Another TFL viewer recently came to Tumbleweed Ranch for an awesome episode of Dude, I Love (Or Hate) My Ride. TJ stopped by with his 2-door Ford Bronco Badlands (with the 2.3L and a manual transmission!) while on a trip with his wife in Colorado and wanted to tackle our difficult pond off-road course.
Check out this Bronco!
Before hitting the trail, Roman wanted to look at how TJ had set up his rig. The truck is mostly stock, but he did add a winch to the front bumper, along with some ditch lights. The real goodies are in the trunk, where TJ homemade a custom fridge and stove slide-outs and a table mounted to the rear tailgate.
Hitting The Trail
As always, our test started with Dirty Deed, a deep mud pit that acts as the entrance to our course. The Bronco didn’t break a sweat getting through the first obstacle. Navigating around David’s Foley was not quite as easy. The short wheelbase of the 2-door Bronco helped, but because this Bronco Badlands is equipped with the 7-speed manual transmission, it loses the turn assist feature that we have on our long-term First Edition Bronco. TJ still had to throw it in reverse to get around the bend, but it didn’t take the same number of maneuvers as some of the vehicles we’ve tested.
More Momentum!
Next was the Slip and Slide, our steepest (34-degree) hill climb. TJ has been off-roading for about 20 years and has spent lots of time in Suzukis (like our old Samurai). You could tell he was used to using momentum to get him over obstacles as he took the climb with lots of slides, hopping his way up the hill. Still, the Bronco looked controlled the whole way up.
To my surprise, TJ made it through Cottonwood Creek without getting stuck and made it look easy! Once again, his momentum helped carry him through the mud. This was the first vehicle that made it through without a winch in several weeks! Tommy’s Demise was still in the way of the finish line, and as you can tell from some of the photos, the Bronco didn’t make it all the way through our Pond Course under its own power. Check out the latest episode of TFLoffroad to see the latest misadventure and to find out how we got TJ un-stuck! And as always, head to AllTFL.com so you don’t miss any of our Tumbleweed Ranch off-road videos.
