Trip Report: SD-to-SD (San Diego to South Dakota)

[jakej]

My wife and I just completed the kind of trip I dreamed about since the day I put in my Bronco resv. (week #1). We traveled from San Diego to South Dakota towing our 3,200 lb. pop-up tent trailer. Other than 2 nights hotel to clean-up/stock-up, we camped in National Parks, Forests, or State Parks every night. It was our first long-range camping trip with more to come.

As others have posted, the Bronco tows well. The Eco 2.7 has plenty of power up grades, and seems solid braking and downhill. We got nearly 19mpg towing (I kept to 65 mph, other than coasting down big grades).

Here are some stats and pictures:
- 12 National Parks/Forests/Monuments or State Parks visited
- 8 states traveled to/within
-13 state lines crossed
- 4,357 miles driven
-237 gallons of gas ($856)
- 18.8 MPG (most of that with trailer!)
- 19 days / 18 nights (only 2 in hotels)
- 2 windshield cracks
- 3 hood dents from hail
- 25+ camper roof dents from hail
- 1 concert (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs @ Red Rocks)
- 100s of great memories

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[scotman623]

Thanks for sharing, Looks like you had an amazing time.

 

[Prkelly]

glad you had an awesome adventure. I am surprised and happy to see the MPG you got

 

[nabronco21]

Looked like an awesome adventure!! I hope to do something like that in the future.

 

[Compta38]

looks awesome! we just got back from a Badlands, Custer and Devils Tower trip. It's a truly spectacular part of the US especially coming from a guy who has never left the southeast. We didn't get to drive it as the wife could only use a week of vacation and we didn't want to spend it on the road but still had a blast. Was in an 80 degrees hike one day and shin high snow the next.

Hope you stopped at Wall Drug for the amazing doughnuts and .05c coffee. I think I ate a dozen myself in just a couple trips!

 

[jakej]

glad you had an awesome adventure. I am surprised and happy to see the MPG you got

I was happy with MPG too. On trips, over 65mph seems to be a big break point on MPG. With out the trailer I've gotten 23-24 mpg if I keep it below 70. With still near $5/gal in CA it's worth going just a little slower.

 

[jakej]

looks awesome! we just got back from a Badlands, Custer and Devils Tower trip. It's a truly spectacular part of the US especially coming from a guy who has never left the southeast. We didn't get to drive it as the wife could only use a week of vacation and we didn't want to spend it on the road but still had a blast. Was in an 80 degrees hike one day and shin high snow the next.

Hope you stopped at Wall Drug for the amazing doughnuts and .05c coffee. I think I ate a dozen myself in just a couple trips!

Yep, hit Wall Drug for the coffee. My first trip to Black Hills, but won't be my last.

 

[MayhemMike]

Hail is what I fear the most as it pertains to my Bronco. Specifically, out west hail. What a fantastic trip.

 

[desibull]

Oh what a trip!! My dream to do such a trip with my wife. Just curious, what is the make of the camper? I hear Turtleback is out of business.

 

[IDyeti]

Awesome trip!

Who did you see at Red Rocks?

 

[4LifeBronco]

Fellow San Diegan here

Congrats on the trip! Would love to know what pop up tent you are using?

 

[HotLap]

Wow, looks like you had a great trip! Exactly what I want to do in the near term, thank you for sharing

 

[TheShark]

Looks like a helluva trip...except for the hail!

 

[PKE956]

Awesome!! What is the make/model of your trailer?

 

[jakej]

Hail is what I fear the most as it pertains to my Bronco. Specifically, out west hail. What a fantastic trip.

Yea, good news/bad news on flat aluminum hood: Bad news is easy to dent w/ hail. Good news is body shop says they will be easy to pop-out via PDR process. We have soft-top, so didn't need to worry about roof damage. Presume the hard-tops will not have issues either.

Fortunately, we hit the road as soon as the big hail started so only got 3 hood dents. Our trailer, which was already set-up must have close to 50 little dents.

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