I sat in a Badlands manual during the dealer roadshow, I'm pretty sure I remember the manual springing back into the 3-4 gate when left in neutral.
Great write up on the manual experience.So they had a manual in the mix at the Off-Roadeo, there were 12 Broncos in our group and nobody wanted to drive it. Day 1 I said I would if I had to but would rather have an auto because that's what I ordered and wanted to have my first experience driving a 2021 to be in that. They went ahead a swapped it out for me. The second day I was like why not and I drove the manual. I got to lead the group both days, Bronco 1 in group 1 of the first day for customers, so that's cool! Driving the manual went so much better than I thought it would so I wanted to share that experience.
First some background: I have quite a bit of time off-road in a manual. My first Bronco, an 89, was a manual and I've been out to the local rock park quite a bit. So in my previous experience, off-roading a manual was a TON of work. There is one particular trail that has big rocks spread a few feet apart running several hundred yards through tight trees. The rocks are large enough that you have to throttle over most but are spread out such that you can't maintain any speed through the trees. Getting through this trail involved using the clutch about 1000 times. My calf hurts just thinking about it...
Now to yesterday and the 2021 manual. So the first trail was a run-off wash with a few knee deep water holes and decent sized rocks spread throughout. I started off in 1st (not Crawl), 4 low, sta-bar disconnected, front and rear unlocked. I touched the clutch once to get in gear, after that I wheeled that entire trail without ever needing the clutch. It crawled through effortlessly. I was averaging 1.5 to 2 mph @ 1k rpm and only had to use very small amounts of throttle to maintain that over obstacles. There were several slightly-technical uphills and downhills later in the day that I used 1st instead of Crawl was fine. First was very low and I felt like I had enough speed control for most anything you'd see in general trail riding. I could start from a standstill in 2nd with very little feathering and even used it on several mild uphills and didn't stall.
Crawl gear was just that, a Crawl, less than .5 mph. Definitely don't plan on carrying any speed in crawl, it is LOW. LOADS of torque, it ate-up the rocks. I could literally crawl over most obstacles with almost 0 throttle and rarely had to use clutch on even technical sections. I made the comment to our guide that it felt like driving a tractor, so low and torque-y. It was everything it needed to be.
Down hill was super controlled (in any gear). The engine breaking is out of the world. On average downhills it slowed all the way down to like 1500 rpms, it was amazing.
Given it was the first time driving THIS vehicle (and anyone who has driven a manual knows they're all different) and it was in an off-road situation, I think I only killed it like 3 or 4 times all day. In most cases if I would have went into the obstacle locked I wouldn't have had an issue. We were trying to show the capabilites and the Bronco so the general train of thought was go in with as little as possible then enable features as needed.
The shift pattern was fairly tight so I had to hunt for the gears a bit but that comes with time in the seat. Not using the lock-ring on Crawl got me a couple of times and I ended up in 2nd.
On the Baja track I was in 4-high and second gear. I was averaging 15-30 mph (the speed limit was 25 but I pushed it a tiny bit). It was powering through the curves like a boss, no power issues with the 2.3L in my opinion. Again, loads of torque.
Overall I was blown away and would not hesitate to recommend the manual. There wasn't a single case where I felt it made things more difficult that I wouldn't attribute to familiarity. If I had a few weeks behind the wheel it would have been smooth as butter.
Personally I still would rather have the auto for a few reasons: First, I'm lazy and too old to be stepping on the clutch at every stop light. Second, the 2.7 is a BEAST. I don't think the 2.3 is underpowered by any means, but that 2.7, wow... Third, the technology that you miss out on is a shame. The trail control and the turn assist are AMAZING, AMAZING.
So I'm sure I missed something, please feel free to ask questions.
Note: This pic is from the first day, not the manual.
1) It was a non-sas Badlands, standard package.
One of the most informative manual write ups. Much appreciatedSo they had a manual in the mix at the Off-Roadeo, there were 12 Broncos in our group and nobody wanted to drive it. Day 1 I said I would if I had to but would rather have an auto because that's what I ordered and wanted to have my first experience driving a 2021 to be in that. They went ahead a swapped it out for me. The second day I was like why not and I drove the manual. I got to lead the group both days, Bronco 1 in group 1 of the first day for customers, so that's cool! Driving the manual went so much better than I thought it would so I wanted to share that experience.
First some background: I have quite a bit of time off-road in a manual. My first Bronco, an 89, was a manual and I've been out to the local rock park quite a bit. So in my previous experience, off-roading a manual was a TON of work. There is one particular trail that has big rocks spread a few feet apart running several hundred yards through tight trees. The rocks are large enough that you have to throttle over most but are spread out such that you can't maintain any speed through the trees. Getting through this trail involved using the clutch about 1000 times. My calf hurts just thinking about it...
Now to yesterday and the 2021 manual. So the first trail was a run-off wash with a few knee deep water holes and decent sized rocks spread throughout. I started off in 1st (not Crawl), 4 low, sta-bar disconnected, front and rear unlocked. I touched the clutch once to get in gear, after that I wheeled that entire trail without ever needing the clutch. It crawled through effortlessly. I was averaging 1.5 to 2 mph @ 1k rpm and only had to use very small amounts of throttle to maintain that over obstacles. There were several slightly-technical uphills and downhills later in the day that I used 1st instead of Crawl and was fine. First was very low and I felt like I had enough speed control for most anything you'd see in general trail riding. I could start from a standstill in 2nd with very little feathering and even used it on several mild uphills and didn't stall.
Crawl gear was just that, a Crawl, less than .5 mph. Definitely don't plan on carrying any speed in crawl, it is LOW. LOADS of torque, it ate-up the rocks. I could literally crawl over most obstacles with almost 0 throttle and rarely had to use clutch on even technical sections. I made the comment to our guide that it felt like driving a tractor, so low and torque-y. It was everything it needed to be.
Down hill was super controlled (in any gear). The engine breaking is out of the world. On average downhills it slowed all the way down to like 1500 rpms, it was amazing.
Given it was the first time driving THIS vehicle (and anyone who has driven a manual knows they're all different) and it was in an off-road situation, I think I only killed it like 3 or 4 times all day. In most cases if I would have went into the obstacle locked I wouldn't have had an issue. We were trying to show the capabilites and the Bronco so the general train of thought was go in with as little as possible then enable features as needed.
The shift pattern was fairly tight so I had to hunt for the gears a bit but that comes with time in the seat. Not using the lock-ring on Crawl got me a couple of times and I ended up in 2nd.
On the Baja track I was in 4-high and second gear. I was averaging 15-30 mph (the speed limit was 25 but I pushed it a tiny bit). It was powering through the curves like a boss, no power issues with the 2.3L in my opinion. Again, loads of torque.
Overall I was blown away and would not hesitate to recommend the manual. There wasn't a single case where I felt it made things more difficult that I wouldn't attribute to familiarity. If I had a few weeks behind the wheel it would have been smooth as butter.
Personally I still would rather have the auto for a few reasons: First, I'm lazy and too old to be stepping on the clutch at every stop light. Second, the 2.7 is a BEAST. I don't think the 2.3 is underpowered by any means, but that 2.7, wow... Third, the technology that you miss out on is a shame. The trail control and the turn assist are AMAZING, AMAZING.
So I'm sure I missed something, please feel free to ask questions.
Note: This pic is from the first day, not the manual.
