First time off-roading and camping in the Oceano Dunes SVRA with my 2025 Maverick Tremor

[JasonDroninAround]

This is what happens when a drone guy tries to make an off road video in a cool place that does not allow drones. Drones are not allowed in all California State Parks, including Oceano Dunes SVRA. I did the best I could with one of those little flexible leg tripods wrapped around my driver's side mirror. It has a lot of vibration that I could not fix in DaVinci Resolve. I debated on whether or not posting this but there is not a lot of footage of Ford Mavericks doing fun stuff on YouTube. I'm posting it for the Maverick Community hehe. This is on the stock 235/65R17 Goodyear Territory RT tires. I did not air down but it had also rained recently. I was shopping on Amazon for a truck bed tent when this camping trip suddenly came up. It was too late to get one on Amazon. I just ran down to the Sportsman's Warehouse and bought a little 2-man tent and a twin air mattress. There is a cool sunset time lapse at the end of the video that has really nice colors and cloud movement, lots of beach traffic, and the kids playing with sparklers in front of the camera. It was capturing at 60x and the kids were just a blip at the end. I had a fun time at the beach with friends and family. We have been coming here since I was a kid. There were so many great memories made here in the last 40+ years.

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[sunshdw]

I dig the blow off noise, what did you do to get that?

 

[JasonDroninAround]

That's just the way the truck sounds when you're heavy on the throttle with a load and then you let off quickly. That's not something that I added.

 

[710-oil-614]

Very cool place for 4-wheelers and dune buggies.
But !
This is why I won’t buy used unless it’s something built for off roading.

Nothing he did there hurt the tremor at all.

 

[malicoreon]

That looks super fun, thanks for posting! Beautiful sunset at the end of the video.

 

[Phimosis]

This is what happens when a drone guy tries to make an off road video in a cool place that does not allow drones. Drones are not allowed in all California State Parks, including Oceano Dunes SVRA. I did the best I could with one of those little flexible leg tripods wrapped around my driver's side mirror. It has a lot of vibration that I could not fix in DaVinci Resolve. I debated on whether or not posting this but there is not a lot of footage of Ford Mavericks doing fun stuff on YouTube. I'm posting it for the Maverick Community hehe. This is on the stock 235/65R17 Goodyear Territory RT tires. I did not air down but it had also rained recently. I was shopping on Amazon for a truck bed tent when this camping trip suddenly came up. It was too late to get one on Amazon. I just ran down to the Sportsman's Warehouse and bought a little 2-man tent and a twin air mattress. There is a cool sunset time lapse at the end of the video that has really nice colors and cloud movement, lots of beach traffic, and the kids playing with sparklers in front of the camera. It was capturing at 60x and the kids were just a blip at the end. I had a fun time at the beach with friends and family. We have been coming here since I was a kid. There were so many great memories made here in the last 40+ years.

The flexible leg mounts are all garbage when it comes to motor sports. What you need is a suction cup mount and an external stereo microphone. I use the Olympus me-51 because it has super tone quality and tolerates high spl, but you can find less expensive ones on Amazon.

 

[Phimosis]

I debated on whether or not posting this but there is not a lot of footage of Ford Mavericks doing fun stuff on YouTube. I'm posting it for the Maverick Community hehe. This is on the stock 235/65R17 Goodyear Territory RT tires. I did not air down but it had also rained recently.

TBH, this is disheartening. It’s not doing that well out there and it is nothing like the Jeep JK I had, that could go pretty much anywhere in the sand with aftermarket tires (35x13.50) without any lift or other suspension mods.

 

[californiamaverick99]

Think my FWD could make it onto the beach there?

 

[AL-Tess]

Thank you for sharing, enjoyed the sparklers and the sunset at the end.

 

[JasonDroninAround]

The flexible leg mounts are all garbage when it comes to motor sports. What you need is a suction cup mount and an external stereo microphone. I use the Olympus me-51 because it has super tone quality and tolerates high spl, but you can find less expensive ones on Amazon.

