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This past Sunday my wife and I headed up to run Holcomb Creek Trail with a few of our buddies from So Cal Broncos and a couple of my co-workers from ICON. In addition to just having a fun day on the trails, my wife and I were continuing the benchmarking series on your YouTube channel, for testing the off-road performance limits of the Cheapest Bronco You Can Buy™ (2-door Base non-Squatch, 2.3L 7-speed manual, $28,500 MSRP). Each time we've stepped it up a bit higher on the difficulty level, and with Holcomb Creek I think we've found the limit of what I'm comfortable tackling with it, without further modifications. For those who would like to skip right to the video here it is. But after that I go much further in-depth about what's going on, for anyone who's interested.
The summary is that the stripper Bronco is surprisingly capable, once you've solved the main issue they have when they're factory-fresh, which is the dismal ground clearance afforded by the stock pizza cutter tires. The lower shock mounts hang down so far below the rear axle, and the frame mount for the lower control arms robs you of a lot of breakover clearance. So adding a lift and some 35's solves that issue. So technically it's no longer the Cheapest Bronco You Can Buy™, but if you're going to be venturing off-road at all you should probably at least upgrade the tires anyhow. At any rate, just getting the thing a little higher off the ground makes doing rocky trails like these a possibility.
The other big elephant in the room is the lack of lockers. Anyone who's watched our videos so far knows that we treat that as a challenge rather than a hindrance. It's actually pretty fun, in my opinion, trying to "solve the puzzle", so to speak, of getting the Bronco through an obstacle even with that handicap. You have to choose your lines differently than someone with lockers, trying to keep both tires planted as much as possible, even if that puts the rig off-camber.
One of the neat things about the non-locked differentials though, is that the traction control still seems to work on occasion. As you'll see in the video, sometimes if you just stay in it, keep the hammer down, the computer will eventually figure out that the un-gripped tire is spinning and apply a bit of brake to it, which helps to transfer power to the other wheel. You can see that happening in several instances in the video.
Also of interest to some is the 7-speed manual transmission, and how it handles working through rock gardens like these. I'll admit I prefer an auto. I find them much easier to control, especially on slippery rocks like these where, without much traction and lack of lockers, you're often using momentum more than crawling. So it gets a bit herky-jerky at times. I suppose to some it probably looks like a continuous wreck as I crash it through those rocks. It does look that way but most of that was intentional, and for the most part it usually went where I was trying to get it to go. But I will say this, if you get the manual transmission and want to do this type of wheeling, get the pre-paid maintenance plan through your Ford dealer, like I did. It comes with clutch replacements any time they're needed, not just at certain intervals.
The 2.3L engine has been both praised and panned in these pages. But I continue to be impressed with it, and I have other 4X4's with fire-breathing V8's. It has plenty of power, even to turn those 35's. It can pull the weight of the Bronco up any grade it can get enough traction on. But the power doesn't come right off-idle. It's a bit higher in the RPM band. Sometimes you'll see in the video as I wind it up a bit before dropping the hammer. Which also contributes a bit to the jerky-ness of working through rocks like these. But the power is there, and I'm getting better at learning how to use it. By the way, the Crawl gear of the 7-speed works well in concert with the 2.3L, as it lets you get up into that power band at lower speeds.
You might have seen in our other videos that we've tackled a few different types of terrain so far. Holcomb Creek is different that any of the other trails we've tested it on so far, in that the rocks are round and slippery (they were a lot more jagged and grippy on Gold Mountain). Plus it's winter time and there's ice in the water pools between them. So traction, or lack of it, really is the determining factor on a trail like this. I probably should have aired down further than I did. I only went down to 18 PSI. With the bead retention properties of the ICON Rebound Pros I could have safely gone way lower than that. But I was thinking that I needed the ground clearance more than I needed the increased contact patch, in those boulder fields.
