Bronco Trail App Released

[DallasCajun]

In case you haven't seen this splattered all over the rest of your social media feeds. I'm interested to hear the thoughts from this group. I downloaded this morning but didn't spend much time with it. I did notice that there weren't any trails posted in the app for the Northwest OHV in Bridgeport (NW of DFW), so I guess that's my hint to get out there and create some on my own. From what I've read there's still a lot of work needed, but it's the start we've been waiting for. Now if only we could get some dates for the Raptor Off-Roadeo.

MOAB, Utah, May 2, 2023 – Real adventures seldom happen where streets are paved. That’s why Ford is making it easy to discover, plan and share off-road journeys with the new Bronco® Trail App.

Ford today debuts the Bronco Trail App for Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices at Bronco Safari 2023 in Utah, where hundreds of Bronco enthusiasts are gathering to show off their vehicles and tackle some of the challenging trails that can be found in the app.

Available only for Bronco® SUV owners, the app features approximately 1,200 professionally curated off-road trail maps across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to start. It also provides the ability to record drives with waypoints, photos and video – and lets you share your adventure on social media.

Future updates will continue to add more trails and features to the Bronco Trail App.

After downloading the Bronco Trail App and linking it to their FordPass account, Bronco owners gain access to key features, including:

Curated trail maps: Always stay on the trail with the Bronco Trail App and discover roughly 18,000 miles of existing trails in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Filter by location, length, difficulty, and more. Each trail has a description and can be saved for future adventures.

Points of interest: Keep track of what’s ahead, like tough challenges, scenic points of interest, waypoints, can’t-miss photo ops, and more. Once you’ve saved a trip, you can add your own waypoints, photos, and notes about your experience.

Satellite imagery and 2D topographic maps: Access and download different map styles to prepare for the journey ahead. Going off-grid? No problem: you can view downloaded maps even if you are offline.

Pressure gauge: Some trails recommend lower or higher tire pressure to traverse – Bronco Trail App features a real-time tire pressure gauge built in the app to assist with adjusting to desired tire pressure on the trail and recommended pressure for the road. And you can use it even when you don’t have a cellular or cloud connection.

Adventure tracking: Bookmark and record favorite trails to visit again or share experiences from your phone with other Bronco owners.

Video capturing: Capture video of your drive by securing your smartphone in the vehicle. Finished recordings can be viewed in the app or through a connection with your vehicle’s center console, with overlay data like speed, RPM, distance traveled, elevation, and more. Once you’re done recording, the video will be automatically saved to your phone and available to share via text, social media channel or in online forums.


The Bronco Trail App is complimentary to download and use. It’s available now in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

 

[ChiliPepper]

Let's go Dallas!


I'm still thinking about that Cabo trip, down the Baja (and maybe back, or just stay).

 

[95BK9]

Downloaded the App, it seems easy to use.

 

[Ironmike]

I'll be curious to see what really recommends this app over established ones like Gaia, or onX Offroad. What superlative features does it provide over these established apps?

 

[DallasCajun]

I'll be curious to see what really recommends this app over established ones like Gaia, or onX Offroad. What superlative features does it provide over these established apps?

I haven't had much of a chance to use it, but I think the clear advantage is that the app integrates with the vehicle itself as opposed to primarily just an advanced mapping solution. I highly suspect that serious overlanders/off-roaders will still rely on Gaia/OnX while the Bronco app is more the lighter users and those that like the integration with vehicle dynamics data.

 

[TheLawnDart]

I'll be curious to see what really recommends this app over established ones like Gaia, or onX Offroad. What superlative features does it provide over these established apps?

I like that it’s free

 

[Ironmike]

I haven't had much of a chance to use it, but I think the clear advantage is that the app integrates with the vehicle itself as opposed to primarily just an advanced mapping solution. I highly suspect that serious overlanders/off-roaders will still rely on Gaia/OnX while the Bronco app is more the lighter users and those that like the integration with vehicle dynamics data.

I get that, but they call it a "Trail App", not a vehicle monitoring app, so that's where my critical eye goes. It's free so I'll likely download it, but nothing I've seen so far makes it better than other products for detailed route planning, tracking, and display.

 

[DallasCajun]

I get that, but they call it a "Trail App", not a vehicle monitoring app, so that's where my critical eye goes. It's free so I'll likely download it, but nothing I've seen so far makes it better than other products for detailed route planning, tracking, and display.

I think that’s the key here: free but a lot of catching up to do to be truly competitive to the experienced off-road community.

 

[JohnGalt]

I’ve got a lot of playing around to do with this before passing final judgment. But initially it looks somewhat useful and welcome at the price point of free.

One thing that is super useful is real-time monitoring air pressure on my phone. It worked this morning, but I didn’t test while inflating/deflating yet. That beats peering In the window at the dash, which will be invariably blocked by some pop up message like “door ajar” or especially bothersome “low tire pressure warning”. Of course, Ford will probably find a way to duplicate those messages on the phone!

