My 'Un-wheelable' Bronco (35"s, 3.73's, no lockers)

[Chrome_Pony]

You stop the water leak? Muffler delete sounds good, I've been eying the RC one for awhile. Hell yeah, you can have fun w a base bronco with no mods. To each their own, nice rig! Throw a spare cover on there and nobody is the wiser lol

well, Winter stopped it for a couple months

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[gjptennis]

Wasnt going to bother documenting my '"build'" initially.. as its unlikely to recieve fancy bumpers, big dollar suspension, winches, bourgeois lighting packages powerful enough to illuminate a stadium, or complete the TAT... simply put... my bronco is destined for a life of such modesty it might as well be considered mediocrity (at least until it's paid off )

"Why bother?" You say... "your shits weak, shoulda just bought a escape bro" you might be thinking.. and thats fair enough.

I'm doing this to tell the story of the underdog. To show that.. no.. you don't necessarily NEED locker(s) or an axle ratio that starts with a 5 (or even a 4) to get offroad and enjoy TF out of your experience. These are simple truths unjustly deemed as fallacy by what we'll refer to as gear-snobs.

The story of my Bronco actually begins with a broken 2021 ford ranger..

Apart from leaking water into the cab immideately after the b2b warranty ran out.. It's driveshaft center bearing took a crap at 40k miles, still under warranty, but new shafts were backordered with zero ETA. Noisy center bearing will fail a vehicle for a sticker up here (which conveniently just ran out ) and I couldn't have a vehicle that wasn't legal to drive.. indefinitely... so I took it as justification to upgrade to my 'dream' vehicle..

May 22, 2023.

Drove across the border and purchased it from londonderry ford in NH, where it had been sitting on their showroom floor for 90+ days. I thought it was odd they kept this one in their showroom... when they had 2 or 3 much fancier models sitting on the lot that would make a much better showcase... but I DID relatively quickly find out why...

...it's because it ALSO leaks water into the cab . Lazy assed MF'rs. Oh well, at least I have a one piece driveshaft now .

Apart from the water ingress.. the factory also forgot to install a grommet/plug in the drivers side firewall..

... and put the drivers side big bend sticker on pretty crooked..

.. way more obvious in person.


Other than these few little niggles.. everything was all wavy gravy with the new rig. No mismatched seats, mismatched flares, unpainted interior of the swing gate or any other ridiculous f-ups only ford could manage to do lol.

2.5 minutes after I got it home I had the stock wheels/tires off to switch em for the set I had on the ranger...

275/65/18 grabbers on 9" wide method 316s.


..the end of that week I installed a Flowmaster muffler delete..

.. and ford's rubber mats..

... few weeks after that I had a RC 2" lift installed along with a set of 285/75/r18 Kenda Klever R/Ts.. awesome tire..

.. and shortly after that I had its underside bathed in NHOU love this damn thing.. want it to last!

Obligatory side-of-driveway poser shot:

..even had it out in the woods on its first wheelin adventure while I was still rocking temp plates

Belittle and degrade me on my mismatched spare all you want.. theres just no GD way Im gonna spend 360$ on a matching method lol.. especially when I originally bought all 4 wrapped in brand new tires for 450$ (still excited about that) eventually I'll get around to ordering a spare tire cover so I'm not getting mercilessly ridiculed.. eventually

Video from its first wheeling trip at Jericho Mt. State park in Berlin NH:



It pains me to have to go to NH to get some solid wheeling in... Maine is great at a lot... but it sucks serious ass for legal wheeling oppurtunities.

.. and some quickie donuts.. or as I HILARIOUSLY refer to as BROnuts.. during what I seriously hope was our last snowstorm of the year last weekend..



The sound of the muffler delete comes through relatively decently in the donut video... should anyone have pre-purchase curiosity.



Next order of business is installing a partial set of skids and a half rack I bought with some tax returns, followed by a pair of ditchlights whenever I feel like torturing myself (I hate wiring. My understanding of electricity and all its assorted spaghetti is that it's WITCHCRAFT)

id like to get the trans skid and the tcase skid this year too of course.. depends on finances though. Need to buy a house!


