Bronco Free Rolls (Falls) Off Steep Hill!!

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

So I am no expert off roader, however, I would hardly say I'm green. This happened today and I am at a loss, possibly financially, but more importantly I don't know what actually went wrong. I have wheeled plenty of times in this Bronco since Aug 2022, I have been up this hill...successfully twice before...with plenty of witnesses

. I have been up many other hills, in fact this wasn't even the steepest today, as I had done a 39 degree hill earlier, this one was likely upper 20's, lower 30's. I have stalled the Bronco before, it's always restarted before and I've never lost brakes no matter at what angle and what grade. So I really have no idea what caused this. It stalled out around a 1:00 in and I lost power to everything. I did like everyone else yelling brakes, LOL! Tailgate is shot, bumper is shot, driver mirror also shot. It appears that the quarter panels and hardtop were unharmed.

Concerning repair, yes this is posted, either Ford or my insurance will cover it or they won't. If Ford won't I will try my insurance, if this is excluded from coverage, shame on me for not having this coverage, I will not commit insurance fraud in case anyone calls me stupid for posting this. My real aim is to figure out what went wrong. Total damage best I can figure is roughly $3000-4000. Oddly the real rip off is the side mirror based on my quick research.

lakesinai · Nov 11, 2023

FloridaBurgBronco said:
So I am no expert off roader, however, I would hardly say I'm green. This happened today and I am at a loss, possibly financially, but more importantly I don't know what actually went wrong. I have wheeled plenty of times in this Bronco since Aug 2022, I have been up this hill...successfully twice before...with plenty of witnesses. I have been up many other hills, in fact this wasn't even the steepest today, as I had done a 39 degree hill earlier, this one was likely upper 20's, lower 30's. I have stalled the Bronco before, it's always restarted before and I've never lost brakes no matter at what angle and what grade. So I really have no idea what caused this. It stalled out around a 1:00 in and I lost power to everything. I did like everyone else yelling brakes, LOL! Tailgate is shot, bumper is shot, driver mirror also shot. It appears that the quarter panels and hardtop were unharmed.

Concerning repair, yes this is posted, either Ford or my insurance will cover it or they won't. If Ford won't I will try my insurance, if this is excluded from coverage, shame on me for not having this coverage, I will not commit insurance fraud in case anyone calls me stupid for posting this. My real aim is to figure out what went wrong. Total damage best I can figure is roughly $3000-4000. Oddly the real rip off is the side mirror based on my quick research.

Wow! Your headlights stay on through it all, so it's not a full electrical failure! You have a manual, I believe you said in the video . . . That damage is a bummer. Will be interested to see what you discover. Were you able to drive home?

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

lakesinai said:
Wow! Your headlights stay on through it all, so it's not a full electrical failure! You have a manual, I believe you said in the video . . . That damage is a bummer. Will be interested to see what you discover. Were you able to drive home?

Yeah man, all things considered, it could have been way worse, there are larger hills we were on there, some hills were close to a lake, boy that would have sucked! I did have a 4X4 malfunction that said it was disabled, but turned the engine off, locked it, unlocked it and started back up and cleared whatever code it was and had 4X4 back. It is a manual, I have stalled before on steep grades and never had an issue. I'm still at a loss as to what caused it. Was able to drive home no problems other than having a back window open the whole time. All other systems seem fine and I have an F-150 to drive until I get it fixed, both of your other vehicles are paid for, so we can afford the payment on the Bronco, but it still sucks. But overall, I think it's a managable situation, whether Ford, insurance or I have to pay for it.

Fordified1 · Nov 11, 2023

Did a rock cut a brake line? If a rear brake line got cut the front brakes would have a difficult time stopping you from rolling backwards on such a steep incline, especially with the engine not running (no brake booster). I didn’t notice in the video if your front tires were locked up.
Is there a chance that in your panic you got the brake and clutch pedals mixed up? Sounds dumb but it has happened. I hope it gets figured out. It’s definitely a safety issue if it was a mechanical failure.

Baja Bronco · Nov 11, 2023

That was crazy!!! Keep us informed on what you find. IMO, you’re well over $4K in damages. Someone told me once a total Bronco mirror assembly is $2600. YIKES! Not sure if that’s true, but….

Really wondering whey / how you lost all power?

GroovyGeek · Nov 11, 2023

Looks like you slid off the rock and bottomed out on the driver side at around 0:14, then rev'd the engine multiple times through 0:47 and then backed out dragging the bottom on the rock. Might want to check what damage you have down there. Would not be surprised if you damaged something essential. The LCAs are down there, but don't know what, if any, brake lines are down there.

