip, we followed the Jeeps through the Yellow Trail. This is a very tight and wooded trail with lots of potential for pinstriping and grazing trees. I was definitely feeling it with the extra sheet metal width of the Bronco vs. my old Jeep; this will take some getting used to.

The connected OEM front swaybar of the Bronco did fine though, and I was pretty pleased with how the suspension was working on this trail. The bar is definitely a much lighter rate than a Jeep front swaybar--it's not quite as much travel as a disconnected OEM Jeep bar, but the travel in the rear of the Bronco makes up for it, and in general it feels very well balanced.

We high-tailed it out of this one once the wind started gusting above 30mph and began dropping tree limbs on the trail.

 

[Big Boss]

Great videos as always Rick!

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Very nice, what kind of mount do you have for the camera, did a great job stabilization.

GoPro stabilization is pretty fantastic. The higher you set it, the more cropped your image is to pull that off, and if you're running off battery the more battery you'll burn doing it.

The HeroMAX introduced horizon leveling, which is wild, you can wholly invert the camera and it will keep the image locked to the horizon. The Hero 9 partially implemented this, and if you add the MAX Lens mod it can do it just like the MAX. I believe the 10 and now 11 added even more options. Looks like he had horizon leveling on because you can see the tilt of the rig. Nice work @BroncoRick

I run: Hero 8 on dash, basic stablization out the windshield just like he does. Hero 10 facing me (the talent I guess?), and the Hero MAX on a suction cup mount off the rear driver side door produce a wing effect. I leave that one Horizon locked so you can really tell how much climb is happening. Deciding how to do all this is a bit of mindjob. I invested in batteries only to learn its a much better approach to run wires meaning you need to replace the GoPro doors with passthru ones (makes them less water resistant!). I've also learned that GoPros really aren't meant to run for hours on end. You're supposed to turn them on, capture something interesting, and stop them. They can sit powered on and idle, but recording builds heat and after 30-40 minutes they will simply shut off. The dissipate heat thru the little metal feet that your mount attaches to so if you pick one that is metal it'll help keep the unit cool.

Here's an example:

 

[BroncoRick]

GoPro stabilization is pretty fantastic. The higher you set it, the more cropped your image is to pull that off, and if you're running off battery the more battery you'll burn doing it.

The HeroMAX introduced horizon leveling, which is wild, you can wholly invert the camera and it will keep the image locked to the horizon. The Hero 9 partially implemented this, and if you add the MAX Lens mod it can do it just like the MAX. I believe the 10 and now 11 added even more options. Looks like he had horizon leveling on because you can see the tilt of the rig. Nice work @BroncoRick

I run: Hero 8 on dash, basic stablization out the windshield just like he does. Hero 10 facing me (the talent I guess?), and the Hero MAX on a suction cup mount off the rear driver side door produce a wing effect. I leave that one Horizon locked so you can really tell how much climb is happening. Deciding how to do all this is a bit of mindjob. I invested in batteries only to learn its a much better approach to run wires meaning you need to replace the GoPro doors with passthru ones (makes them less water resistant!). I've also learned that GoPros really aren't meant to run for hours on end. You're supposed to turn them on, capture something interesting, and stop them. They can sit powered on and idle, but recording builds heat and after 30-40 minutes they will simply shut off. The dissipate heat thru the little metal feet that your mount attaches to so if you pick one that is metal it'll help keep the unit cool.

Here's an example:

I don't have horizon leveling on my Hero7 Black, but I wish I did. I'm just using the regular hyper smooth stabilization on the Hero7 pointed out the windshield. It's mounted on a GoPro brand suction mount on the inside of the windshield--cup is just behind the rearview mirror just to the driver side of the sensor box, and the camera is inverted hanging down. I did that in my Jeep before and it seems to give a pretty good forward view while also giving the context of the hood moving around.

I normally also have my old Hero+LCD pointed back at the cabin, but I didn't bother for this short wheeling trip. I usually also run the GPS on my Hero7 and render the telemetry into the videos in post; didn't bother with that either this time, but you can see that in some of my other vids.

For power my GoPros are always wired USB. For my Hero7 I remove the battery entirely--this keeps it from overheating and I've been able to run it all day (on many occasions now) without overheating. When I would leave the battery in, it would overheat after about an hour like you said. This means that you have to occasionally watch that the camera is still running if you stop for a while and the Bronco decides to finally cut power to the ignition keyed USB sources, but that's a solvable problem with small USB battery banks as well.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

I don't have horizon leveling on my Hero7 Black, but I wish I did. I'm just using the regular hyper smooth stabilization on the Hero7 pointed out the windshield. It's mounted on a GoPro brand suction mount on the inside of the windshield--cup is just behind the rearview mirror just to the driver side of the sensor box, and the camera is inverted hanging down. I did that in my Jeep before and it seems to give a pretty good forward view while also giving the context of the hood moving around.

I normally also have my old Hero+LCD pointed back at the cabin, but I didn't bother for this short wheeling trip. I usually also run the GPS on my Hero7 and render the telemetry into the videos in post; didn't bother with that either this time, but you can see that in some of my other vids.

For power my GoPros are always wired USB. For my Hero7 I remove the battery entirely--this keeps it from overheating and I've been able to run it all day (on many occasions now) without overheating. When I would leave the battery in, it would overheat after about an hour like you said. This means that you have to occasionally watch that the camera is still running if you stop for a while and the Bronco decides to finally cut power to the ignition keyed USB sources, but that's a solvable problem with small USB battery banks as well.

nice I do leave GPS on, I haven't messed with that yet. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the process. The last trip to Baja I left my dash running in hyperlapse mode which gave me a whole day worth of footage nicely comprssed. I love that you can also just tap a button and keep the same video file going but start recording video for a time. It's still a bear to coordinate. I tried using the GoPro remote, but thats clumsy. The app seems to be the only way to go, it likes to lose control of the exterior camera though.

 

[BroncoRick]

Last one here from this trip, we opened the throttle up a bit more this time than the last time I was here. Also compared running in Sport Mode 4WD Hi, vs Sand Mode 4WD Hi.

Sport Mode does open things up a LOT more vs Sand Mode, but the traction control is on by default. I honestly prefer the Sand Mode for running the dunes as the throttle and steering seems set up just right for my taste. It does give me the thought though, that I would like to try Baja Mode on someone else's truck some day. I have a feeling it's like a best of all worlds combo of Sport + Sand Mode on my Black Diamond.

I never had that much fun in dunes before in my Jeeps because due to the suspension and lack of power, you could never really open it up. With the Bronco I now find the dunes areas more interesting than anything else. Which is dangerous--because the Hoss 2.0 suspension is so well balanced and set up for this, it only leaves me with a great curiosity what a Raptor must be like in this stuff...

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