Super excited to go wheeling again. I'll be headed back to Jericho Mt as soon as I can.. and I'd like to give Armor Ditch off road park a try this year too.. if anyone is local
-ish and wants to come along LMK! I promise I'm a much more regular and enjoyable person in real life

there is a group of us that go to Armor Ditch from time to time. we have plans to go to Jericho this summer. we also do some of the class vi rds in NH.

 

[BlueWaffle]

Best grille of the bronco bunch in my opinion so I had to chime in and throw a hearty “hell yeah” your way for saying sour grapes to the posers and living large in a sweet looking ride!

If only I could find a set of Big Bend take off wheels local to me I’d be a happy camper!!

Thanks! I preferred the badlands style grille at first.. as well as the signature lights.. but what I got has definitely grown on me quite a bit.

Glad you got all of the hate out so we don’t have to! JK

I’ve only observed support in this community. Everyone has their own goals and budgets, brought together by the nolstagia of the OBS and the desire to not have ducks in our windshields. Own it, love it! Good looking ride!

A wise man once said... 'it's better to be self deprecating than self defecating'

Thanks though! I can't think of another (affordable) vehicle that I'd enjoy driving & living with more than this love it to bits.

Kudos to you wheeling in a "lowly" (said sarcastically) big bend. my wife has a big bend with 3.73's and 35's...

We have only found one place that she couldnt go that my badlands could. The only reason she couldnt make it over that particular obstacle on that certain day was that we didnt air down, wasnt familiar with the trail ahead, and not sure what we would run into further up. we have since ran the trail with a group and will go tackle it in hers soon enough.


F the haters and rock on. watch your trans temps, and dont be afraid of using 4lo to keep em down if necessary.

The only real wheeling trip I've taken so far I didn't bother to air down either... and I was surprised how well it did. I took my Ranger (that had a rear locker) down the same trails the previous year (while aired down) and I feel as if the Bronco did just as well. 4low all day due to the chunkieness of the terrain.

Looking good! Mine is also part of the no-locker crowd. I am always kicking myself for not optioning the rear locker, but I was checking boxes getting overwhelmed, trying to be financially conscious.. but now I look back like, that would have added only a few $/mo to my payment

Ultimately though, they do great even without lockers. I am unlikely to wheel mine hard enough to really need one. It’s done about the max of what I am comfortable doing with a 50k vehicle and Has done so with ease. It’s more of the thought “better to have and not need, than need and not have” that has me regretting not checking that box every so often.

With that said, I LOVE seeing the no-locker Broncos out there proving the sasquatch elitists wrong

In a perfect world I honestly would of got one with a locker.. but with how tough it was to find an AFFORDABLE 2 door, 2.3, 10spd in my area at my time of purchase.. it pretty much boiled down to "buy this one, or live without a bronco"

No regerts!

..and honestly.. lockers can make some stuff way too easy. A little extra challenge adds to the fun of things for me personally.

Balls of steel wheeling that hard without skids haha.

First time I went out I was surprised what my BB 3.73 was able to get through. We didn't do anything close to what you did but we had water, mud, dirt and it handled it like a champ even with the factory tires.

Man.. I gotta tell ya.. it was 'puckery' at times knowing I was completely lacking skids.

The first half of the day was fine, as we were on two-way green trails I had previously done in a vehicle that had less clearance & no skids... but SOMEHOW we ended up getting on some one-way black trails.. and I immideately started to question all of my life's decisions... but mostly the decision to let my fiance read the trail map

Judicious line choice and a good spotter go a long way! I'm always more worried about body damage personally.. way more likely thing to happen on those trails.

Those SFR plates are solid. I've got the full set to put on (currently at dealer service for leaking pinion). The bumpers and rock rails are also solid.

Glad to see more support for Stinky Fab . They are a great group of people

The stinkyfab plates quickly won me over. They work with the plastic bumper without losing the tow hooks, they lack the additional price that other offroad companies tack on due to their name, and they're made in the USA! Hell yeah. Plus.. theres something to be said about naming your company stinkyfab lol.

Nice.

I purposely chose 3.73s without lockers.

