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Dusty

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So your base was non SAS correct? BTW, that rig looks great. I have a model on reserve for the wife but I an thinking I might snag a base two door off the lot once they start arriving and start building it to my liking. You can’t beat the deal for the Base, even if you add SAS.
Yep, NoSquatch. Yeah the 2-door Base is the hidden gem. You can buy two of them for what many folks on here are paying for one Bronco.
Dusty, that seems like a stock plastic front bumper other than the flat-tow tabs? But you have the front armour plating, which in most catalogues says requires a metal bumper to attach! Which front skid plate is that (FORD, ARB, 4WP) and did you have to fabricate front attachment threads/holes, or were the attachment points already there?

I like your modification style.
The piece you are seeing is actually just the plastic air dam, not a metal bash plate. It comes with the plastic bumper. The tabs I made use the existing bumper mounting bolt locations. It's just a tab welded to a plate that has the 3 bumper bolt holes in it. It bolts in behind the bumper and the tabs poke through it. I posted a video about it on YouTube. Look up our channel Horsin' Around.
Who needs lockers to rock crawl
So far lack of lockers hasn't been much of a hindrance. Solving the ground clearance issue was the biggest thing, which the 35" tires solved. We didn't do much that was too difficult out at Super Cel. But now that we're back home we'll be testing it a bit more rigorously in our local mountains on familiar trails.
OK, I’ll bite. How on earth is this considered a leveling kit if the normal bronco doesn’t have a rake. Leveling kits are for pick up trucks that come from the factory with a rake where the backend is higher than the front end. Hence “leveling”.
Excellent question. I've often thought the same. But it's just semantics, nothing to get upset about. For the record, ICON's kit does provide both lift and leveling.
Looks awesome!
Thanks!
This Bronco looks great!
Thanks!
Looks awesome. White looks so good!
Thanks! I ordered it in white because I figured it would be the color least likely to cause some sort of delay. But it's growing on me.
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Dusty

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Really good looking Bronco! I follow your channel at youtube (horsing' around) and I was wondering when you gonna get new set of wheels! Turns out you got two of them or half of two.

Dustin is a really DYI dude. I recommend his channel. I'm sure he has on his mind really cool ideas for his Bronco!

https://youtube.com/channel/UCnq3t9F5qs2aIl6M0ch1hcg
Thanks for the props! Yeah we're having fun with the YouTube channel. Nothing too serious. Appreciate the feedback.
So how well did it 4 wheel compared to a badlands?....
Compared to 95% of the Badlands Broncos purchased so far? Awesome. Because this one has actually been off-road :)
Dusty, I just passed you coming down Wolf Creek pass! The non-matching spare tire gave it away. The rig looks great, happy to see someone taking these out on the CO trails where they belong!
Awesome! Yeah I was a bit nervous about towing up and over Wolf Creek Pass in the pusher. I've dreaded it all my life because of the C.W. McCall song LOL. But it wasn't too bad. I didn't end up bashing into the side of the feed store in downtown Pagosa Springs :) The Bronco is quite a bit lighter and easier towing than my 4-door Rubicon.
Base grill looks so cool bet many will trade for it
Yeah its the one that looks the most like a Bronco :) But as someone already mentioned, the letters need some contrast.
Dusty, how did your Base drive train with the open diffs handle the 35” tires? Any big issues with RPMs or Speedo?

We all heard nothing over 32 but so far you and Hyperdad seem to have run 35 with no reported issues
No real issues. Of course the speedo is off a little. No big deal. Neither were the open diffs, for the trails we ran. But that and the lack of rocker protection did affect my trail choice, for example it kept me from choosing to run Chinaman's Gulch (which I've run before in a 2-door JK with one locker). But after seeing pics from that run and the current condition of the trail I think I could have made it. Performance from the 2.3L with the 35's without regearing wasn't bad. Keep in mind this has a manual transmission so it came with 4.46 gears, not that much different than the 4.7 gears in the Sasquatch. In low range it still crawls amazingly. Especially in Crawler gear. As long as it has traction, it has enough power to pull itself up over anything. On one trail to an old mine we went up a rocky, sustained 20+ degree incline for quite a distance. Idled right up it, with the occasional tap of the throttle. This thing is like a tractor.
I seen it in real life!
It was great to meet you and your family!
 