As you'll see in the video we did eventually reach a hard limit. I did have to pull some cable near the end of the toughest rock garden. I was pleased with how far I was able to get before I had to hook up though. But I think we've found the limits of wheeling without lockers. I still encourage anyone with one of these non-Squatch Broncos, who feels confident in their driving, to take it out and see what it can do. Just be careful, use your best judgement, and wheel with friends so you can get some assistance if needed. You should NOT attempt a trail like this alone.
Here are a few pics but they're not the best since we were usually filming video during the best parts rather than still shots.
The summary is that the stripper Bronco is surprisingly capable, once you've solved the main issue they have when they're factory-fresh, which is the dismal ground clearance afforded by the stock pizza cutter tires. The lower shock mounts hang down so far below the rear axle, and the frame mount for the lower control arms robs you of a lot of breakover clearance. So adding a lift and some 35's solves that issue. So technically it's no longer the Cheapest Bronco You Can Buy™, but if you're going to be venturing off-road at all you should probably at least upgrade the tires anyhow. At any rate, just getting the thing a little higher off the ground makes doing rocky trails like these a possibility.
The other big elephant in the room is the lack of lockers. Anyone who's watched our videos so far knows that we treat that as a challenge rather than a hindrance. It's actually pretty fun, in my opinion, trying to "solve the puzzle", so to speak, of getting the Bronco through an obstacle even with that handicap. You have to choose your lines differently than someone with lockers, trying to keep both tires planted as much as possible, even if that puts the rig off-camber.
One of the neat things about the non-locked differentials though, is that the traction control still seems to work on occasion. As you'll see in the video, sometimes if you just stay in it, keep the hammer down, the computer will eventually figure out that the un-gripped tire is spinning and apply a bit of brake to it, which helps to transfer power to the other wheel. You can see that happening in several instances in the video.
Also of interest to some is the 7-speed manual transmission, and how it handles working through rock gardens like these. I'll admit I prefer an auto. I find them much easier to control, especially on slippery rocks like these where, without much traction and lack of lockers, you're often using momentum more than crawling. So it gets a bit herky-jerky at times. I suppose to some it probably looks like a continuous wreck as I crash it through those rocks. It does look that way but most of that was intentional, and for the most part it usually went where I was trying to get it to go. But I will say this, if you get the manual transmission and want to do this type of wheeling, get the pre-paid maintenance plan through your Ford dealer, like I did. It comes with clutch replacements any time they're needed, not just at certain intervals.
The 2.3L engine has been both praised and panned in these pages. But I continue to be impressed with it, and I have other 4X4's with fire-breathing V8's. It has plenty of power, even to turn those 35's. It can pull the weight of the Bronco up any grade it can get enough traction on. But the power doesn't come right off-idle. It's a bit higher in the RPM band. Sometimes you'll see in the video as I wind it up a bit before dropping the hammer. Which also contributes a bit to the jerky-ness of working through rocks like these. But the power is there, and I'm getting better at learning how to use it. By the way, the Crawl gear of the 7-speed works well in concert with the 2.3L, as it lets you get up into that power band at lower speeds.
You might have seen in our other videos that we've tackled a few different types of terrain so far. Holcomb Creek is different that any of the other trails we've tested it on so far, in that the rocks are round and slippery (they were a lot more jagged and grippy on Gold Mountain). Plus it's winter time and there's ice in the water pools between them. So traction, or lack of it, really is the determining factor on a trail like this. I probably should have aired down further than I did. I only went down to 18 PSI. With the bead retention properties of the ICON Rebound Pros I could have safely gone way lower than that. But I was thinking that I needed the ground clearance more than I needed the increased contact patch, in those boulder fields.
As you'll see in the video we did eventually reach a hard limit. I did have to pull some cable near the end of the toughest rock garden. I was pleased with how far I was able to get before I had to hook up though. But I think we've found the limits of wheeling without lockers. I still encourage anyone with one of these non-Squatch Broncos, who feels confident in their driving, to take it out and see what it can do. Just be careful, use your best judgement, and wheel with friends so you can get some assistance if needed. You should NOT attempt a trail like this alone.
Here are a few pics but they're not the best since we were usually filming video during the best parts rather than still shots.
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if I saw you out there I’d offer you free beers my friend.