However probably not brake line failure since the front and rear brakes should have independent reservoirs. Also look at this
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/2023-outerbanks-brake-failure.70515/

indio22 · Nov 11, 2023

Could the parking brake have stopped the vehicle? Problem is it's kind of all or nothing on the Bronco. I miss having a real lever parking brake handle that can be easily grabbed and feathered.

EvanPeterson · Nov 11, 2023

If you popped the clutch out in while in gear, wouldn’t it have stopped in it’s tracks regardless of brake function?

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

Fordified1 said:
Did a rock cut a brake line? If a rear brake line got cut the front brakes would have a difficult time stopping you from rolling backwards on such a steep incline, especially with the engine not running (no brake booster). I didn’t notice in the video if your front tires were locked up.
Is there a chance that in your panic you got the brake and clutch pedals mixed up? Sounds dumb but it has happened. I hope it gets figured out. It’s definitely a safety issue if it was a mechanical failure.

No man, there was no brake lines busted, checked everything when I got home. I didn't panic until the failure happened and I had both pedals pushed in, brake to well, you know brake and the clutch for the engine to restart, which it automatically does once the clutch is pushed. Neither pedal did it's intended job at that moment. I have been in this same exact situation, literally dozens of times with no issues. To the best of my recollection, I did not do anything different than normal. But I have to figure it out somehow for sure.

TurkeyRun · Nov 11, 2023

Dang dude!

My self-serving questions are, what year and what Ford says?

I had a similar thing happen with my ‘68. Carb couldn’t handle the sustained incline, fuel starved, died on a steep ass hill almost at the top. I had squat for brakes - 68 trail-beater and all, went backwards faster and further than I cared to. Had my 9yo in the truck with me. Not a happy day. We were fine, but scary as hell.

Glad yer okay and the damage was (somewhat) minimal.

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

indio22 said:
Could the parking brake have stopped the vehicle? Problem is it's kind of all or nothing on the Bronco. I miss having a real lever parking brake handle that can be easily grabbed and feathered.

I didn't try that to be honest, I think I just thought if nothing else worked it wouldn't. If I had had an old style e-brake, I definitely would have grabbed it, but these weird new ones are electronically operated I assumed, so I think I just wrote it off. I did I also have the rear camera up, so I was also concentrating on steering the best I could, there were trees everywhere and I managed to only hit one I guess

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

TurkeyRun said:
Dang dude!

My self-serving questions are, what year and what Ford says?

I had a similar thing happen with my ‘68. Carb couldn’t handle the sustained incline, fuel starved, died on a steep ass hill almost at the top. I had squat for brakes - 68 trail-beater and all, went backwards faster and further than I cared to. Had my 9yo in the truck with me. Not a happy day. We were fine, but scary as hell.

Glad yer okay and the damage was (somewhat) minimal.

2022 and I will update everyone after I get Ford to look it over.

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

EvanPeterson said:
If you popped the clutch out in while in gear, wouldn’t it have stopped in it’s tracks regardless of brake function?

I had thought about that after, I don't know, may have worked. Sometimes sudden stops on hills don't turn out real well, slower stops are better, but being honest, I really thought at some point in time, it would have started or the brakes would have worked and neither happened. As a small piece of info, this is the first time I've had it out since the manual transmission had it's work done to it, regarding the TSB, but I really don't see how that would have affected anything.

EvanPeterson · Nov 11, 2023

FloridaBurgBronco said:
I had thought about that after, I don't know, may have worked. Sometimes sudden stops on hills don't turn out real well, slower stops are better, but being honest, I really thought at some point in time, it would have started or the brakes would have worked and neither happened. As a small piece of info, this is the first time I've had it out since the manual transmission had it's work done to it, regarding the TSB, but I really don't see how that would have affected anything.

My thought was, it may have slid back into the bank, but wouldn’t have allowed the momentum for the big problem at the bottom

FloridaBurgBronco · Nov 11, 2023

EvanPeterson said:
My thought was, it may have slid back into the bank, but wouldn’t have allowed the momentum for the big problem at the bottom

Watching the video in hindsight, the pop up by the passenger side that likely destroyed the bumper I think slowed me down enough to make the impact a little slower and less violent. Yeah, I mean, had I ever thought that was a possibility and in hindsight, I would have done a few things different. I just didn't know and I really got lucky I didn't side swipe multiple trees on the way down before hitting the last one. One thing I would have done differently, is at the bottom, had I gone a little more driver instead of straight, I woudl have gone down another trail that had an incline. That is the one thing I would have done differently, but hey, hindsight in 2020.

Bronco Free Rolls (Falls) Off Steep Hill!!

FloridaBurgBronco

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lakesinai

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