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They’re all plastic. 🤷‍♂️ Base just gets gloss black letters vs. gloss white.
AND...how hard will it be to paint those letters - I plan on doing just that if I have time.
 

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The base is a great deal depending on how it's going to be used, and expectations. For me, I'll have an auto trans, so the gearing is a big deal. Also, since I will use it for wheeling, I want the iron front diff, not the aluminum. I happened to price out a base, then add the M210 front diff, add lockers and gears to the rear diff, add bumpers, skid plates, and rock rails, put on aftermarket shocks, and rims and tires, and it came out the same as ordering a Badlands.
 
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The base is a great deal depending on how it's going to be used, and expectations. For me, I'll have an auto trans, so the gearing is a big deal. Also, since I will use it for wheeling, I want the iron front diff, not the aluminum. I happened to price out a base, then add the M210 front diff, add lockers and gears to the rear diff, add bumpers, skid plates, and rock rails, put on aftermarket shocks, and rims and tires, and it came out the same as ordering a Badlands.
Fair enough. In my case, it will get used quite a bit harder than most folks who ordered a Badlands or anything with a Sasquatch. I am fully aware that the front diff has an aluminum housing and a smaller ring gear than the M210. And I am willing to be the guinea pig to see just how much torture it can handle. I've already given it more than most Broncos of any configuration will ever see, and it's only going to get tougher. I expect it will grenade at some point. But maybe it won't. It's rated for as much torque as a Dana 44, and the housing doesn't have to support the weight of the vehicle the way it does in a straight-axle configuration. My 2015 Rubicon has a Dana 44 and has been wheeled pretty hard on 37's its entire life. I suspect if I keep this Bronco on 35's that front diff should handle just about everything I throw at it. Especially since I've discovered that the 4.46 gears are adequate with 35's and the 7-speed. If I were doing a gear change and adding a front locker, I'd probably take the opportunity to change to an M210 at the same time. But until then I think we'll just see what it can handle.
 

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Thanks! I ordered it in white because I figured it would be the color least likely to cause some sort of delay. But it's growing on me.
Normally not a fan of White vehicles either, but these things wear it well.

This thing is like a tractor.
Hahaha, LOVE IT!! I ran a NP435 in my 69 , all kinds of creepy crawly!!!


Which flares are those, standard? or did you swap into the Squatch flares? Some pics they look big, others not so much.
 
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Which flares are those, standard? or did you swap into the Squatch flares? Some pics they look big, others not so much.
Those are just the stock non-Sasquatch flares and they haven't been swapped. It must be the camera angle in some of the shots throwing you off.
 

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2021 Base Bronco 2-Door. ICON leveling kit (prototype, available soon) with 35” Nitto Trail Grapplers on ICON Alloys. Having fun at Bronco Super Celebration West in Buena Vista, Colorado.

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Nice work on the tow bar set up. I've been thinking along those lines for my standard bumper BB. I don't have your skills but I can turn a wrench. Blue Ox now has a base plate now but it's pricey and you lose the factory recovery points. It is mounted low which is good for my Class C.

I've also thought about using these from Rough Country with an additional attachment with a side plate to the frame. These are meant for a Ranger, they replace the factory tow loop, but I bet they are the same bolt pattern at the tow loop mount.
Ford Bronco Base Bronco 2-Door on 35’s with ICON Leveling Kit 514Qpei4jHL._AC_SL1200_

I'm a little concerned about build quality/strength. Any thoughts?

Have you thought about offering your set up for sale? Nice because it leaves the factory loops for safety cable hook up. What Brake system and lights do you use?
 

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Nice work on the tow bar set up. I've been thinking along those lines for my standard bumper BB. I don't have your skills but I can turn a wrench. Blue Ox now has a base plate now but it's pricey and you lose the factory recovery points. It is mounted low which is good for my Class C.

I've also thought about using these from Rough Country with an additional attachment with a side plate to the frame. These are meant for a Ranger, they replace the factory tow loop, but I bet they are the same bolt pattern at the tow loop mount.
Ford Bronco Base Bronco 2-Door on 35’s with ICON Leveling Kit 514Qpei4jHL._AC_SL1200_

I'm a little concerned about build quality/strength. Any thoughts?

