First impressions from a 2,900 mile journey

[Etienne]

First impressions during my 2,900 mile trip from coast to coast in a Badlands Sasquatch high package 4 door soft top

As many of us are still anxiously await for their Bronco, I want to share some first impressions to help shed light at the end of this long tunnel. It’s a painful wait regardless amplified by the challenging communications between Ford and your selected dealer. This is further fueled by the Ford status website that still states mine is being shipped – Go figure.

In my case I reserved my place in line for ordering my Bronco on-line on Ford’s launch day as their website continued to crash for the first 3 hours back in July of ‘20. As luck has it I finally got my place in line. Whew… A long year and a half as I finally just took delivery Nov. 17th. All in all, the agonizing and sometimes frustrating wait is worth it to finally get this ‘new horse in the barn’.

• Ride experience - Firm but still comfortable making long road trips a breeze, solid driver no rattles or noise other than the soft top that’s decently quiet until highway speeds and phone is still manageable
• Electronics - The high package has a boatload of features where voice activation even in a soft top at highway speeds works nicely
• Power plant - The 2.7 bolted to the 10 speed trans shifts effortlessly purring through the many gears with never having to work too hard to get to speed
• Maneuverability - From the driver’s seat the retro '66 lines of the flat hood and old school front corners make it easy to navigate tight places – All sensors aside
• Camera - The back-up camera and 360 view (my favorite feature) is amazing and is a huge help with the huge spare off the rear. In 4WD the front camera options are pretty cool for close up obstacles
• Operating the soft top - Straight forward after watching the Ford clip on youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAe_hv4CDj0
• Plastic windows - Disappointed in the fit of the rear corner plastic windows. Mine like every other 4 door I've seen has big waves in the plastic windows like it could be tighter
• Visibility - Good overall with help of side warning indicators in side mirrors. With soft-top down you’ll quickly realize it blocks the rear view mirror usage :-(

Conclusion:
Love the retro lines, modern performance, features and versatility of this 4X convertible go anywhere ride. Coming from the perspective of a full convertible K5 owner of 28 years, this Bronco is really impressive and is worth the wait many of us are experiencing. Personally I’ve been waiting since I was a kid for Ford or Chevy to bring back their iconic 60/70s rigs. Bravo to Ford for beating Chevy to the punch and bringing back the Bronco!

So hang in there and best of luck with your new favorite ride!

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[FJ 432]

Nice write up and nice rig. Love the photos including the Kindig it Design photo.

 

[SoCalDawg]

Nice!! Thank you for this summary. I’ve considered not going Sasquatch because of time on interstates/long trips. The 35s weren’t bad for long hours in saddle? What was your to/from?

 

[zer0t]

I pick up my BL Sasquatch high pack on Monday. I just did 4k miles in my 2021 Ram power wagon and the road manners were reasonable but the gearing made it tough to maintain over 80 on interstates. It has a great interior and electronics. However it was tiring in the road. No adaptive cruise or blind spot monitoring makes it a bit more difficult in traffic. The size prevented my wife from driving bit for a brief stint. I live utility vehicles that can be taken anywhere but I need to be able to pack up and road trip as well. I hope I hadn’t made another mistake. This review seems on a similar spec with my build so it give me hope I can travel around in it wherever I want to go.

 

[SoCalDawg]

I pick up my BL Sasquatch high pack on Monday. I just did 4k miles in my 2021 Ram power wagon and the road manners were reasonable but the gearing made it tough to maintain over 80 on interstates. It has a great interior and electronics. However it was tiring in the road. No adaptive cruise or blind spot monitoring makes it a bit more difficult in traffic. The size prevented my wife from driving bit for a brief stint. I live utility vehicles that can be taken anywhere but I need to be able to pack up and road trip as well. I hope I hadn’t made another mistake. This review seems on a similar spec with my build so it give me hope I can travel around in it wherever I want to go.

Same. We need my vehicle to be good for packing up/road trips…especially for ski trips and next season to take bikes to Big Bear during spring/summer.

 

[zer0t]

Same. We need my vehicle to be good for packing up/road trips…especially for ski trips and next season to take bikes to Big Bear during spring/summer.

Have you gotten your Bronco and used for it for any trips?
Eta: I see from your other post that you probably have not. I do look forward to you have a positive experience that we can read about here.

 

[Etienne]

Nice!! Thank you for this summary. I’ve considered not going Sasquatch because of time on interstates/long trips. The 35s weren’t bad for long hours in saddle? What was your to/from?

