Off-Rodeo TX Oct 30th

[UNBROKN]

This is going to be a short post with a few pictures.
Flight in on American was horrible. We ended up in Dallas instead of Austin and drove down. We arrived at our hotel at 3am. We had to cancel our original rental and pay more for the replacement. That was the bad part.
Now for the GREAT part. If you have not gone to an Off-Rodeo, YOU NEED TO GO!!!. I know lots of people have said this, but I will say it again. This place is beautiful.

Entrance

Base Camp

McKenna, Mike, Amy (L to R), and the amazing view.

We ended up with 4 guides for our group because there were a few cancellations and they took us out in one group instead of two. We had 12 Broncos in our group. Mike (Hammer) runs the whole thing and he was our main guide. We also had his wife Amy (Ace) along with Jessica (Hollywood) and McKenna (Big Mac -she is barely a buck but has a huge personality). The experience would have been great, but the four of them made it one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life, EVER. I had a close friend and his son with me. the two of us traded driving throughout the day. He plans to get a Bronco later, but I think the experience moved up his timeline significantly.

The way the guides handled everything was unbelievable. Ace gave us all directions for each main obstacle. We all started most every obstacle with the differentials open and only locked them when we had to... under the guides direction. This really showed us how capable our Broncos are. I was very excited because there was only one time that we used both lockers. I know that I can conquer most obstacles (that I would attempt) with just the rear lockers on my BD. I have done a small amount of driving off-road but there were people there that had done NONE. They were given the confidence they needed by the guides to overcome the obstacles.
There were a couple of situations where the "pucker factor" was high for those of us with little or no experience.
OK, now the features.
We drove a Wildtrak. We Loved It!!

No Sta-bar disconnect, so few comments on that. Saw the other vehicles taking full advantage and it looks pretty awesome.
Trail Control Assist- This feature is one of the coolest things I have seen. The hill we went down was so steep and rocky and rutted that I thought we could tip over at any point. The bronco crawled down with no trouble. A few slips, a few slides and a couple of times a rear tire was off the ground about 6-8 inches. On a hill of 60 degrees or more, that gets hairy.
On a couple of the rock obstacles, drivers did not lock the diffs unless the driver got "stuck" or took a bad line (sometimes rear, sometimes front). On "Two Step", we came to the bottom of the rock and then locked both under Ace's direction. After that, we drove up the rock that had the Bronco at a roughly 70-80 degree angle going up for a moment, then over the top.
After we finished the places we were driving, We all got to take a ride with Mike in the FE (his Baby) around the off-road track. We never got over "29mph"... This was a blast. Then it was time for dinner and to head out.
I cannot stress enough how fantastic our guides were. We talked to Mike for an hour after the event was over and he is one of the coolest people I have met. It amazes me how they can do this job for 12-14 hours per day 5 days a week and still show the enthusiasm for the participants that they do. By the way, they only started 5 days a week recently and were doing this 7 days a week for about 4 to 5 months.
The Bronco- this thing is a BEAST. We were blown away by the way that it handled off-road in every situation. We had the newest vehicle there. It was Race Red. I loved the color and knew that would have been fine for me if I had to take it, it was my second choice. Our Bronco had 191 miles when we started and we finished with almost 198. It does not seem like a lot, but it really was. If you are running anything less than 35's, plan to scrape your skid plates a lot.

Notice in the picture how much gas is in it and how many miles to empty. It cracks me up when people on this site complain about the gas mileage.
Again, I can't even begin to express my appreciation for the way this whole day was handled.
Thanks @Ford Motor Company, Bronco Off-Rodeo TX,Mike, Amy, Jessica, and McKenna!

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[DefNotBuddyLee]

Glad you had fun. I agree that all of the staff there are top notch. Sorry your travels into Texas were not so hot, though.
I have to ask, because I had gotten an email about Halloween stuff for the day you were there. I also happened to go for a dealer event earlier in the week while there was some prep, but was curious if they went through with anything special since you had such a small group. I know there was talk about someone dressing up as a squatch and running through the trails while groups were off-roading and other stuff in the evening.

