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Just completed a trip from Madison, AL to Moab, UT and back that covered a total of 3849.2 miles. Made the journey in my 2021 4dr Ford Bronco First Edition along with my wife and daughter.
Notable places visited:
- Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, TX
- Petrified Forrest and Painted Desert in Arizona
- Desert View Tower on the south rim of the Grand Canyon
- Monument Valley, UT
- Moab, UT (Bronco Off Rodeo and Arches National Park)
- Marble, CO to Crystal Mill trail (more on that below)
- Lawrence, KS and O'Fallon, IL (former duty station) on the way home
The good:
- Bronco is an INCREDIBLE road trip vehicle! Super comfortable and very easy to drive. Even let my wife drive several hours and she was amazed at how easy it was to drive.
- Gas mileage over the whole trip was 19.3. Not bad in my estimation as I was not going easy on the throttle at all
- Off Rodeo was outstanding! Can't recommend it highly enough. These machines can do incredible things, way beyond what I would have normally been comfortable with.
- Met a lot of great people across what is still a great and beautiful country
- Beautiful tent camping at the Grand Canyon.
- A little noisy inside (compared to a fixed roof vehicle) but not horrible at all.
- Zero water leaks from the roof
- Engine was flawless!
- DIY shelf I built after finding out about on this forum worked beautifully! I attached from anchors around the edges and netted all the cargo down with carabiners. Easy way to keep things secure and organized.
- Swing gate table (@JcrOffroad ) worked very well. Made a very handy shelf moving things in and out and never rattled!
The not so good:
- TWO punctured tires as we completed the ~10 mile round trip on the Marble to Crystal Mill trail. Was worth it but a pain in the ass getting fixed in the very small town of Marble, CO. All the locals were great though and very helpful is taking care of me and my family. Lesson learned: Air down your tires and have onboard air available (my ARB twin compressor is now on order)! I left way too much air in my tires for that trail and finding air in that very small town was a challenge.
- Cracked windshield that will have to be replaced. Some yahoo went off the payment to fly by me through a small town in Utah. Heard a large impact from one of his rocks but didn't see any damage. When I got home, I checked the glass closely and noticed a divot in the black part of the glass to the left and in the corner in front of the driver. That divot also has a crack that runs to the edge so it cannot be repaired, the whole thing has to be replaced
- Had an odd thing at a couple of stops where the vehicle said it couldn't detect my key even though I was sitting in the seat holding the key. The fix was to walk away from the vehicle (maybe 10 ft) and return. After that, no problem.
- Gas prices! Ouch.
- Wireless Apple CarPlay would occasionally fail to connect or drop the connection. Only happened 3-4 times.
Bottom line: This rig is a beast and so much fun! Watch out for those tires and the windshield though
Notable places visited:
- Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, TX
- Petrified Forrest and Painted Desert in Arizona
- Desert View Tower on the south rim of the Grand Canyon
- Monument Valley, UT
- Moab, UT (Bronco Off Rodeo and Arches National Park)
- Marble, CO to Crystal Mill trail (more on that below)
- Lawrence, KS and O'Fallon, IL (former duty station) on the way home
The good:
- Bronco is an INCREDIBLE road trip vehicle! Super comfortable and very easy to drive. Even let my wife drive several hours and she was amazed at how easy it was to drive.
- Gas mileage over the whole trip was 19.3. Not bad in my estimation as I was not going easy on the throttle at all
- Off Rodeo was outstanding! Can't recommend it highly enough. These machines can do incredible things, way beyond what I would have normally been comfortable with.
- Met a lot of great people across what is still a great and beautiful country
- Beautiful tent camping at the Grand Canyon.
- A little noisy inside (compared to a fixed roof vehicle) but not horrible at all.
- Zero water leaks from the roof
- Engine was flawless!
- DIY shelf I built after finding out about on this forum worked beautifully! I attached from anchors around the edges and netted all the cargo down with carabiners. Easy way to keep things secure and organized.
- Swing gate table (@JcrOffroad ) worked very well. Made a very handy shelf moving things in and out and never rattled!
The not so good:
- TWO punctured tires as we completed the ~10 mile round trip on the Marble to Crystal Mill trail. Was worth it but a pain in the ass getting fixed in the very small town of Marble, CO. All the locals were great though and very helpful is taking care of me and my family. Lesson learned: Air down your tires and have onboard air available (my ARB twin compressor is now on order)! I left way too much air in my tires for that trail and finding air in that very small town was a challenge.
- Cracked windshield that will have to be replaced. Some yahoo went off the payment to fly by me through a small town in Utah. Heard a large impact from one of his rocks but didn't see any damage. When I got home, I checked the glass closely and noticed a divot in the black part of the glass to the left and in the corner in front of the driver. That divot also has a crack that runs to the edge so it cannot be repaired, the whole thing has to be replaced
- Had an odd thing at a couple of stops where the vehicle said it couldn't detect my key even though I was sitting in the seat holding the key. The fix was to walk away from the vehicle (maybe 10 ft) and return. After that, no problem.
- Gas prices! Ouch.
- Wireless Apple CarPlay would occasionally fail to connect or drop the connection. Only happened 3-4 times.
Bottom line: This rig is a beast and so much fun! Watch out for those tires and the windshield though
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