1) I wanted to maximize fuel economy
1.5) I am running 33s, and will never go bigger than 285/75/17s (Skinny 34).
2) 2.7l has way more power than needed
3) I installed an Eaton LSD in the rear

I'd love a front LSD too.

The only thing I wish that I had was 4A.

I'm ecstatic about my fuel economy even with the 35s.. the old Ranger got 20.5 on average with 32"s.. the Bronco (in the warmer months) rewards me with a solid 21 mpg during my usual rural driving. Love it.

There's a lot of over equipping/spending that goes on with Broncos these days. On the plus side, down the road there will be a lot of used Broncos for sale with barely (never?) used off-road functionalities.

No shame to be had, man.
I find the elitists who only think the most expensive thing is the ONLY thing worth having to be in the same camp as the "Magpul" crowd at the range.
You probably know the type.
Point out their pinky finger, twist their mustache, regard your crap that is not as cool as their crap with a look of disgust.
Rock on.
It's a good look on a 2 dr. and a solid tire choice.
And even without lockers you'll be putting in (and already have) more dirt miles than a ton of those with them.

I've seen a mind boggling amount of threads on here asking if ordering the SAS package makes sense for a literal soccer mom mobile that will never even see a dirt road.. kinda makes me jelous.. id LOVE to have 8k$ to waste like that

Looks great and NOT WEAK at all bro!!! nice videos and super good you focused on the bottom-half......cause its a total learning thing for me when I watch these vids and it gives me an idea of clearance, approach angles, etc....Sweet wheel choice too! Update us on the future mods when done!

The camera work is all thanks to my fiance.. she doesn't know jack about offroading and barely cares about vehicles... but she's got decent enough skill with the camera! Love that girl lol.

A good spotter is a must when wheeling.. a dedicated spotter without a camera in their hand I always bring one along.

 

[BlueWaffle]

You stop the water leak? Muffler delete sounds good, I've been eying the RC one for awhile. Hell yeah, you can have fun w a base bronco with no mods. To each their own, nice rig! Throw a spare cover on there and nobody is the wiser lol

I "stopped" the leak by wedging a paper towel up there to absorb the water before it drips everywhere lol. The seal across the leading edge of the front two roof panels was installed crooked.. I'll have it warranteed whenever I have the time to leave it with the dealer along with the wiper update.

there is a group of us that go to Armor Ditch from time to time. we have plans to go to Jericho this summer. we also do some of the class vi rds in NH.

Hell yeah! Let me know, I'm always down for a good time. I'm free every weekend.. but always more than willing to play hookie from work to get some wheelin in

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It would be cheaper to buy for steelies to match your spare... would probably look nicer too.

We had a updated seal put in ours that ran across the top of the windshield.

 

[Sitruc_btb]

There's a lot of over equipping/spending that goes on with Broncos these days. On the plus side, down the road there will be a lot of used Broncos for sale with barely (never?) used off-road functionalities.

Good point.
A co-worker scored a 23 WT with ADD bumpers, ICON lift kit, wheels with 37's, body wrap, ALL THE LIGHTS, for damn near MSRP. Traded in at 6k after dropping what, 17k worth of parts on it.

 

[BlueWaffle]

It would be cheaper to buy for steelies to match your spare... would probably look nicer too.

We had a updated seal put in ours that ran across the top of the windshield.

Hey.. don't you have some sort of brush guard you should be welding together?

What's the story with the updated seal too? We're you experiencing the leak that I am?
I'm glad it isn't any worse than it is but damn.. you can look perpendicular down the seal from the outside and immideately tell the stupid thing wasn't put in right just like the seal around the 3rd brake light on the ranger that caused the leak.. thing appeared to have been installed by Ray Charles

 

[timhood]

2.5 minutes after I got it home I had the stock wheels/tires off to switch em for the set I had on the ranger...

2.5 minutes?! Bro, did you use to mechanic for a Nascar team?! I can't even get one wheel off in 2.5 minutes.