Like other Off-road targeted apps, the curated trails are sort of hit and miss. there are a lot of missing trails in my area, no Fordyce, Barret, Deer Creek, Signal Peak, Strawberry Pass etc. At this point both OnX and Trails Off-road are both more complete for Northern California, but each has its own gaps.

App crashed while trying record so not sure how useful that will be, but I can see it being fun by adding telemetry to videos that otherwise look like you’re going up/down a gentle slope.

I think this will be just one more app in the quiver of apps, unless Ford can really tap into its user base to expand the curated maps and add trail status/reports or collaborate with OnX or Trails OffRoad to do the same. But if they improve it significantly they will charge for it, probably will eventually anyways.

 

[widnere12]

So is this what was supposed to be the Ford Pass Performance App? Or is that something else entirely and still coming?

EDIT: FORD DID ANNOUNCE THAT THIS IS THE REPLACEMENT FOR THE FORD PERFORMANCE APP.

 

[Ironmike]

One thing that is super useful is real-time monitoring air pressure on my phone. It worked this morning, but I didn’t test while inflating/deflating yet. That beats peering In the window at the dash, which will be invariably blocked by some pop up message like “door ajar” or especially bothersome “low tire pressure warning”. Of course, Ford will probably find a way to duplicate those messages on the phone!

I pretty sure you already know that the TPMS is fairly inaccurate, maybe as much as +/- 3lbs of pressure. Maybe it would be useful as a trend indicator, but I'd always check with an accurate hand-held gauge before taking any action.

 

[JohnGalt]

Hmmm. I’d heard TPMS was typically within +/- 1-2%. And hand held gauges could be better than that level of accuracy……. or worse. A high quality gauge with an accuracy certification definitely may be more reliable.

That said, the worst you would expect with +/-2% at 40lbs would be 2x2%x40 PSI or 1.6lbs total variance between tires. At 20 PSI, its 0.8lbs.

What gauge do you recommend? Are you confident it’s accurate. I have no idea if mine is more or less accurate than my TPMS.

maybe a good exercise to test variance of the TPMS, would be to balance pressure on all 4 using a MORRflate and see how differently the TPMS reads. Tells me about relative variance, but not necessarily overall accuracy. I’ll have to check with others that use MORRflate or similar.

thanks for making me ponder this!

 

[Ironmike]

Hmmm. I’d heard TPMS was typically within +/- 1-2%. And hand held gauges could be better than that level of accuracy……. or worse. A high quality gauge with an accuracy certification definitely may be more reliable.

That said, the worst you would expect with +/-2% at 40lbs would be 2x2%x40 PSI or 1.6lbs total variance between tires. At 20 PSI, its 0.8lbs.

What gauge do you recommend? Are you confident it’s accurate. I have no idea if mine is more or less accurate than my TPMS.

maybe a good exercise to test variance of the TPMS, would be to balance pressure on all 4 using a MORRflate and see how differently the TPMS reads. Tells me about relative variance, but not necessarily overall accuracy. I’ll have to check with others that use MORRflate or similar.

thanks for making me ponder this!

On my wife's Rubicon, TPMS typically reads about 2 to 2.5 PSI low (in the range of 20-40 psi). I use ARB digital gauges for my air-up/air-down ventures, which advertise an accuracy of +/- 1 psi through a wide range of tire pressures, and my experience with them supports that.

 

[JohnGalt]

On my wife's Rubicon, TPMS typically reads about 2 to 2.5 PSI low (in the range of 20-40 psi). I use ARB digital gauges for my air-up/air-down ventures, which advertise an accuracy of +/- 1 psi through a wide range of tire pressures, and my experience with them supports that.

So I got a Jaco ElitePro digital gauge. Per Manufacturer it measures to 0.10 PSI with +/- 0.5% accuracy.

Since TPMS measures to 1.0 PSI it’s a bit of a challenge to make an accurate comparison of accuracy, but here’s my initial result this morning with cold tires. Gauge measured the same PSI with 0.1 on 3 attempts per tire.

DF: TPMS: 34 - Gauge: 34.8
DR: TPMS: 35 - Gauge: 35.2
PF: TPMS: 35 - Gauge: 34.9
PR: TPMS: 35 - Gauge: 35.0

Assuming the gauge is accurate, the biggest potential variance is 33.5 vs 34.9 or 1.3 PSI, but it could have been as low as 0.2, factoring in TPMS rounding and gauge’s potential 0.1 variance. That’s between potential max 3.5% variance or minimum 0.5% variance on that wheel. The others max is <= 0.7 PSI or about 1.5% max.

All in all I’m now quite comfortable with the measurement accuracy of the TPMS on my vehicle. If I was tracking my AMG GTS or Lotus I’d be gauge driven, but for the Raptor on 37s the TPMS is good enough and convenient.