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Big Bend at Thanksgiving in a stock Frontier Pro-4X, what do i actually need?

posted by frontier_pro4x_bee in Mods, overlanding and hauling, Oct 11, 2025

frontier_pro4x_beeOP Double Cab Beeville, TX 15 posts, joined Sep 2025 #1

2023 Frontier Pro-4X, 3.8, stock Hankook Dynapro AT2s, no lift, 19k. wife and i have the week of thanksgiving off and we are going to Big Bend for the first time, leaving Beeville the saturday before. plan is 59 to 90 through Del Rio to Marathon, about 7 hours, then into the park.

what i want to do: the Old Ore Road, the River Road, maybe Black Gap if it is not stupid. camp two nights primitive and two nights at a campground.

what i do not know. is the stock tire fine for those roads or am i changing a flat in the dark. how much water. where is gas inside the park. do i need a permit for the primitive roadside sites and how far ahead. and is the basin campground still closed, i saw something about construction this year.

the truck is stock. rear locker, hill descent, the 9 speed, a full size spare under the bed. i have a plug kit and a compressor. nothing else.

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overland_big_bend Access Cab Alpine, TX 9 posts, joined Sep 2025 #2

live in Alpine, so here is the local version.

tires. the Dynapro AT2 is fine for Old Ore and the River Road at 25 psi. the flats out here are not from the road, they are from the mesquite and the sotol stalks at the edge where people pull off, and from running highway pressure on rock. air down at the trailhead, air up at Panther Junction. and check that the spare under the bed actually comes down, the cable winch on those rusts and you find out at the worst time.

gas. Panther Junction and Rio Grande Village both have pumps, Study Butte outside the west entrance too. fill up in Marathon anyway, it is 70 miles from Marathon to Panther Junction and the pump at Panther can be down.

water. a gallon per person per day and a little more. there is potable water at Panther Junction, Rio Grande Village and Cottonwood. carry 7 to 8 gallons for two nights of primitive and refill.

permits. the primitive roadside sites need a backcountry permit, and for a couple of years now you reserve those ahead online, thanksgiving week goes fast so do it this week. the campgrounds are reservation too.

the basin. the lodge and the basin campground were closed this year for the rebuild. check the nps.gov Big Bend page before you go for what is open, and plan on Rio Grande Village or Cottonwood instead. be ready for cold. the first real norther usually shows up in november and it has been 25 at night in the basin at thanksgiving.

River Road is 51 miles and takes most of a day. Old Ore is 26 and takes a morning. do not do both the same day. Black Gap is short and rocky and a stock Frontier will do it if you go slow and have somebody spot the ledge.

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gladiator_in_kyle Double Cab Kyle, TX 13 posts, joined Sep 2025 #3

seconding the spare cable thing, mine was seized on a 3 year old truck. bring a bottle jack too, the factory scissor jack on soft gravel is a bad afternoon. and a full size spare that has never been aired up in two years has about 20 psi in it. check it in the driveway.

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taco_lifer_since_05 Long Bed San Antonio, TX 27 posts, joined Sep 2025 #4

went thanksgiving week in 2023. the park was full, not busy, full. the gate line at Persimmon Gap was 40 minutes on the friday. go in tuesday if you can and leave saturday morning. the cell signal is Panther Junction and nowhere else, download the maps to the phone before Marathon. we did the River Road east to west and it was the best day of the trip and the truck was filthy for a month.

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payload_math_nate Access Cab Wichita, KS 8 posts, joined Sep 2025 #5

8 gallons of water is 67 pounds, the fridge is 60 with food, two people is 350, camp gear another 150. you are 650 in on a Pro-4X that has about 1,200 on the sticker. fine. i only mention it because the Gladiator thread on this board went the other way.

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frontier_pro4x_beeOP Double Cab Beeville, TX 15 posts, joined Sep 2025 #6

back. report for the next person.

went in tuesday like taco said, the Persimmon Gap line was five cars. Rio Grande Village two nights, one night primitive on the River Road at a site we had reserved in october, one night at Cottonwood. Old Ore Road tuesday afternoon, River Road thursday, all of it, 6 hours with lunch at Talley. skipped Black Gap because the wife was done with rocks.

tires at 25 psi were fine, not one problem, and i aired up at Panther Junction with my own compressor because theirs was out of order. the spare cable came down in the driveway before we left because kyle said so. the norther came through wednesday night and it was 28 at Rio Grande Village in the morning, the Frontier started fine, the propane stove did not want to.

water was about right, we used 6 of the 8 gallons. gas: filled in Marathon, filled at Panther on the way out. 14 mpg on the dirt days, 20 on 90.

the basin was closed like the man said. it did not matter.

the Frontier did everything asked of it stock. 4 low once on the ledge at the east end of the River Road and that was mostly for the wife. if you have one and you are thinking about it, go.

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overland_big_bend Access Cab Alpine, TX 9 posts, joined Sep 2025 #7

glad it went. for whoever reads this next spring, the Talley site and the ones at the east end of the River Road are the ones to reserve, the west end sites are windy. and 14 mpg on the dirt is about right for the 3.8 with the AC off and the windows open, which is how you do it out here.

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