McMuffin's Trip Logbook

[JediMcMuffin]

The intent of this thread is to do a write-up of each significant trip I take with my rig. What worked, what didn't, etc. I'll try and make the format consistent!

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[JediMcMuffin]

Placeholder to transplant initial trip report from San Diego to Las Vegas and back that is currently sitting in my rig build thread.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

11/8 After Action Report
Destination: Ocotillo Wells / Olla Wash / Mud Caves
Odometer: 1829Mi

Summary:

Part of picking up this vehicle was to take my family adventuring. My daughter turns five in a few months and my son just turned one. I tagged along this weekend with my neighbor and a group of his friends that he camps with often, and they were extremely welcoming and it was great to be thrown headfirst into the world of off-roading as my only other experience with the Off-Roadeo in Austin.

Our group consisted of two fairly built out 4Runners, a 2-Door JL Rubicon, a 4-Door JL Sahara, a Z71 Trailboss, and my Badlands Bronco. For airdown I dropped the Bronco to 21 PSI on the 35" M/T Goodyears and this worked very nicely.

I was not quite prepared for how fast the group would fly through the wash and I had NO idea how useful those damn chase lights are. I know now exactly why folks install them.

I put the Badlands into Baja mode, though since I was not quite prepared to go full bore sand was probably more appropriate. I did stick with Baja though (mostly so my cameras would stay in off-road mode), and simply moved from drive to manual and picked my gears with 3rd gear being a perfect spot to hang at lower speeds and 5th gear being as far as I needed to go. That 2.7 SCREAMs out on the sand and I was laughing my ass of every time I punched it. Absolutely zero regrets on picking this engine.

**My daughter absolutely loved flying through the wash. She was giggling the entire time**

We made camp off Olla wash, had some killer smoked ribs and "cardiff crack" tri-tip and set off towards the mud caves the next morning taking the route up Diablo Drop-Off. It was quite the sight watching other folks approach it and one in our group in a 4Runner had to back off since a skid plate had worked loose. Both 4Runners ended up bypassing, and we watched someone in a fairly built out Ranger break a CV attempting to go up which was not hugely confidence inspiring.

The Z71 powered up an easier path. The Rubicon and Sahara show me the route up the obstacle the Ranger failed at. I put the Bronco into Rock Crawl mode with 1-Pedal Driving activated, leaving consistent throttle applied and the Bronco walked up most of it. I did engage the front locker also about halfway through just to be safe but that was probably unnecessary. I have GoPro MAX footage of the obstacle I've not yet processed and will post in an update. The Bronco drew a crowd for sure, no pressure right?

After going through the drop-off we hit the Mud Caves for some exploration, ate our lunch and made our way back to camp. It was a night of pizza, beer, and campfires which was just flat out amazing. The next morning camp was down by 1030 after some girthy breakfast burritos and we were home by 2PM where I gave Bronco (she needs a name) a nice rinse. I'll take hosing off sand wash over mud any day.

What worked well:

• The hardware! - The Badlands + Sasquatch didn't stutter whatsoever, no funny business with electronics or anything of the sort
• The cargo area security drawer is CLUTCH. It was awesome to have organized storage hard mounted to the vehicle even when all of my camping equipment was unloaded. When we set out to play it was nice to still have this

What didn't work so well:

• Cargo capacity: just me and my kiddo filled the entire vehicle with stuff. I certainly need to minimize a few things, but boy did that thing fill up quickly. I will be looking at a shelf to mount on top of the spare tire as my next purchase. Getting the long items (tent poles, etc) out of the cargo area would open up alot of room.
• Not having a vehicle mounted HAM radio, the Baofeng handheld just didn't have the range the other guys have. It did get the job done though
• Not yet having OnXOffroad integrated into Carplay, and my spare Android Auto refused to display it as well. I know Gaia would have worked but I had not yet bought a subscription to download maps.
• The soft top management gets old, and its hard if your packing the vehicle throughly to keep objects in the rear from rubbing against the windows on the inside. If camping is going to be a regular winter thing. I think I will keep my soft top for months when its too hot to camp, and eventually transition to a hard top later on, though I'm not keen on needing a place to store a hard top. My garage is OUT of room.

Closing thoughts:

I am so happy with the Bronco, and my impulsive decision to buy it. Nearly all passion for cars had died for me a long time ago so this has been a great experience. The group I was lucky to run with was so welcoming and friendly. Lastly, I understand why people put so many damn lights on their vehicles.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Revising my participation on B6G

 

[FTBronco9]

11/8 After Action Report
Destination: Ocotillo Wells / Olla Wash / Mud Caves
Odometer: 1829Mi

Summary:

Part of picking up this vehicle was to take my family adventuring. My daughter turns five in a few months and my son just turned one. I tagged along this weekend with my neighbor and a group of his friends that he camps with often, and they were extremely welcoming and it was great to be thrown headfirst into the world of off-roading as my only other experience with the Off-Roadeo in Austin.

