Rock Crawling Ranger

[Tracy Bowman]

Yes I was down to 22 lbs and had the terrain management set to normal. I tried gravel but didn't notice and really difference so I just set it back to normal. The trial control worked great when going over the larger rocks.

All the pictures above are from the second trail. The first one (Schnebly Hill Rd) was so bad I just wanted to get out of there and only took a couple when we were at the top which was the easiest part. It was one of those where every corner you were praying it was the last and then there was another stretch.

You can come in from either the highway or the center of Sedona. Most people come in from the center of Sedona then you go up about 7 miles and stop and come back down. We came in from the highway which is 13 miles long but the first 5-6 miles is mostly a smooth fire road. There are some great views and I've heard that the sunsets are great from there but I wasn't going back up to find out. lol

Snoopy Rock.

Cathedral Rock

Beautiful pictures!

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[AzScorpion]

Beautiful pictures!

Thanks! We've been there many times and every time the scenery still amazes me. There's a church built into the side of the mountain (Chapel of the Holy Cross) which was build in 1956. It's one of the first sights you see when coming into Sedona and we stop there every time.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

At the beginning of Schnebly, Broken Arrow, and Dry Creek, there are now high rock berms that filter out low clearance vehicles.

Hi RR,

Pretty much confirms keeping cars off these trails. We did Schnebly from center of town up to I 17 and then freeway back to town and dinner...just a nice drive. Oh Well...glad we did it when we could.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[catfishfingers]

Hi Dave,

Wonder if Pink Jeeps got tired of seeing passenger cars on Schnebly and convinced local gov't to let it deteriorate.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

I wouldn't be surprised. They always seemed to have contempt for us non pink-jeepers, like never backing off the trail in a tight spot even if it would be easier for them. Oh well, that always made for a good opportunity for us to show off our rigs and driving to their passengers lol. I remember one of their drivers chiding us when we had the hub apart on my buddy's 1st gen 4Runner for a trail fix, we made sure to catch up to that guy and thank him for his 'kindness' when we got rolling again. Granted I can see why they would be upset, charging all that $ for a tour in a "hard-core offroader" and then a bunch of high school kids (at the time) come rolling through in a near stock 4x4 tackling the same obstacles without breaking a sweat!

 

[AzScorpion]

I wouldn't be surprised. They always seemed to have contempt for us non pink-jeepers, like never backing off the trail in a tight spot even if it would be easier for them. Oh well, that always made for a good opportunity for us to show off our rigs and driving to their passengers lol. I remember one of their drivers chiding us when we had the hub apart on my buddy's 1st gen 4Runner for a trail fix, we made sure to catch up to that guy and thank him for his 'kindness' when we got rolling again. Granted I can see why they would be upset, charging all that $ for a tour in a "hard-core offroader" and then a bunch of high school kids (at the time) come rolling through in a near stock 4x4 tackling the same obstacles without breaking a sweat!

I ran into more than a few pink Jeeps that day and was surprised they weren't rude and a trail hog like usual. I even had 2 of them pull off to the side when we were coming towards them instead of their usual come straight at you routine. Maybe they have had complaints against them from the Chamber in town? Definitely a big difference from a couple years back when we rented a side x side and they wouldn't move an inch for you. Although with that I didn't care as it was a rental and if they wanted to play chicken by all means I'm game! ?

 

[charwest]

I’m with you on that one. I have no complaints on ride quality with my FX4. I’ve driven a non-FX4 as well and I couldn’t feel a noticeable difference even while looking for it. My truck is way smoother and more comfortable than my father-in-law’s Taco, he even admitted it last week!

We second that. My wife and I are not truck people. Or weren’t anyways.. this is our first truck and we have no complaints about the ride, and we’re comparing it to a hatchback and a minivan. Although we did notice it feels even better with about 300 lbs of junk in the bed and more junk in the cab. Though it’s a minor improvement.

 

[charwest]

Very interesting video. I would be interested to see how the Trail Control would have done down that staircase, though. It did amazingly well for a completely stock vehicle, though!

My wife and I did broken arrow today (Sedona, in the video above) in our stock ranger, stock tires. We are not experienced off-road drivers at all and would not have tried without having seen that video. That video has some history with us- it made us more confident in buying the ranger vs the taco (our original plan). At the time, we said we would never do a trail like that but the video made us more confident that it would handle the isolated off-road and logging roads we like to do when camping.

after playing around Death Valley last week (lippincott trail) we felt a little more sporty, and we figured we would try broken arrow since we were passing through Sedona anyways.

Well, we made it. Can’t say I made it look pretty. The skid plate under the driver took multiple hits but nothing is damaged and we then cruised around town and are camping in the hills enjoying the sunset in our daily driver

Anyways- to comment on trail control on the steps. I also thought that was going to be a good idea. And the comments on the YouTube video above asked the same thing repeatedly. But in practice I chose against it. First, with our minimal clearance there is a mandatory rock I need to hit with my right wheel starting the steps. And you can’t see it from the drivers seat, so I had to inch forward slowly to start this super steep drop with my wife spotting below. I’m confident I would have damaged the car if I didn’t start the drop on that rock in the beginning.

So anyways I put it in trail control at 1mph, but it seemed like the ranger just kind of sat there and would get hung up on the upper steps before it goes into the drop. I would let go of the brake and it wouldnt predictably go. And I would have to gas it a little and then it would lunge forward and I was worried I would get into that upper section going too quickly to control the descent. Eventually I felt like I had more control with the brake at least on that steep a descent grade but it wasn’t smooth and I probably knocked the skids four or five times on the way down.