I like that you know your use case and setup your Bronco to fit it. No lockers and no skid plates would not work for off-roading out here. For my use case, I figured a non-SAS Badlands would handle anything I was willing to try. I have plans to add a little more underbody protection before I get to the most extreme end of things. Lower control arms, rear shocks and transmission cover. I just need to decide which ones I want.

 

[OregonMike]

Great videos @BlueWaffle ! Love the 'un-wheelable' moniker, as a fellow lockerless Big Bender. The thing does pretty well.

Plates and a lift are on my list, but I've been having plenty of fun with just the bigger tires so far.

 

[6generuption]

Wasnt going to bother documenting my '"build'" initially.. as its unlikely to recieve fancy bumpers, big dollar suspension, winches, bourgeois lighting packages powerful enough to illuminate a stadium, or complete the TAT... simply put... my bronco is destined for a life of such modesty it might as well be considered mediocrity (at least until it's paid off )

"Why bother?" You say... "your shits weak, shoulda just bought a escape bro" you might be thinking.. and thats fair enough.

I'm doing this to tell the story of the underdog. To show that.. no.. you don't necessarily NEED locker(s) or an axle ratio that starts with a 5 (or even a 4) to get offroad and enjoy TF out of your experience. These are simple truths unjustly deemed as fallacy by what we'll refer to as gear-snobs.

The story of my Bronco actually begins with a broken 2021 ford ranger..

Apart from leaking water into the cab immideately after the b2b warranty ran out.. It's driveshaft center bearing took a crap at 40k miles, still under warranty, but new shafts were backordered with zero ETA. Noisy center bearing will fail a vehicle for a sticker up here (which conveniently just ran out ) and I couldn't have a vehicle that wasn't legal to drive.. indefinitely... so I took it as justification to upgrade to my 'dream' vehicle..

May 22, 2023.

Drove across the border and purchased it from londonderry ford in NH, where it had been sitting on their showroom floor for 90+ days. I thought it was odd they kept this one in their showroom... when they had 2 or 3 much fancier models sitting on the lot that would make a much better showcase... but I DID relatively quickly find out why...

...it's because it ALSO leaks water into the cab . Lazy assed MF'rs. Oh well, at least I have a one piece driveshaft now .

Apart from the water ingress.. the factory also forgot to install a grommet/plug in the drivers side firewall..

... and put the drivers side big bend sticker on pretty crooked..

.. way more obvious in person.


Other than these few little niggles.. everything was all wavy gravy with the new rig. No mismatched seats, mismatched flares, unpainted interior of the swing gate or any other ridiculous f-ups only ford could manage to do lol.

2.5 minutes after I got it home I had the stock wheels/tires off to switch em for the set I had on the ranger...

275/65/18 grabbers on 9" wide method 316s.


..the end of that week I installed a Flowmaster muffler delete..

.. and ford's rubber mats..

... few weeks after that I had a RC 2" lift installed along with a set of 285/75/r18 Kenda Klever R/Ts.. awesome tire..

.. and shortly after that I had its underside bathed in NHOU love this damn thing.. want it to last!

Obligatory side-of-driveway poser shot:

..even had it out in the woods on its first wheelin adventure while I was still rocking temp plates

Belittle and degrade me on my mismatched spare all you want.. theres just no GD way Im gonna spend 360$ on a matching method lol.. especially when I originally bought all 4 wrapped in brand new tires for 450$ (still excited about that) eventually I'll get around to ordering a spare tire cover so I'm not getting mercilessly ridiculed.. eventually

Video from its first wheeling trip at Jericho Mt. State park in Berlin NH:



It pains me to have to go to NH to get some solid wheeling in... Maine is great at a lot... but it sucks serious ass for legal wheeling oppurtunities.

.. and some quickie donuts.. or as I HILARIOUSLY refer to as BROnuts.. during what I seriously hope was our last snowstorm of the year last weekend..



The sound of the muffler delete comes through relatively decently in the donut video... should anyone have pre-purchase curiosity.



Next order of business is installing a partial set of skids and a half rack I bought with some tax returns, followed by a pair of ditchlights whenever I feel like torturing myself (I hate wiring. My understanding of electricity and all its assorted spaghetti is that it's WITCHCRAFT)

id like to get the trans skid and the tcase skid this year too of course.. depends on finances though. Need to buy a house!


