Took my Badlands to Barnwell Mountain in Texas

[GreyZ]

I spent this past weekend camping and wheeling in Barnwell Mountain OHV Park in Gilmer TX. I took my 4 door badlands non-SAS and my brother brought his lifted GX470 on 32s. Barnwells maps system is not the greatest, but we used a combination of the Maprika app and OnX and the signs to keep track of what trail and the difficulty. Their rating is a 1-5 system and both the Bronco and GX were solid 2-3 capable.
We were both running 16 lbs in the tires and felt that the KO2s did great. On one trail called Binder Boulevard I dropped pretty hard on my rear right bumper and got a solid dent, but thankfully the parking sensor survived.
There was a 3 that neither of us could climb out of due to a couple of 24" vertical ledges. We both lacked to the approach angle to get the front tires near the ledge to climb, and I am pretty certain that even if I pushed the front up on the skid plate, I would not have the breakover to get the rear tires anywhere close.

The GX even on smaller tires has a full 3" more ground clearance, so he used his skid plates much less than I did. Mine took an absolute beating, but the only bend/dent was on the transmission cross braces that hang down. I spent alot of time rear locked, and had to front lock in ~10 places to make climbs. The GX has advancetrac that did wonders for him with a bit of the skinny pedal.

There was about 2" of rain on friday morning, but the trails dried super fast and weren't slick Friday afternoon. It helped keep the Texas dust down a bit on Friday. By Saturday it was extremely dusty and covered everything.

We camped out at the "Camp Mabey" and were the only ones at that camp, even though the park was packed in the open areas. We ran into very few people on the trails we ran surprisingly. We definitly plan to return. Here are the pics.

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[GreyZ]

 

[scotman623]

Great pictures and looks like you guys had fun.. Great seeing you get the most out of your Bronco!!!!No mall crawler.

 

[Bikeric]

I've had some great fun at Barnwell. Here are some of my pics from last years Toyota Jamboree. I'm still cleaning red dirt out of my 4Runner!! You can see me in about the middle of the big group if you zoom in.

 

[GreyZ]

I've had some great fun at Barnwell. Here are some of my pics from last years Toyota Jamboree. I'm still cleaning red dirt out of my 4Runner!! You can see me in about the middle of the big group if you zoom in.

That is a super clean 1st Gen. That looks like a blast. Do they close the park to the public that weekend for the Jamboree? That would be really cool to see if not.

 

[Bikeric]

That is a super clean 1st Gen. That looks like a blast. Do they close the park to the public that weekend for the Jamboree? That would be really cool to see if not.

Yes, they close the park to the Public and only allow Registered participants. IIRC it was $175 for 4 days of wheeling, 4 NICE dinners and the final day Raffle. It was supposed to be only Toyota or Lexus, but a 2-door B6G was there with the BRONCO lettering replaced with TOYOTA on the grill.

 

[ChrisB351]

Ive been to BMRA probably a dozen times in my old Jeep. Binder is tough, I know exactly where youre talking about on that drop. My Jeep was a 13 JKU sahara with take off rubicon shocks/springs on 34" tires so maybe 2-3" of lift. No lockers or any assisted features and it took on all the 3s and a few 4s never got stuck. Ive been wanting to take the Bronco out there but Im still afraid of the damages. I dented a door, smashed both side steps, bent a diff cover causing a leak, popped a tire, and a bunch of scratches on my Jeep.

 

[swooshdave]

I spent this past weekend camping and wheeling in Barnwell Mountain OHV Park in Gilmer TX. I took my 4 door badlands non-SAS and my brother brought his lifted GX470 on 32s. Barnwells maps system is not the greatest, but we used a combination of the Maprika app and OnX and the signs to keep track of what trail and the difficulty. Their rating is a 1-5 system and both the Bronco and GX were solid 2-3 capable.
We were both running 16 lbs in the tires and felt that the KO2s did great. On one trail called Binder Boulevard I dropped pretty hard on my rear right bumper and got a solid dent, but thankfully the parking sensor survived.
There was a 3 that neither of us could climb out of due to a couple of 24" vertical ledges. We both lacked to the approach angle to get the front tires near the ledge to climb, and I am pretty certain that even if I pushed the front up on the skid plate, I would not have the breakover to get the rear tires anywhere close.