 

[UNBROKN]

Glad you had fun. I agree that all of the staff there are top notch. Sorry your travels into Texas were not so hot, though.
I have to ask, because I had gotten an email about Halloween stuff for the day you were there. I also happened to go for a dealer event earlier in the week while there was some prep, but was curious if they went through with anything special since you had such a small group. I know there was talk about someone dressing up as a squatch and running through the trails while groups were off-roading and other stuff in the evening.

Several people working there dressed up. Amy was dressed as a Mechanic "Grease Monkey". McKenna was dressed as a Coyote. Amy did dress as a Sasquatch while we ate dinner and for a bit after. A few others there dressed up too.

All good as far as our travels go. Seems par for the course right now with all the airlines. Avis was great on the rental in Dallas. Super nice people at the counter. Had to call them before drop-off to make sure of location and stuff. Had a person on the phone within 3 minutes and they were apologizing for the long delay. Hertz is horrible. I am trying to get my cancellation fee back but I doubt I will. It was not my fault that we had to go to a completely different city. We got there. I have ALWAYS loved TX and if I did not live in Va, I would be there.

 

[TX_Bronco77]

This is going to be a short post with a few pictures.
Flight in on American was horrible. We ended up in Dallas instead of Austin and drove down. We arrived at our hotel at 3am. We had to cancel our original rental and pay more for the replacement. That was the bad part.
Now for the GREAT part. If you have not gone to an Off-Rodeo, YOU NEED TO GO!!!. I know lots of people have said this, but I will say it again. This place is beautiful.

Entrance

Base Camp

McKenna, Mike, Amy (L to R), and the amazing view.

We ended up with 4 guides for our group because there were a few cancellations and they took us out in one group instead of two. We had 12 Broncos in our group. Mike (Hammer) runs the whole thing and he was our main guide. We also had his wife Amy (Ace) along with Jessica (Hollywood) and McKenna (Big Mac -she is barely a buck but has a huge personality). The experience would have been great, but the four of them made it one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life, EVER. I had a close friend and his son with me. the two of us traded driving throughout the day. He plans to get a Bronco later, but I think the experience moved up his timeline significantly.

The way the guides handled everything was unbelievable. Ace gave us all directions for each main obstacle. We all started most every obstacle with the differentials open and only locked them when we had to... under the guides direction. This really showed us how capable our Broncos are. I was very excited because there was only one time that we used both lockers. I know that I can conquer most obstacles (that I would attempt) with just the rear lockers on my BD. I have done a small amount of driving off-road but there were people there that had done NONE. They were given the confidence they needed by the guides to overcome the obstacles.
There were a couple of situations where the "pucker factor" was high for those of us with little or no experience.
OK, now the features.
We drove a Wildtrak. We Loved It!!

No Sta-bar disconnect, so few comments on that. Saw the other vehicles taking full advantage and it looks pretty awesome.
Trail Control Assist- This feature is one of the coolest things I have seen. The hill we went down was so steep and rocky and rutted that I thought we could tip over at any point. The bronco crawled down with no trouble. A few slips, a few slides and a couple of times a rear tire was off the ground about 6-8 inches. On a hill of 60 degrees or more, that gets hairy.
On a couple of the rock obstacles, drivers did not lock the diffs unless the driver got "stuck" or took a bad line (sometimes rear, sometimes front). On "Two Step", we came to the bottom of the rock and then locked both under Ace's direction. After that, we drove up the rock that had the Bronco at a roughly 70-80 degree angle going up for a moment, then over the top.
After we finished the places we were driving, We all got to take a ride with Mike in the FE (his Baby) around the off-road track. We never got over "29mph"... This was a blast. Then it was time for dinner and to head out.
I cannot stress enough how fantastic our guides were. We talked to Mike for an hour after the event was over and he is one of the coolest people I have met. It amazes me how they can do this job for 12-14 hours per day 5 days a week and still show the enthusiasm for the participants that they do. By the way, they only started 5 days a week recently and were doing this 7 days a week for about 4 to 5 months.
The Bronco- this thing is a BEAST. We were blown away by the way that it handled off-road in every situation. We had the newest vehicle there. It was Race Red. I loved the color and knew that would have been fine for me if I had to take it, it was my second choice. Our Bronco had 191 miles when we started and we finished with almost 198. It does not seem like a lot, but it really was. If you are running anything less than 35's, plan to scrape your skid plates a lot.

