I’m not actually writing this specifically to review the Ford F150. It was just the vehicle that was used to get out to the desert and drive off-road. You don’t really have a say when you rent a “Ram 1500 or similar” from a rental car company. It’s kind of luck of the draw when you show up. All I asked the lady behind the counter was, “Is it 4 wheel drive?” and “Does it have a V8?”
The reason I’m actually writing this is because I don’t think I can reinforce enough, how important it is just to get out there and explore. To get out and see the expansive country that we have just lingering around there, waiting for us to go experience what it has to offer for us.
If you live in California like I do, all you have to do is head East.
One of my favorite things to do is to just go drive around. Get out there and head in a direction, find a road, on or off pavement that I’ve never been down before. See where it goes.
I like to put together day trips. In the past I might have called them “Rental Car Rallys” as I do enjoy renting a car for a day and putting the wear and tear on someone else’s vehicle.
So here is one that we recently did.
It started with a one-day truck rental from a rental car company at LAX. I found one for about $43 a day, plus $38.99 for the insurance (always get the insurance). Unlimited mileage as well. It came out to about $106 with taxes and fees. Not all that bad in my opinion.
The plan for the trip was to head out to the Apple Valley, Barstow area of the Cali Desert. Stoddard Valley OHV to be exact. I had recently driven out there a couple times this last year and I knew there was a nice mixture of things to drive through terrain wise. I also saw on a map that there was some type of eating establishment that was off of the 247 and I thought it would be fun to go off-roading and then hit up the place for lunch.
My main motive for the trip was just to practice driving off-road. I am going to be driving a chase truck in November for a motorcycle race team called Voyager Motorsports that’s competing in the Baja 1000 this year. As a Professional Driver I know that you have to always keep practicing driving or your skills will perish. It helps to keep the skills sharp especially when driving off-road.
The thing about renting a vehicle from any of the major rental companies is that they are not really set up for going off-road. The tires is one of the weaker points as most people renting these, are not going to go off-roading in them. That’s ok though because it makes the vehicle compromised and adds to the challenge of having to drive the vehicle a specific way with keeping that in mind the whole time. Makes you drive it with better technique and not rely on a vehicle that might be set up to be over capable. You’d also be pretty surprised what you can actually go off-roading with.
The other motive for the trip was to teach some low-friction driving. That was my reasoning for wanting a V8 truck. With the V8 we could easily get the rear end to lose traction in the dirt with the large amount of low-end torque with low revs. I believe when teaching low-friction driving it’s best to start with something that will do it at low speeds without having to thrash the vehicle.
So off we went, heading for the Stoddard Valley OHV area. It’s not very hard to get to from the 15 freeway and there are plenty of people that are out there on a weekend but enough room where people aren’t bumping into each other. The terrain also varies which is why I’m thinking that a lot of Trophy Truck and off-road racing teams like to test out there.
Once we got there I know a couple of pretty flat areas where it’s fun to slide around a bit. The truck did well at this. My only real worry was that it wouldn’t have a limited-slip diff and that it would be difficult because of that to apply power while in an over-steer condition. Luckily though, as soon as I started sliding around I could tell this specific truck had what we needed to get some good slides going. I won’t go too into specifically how I teach low-friction driving as that would be something you will have to pay me for, but I will tell you that the Ford F150 gets the job done. The only issue we ran into was that after a series of repeated skids with no breaks in between the 10-speed transmission did start to get a little hot. This was my sign that we were done for the day with that part.
After completing our low-friction driving portion of the day we headed down the trails and found a pretty steep hill for the F150 to climb. This hill was not only steep but had some pretty deep uphill whoops that I’m guessing were formed by some high horsepower machines while they are climbing the hill. My biggest worry with any of the rental off-road vehicles is that they always come with a very on-road focused tire in the Southern California area. This truck had Goodyear Wranglers on it. Not the tire I want out there and after our low-friction session, they were a bit chewed up in the rear. I put the F150 in 4 wheel drive and headed up the hill. The truck did quite good and didn’t even struggle one bit. A testament I believe to how capable these new trucks are.
On completing our hill climb it was time to find that eating establishment I saw on the map.
So off we went down the highway. The place I saw on the map is called Slash X Cafe. There were tons of off-road vehicles parked outside and stickers on the exterior of the building. This as you know is usually a good sign. The beer was cold and the hamburgers were delicious. They claim they have world famous french fries but they seemed just like most of the ones of eaten and nothing get all crazy over.
Earlier in the day when we started off into the Stoddard Valley OHV area we noticed on the map a place named the Rainbow Basin. After we got through with lunch we decided we had to go check this place out. So we set it as a destination and headed off. You have to go through Barstow to get there and it took about 45 mins from Slash X Cafe.
The Rainbow Basin is an area out in the desert there where a bunch of the rock formations have taken different forms and colors. They have a one way gravel road that you can take to kind of check out the whole place from your vehicle. You can even get out at different spots and look a little closer if you’d like. It’s an interesting place to check out and makes for some good picture taking.
When we were headed to the Rainbow Basin I noticed some marked dirt roads that you could access from the highway. In keeping with the Chase Truck Driving Practice element of the day, I decided we had to see if we could take them to get back to Barstow. At the trail head there was a sign with a map that listed all the roads and what number they were. So I got out and took a quick picture so we wouldn’t get lost.
What’s really nice about these areas is that they clearly mark all the roads so it’s easy to follow where to go and what road you are on. There is a bit of guess work at some of the intersections, but if you take your time you can follow what you need to to get where you want to go. Out in this area there was some deeper sand spots. But putting the F150 in 4H got us through without a problem. A lot of the roads are very Baja Chase Driving like, especially when compared to the San Felipe area.
We made it back into the Barstow area and stopped by one of the old railroad depots to take some pictures with an old Santa Fe locomotive. I think it made for some cool shots with the truck.
Heading back to LAX we took the long way. Which takes you on the Northside of the Angeles Mountains and around through Aqua Caliente. There are some great driving roads back there and the F150 handled them well. I do like how you can select a gear and it will let you stay in it. It’s especially nice when you get to a road and you don’t want the transmission to shift so much. I just wish that they would put paddles on the steering wheel so you don’t have to keep reaching for the buttons on the shift lever. They do it on the Raptor, so I don’t see why they just don’t put them on everything.
It’s always odd feeling after a trip like this to get back to a freeway like the 405. The traffic reminds you that there are just too many people in the LA area. But that’s how you have to get back to LAX. It’s nice that in California, adventure is nearby and no more than a drive away.
All in all it was a good day. The truck performed as it should and there were no major issues. It’s all topped off with an odd look on the person’s face when the attendant checks the vehicle back in at the rental car spot. I don’t think they see too many dirty vehicles returned to LAX after a good day of off-roading.