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Not sure if this has been done to death yet here on the forums, but I watched the Ford video here:
...and there were a few very interesting shots of the underside. I see some things that are interesting and some that are curious.
First we see something which is very familiar to the Jeep JK. This isn't too big of a surprise, I remember 10-12 years ago on the allpar forums, some old JTE engineers saying that Ford picked up some of the Jeep Truck guys during the financial crisis and that the hard points on the Bronco would be very similar to the JK...
We have an exhaust crossover that is very similar to the Pentastar on the JK, so assumedly this would be a V-configuration engine. I imagine this would be one of Ford's EcoBoost plants.
Right behind that, we can see what is likely the transmission mount crossmember, that attaches to either side of the framerails. Behind that, on the passenger side, is the gas tank skid plate, looking very similar to the JK in configuration.
Let's have a closer look. That transmission crossmember is interesting. We see the frame-side mounts for it which are quite different from the JK or JL. They are welded to the bottom of the frame rails, and then extend quite far outwards to brace the crossmember from either side. This looks more beefy, and superior to the JK/JL crossmember, but it will depend on the guage thickness of the bracket, the crossmember itself, and also whether the brackets are braced from the inside of the framerail as well. The crossmember itself was a weak point on the Jeep JK, and this one on the Bronco similarly looks like it will be easily upgraded to a HD aftermarket unit if need be.
The gas tank skid plate looks mostly adequate. We can also see the transfer case skid plate on the driver side, behind the crossmember, looking very similar to the JK.
There are not a lot of protruding fastener heads on the skid plates, and the framerails similarly look pretty clean. The skid plate attachments and bracing also look smoother and less likely to get hung up on the rocks than the Jeep JL's, which were generally a regression from the JK.
We also see a body mount at the top of the frame. Interestingly, it looks to have some sort of bracing on the bottom of the frame, which might strengthen the bracket from underside hits from rocks. We can also see the rock rail attachments, but hard to deduce anything from this as the tub is not production on this mule.
In the next frame, we start to see what's going on behind the transfer case. I would have expected to see a rear driveshaft, but can't see one yet. The tube running out from behind the transfer case skid would seem to be the rear exhaust pipe, since it has a bend just after that transfer case skid. It seems exposed there, like it should instead be tucked up against the inside of the driver side frame rail.
On top of that tube, there is something else protected by a skid plate. Evap canister? Secondary battery? Something else?
The gas tank looks so similar to the JK here that it seems likely this thing will have 19-21 gal tank capacity.
Next frame, still don't see the rear driveshaft. The back of the gas tank tapers towards the center of the vehicle, unlike the JK.
The frame side rear control arm brackets are now in view, and look nice and boxed and smooth for crawling.
What's that blueish thing on the driver side just under the control arm?
Here's the bluish thing again, just to the left of the control arm. Is this the jounce bumper? I'm a longtime Jeep guy, so this looks unusual to me, but maybe this is the way Ford does things. Even though it's tucked between the wheel and control arm, it hangs down quite low and looks exposed.
It's impossible to tell what that rear axle is, but it looks like it's high pinion. It certainly doesn't look, like there are bolt heads or access from the pinion side, so probably not a 9-inch 3rd-member style design that was such a popular rear axle on older Jeeps (part of me wanted to see that just for the cool factor of being able to swap out the whole internals, but hopefully this axle is stout enough and will have a strong aftermarket).
Overall, this looks very promising to me and I can't wait to see more.
...and there were a few very interesting shots of the underside. I see some things that are interesting and some that are curious.
First we see something which is very familiar to the Jeep JK. This isn't too big of a surprise, I remember 10-12 years ago on the allpar forums, some old JTE engineers saying that Ford picked up some of the Jeep Truck guys during the financial crisis and that the hard points on the Bronco would be very similar to the JK...
We have an exhaust crossover that is very similar to the Pentastar on the JK, so assumedly this would be a V-configuration engine. I imagine this would be one of Ford's EcoBoost plants.
Right behind that, we can see what is likely the transmission mount crossmember, that attaches to either side of the framerails. Behind that, on the passenger side, is the gas tank skid plate, looking very similar to the JK in configuration.
Let's have a closer look. That transmission crossmember is interesting. We see the frame-side mounts for it which are quite different from the JK or JL. They are welded to the bottom of the frame rails, and then extend quite far outwards to brace the crossmember from either side. This looks more beefy, and superior to the JK/JL crossmember, but it will depend on the guage thickness of the bracket, the crossmember itself, and also whether the brackets are braced from the inside of the framerail as well. The crossmember itself was a weak point on the Jeep JK, and this one on the Bronco similarly looks like it will be easily upgraded to a HD aftermarket unit if need be.
The gas tank skid plate looks mostly adequate. We can also see the transfer case skid plate on the driver side, behind the crossmember, looking very similar to the JK.
There are not a lot of protruding fastener heads on the skid plates, and the framerails similarly look pretty clean. The skid plate attachments and bracing also look smoother and less likely to get hung up on the rocks than the Jeep JL's, which were generally a regression from the JK.
We also see a body mount at the top of the frame. Interestingly, it looks to have some sort of bracing on the bottom of the frame, which might strengthen the bracket from underside hits from rocks. We can also see the rock rail attachments, but hard to deduce anything from this as the tub is not production on this mule.
In the next frame, we start to see what's going on behind the transfer case. I would have expected to see a rear driveshaft, but can't see one yet. The tube running out from behind the transfer case skid would seem to be the rear exhaust pipe, since it has a bend just after that transfer case skid. It seems exposed there, like it should instead be tucked up against the inside of the driver side frame rail.
On top of that tube, there is something else protected by a skid plate. Evap canister? Secondary battery? Something else?
The gas tank looks so similar to the JK here that it seems likely this thing will have 19-21 gal tank capacity.
Next frame, still don't see the rear driveshaft. The back of the gas tank tapers towards the center of the vehicle, unlike the JK.
The frame side rear control arm brackets are now in view, and look nice and boxed and smooth for crawling.
What's that blueish thing on the driver side just under the control arm?
Here's the bluish thing again, just to the left of the control arm. Is this the jounce bumper? I'm a longtime Jeep guy, so this looks unusual to me, but maybe this is the way Ford does things. Even though it's tucked between the wheel and control arm, it hangs down quite low and looks exposed.
It's impossible to tell what that rear axle is, but it looks like it's high pinion. It certainly doesn't look, like there are bolt heads or access from the pinion side, so probably not a 9-inch 3rd-member style design that was such a popular rear axle on older Jeeps (part of me wanted to see that just for the cool factor of being able to swap out the whole internals, but hopefully this axle is stout enough and will have a strong aftermarket).
Overall, this looks very promising to me and I can't wait to see more.
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