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Yea that same article has been posted in another towing thread on here, and at the risk of sounding repetitive I’ll summarize my responses from that. For the most part nobody’s expecting or wanting gladiators tow cap, and most of the struggles the gladiator faces shouldn’t be issues in the bronco(they also said specifically they got stuck at 6k, that would be plenty for bronco). Both the bronco engines are more than capable towing 7500-9000lbs in other fords, there’s half dozen or more suvs with similar wheelbase that tow that range too(and there’s no difference in 2 door and 4 door even though 14in wheelbase change, even the wrangler has a 1500lb difference just for wheelbase alone so in a way it’s not the same as wrangler), and the gladiator was based on a wrangler that never was built to tow and had to keep the style(and cooling limiting body panels, any cooling issue in the bronco is what they designed into it as it’s not using the front end from another vehicle). The engine in the gladiator doesn’t tow as much in any other vehicle it’s in. The bronco started based on the ranger already more than capable to tow. Gladiator and bronco sorta go opposites ways, gladiator from a never capable towing platform to towing more than twice as much and bronco from a capable towing platform to towing less than half. And aside from suspension, pretty much every component of the bronco is more than capable of towing in other vehicles. Literally just the 1500lb difference for wheelbase alone like the wrangler has would be enough for most(making the 4 door a 5k tow cap), but even a bit extra doesn’t seem out of reach for a specific tow package, that way any off-road limitations that might make are completely optional(though still think they’d be minimal and most would barely notice at all). Yes there’s complexity to towing configurations, but when Ford has other vehicles using a lot of the same parts in different configurations to tow 2-3x as much as the broncos rated it really makes it almost seem like the broncos in a “not the sum of its parts” kinda deal(the “almost” giving some leeway for suspension bits, but that still doesn’t answer why there’s no difference at all with 14in longer wheelbase in the 4 door).Towing is a pretty complex engineering problem. This article has some insight: https://jalopnik.com/the-engineering-behind-the-jeep-gladiators-tow-rating-1833657453
There's cooling considerations, wheelbase, wheel and tire changes, suspension design and softness/firmness, flex, sway bars, brakes, engine output, final drive ratio, overall gear ratios. They all play a factor.
Ultimately, I think Ford was willing to compromise absolute towing to go after Jeep's offroad capabilities and offer stuff like Factory 35" tires. Wrangler has the same tow rating that Bronco has, and being how towing is not the primary driver of Wrangler sales, Ford probably didn't prioritize it.
I wish it towed more too, and I think a Max tow package would have been a great idea.
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