Disappointing Off-rodeo in NH

[SkyKing]

So I went with 3 friends to the NH Off-Rodeo on Friday 9/24. Unfortunately, the majority of the day was spent in a Bronco, not moving much... at... all. There were about 18 of us in the group. They divided us in half so we had about 9 Broncos in our group and one instructor who rode shotgun with one person and he got out of the car often to spot people over the technical parts. The trails were plenty interesting. But although our guide was doing what he could, we spent the majority of the day waiting for the cars in front of us to be guided over something, or waiting for the cars behind us to catch up. All in all, we maybe drove 3 miles, maybe 4 miles tops with only a few technical sections - but those were enough to bring us all to a standstill for long periods of time with only one guide. If I had to buy a plane ticket to attend this event, I would have been furious. I was surprised, given the positive reviews I had read. It seems that we should have had at least two guides, or three to keep the cars moving along from one section to another. The staff, food, facilities, and cars were all great. Not sure if some staff were out sick, or if this is just how they do it. I had fun but felt really bad for the people in the group that flew in for this.

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[OU812]

Which is why Moab is the place to be. Real roads. Real trail. Plenty of room for the groups to separate.

 

[cigartexan]

We had 3 guides per group of 10 Bronco's at the Texas Off-Rodeo! Having only one guide would piss me off too! Sorry you had that experience. What up @Ford Motor Company ?

 

[SkyKing]

Which is why Moab is the place to be. Real roads. Real trail. Plenty of room for the groups to separate.

No. That wouldn't have helped. Although Moab is fantastic and I have off roaded there, the location had nothing to do with the problem. The terrain was legit and there was plenty of it and an impressively big trail network. The issue was not having the staff to keep everyone moving forward.

 

[SkyKing]

We had 3 guides per group of 10 Bronco's at the Texas Off-Rodeo! Having only one guide would piss me off too! Sorry you had that experience. What up @Ford Motor Company ?

Yes, 3 guides would have made all the difference.

 

[SkyKing]

Most of the guides have quit, from the information i got from one of them that used to do the events. Poor organisation on the part of the organizers and extra long hours were to blame. He said on the users side everything looked good, but behind the curtain it was hell...

Doesn't surprise me - I felt bad for our one guide who was doing all he could (and it was raining), but it was painfully slow. Me and my 3 friends were all wondering if Ford was skimping on staff.

 

[Murph914]

Yep. I was there too. We had the white 2 door badlands.

sorry to hear you didnt have a good time. You’re the first to say something negative. I suspect at least a couple guides bailed because of the rain. He sure was working running back and forth.

 

[SPS4]

Oh man that sucks. In Texas it seemed like we had as many guides as drivers, and it was a very well-run experience. I had a blast and want to go back and do it again. I guess the labor shortage is impacting even the Off Rodeos.

 

[SkyKing]

Yep. I was there too. We had the white 2 door badlands.

sorry to hear you didnt have a good time. You’re the first to say something negative. I suspect at least a couple guides bailed because of the rain. He sure was working running back and forth.

Hey there - we did have a good time, but we all couldn't help but observe how much we needed more than one guide (looks like you and I were in different groups - our guide was Evan)And I felt bad for people who had to pay for flights to get there for so little driving. And yes, the guide we had was working very hard and was probably exhausted.

 

[Rubisquatch]

That sucks, we were there 8/28 and had 2 guides and 5 Broncos in our group and the day was Amazing! I looked at our odometer before and after and we did 8 miles.

 

[Soultides]

I went to Gunstock on the second day which was a Tuesday August 17th. There were maybe 12 Broncos and 5 Staff. They divided us into two groups with 3 staff and 2 staff. We had an absolute blast. We only had a few periods where we had to wait. Once because one of the Broncos came close to rolling over. I did ask the staff about when they would get time off and what happens if only a couple of people sign up for a particular day. I would imagine that there might be days where staff might be short.

 

[SkyKing]

That sucks, we were there 8/28 and had 2 guides and 5 Broncos in our group and the day was Amazing! I looked at our odometer before and after and we did 8 miles.

Yeah I figured we must have gotten very unlucky on the guide to car ratio. I know all the reviews have been good but I felt that I needed to post something. But mostly I'm just disappointed that I apparently missed out on so much off-road driving that I was very eager to do.

 

[Murph914]

I went to Gunstock on the second day which was a Tuesday August 17th. There were maybe 12 Broncos and 5 Staff. They divided us into two groups with 3 staff and 2 staff. We had an absolute blast. We only had a few periods where we had to wait. Once because one of the Broncos came close to rolling over. I did ask the staff about when they would get time off and what happens if only a couple of people sign up for a particular day. I would imagine that there might be days where staff might be short.

Was it the downhill slide that the Bronco almost rolled?

 

[wbvr3]

I was there on Wednesday, Sept. 22, having flown in from Jacksonville, FL on Sunday. Drove from Londonderry, NH arriving at Gunstock at 8:30 AM. Two guides, Dan and Chris, divided us into two groups of 8 Broncos each. We drove about 14 miles throughout the whole day.

Our trail guide, Chris, must have run about half of that. He would dismount from the lead Bronco and run to check the condition of each obstacle, guide each vehicle through, then run up to the lead vehicle to ride to the next challenge. He didn't even sound out of breath on the radio.

I had two guests and we all got to drive about 2 hours each including the time stopped. None of us were disappointed as we used the down time to familiarize ourselves with the features and capabilities of the vehicles.

Here I am with a picture of a Bronco on the rocks...

 

[chartzilla]

That's unfortunate to hear. I did the Moab offroadeo a couple weeks ago and I think we did about 24 miles. We had 5 Broncos in our group with 1 guide in the lead Bronco.

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