Team Raptor Rex
Posted by jjackson.cell@gmail.com BigCommerce on Jan 14th 2025
Perfecting Your Build to Suit the Unknown of the Rebelle Rally
by Tobi Hlavnicka
The Rebelle Rally is not something that you prepare for easily. Team Raptor Rex, with myself, Tobi Hlavnicka, as the driver and Cara Carlson as the navigator, learned that lesson during our first Rebelle Rally in 2023 and again during the 2024 Rebelle. The women-only off-road navigation rally requires you to not only navigate the deserts of California and Nevada with only maps and compasses, but you must do it under time constraints, in a competitive setting, all while taking your vehicle over some of the most extraordinary and difficult terrain that exists in the United States.
When I signed up for my first Rebelle Rally in 2023, I knew my ability to hyper-focus on packing lists and organization would be helpful, but I had no idea how much it would come into play. Every square inch of your vehicle must be organized and prepared to provide the quickest access to the necessary tools while on the trail. You won’t know what the necessary tools might be until the second you need them, but you must be ready. In a normal off-road setting, you can choose your route, research trail conditions, and prepare for the trail days, weeks, or even months ahead of time.
Of course there are always unknown in any off-road situation, but nowhere near as many as you face in the ten days during the Rebelle Rally. Between the difficulty of the terrain, the total distance covered, and the length of the competition, the Rebelle is a game of endurance for you and your vehicle. Overall, the minimum distance covered during the 2024 Rebelle Rally was 2,681 kilometers (or 1,666 miles). For Team Raptor Rex, between the drive from Montana to California for the start, our total distance covered during the rally, and our drive back to Montana, we covered 7,602 kilometers (or 4,724 miles).
In the Rebelle Rally, the route is the biggest kept secret of the whole event, and it is only revealed in bits and pieces throughout the ten days. In general, you know the likely terrain you may encounter, but nothing else is certain ahead of time. You know you will likely have mountainous terrain, some dunes (or a lot of dunes this year), rocky sections, washed out sections, OHV areas, and some extremely technical trail options.
During the competition, you are given checkpoints, generally in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates, that you must find and navigate to on the map. The checkpoints are broken down into green checkpoints (easier and marked with a large green flag), blue checkpoints (harder and marked with a small blue flag or stake), and black checkpoints (hardest with nothing there).
Since phones and all electronic tracking devices are locked away and banned during the entire 8 scored days of the competition, you mark your checkpoint by clicking a provided Iridium tracking device that sends out your location to the Rebelle scoring team. Scores are based on the total points earned from the number of checkpoints you get, your accuracy on black checkpoints, your score on the On-Time Enduros, and other factors including a whole list of penalties that can be incurred during the Rally.
On-Time Enduros use a Dakar Rally style roadbook created by Rally Navigator, where you navigate using step-by-step directions made up of symbols (or tulips) and arrows. All while ensuring that you maintain the correct speed to reach waypoints at the exact second you need to be there.
The Rebelle Rally is also unique in the type of vehicles it is designed for. Instead of overly modified offroad race cars, the Rebelle is made for the everyday 4x4s or crossover vehicles in our driveways; street legal vehicles with few, if any, modifications. The competition is also divided into two classes, the 4x4 class and the X-Cross class, with special designations for Bone Stock, Electrified, and 4030 (vehicles 40 years or older).
Since overly modified vehicles generally don’t meet the vehicle requirements anyways, it is more a strategic game of focusing on the modifications that are allowed within the Rebelle parameters and that will benefit you during the Rally. If mechanical issues happen while on course, you are on your own unless you want to be given a penalty. Because of this, it is crucial to have the tools you need to make repairs and the knowledge and skills to do so. Mechanics are available at Base Camp to help with larger issues, but you must generally know what is wrong, or what the exact problem is, and you have to stay with your vehicle the whole time.
During the Rebelle Rally, there are generally three different Base Camp locations that move with the course. At Base Camp, you are still setting up your own tent, but there are some facilities and food is provided. However, there may be multiple self-camp nights where you are on your own for everything. Since vehicles must be impounded at night at Base Camp, you are not allowed to sleep in your vehicle and are responsible for your tents and sleeping gear.