On the Sasquatch package I had the same concerns when ordering with the lower gear ratio it brings. With the 10 spd trans, RPMs were kept low even at 80MPH is was 2.1 RPMs on the tach. Comfort in long 600 mile driving days where surprisingly conformable making the 5 day journey from Portland OR to Lake Norman near Charlotte NC quite enjoyable.

 

[Aurongel]

Looks great, glad you’re enjoying it.

Out of curiosity, what kind of gas mileage are you seeing and do you have concerns about it or the size of the tank for larger drives? The poor mileage I’ve seen other people report has me a little spooked considering that my other car (a v8 Hellcat) sounds like it’s getting similar mileage to a 2.7 or Sasquatch’d Bronco

 

[Etienne]

Looks great, glad you’re enjoying it.

Out of curiosity, what kind of gas mileage are you seeing and do you have concerns about it or the size of the tank for larger drives? The poor mileage I’ve seen other people report has me a little spooked considering that my other car (a v8 Hellcat) sounds like it’s getting similar mileage to a 2.7 or Sasquatch’d Bronco

Great question... Although we all realize this is a box pushing wind not helped by larger tires and this wont be an economy gas sipper by any means, I was most surprised by the following.

• During break in (which the dealer said is not needed these days) keeping speeds down around 70-74 MPH on open highways, the computer showed 16.5 MPG on average flat terrain.
• After break in, doing the actual speed limit of 80MPH across ID, WY, NB and up to 85MPH, the MPG did not change. Best I've seen in my coast to coast was 18.1 due to mixing in more windy backroad driving as speeds in the 50 MPH range.
• Range is about 320ish miles with this low MPG - So for big trips it's fine but a bigger belly to fill with more gallons would be nice
• Looks like there more room underneath for the aftermarket to give us some bigger tank options for those of us wanting to replace that HUGE muffler under rear bed.

 

[FlyingBronco]

Nice!! Thank you for this summary. I’ve considered not going Sasquatch because of time on interstates/long trips. The 35s weren’t bad for long hours in saddle? What was your to/from?

I drove from Northern AZ back to Denver in my Badsquatch, went through Durango. It is quite comfortable on long rides, I was very pleased. Drives straight and true, no wandering. Auto high-beam and the intensity is a god-sent on long, night drives. I know some of the oncoming traffic might not like our ride height with rather bright low beams, received a few high beam flashes, but the comfortable ride and lighting made it super enjoyable. You will not be disappointed if you go Sasquatch. Averaged 19 mpg on a mountain drive, not bad!

 

[Aurongel]

Great question... Although we all realize this is a box pushing wind not helped by larger tires and this wont be an economy gas sipper by any means, I was most surprised by the following.

…

Thank you for the detailed response! The poor mileage is easily -THE- thing scaring me away from accepting delivery of my near-future Badlands. The relatively warm reception of the Jeep 4xE has me optimistic for a hypothetical hybrid Bronco but that would of course come with the usual “worst of both worlds” shortcomings of hybrid cars in general when strictly compared to EV’s. I’m not optimistic honestly, even an EV Bronco would have huge compromises to its off-road ability that probably compromise on the experience of it.

It really seems like a particular sore spot for this type of vehicle too considering comparable trucks of similar weight and size outperform it on overall mileage/range.

 

[SoCalDawg]

Have you gotten your Bronco and used for it for any trips?
Eta: I see from your other post that you probably have not. I do look forward to you have a positive experience that we can read about here.

I do not have one yet. It’s in my top 3 of vehicles to buy next year. Here researching.

 

[SoCalDawg]

On the Sasquatch package I had the same concerns when ordering with the lower gear ratio it brings. With the 10 spd trans, RPMs were kept low even at 80MPH is was 2.1 RPMs on the tach. Comfort in long 600 mile driving days where surprisingly conformable making the 5 day journey from Portland OR to Lake Norman near Charlotte NC quite enjoyable.

Thank you. I like the WT but have concerns about Sasquatch. So many people say it isn’t a big deal on highways/80 mph. I know I would want to sell the mud tires and replace with Toyo AT3. I need snow rating more than mud and it would quiet it down. I’m not concerned about ASD as I could do that manually if we go somewhere it’s really needed. Thank you so much for this post. These trips sound amazing.

 

[zer0t]

@SoCalDawg i have a friend who has the badlands sasquatch and has gone from NY to NC three times in the last couple months and will be going again next week. He’s had Some very vehicles and I find him to be an objective source of information.

hopefully you get all the data you need to make an informed decision.

 

[Wanted33]

What a good looking Bronco my Tar Heel brother. BTW, if that K5 is taking up to much room I would be happy to get it out of your way. I'm close by you, and can get it moved quick.

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