 

[RedlandRanger]

My wife and I did broken arrow today (Sedona, in the video above) in our stock ranger, stock tires. We are not experienced off-road drivers at all and would not have tried without having seen that video. That video has some history with us- it made us more confident in buying the ranger vs the taco (our original plan). At the time, we said we would never do a trail like that but the video made us more confident that it would handle the isolated off-road and logging roads we like to do when camping.

after playing around Death Valley last week (lippincott trail) we felt a little more sporty, and we figured we would try broken arrow since we were passing through Sedona anyways.

Well, we made it. Can’t say I made it look pretty. The skid plate under the driver took multiple hits but nothing is damaged and we then cruised around town and are camping in the hills enjoying the sunset in our daily driver

Anyways- to comment on trail control on the steps. I also thought that was going to be a good idea. And the comments on the YouTube video above asked the same thing repeatedly. But in practice I chose against it. First, with our minimal clearance there is a mandatory rock I need to hit with my right wheel starting the steps. And you can’t see it from the drivers seat, so I had to inch forward slowly to start this super steep drop with my wife spotting below. I’m confident I would have damaged the car if I didn’t start the drop on that rock in the beginning.

So anyways I put it in trail control at 1mph, but it seemed like the ranger just kind of sat there and would get hung up on the upper steps before it goes into the drop. I would let go of the brake and it wouldnt predictably go. And I would have to gas it a little and then it would lunge forward and I was worried I would get into that upper section going too quickly to control the descent. Eventually I felt like I had more control with the brake at least on that steep a descent grade but it wasn’t smooth and I probably knocked the skids four or five times on the way down.

Interesting - thanks for the info. BTW, if you put it into 4 low you can get it down to a half MPH - in low range it is .5 - 10 MPH in .5 MPH increments - in high range is is 1-20 MPH in 1 MPH increments. I wonder if .5 MPH would have been any better? You can still brake when TC is enabled, so if you needed to stop for something you could and when you let up it would take over again. I was just curious if TC might have helped with braking down those steps. Many of the videos showing people sliding down the hill a bit.

 

[charwest]

Interesting - thanks for the info. BTW, if you put it into 4 low you can get it down to a half MPH - in low range it is .5 - 10 MPH in .5 MPH increments - in high range is is 1-20 MPH in 1 MPH increments. I wonder if .5 MPH would have been any better? You can still brake when TC is enabled, so if you needed to stop for something you could and when you let up it would take over again. I was just curious if TC might have helped with braking down those steps. Many of the videos showing people sliding down the hill a bit.

Maybe, not sure. I thought I was in 4L, but maybe I switched back to 4H and didn’t realize it. 4L definitely smooths out the ride for the steep up and down crawls. I’ll have to try that and see if it gets down to 0.5, but the main learning point is that if I was inadvertently in 4H that may have been the problem, regardless of my TC set speed. The increased torque and transmission friction would have been welcome.

That said, I don’t think anything would stop all slippage. It’s so darn steep and the rocks are smooth from thousands of people sliding down them it would be impressive to have a truly controlled descent. As is often mentioned- those videos do not do a good job presenting how steep the obstacles are.

 

[charwest]

Interesting - thanks for the info. BTW, if you put it into 4 low you can get it down to a half MPH - in low range it is .5 - 10 MPH in .5 MPH increments - in high range is is 1-20 MPH in 1 MPH increments. I wonder if .5 MPH would have been any better? You can still brake when TC is enabled, so if you needed to stop for something you could and when you let up it would take over again. I was just curious if TC might have helped with braking down those steps. Many of the videos showing people sliding down the hill a bit.

update: finally got around to checking. when i am in 4L my trail control still only goes down to 1 mph lowest increment.

 

[RedlandRanger]

update: finally got around to checking. when i am in 4L my trail control still only goes down to 1 mph lowest increment.

Hmmm, I wonder if something changed. I remember them talking about that at length in all the early videos about features - 0-20 MPH in 1 MPH increments in 4H and 0-10 MPH in .5 MPH increments in 4L.

Are you sure you had 4L actually engaged? (you have to put it in N to engage 4L, not just move the dial to 4L). I may go experiment to see what mine does.

 

[charwest]

Hmmm, I wonder if something changed. I remember them talking about that at length in all the early videos about features - 0-20 MPH in 1 MPH increments in 4H and 0-10 MPH in .5 MPH increments in 4L.

Are you sure you had 4L actually engaged? (you have to put it in N to engage 4L, not just move the dial to 4L). I may go experiment to see what mine does.

yup. im sure.
dont make me doubt myself a THIRD time

 

[RedlandRanger]

yup. im sure.
dont make me doubt myself a THIRD time

I will go experiment with mine later today and let you know what I find.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I will go experiment with mine later today and let you know what I find.

So I went out today and found that I can do .5 MPH increments in 4L, but the lowest I can go is 1 MPH. Next notch is 1.5 MPH, etc. In 4H it starts at 1 MPH and goes up in 1 MPH increments. Here is mine showing a 1.5 MPH setting.

 

[Jms81661]

I l



I looked closely at the FX4 package and decided against it for a couple of reasons. First of all, I do a lot of off-roading but it is almost all on dirt roads and forest roads which have usually been graded in the last 5-10 years. We have a lot of steep climbs here in the mountains, but plain old 4wd with the rear traction-lock is more than enough for my requirements. And the downside of the FX4 package is the highway ride that everyone complains about.

Lastly, I think most guys are just paying for the FX4 fender-sticker for vanity purposes, because we all know that about 90% of these little trucks will never ever leave the pavement.

Agreed on a your points. I went with the XLT and I off road the hell out of this thing every weekend. Hasn't let me down. Except I'm tired of turning around, waiting on arrival of new intrusion bars to squeeze some 33's on it. Then no more turning around.

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