The GX even on smaller tires has a full 3" more ground clearance, so he used his skid plates much less than I did. Mine took an absolute beating, but the only bend/dent was on the transmission cross braces that hang down. I spent alot of time rear locked, and had to front lock in ~10 places to make climbs. The GX has advancetrac that did wonders for him with a bit of the skinny pedal.

There was about 2" of rain on friday morning, but the trails dried super fast and weren't slick Friday afternoon. It helped keep the Texas dust down a bit on Friday. By Saturday it was extremely dusty and covered everything.

We camped out at the "Camp Mabey" and were the only ones at that camp, even though the park was packed in the open areas. We ran into very few people on the trails we ran surprisingly. We definitly plan to return. Here are the pics.

Do you think a couple more inches of clearance from the Sasquatch would have made a difference?

 

[GreyZ]

Ive been to BMRA probably a dozen times in my old Jeep. Binder is tough, I know exactly where youre talking about on that drop. My Jeep was a 13 JKU sahara with take off rubicon shocks/springs on 34" tires so maybe 2-3" of lift. No lockers or any assisted features and it took on all the 3s and a few 4s never got stuck. Ive been wanting to take the Bronco out there but Im still afraid of the damages. I dented a door, smashed both side steps, bent a diff cover causing a leak, popped a tire, and a bunch of scratches on my Jeep.

We couldn't get up Jeepy Hollow on either climb out. We ended up having to go back and climb out CM Drive/ Old Town Trio. That was the rated 3 that neither of us could climb. Errosion may be playing a role here, but some of the vertical ledges proved pretty challenging with the low belly clearance. We mangaged to avoid body panal damage just going slow and spotting alot. There were some guys out there just absolutely sending it up some stuff in Jeeps with skinny pedal habits borrowed from I10 altima drivers.

 

[GreyZ]

Do you think a couple more inches of clearance from the Sasquatch would have made a difference?

Significantly less on the skidplate usage, and would have made some of the interesting ledges a bit easier. I do not think it would have helped with the bumper scrape. That was a huge hole that that back right tire fell into. A better line that involved a bit of reversing and shifting after the front dropped may have helped, but I am not sure.

 

[swooshdave]

Significantly less on the skidplate usage, and would have made some of the interesting ledges a bit easier. I do not think it would have helped with the bumper scrape. That was a huge hole that that back right tire fell into. A better line that involved a bit of reversing and shifting after the front dropped may have helped, but I am not sure.

When in doubt blame the spotter!

 

[GreyZ]

I have the video of the spotter calling out “no worries, just your hitch dragging”. When both he and I knew it was not my hitch.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I really like the GX as a platform, I might need to get one when my wife’s lease is up on the Tacoma.

 

[ChrisB351]

We couldn't get up Jeepy Hollow on either climb out. We ended up having to go back and climb out CM Drive/ Old Town Trio. That was the rated 3 that neither of us could climb. Errosion may be playing a role here, but some of the vertical ledges proved pretty challenging with the low belly clearance. We mangaged to avoid body panal damage just going slow and spotting alot. There were some guys out there just absolutely sending it up some stuff in Jeeps with skinny pedal habits borrowed from I10 altima drivers.

The local Jeep club was there this weekend. Probably some of my old buddies you saw.

 

[GreyZ]

I really like the GX as a platform, I might need to get one when my wife’s lease is up on the Tacoma.

My wife and I heavily cross shopped a used GX460 to the Bronco before we settled on the bronco. They are wildly capable with a small lift and cutting the side steps off and have significantly more belly ground clearance than the bronco. The tow rating is also so much better with the GX than the Bronco. The top off, looks, and mpg for the Bronco won out but it was a very close decision.

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