Have you thought about offering your set up for sale? Nice because it leaves the factory loops for safety cable hook up. What Brake system and lights do you use?
Thanks for the props! I can't comment on the strength of that Rough Country setup but if they claim it's strong enough for recovery work, then it should be strong enough for a tow bar. That said, I'm not so keen on the looks of those fabricated sheet metal D-rings or what looks like single-shear attachment to the frame.

I briefly thought about offering the plates like I made for sale (laser cut of course, not cut out with a die-grinder the way I did them in my home shop LOL). I do have a tiny aftermarket parts company that I occasionally offer products through. But using those tabs requires some trimming of the plastic bumper that ends up looking pretty ugly as you can see, which makes the installation process too hard to explain, and not that easy for those most people. I didn't want to be responsible for people fucking up their plastic bumper too much when trying to install them, then blaming me LOL. I've been in the off-road aftermarket industry for years and I know how something like that can turn into a customer service time-suck.

There's a guy named Oscar Espinoza, you can look him up on Facebook (not sure if he's here on 6G), who has drawn up some similar plates and cut them on his CNC plasma. I don't know if he intends to sell them but you could look him up and ask.

But ultimately, the best solution, and what I recommend, is to simply install a good off-road bumper that already has tabs you can use for your tow bar. That's what I will eventually do. My home-made tabs were just a temporary solution for my Bronco.
 
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What Brake system and lights do you use?
I just rigged up some drag lights with a roll of 4-wire flat cable and some LED trailer lights and just zip-tied everything on. I will eventually do some proper tow wiring, integrated into the Bronco's wiring, with a quick-connect and removable umbilical. I'm hoping Ford Accessories will come out with a kit for it but I'm not holding my breath for that. Mopar sells a kit like that for Jeep owners who want to flat tow, I have it on my Rubicon. But I'll probably end up having to research it do the splicing and adding diodes myself. I didn't do it for this first trip because I simply didn't have time to do the research, and I didn't want to cut into the Bronco's electrical system without a full understanding. If you've seen our video on building the tabs on our YouTube channel (Horsin' Around), you'll see the next episode later this week that shows my hokey lighting setup as well as hitching everything up and putting the Bronco in tow mode.

As for auxiliary braking, I haven't rigged anything up yet. It's a 4,000 lb. vehicle behind a 35,000 lb. motorhome. The motorhome doesn't even know its back there. For liability reasons I will eventually add something like an Air Force that ties into the coach's air brake system. Of course on a lighter Class C it will be more important for you. In that case I'd probably just get a Brake Buddy.
 

dgorsett

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I just rigged up some drag lights with a roll of 4-wire flat cable and some LED trailer lights and just zip-tied everything on. I will eventually do some proper tow wiring, integrated into the Bronco's wiring, with a quick-connect and removable umbilical. I'm hoping Ford Accessories will come out with a kit for it but I'm not holding my breath for that. Mopar sells a kit like that for Jeep owners who want to flat tow, I have it on my Rubicon. But I'll probably end up having to research it do the splicing and adding diodes myself. I didn't do it for this first trip because I simply didn't have time to do the research, and I didn't want to cut into the Bronco's electrical system without a full understanding. If you've seen our video on building the tabs on our YouTube channel (Horsin' Around), you'll see the next episode later this week that shows my hokey lighting setup as well as hitching everything up and putting the Bronco in tow mode.

As for auxiliary braking, I haven't rigged anything up yet. It's a 4,000 lb. vehicle behind a 35,000 lb. motorhome. The motorhome doesn't even know its back there. For liability reasons I will eventually add something like an Air Force that ties into the coach's air brake system. Of course on a lighter Class C it will be more important for you. In that case I'd probably just get a Brake Buddy.
Thanks for your detailed response. I can see your point on liability. I do all my own work but don't work on other folks stuff. If I F up mine I'll just redo it better next time. I'll check out the Guy on FB.

And your right, I towed for a while without brakes, but feel much better now with my Class C using the RVI system.
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