New Hampshire Off-Roadeo In-Depth Experience - Part 2 Curriculum

Laura

I loved reading this write-up and Part 1 as well, Buzzy! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and some really helpful tips. The shuffle steering and mirror and seat adjustment (higher makes seeing so much easier) will help a lot of people when they go into this themselves.

The prep beforehand you created for yourself was a great idea -- I found myself thankful for all of Jordan and Jon's videos detailing where certain controls were when I first got in one. Walking into Off-Roadeo that much more confident of placement probably helped clear some space to focus on other details. Very cool plan.

BuzzyBud

I just remembered one more important detail I want to share!
As the convoy prepared to tackle a major obstacle, such as climbing up a granite cliff, we would receive the message via our walkie talkies to engage front and rear lockers. The climb would take time and some students would shut off their engines to watch and take pics.
It is important to remember when your have your front and rear lockers engaged and then shut off your engine, once you restart the engine only the rear lockers are engaged!
Luckily the instructors caught one student who forgot to check and a mishap was avoided!
Lesson learned?!

BuzzyBud

First off, if you read nothing else, please read this paragraph. I my view, you need to attend an Off-Roadeo event. Our journey to owning a Bronco has been challenging and you owe yourself the moments of shear joy you experience throughout the day. You will be surrounded by highly motivated existing and future Bronco owners who all want to live a day when we are totally immersed in Bronco knowledge. You also have a responsibility to your Bronco. It is a uniquely special vehicle, and you need to know how to safely drive off road if that is your goal. The coaches understand the Bronco and know how to teach the skills you will need.

Curriculum

Throughout the day, it was clear to me the program was skillfully crafted to fill the allotted 10 hour. Each component of the agenda became an important prerequisite to the activities which would follow. The learning can be intense and key aspects may be quickly forgotten if you are not careful. My goal in Part 2 is to describe very specific actions I took in preparation and how these actions might help you.

I will admit, this was my first time driving any vehicle off road. That can feel intimidating, but do not let that happen. In many ways, newbies like me do not bring the baggage of incorrect learning into the lesson. We tend to be extra attentive since the knowledge can be all new. I like to think of the process as growing new brain cells. Tiring at times, but highly rewarding.

To help minimize the potential for data overload, you might consider the following activities.

• Locate a demo Bronco in your location and spend time understanding how it works. You will need to know how to utilize the manual (M) selection on the gear shifter and how to manually move the transmission up and down through the gears. You will need to learn how to engage and disengage the electronic parking brake, front, and rear locking differentials, stay bar disconnect (if present), trail turn assist, and one pedal drive.
• To enhance your enjoyment, spend time in advance in your demo Bronco learning all the seat adjustments. You will be spending hours in your Bronco and will be exhausted if you have not made the proper adjustments.
• Understand in advance several concepts covered during the day. Some off-road drivers will use their outside rear view mirrors to aid in monitoring the rear tires. They will adjust the mirrors down and back to capture the front section of the rear tires. You may not use this technique during the day but knowing the concept could serve to minimize data overload.
• You may hear the concept of “Shuffle Steering” and how it can be helpful during off-road driving. (I will attach a YouTube video further down to help.) If you understand the concept you may want to try the technique on the trails.
• You will spend time traveling in a convoy. It can be helpful to the group if you understand the basis skills needed to execute this style of travel.
• If you happen to be curious like me, you will have learning in your demo Bronco how to manipulate the digital cluster and locate the Off-Road screen. I found it fascinating to know my degree of decent on one section of the mountain. My Bronco was at a 22 percent decline, which felt exciting!
• My Bronco was not equipped with the trail cam. If you learn more about that feature, you will use the knowledge!
• One trail we utilized in the afternoon was called the Cobble trail. We would encounter dirt bike riders and walkers. Not many, but some. (I have attached a YouTube video which captures scenes of Cobble trail as utilized by dirt bike riders.)
• To aid in vehicle-to-vehicle communications, walkie talkies were in each Bronco. Since our group of students was large, we divided into two groups. One group utilized channel 1 and the other channel 2. I was in group 2 which consisted of 7 vehicles and two instructors. One as lead and one as sweep. A classic convoy structure.

I sense the curriculum at each Off Roadeo location has basic similarities but is tailored to the differences in the trail characteristics. New Hampshire is mostly rocks and trees, lots of rocks and trees. At certain times of the year, you can also have mud. Lots of mud. Realize the rocks vary in size and shape. Small fist size rocks to shear granite cliffs. The challenge you will encounter is the shifting design of the trails. As vehicles travel over these rocks, they can shift and radically change the line you might chose to safely pass over an obstacle. This is challenging to both the students and the instructor.


Here we see the Agenda used by New Hampshire Off-Roadeo. This was reviewed during the initial orientation.
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Over the course of the day, the instructors would ask our group specific questions. Those who answer correctly, were awarded a sticker. Yippie!
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During registration, we each received the following and used it to attach our stickers.
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Here we see the first section of the ORX Training Course. Lots of great information concerning how Broncos are built as well as how that impacts our off-road driving.
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As we progressed through each of the OBX stations, drivers would be switched so everyone had a chance to get behind the wheel. Those who were not driving would observe and learn each skill and the Bronco features which were activated to make the obstacle appear minimal.
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In this image the driver is activating the front lockers, but not the rear lockers. I found the reasons for this action to be fascinating and used this approach a couple times during the afternoon trail ride.
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Here we witnessed a vehicle side tilt. The driver was wide-eyed, but we all learned the capabilities of the Bronco.
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Here you see an image of the Off-Road screen in the digital cluster. I enjoyed this screen as we were ascending and descending the mountain. It can also be helpful during extreme side tilts.
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Here we see our Group 2 convoy heading up the mountain. I had numerous times when I would access the situation and employ a solution. Twice I used my front lockers only and once I used trail turn assist after I observed the Bronco in front of me execute a three point turn. These Broncos are amazing.
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You may observe a portion of the granite cliff. This picture does not capture the difficult cliffs. Several times in the afternoon we would employ both front and rear lockers and slowly creep up the cliffs. Luckily no one turned sideward on the accent, but that was always a risk. One of those obstacles were among our most challenging and unfortunately I did not capture a picture.
Another section of the trail was very narrow and each driver needed to take time to avoid hitting their outside rear view mirrors. I did not have a passenger and did not have the ability to fold-in the mirror. Luckily I avoided any mishaps!
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If you made it this far, you are doing well. Thank you for following along on my journey!

In my third and final part of this story, I will share my lessons learned and hope they will be helpful.

Special Note: Please remember, my experiences were tailored to New Hampshire and were uniquely my own. I hope I have not made any errors or omissions. Those with deeper knowledge should feel free to suggest corrections.

Rgwinn

Did they teach you the correct way to engage the parking brake? I thought that was a good tip also.