- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
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- Location
- Huntsville, AL
- Vehicle(s)
- 2022 Bronco
- Your Bronco Model
- Badlands
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- #1
Hey guys,
I just got back from a 3200 mile round trip road trip to Moab, UT from Alabama for the off-rodeo. I thought I’d write up my experiences from the whole trip for others that have already planned or are thinking about doing the same. I’m going to divide this up into 3 posts. The first will focus on the Off-Roadeo, the second on Moab, and the third on the road trip.
First I want to talk about the value of the off-roadeo experience in general. It cost me a small fee ($31 I think) plus $150 for my wife after the discount from Ford due to the continued delays. So about $180 total. Upon arrival at the off-roadeo me and my wife each received a custom logo’d 18oz Yeti bottle (which would run about $50 each) plus an off-roadeo carabiner (one per group not per person) with some high quality stickers (I’d say the stickers run about $4 each based on what I paid for similar products at the national parks). So right away you are given about $120 worth of free merch for a 2 person party. We also got a picnic lunch out on the trail, plus a nice dinner buffet upon arrival back from the trail. So 4 free meals, which I’d say was worth about another $40 total for 2 people conservatively. That’s $160 of tangible value without even talking about “the experience”. All for $180. Wow.
The trail we conquered was Dome Plateau Trail, an actual off-road trail open to anyone. Moab is apparently the only off-roadeo location without a specially curated trail for the event, which probably has its pros and cons, but we all thought it was cool.
Our view during lunch:
One of our pit stops took us by La Boca Arch. We had it all to ourselves for some quick photo-ops.
A few notes on what to bring. We brought water bottles, but as I said before you are given some upon arrival, and the guides pack extra water for bottle refills. We also packed snacks, but your bronco is also stocked with snacks. You are also fed lunch and dinner, so you don’t need to bring much. Here’s something that should have been obvious but wasn’t for us: You spend all day on the trail in the middle of nowhere so there are no bathrooms. Obviously not really a problem for men, but my wife wasn’t prepared. Having said that, once again, our trail guides WERE prepared with both TP and plastic bags so that you can pack out what you pack in. Having said that, you might want to prepare, just in case.
Part of my motivation for writing this up is that the Bronco Nation video showing the Moab Off-Roadeo, while a good hype video, doesn’t do a good job of showing some of the cool obstacles. My go-pro died while on this trip, so me and my wife were torn with how to film some of the obstacles because we both wanted to experience the obstacles in the vehicle but we also wanted to get some footage from outside the vehicle. Here are a few clips:
So here is how our time on the trail worked. Basically you start in 4L, and approach obstacles and try them in 4L. Then the guides sort of walk you through some logic on what tools you can use to clear the obstacle and you sort of try them one by one until you are successful. After a few introductory obstacles you pretty much left your Sway Bar disconnected and chose your “base setup” then it’s up to you how to tackle obstacles. You can ask for help, suggestions, spots, whatever you need on the radio. Bronco “tools” on the trail in order of how much I liked them (not including lockers):
In summary I’d rate my experience a 10 out of 10, an A+ or the top score of whatever grading scale you want to use. Me and my wife were blown away, and she enjoyed driving off-road way more than she ever would have thought. I doubt she’d have ever tried it if not in a pseudo-controlled environment like the off-roadeo. Our guides, Jeff and Jason, were great, and you can hear some of the banter in the videos above. Very knowledgeable guys.
Bonus pic: Some of you probably remember the pictures of the tires from the Austin Off-roadeo. I took this picture of a tire on one of the Moab broncos. I asked one of our guides if this was normal and he replied, “oh yes”. He said that this bronco had been running the trail for about 3 months, and that this is what soft tires look like after rock crawling. Harder compound tires won’t look as bad, but won’t grip as well either. Anyway, I thought this was interesting.
I just got back from a 3200 mile round trip road trip to Moab, UT from Alabama for the off-rodeo. I thought I’d write up my experiences from the whole trip for others that have already planned or are thinking about doing the same. I’m going to divide this up into 3 posts. The first will focus on the Off-Roadeo, the second on Moab, and the third on the road trip.
First I want to talk about the value of the off-roadeo experience in general. It cost me a small fee ($31 I think) plus $150 for my wife after the discount from Ford due to the continued delays. So about $180 total. Upon arrival at the off-roadeo me and my wife each received a custom logo’d 18oz Yeti bottle (which would run about $50 each) plus an off-roadeo carabiner (one per group not per person) with some high quality stickers (I’d say the stickers run about $4 each based on what I paid for similar products at the national parks). So right away you are given about $120 worth of free merch for a 2 person party. We also got a picnic lunch out on the trail, plus a nice dinner buffet upon arrival back from the trail. So 4 free meals, which I’d say was worth about another $40 total for 2 people conservatively. That’s $160 of tangible value without even talking about “the experience”. All for $180. Wow.