Super excited to go wheeling again. I'll be headed back to Jericho Mt as soon as I can.. and I'd like to give Armor Ditch off road park a try this year too.. if anyone is local
-ish and wants to come along LMK! I promise I'm a much more regular and enjoyable person in real life

Nice write up! I to will be rocking an mis matched spare, I was contemplating a spare delete (bring it with when in the woods) or the cover.. Armor ditch is a good time, went last year and plan to go many times this year.

 

[Noremac]

Great videos @BlueWaffle ! Love the 'un-wheelable' moniker, as a fellow lockerless Big Bender. The thing does pretty well.

Plates and a lift are on my list, but I've been having plenty of fun with just the bigger tires so far.

We got the cheapest set of skids I could find for our big bend.. broaddict at the time. The following weekend, our all terrains weren’t agreeing with the clay, slid into a washout, then used those plates to slide out.

Lockers and all the other fancy gizmos are not required, just nice to haves sometimes

 

[mpeugeot]

Thanks! I preferred the badlands style grille at first.. as well as the signature lights.. but what I got has definitely grown on me quite a bit.





A wise man once said... 'it's better to be self deprecating than self defecating'

Thanks though! I can't think of another (affordable) vehicle that I'd enjoy driving & living with more than this love it to bits.



The only real wheeling trip I've taken so far I didn't bother to air down either... and I was surprised how well it did. I took my Ranger (that had a rear locker) down the same trails the previous year (while aired down) and I feel as if the Bronco did just as well. 4low all day due to the chunkieness of the terrain.



In a perfect world I honestly would of got one with a locker.. but with how tough it was to find an AFFORDABLE 2 door, 2.3, 10spd in my area at my time of purchase.. it pretty much boiled down to "buy this one, or live without a bronco"

No regerts!

..and honestly.. lockers can make some stuff way too easy. A little extra challenge adds to the fun of things for me personally.



Man.. I gotta tell ya.. it was 'puckery' at times knowing I was completely lacking skids.

The first half of the day was fine, as we were on two-way green trails I had previously done in a vehicle that had less clearance & no skids... but SOMEHOW we ended up getting on some one-way black trails.. and I immideately started to question all of my life's decisions... but mostly the decision to let my fiance read the trail map

Judicious line choice and a good spotter go a long way! I'm always more worried about body damage personally.. way more likely thing to happen on those trails.





The stinkyfab plates quickly won me over. They work with the plastic bumper without losing the tow hooks, they lack the additional price that other offroad companies tack on due to their name, and they're made in the USA! Hell yeah. Plus.. theres something to be said about naming your company stinkyfab lol.



I'm ecstatic about my fuel economy even with the 35s.. the old Ranger got 20.5 on average with 32"s.. the Bronco (in the warmer months) rewards me with a solid 21 mpg during my usual rural driving. Love it.



I've seen a mind boggling amount of threads on here asking if ordering the SAS package makes sense for a literal soccer mom mobile that will never even see a dirt road.. kinda makes me jelous.. id LOVE to have 8k$ to waste like that



The camera work is all thanks to my fiance.. she doesn't know jack about offroading and barely cares about vehicles... but she's got decent enough skill with the camera! Love that girl lol.

A good spotter is a must when wheeling.. a dedicated spotter without a camera in their hand I always bring one along.

I just don't know how you can off-road it without having adaptive cruise control, the wireless phone charger, or the Bang & Olufson stereo... How does anyone do that... Much less with a mismatched spare.

 

[Darrell]

I love it, To each there own. A Bronco is a bronco whether it has 2 doors or 4, 2.3 or 2.7, Sasquatch or not, you do you. I personably love all broncos new or old. Just enjoy it......

 

[Bellime]

So long as you’re happy and having fun, that’s what counts. Enjoy

 

[FordFamily4Fun]

Looks great. Most with lockers won't be doing serious enough to use them, and for those that use lockers, angles and skill without them is impressive. Was not aware of muffler delete. Better departure angle and I don't like the way it looks slung under the body when driving a bit behind a Bronco.

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