Notice in the picture how much gas is in it and how many miles to empty. It cracks me up when people on this site complain about the gas mileage.
Again, I can't even begin to express my appreciation for the way this whole day was handled.
Thanks @Ford Motor Company, Bronco Off-Rodeo TX,Mike, Amy, Jessica, and McKenna!

I have a habit of missing the obvious so forgive me if I am wrong, but I swear that reads 193.5 mi on the vehicle and with more than 3/4 tank only 60 mi to E? That doesn't seem right but I'll be damned if that's not what I took from this picture.

I'm not worried about fuel economy in the Bronco my DD is a Mustang but am perplexed by the readout on that dash.

 

[UNBROKN]

I have a habit of missing the obvious so forgive me if I am wrong, but I swear that reads 193.5 mi on the vehicle and with more than 3/4 tank only 60 mi to E? That doesn't seem right but I'll be damned if that's not what I took from this picture.

I'm not worried about fuel economy in the Bronco my DD is a Mustang but am perplexed by the readout on that dash.

No, you did not miss anything. We drove less than 7 miles that day and we were in 4 low the whole time. That Bronco has spent most of its life on the trail. If my math is right, It has been there less than a month.
If you are considering going, you need to go. I bet the weather in TX for the Off-Rodeo will be awesome throughout the winter. I would love to go back in Feb or Mar.

 

[TX_Bronco77]

No, you did not miss anything. We drove less than 7 miles that day and we were in 4 low the whole time. That Bronco has spent most of its life on the trail. If my math is right, It has been there less than a month.
If you are considering going, you need to go. I bet the weather in TX for the Off-Rodeo will be awesome throughout the winter. I would love to go back in Feb or Mar.

Gotcha I kinda figured it had something to do with what gear it was in, but I'll admit it I am not well versed in 4x4's since I was more into sports cars growing up. And I would love to go since I live near Houston but I really, really want the first Bronco I drive to be mine.

 

[UNBROKN]

Gotcha I kinda figured it had something to do with what gear it was in, but I'll admit it I am not well versed in 4x4's since I was more into sports cars growing up. And I would love to go since I live near Houston but I really, really want the first Bronco I drive to be mine.

I was blown away by those numbers too. We had to ask and then once we asked, it was like a light bulb, and then... duuuuh, I should have known that, LOL. Kinda like your sports cars, if you were running them at the track and could see the average mpg, it would be much lower while on the track. Logical, but we did not use logic when we were so excited to be there.
It is cool that you are so close. Get your Bronco and then go. I get that you want your Bronco to be your first. Have you gotten a VIN yet? If so, waiting would be good. If not, go drive as many as you can so you can see whether you want to make changes. I am getting a BD first week of December. I drove 3 at different dealerships, a Wildtrak (awesome!), a Big Bend SAS (awesome!), and a Badlands (really good). I guess the gearing on the Wildtrak and SAS are better than the gearing on the Badlands. All had 2.7 automatic. I am still happy with my choice of a BD with a hard top. Best bang for the buck. All that I test drove had soft tops and were much more quiet than I expected.
They have 2 years left on a 3 year contract in TX. Take someone with you! Especially someone that would enjoy it (my wife and my friends wife would have hated it). You can film each other while doing the obstacles. It is also nice to have another person in the truck with you as a spotter while going to the next obstacle. Some of those places were T.I.G.H.T! Rear lockers are a must for the off-roading we did down there. Fronts were only "required" once all day. I think we could have done the obstacle with just rears, but better to be safe than sorry... and follow the direction of the spotters/event leaders.
I mounted a dash cam to the windshield using 3m strips and then took them out when we left. They were fine with me putting it in there.
I was not expecting my refund for my portion until after I got my Bronco. I got it yesterday.
At the Off-Rodeo, We drove a Wildtrak SAS all day, but I got to drive the FE they had. That big screen in there is great.
I can't stress to people how freakin' awesome it was. My said it was worth EVERY penny.

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