The trail we conquered was Dome Plateau Trail, an actual off-road trail open to anyone. Moab is apparently the only off-roadeo location without a specially curated trail for the event, which probably has its pros and cons, but we all thought it was cool.
Our view during lunch:
One of our pit stops took us by La Boca Arch. We had it all to ourselves for some quick photo-ops.
A few notes on what to bring. We brought water bottles, but as I said before you are given some upon arrival, and the guides pack extra water for bottle refills. We also packed snacks, but your bronco is also stocked with snacks. You are also fed lunch and dinner, so you don’t need to bring much. Here’s something that should have been obvious but wasn’t for us: You spend all day on the trail in the middle of nowhere so there are no bathrooms. Obviously not really a problem for men, but my wife wasn’t prepared. Having said that, once again, our trail guides WERE prepared with both TP and plastic bags so that you can pack out what you pack in. Having said that, you might want to prepare, just in case.
Part of my motivation for writing this up is that the Bronco Nation video showing the Moab Off-Roadeo, while a good hype video, doesn’t do a good job of showing some of the cool obstacles. My go-pro died while on this trip, so me and my wife were torn with how to film some of the obstacles because we both wanted to experience the obstacles in the vehicle but we also wanted to get some footage from outside the vehicle. Here are a few clips:
So here is how our time on the trail worked. Basically you start in 4L, and approach obstacles and try them in 4L. Then the guides sort of walk you through some logic on what tools you can use to clear the obstacle and you sort of try them one by one until you are successful. After a few introductory obstacles you pretty much left your Sway Bar disconnected and chose your “base setup” then it’s up to you how to tackle obstacles. You can ask for help, suggestions, spots, whatever you need on the radio. Bronco “tools” on the trail in order of how much I liked them (not including lockers):
- Trail control – probably the most jaw dropping feature for me. We’ve all seen it in videos but when you see it in work, live, behind the wheel you sort of can’t believe how easy it makes everything. I used it on one of the gnarlier rock climbs and when we were done I showed my wife that I had my foot off the gas the entire time and she couldn’t believe it.
- Trail turn – it saved us from at least one multi-point turn. It’s not a gimmick.
- One pedal – I really liked one pedal, but I don’t have it ranked higher because I’m scared that if I only learn to off road in one pedal mode, that when I jump into someone else’s rig I won’t know what I’m doing. I think I’m going to learn two pedal first then move to one pedal mode.
- Sway Bar disconnect – so after doing one trail, if I was on the fence about getting a badlands because I really wanted the built-in sway bar disconnect I wouldn’t worry about it based on this trip. I’d be totally fine disconnecting it manually before the trail and then reconnecting after wheeling all day. But you will definitely want to add a manual disconnect if you don't have a badlands.
- GOAT Modes – I’m not ready to write this feature off, but right now I’m not quite sure I get it. It felt easier to me to adjust my settings manually on the fly rather than switching to a GOAT mode. In fact, it would take longer to scroll through the GOAT modes than it would to just tap the sway bar disco and rear locker. That’s probably less of a knock on GOAT modes, and more of a praise on how fast you can switch settings manually. The instructors were also trying to teach manual operation so that they could explain what each thing does, and once you get used to manual, you sort of feel like you don’t need GOAT modes.
In summary I’d rate my experience a 10 out of 10, an A+ or the top score of whatever grading scale you want to use. Me and my wife were blown away, and she enjoyed driving off-road way more than she ever would have thought. I doubt she’d have ever tried it if not in a pseudo-controlled environment like the off-roadeo. Our guides, Jeff and Jason, were great, and you can hear some of the banter in the videos above. Very knowledgeable guys.
Bonus pic: Some of you probably remember the pictures of the tires from the Austin Off-roadeo. I took this picture of a tire on one of the Moab broncos. I asked one of our guides if this was normal and he replied, “oh yes”. He said that this bronco had been running the trail for about 3 months, and that this is what soft tires look like after rock crawling. Harder compound tires won’t look as bad, but won’t grip as well either. Anyway, I thought this was interesting.
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. We ended up eating at the Flying Fish, which was good but nothing spectacular. On our way back we skipped spending the night in Memphis and iron manned it all the way to Alabama.