Our group consisted of two fairly built out 4Runners, a 2-Door JL Rubicon, a 4-Door JL Sahara, a Z71 Trailboss, and my Badlands Bronco. For airdown I dropped the Bronco to 21 PSI on the 35" M/T Goodyears and this worked very nicely.

I was not quite prepared for how fast the group would fly through the wash and I had NO idea how useful those damn chase lights are. I know now exactly why folks install them.

I put the Badlands into Baja mode, though since I was not quite prepared to go full bore sand was probably more appropriate. I did stick with Baja though (mostly so my cameras would stay in off-road mode), and simply moved from drive to manual and picked my gears with 3rd gear being a perfect spot to hang at lower speeds and 5th gear being as far as I needed to go. That 2.7 SCREAMs out on the sand and I was laughing my ass of every time I punched it. Absolutely zero regrets on picking this engine.

**My daughter absolutely loved flying through the wash. She was giggling the entire time**

We made camp off Olla wash, had some killer smoked ribs and "cardiff crack" tri-tip and set off towards the mud caves the next morning taking the route up Diablo Drop-Off. It was quite the sight watching other folks approach it and one in our group in a 4Runner had to back off since a skid plate had worked loose. Both 4Runners ended up bypassing, and we watched someone in a fairly built out Ranger break a CV attempting to go up which was not hugely confidence inspiring.

The Z71 powered up an easier path. The Rubicon and Sahara show me the route up the obstacle the Ranger failed at. I put the Bronco into Rock Crawl mode with 1-Pedal Driving activated, leaving consistent throttle applied and the Bronco walked up most of it. I did engage the front locker also about halfway through just to be safe but that was probably unnecessary. I have GoPro MAX footage of the obstacle I've not yet processed and will post in an update. The Bronco drew a crowd for sure, no pressure right?

After going through the drop-off we hit the Mud Caves for some exploration, ate our lunch and made our way back to camp. It was a night of pizza, beer, and campfires which was just flat out amazing. The next morning camp was down by 1030 after some girthy breakfast burritos and we were home by 2PM where I gave Bronco (she needs a name) a nice rinse. I'll take hosing off sand wash over mud any day.

What worked well:

• The hardware! - The Badlands + Sasquatch didn't stutter whatsoever, no funny business with electronics or anything of the sort
• The cargo area security drawer is CLUTCH. It was awesome to have organized storage hard mounted to the vehicle even when all of my camping equipment was unloaded. When we set out to play it was nice to still have this

What didn't work so well:

• Cargo capacity: just me and my kiddo filled the entire vehicle with stuff. I certainly need to minimize a few things, but boy did that thing fill up quickly. I will be looking at a shelf to mount on top of the spare tire as my next purchase. Getting the long items (tent poles, etc) out of the cargo area would open up alot of room.
• Not having a vehicle mounted HAM radio, the Baofeng handheld just didn't have the range the other guys have. It did get the job done though
• Not yet having OnXOffroad integrated into Carplay, and my spare Android Auto refused to display it as well. I know Gaia would have worked but I had not yet bought a subscription to download maps.
• The soft top management gets old, and its hard if your packing the vehicle throughly to keep objects in the rear from rubbing against the windows on the inside. If camping is going to be a regular winter thing. I think I will keep my soft top for months when its too hot to camp, and eventually transition to a hard top later on, though I'm not keen on needing a place to store a hard top. My garage is OUT of room.

Closing thoughts:

I am so happy with the Bronco, and my impulsive decision to buy it. Nearly all passion for cars had died for me a long time ago so this has been a great experience. The group I was lucky to run with was so welcoming and friendly. Lastly, I understand why people put so many damn lights on their vehicles.

Sounds like an amazing trip!

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Revising my participation on B6G

 

[Blue's B6G]

Nice Kodiak tent, love setting that beast up in 10 minutes like a gangster.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Nice Kodiak tent, love setting that beast up in 10 minutes like a gangster.

Almost the whole crew had them, and since I had taken a recommendation from them it made quite the sales photo eh?

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Revising my participation on B6G

 

[Big50]

Sounds like a fun trip. Space has been my biggest concern. I plan to get a hard top as soon as possible. Having a roof rack to through the tent and sleeping bags up there will free up a lot of room.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Revising my participation on B6G

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Revising my participation on B6G

 

[JediMcMuffin]

No pictures, but my wife and I road-tripped from San Diego up to Paso Robles this weekend for my 40th birthday. In Eco mode the Bronco was tracking 18.9MPG (I have a 2.7L). Even better puttering around Paso Robles visting wineries, and our driver we hired for the day was pretty delighted to be driving around a Bronco.

Currently at ~5500 miles, and my 2.7L is still intact.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Revising my participation on B6G

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