This adds another level of complication while packing. When you are on course, you might have all your personal and sleeping gear with you, and you must ensure that it doesn’t impede on your tools and off-road supplies during the day. During the 2024 Rebelle Rally, we set up camp and moved 5 times within the 10 days.
For the Rebelle Rally, there are three teammates, the driver, the navigator, and the vehicle. Your vehicle, or your 3rd teammate, generally will have its own name and will take on its own personality by the end of the Rally. For the 2024 Rebelle, we competed in my daily driver, a 2023 Ford Bronco Raptor named Rex. Our team, Team Raptor Rex, competed in the Bone Stock designation with its only modifications being an aftermarket roof-rack, some trail lights, and improvements to the interior storage.
While the Bronco Raptor is 8 inches wider than the Badlands we competed in in the 2023 Rebelle, the interior space is the same. While the 4-door Broncos are large, the interior space is not something they’re known for. With interior space being at a premium, my main Rebelle Rally prep as the driver was modifying the vehicle and packing. Making sure we had exactly what we needed and that everything was as accessible as possible.
When I purchased my Ford Bronco Raptor in January of ‘24, I bought it knowing it would be not only my daily driver, but our family off-road and road trip vehicle, and it would also have to transform into an off-road rally vehicle for the better part of October. Any additions and modifications I made had to be practical and multi-functional. On top of that, I knew we wanted to remain Bone Stock for the Rebelle.
My priorities became permanently utilizing the interior space, but not in a way that wouldn’t interfere with the seating or the cargo area and that wouldn’t add too much excess weight. The Braptors are heavy enough as it is in the sand dunes. The other aspect I focused on with storage was making the important items more accessible. The Rebelle Rally requires you to have a 5lb fire extinguisher that you can grab within seconds in an emergency, however, it also has to be secured in a spot where it won’t come flying to the front as you're driving over the bumpy roads in Johnson Valley.
This set of requirements led me to replace both rear windows with gullwing doors from TFC Offroad. I had added one gullwing door to my previous Badlands Bronco and it was easily my most useful storage modification. When it came to the Bronco Raptor, I knew that incorporating two gullwing doors with molle paneling, one on each side of the vehicle, was my best option to add the secure storage I needed.
While I love my Bronco, the weight and the wide swing angle of the rear door can make it hard to quickly access anything from the back, especially if you are parked at a weird angle. Having the molle paneling in conjunction with the gullwing made it possible to not only store our most essential items, but make sure they were well secured. In the end, I ended up utilizing the driver side gullwing for quick grab essentials like our 5lb fire extinguisher, a NOCO jump starter, window cleaning spray, shop towels, a flashlight, and a few other daily essentials.
For the passenger side, I was able to install a Thor’s Lighting Dual Air Compressor with a mounting bracket that was permanently installed and hard wired to be able to open the gullwing door, attach the air hose, and air up the tires without having to open any other car doors. There is also enough space for the storage bag with all the air hoses and tire tools between the air compressor and the gullwing so there isn’t any wasted space.
This for me, was the biggest game changer compared to a portable air compressor that can have multiple accessories floating around the car or take up a large amount of cargo space. The ability to not have to open the back to access everything during the wind storms that set in during the Rebelle Rally while we were in Johnson Valley and the Glamis Sand Dunes was a huge benefit to keeping excess sand and dust outside of the vehicle.
The Broncos are made to be modified and personalized with so many accessory ready areas and the thoughtfulness behind the interior wiring and accessory switches. It can almost be overwhelming trying to decide what to add that actually adds value and convenience over just looking cool. For me, the Rebelle Rally has forced me to think about preparing a vehicle in the most practical way for convenience and for extreme case scenarios in off-roading. Not every modification is necessary to increase the reliability of a vehicle and not every modification will actually make your life easier.
In a situation like the Rebelle, where you are relying on your vehicle to make it to the finish line, fully intact, and then to still drive home across the country, reliability is key. Overall this year in the 2024 Rebelle Rally we were able to finish 6th out of 58 teams in the 4x4 class. Our efficiency and cohesiveness as teammates was a huge factor to our success. In a game of strategy, with extremely stiff competition, every advantage you can find counts. Team Raptor Rex will keep training and perfecting every system and strategy in preparation for the 2025 Rebelle Rally.