I already have way too much money in my drone equipment to be buying a new action camera. I was trying out the best I could do with my cell phone and what I had. This was an last minute camping trip. I am already looking at those suction cup mounts for sure. I currently have a Zoom H1 Essential for stereo audio for narration and field audio of my main drone videos. My main gig actually has nothing to do with off roading. I mostly film drone footage of the California High Speed Rail construction progress. This dunes trip was just something I was having fun with between CHSR rounds. The H1 can be used to record separate audio or be plugged into my cell phone for better wind noise free audio already matched up with the video. My "first" video with my new truck did not involve in truck footage at all. I was in some foothills that had no drone restrictions and I just had the drone following me around. My next video will hopefully be in a place where I can have the drone in the air AND have a better mount for my cell phone AND have the H1 recording the audio. These will get better

 

[JasonDroninAround]

TBH, this is disheartening. It’s not doing that well out there and it is nothing like the Jeep JK I had, that could go pretty much anywhere in the sand with aftermarket tires (35x13.50) without any lift or other suspension mods.

This thing is still bare bones stock tires/suspension/everything, that I did not air down, was still loaded with all my camping gear, and I was being very careful as I've only had it for a few weeks This is my daily driver and I plan on making little to no changes in the tires and suspension. I have no illusions that the Maverick is essentially a compact SUV with a little bit longer wheel base to accommodate a relatively massive trunk that does not have a roof .... and I'm OK with that. That's why I bought one

 

[JasonDroninAround]

Think my FWD could make it onto the beach there?

If you stay on the beach, on the day use side, yes. Day use is only $5, I think. To get to the camping area, you have to cross a shallow creek in the sand. The camping and the OHV area start at the same point. If you want to camp, you will have to deal with the sand being more loosened up by the off road vehicles. There are people that bring giant travel trailers and big diesel pusher RVs out there. The big busses always get stuck and it's fun to watch how many trucks it takes to get them going again. It's actually turns into a spectacle. If you plan on coming to the camping side, air down, bring a hitch ball with you so you have something easy to hook a strap to, and your own strap. There a plenty of people around willing to help get you out, especially if you already hooked up to your own strap and just standing there holding the other end hehe

 

[californiamaverick99]

If you stay on the beach, on the day use side, yes. Day use is only $5, I think. To get to the camping area, you have to cross a shallow creek in the sand. The camping and the OHV area start at the same point. If you want to camp, you will have to deal with the sand being more loosened up by the off road vehicles. There are people that bring giant travel trailers and big diesel pusher RVs out there. The big busses always get stuck and it's fun to watch how many trucks it takes to get them going again. It's actually turns into a spectacle. If you plan on coming to the camping side, air down, bring a hitch ball with you so you have something easy to hook a strap to, and your own strap. There a plenty of people around willing to help get you out, especially if you already hooked up to your own strap and just standing there holding the other end hehe

Awesome. Thank you! I have the Michelin A/T tires that come with the Lariat and some MaxTrax boards in my truck bed, so maybe I can put those to use as well. Your tremor looks great, might have to swap mine out for a tremor in a couple years. Maybe I’ll see you out there!

 

[JasonDroninAround]

Awesome. Thank you! I have the Michelin A/T tires that come with the Lariat and some MaxTrax boards in my truck bed, so maybe I can put those to use as well. Your tremor looks great, might have to swap mine out for a tremor in a couple years. Maybe I’ll see you out there!

Ok I used to bring my full sized 2wd camper van out there all the time. I think this is how you should do it for camping: Find an open spot and face the back of the truck towards the ocean. The sand that is underwater at high tide is pretty hard. Slowly drive into the soft sand until you feel you might be getting stuck, stop, put down the MaxTraxs, and drive a few more feet way from the high tide water line making sure to stay on the MaxTrax. That's your camping site Camping is online reservations only, no walk-ins. It's on Reserve America. Camping is $10 + $8 reservation fee. If you want to go in the summer on the weekends, reserve now. I think they only allow 500 campers per night and that fills up months in advance.

 

[YOGIE]

I dig the blow off noise, what did you do to get that?

So much fun great job through the sand

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