Base Model Questions - Hitachi OEM Suspension, Manual, Similar Vehicles to test Drive, Wheel Sizes

[Sampsonrustic]

Long time lurker here... Getting excited to put my order in for a 2.3 manual base 2-door.

I'm trying to get a sense of a few things. My forum and google searching has left me without some clear guidance.

Really hard to prepare to order a vehicle I've never seen or driven!

1. Base Suspension/Road Manners: How will this beast drive on the road? I'm not really worried about its offroad capabilities. The bronco will far surpass any 4x4 i've ever had in that department. But let's face it, I will spend 80-90% of my time in this vehicle on pavement. So, will this thing be jumpy and bouncy like my F150 when it's unloaded (and thus make my wife want to hurl?) -- Or will it be more refined like my wife's Grand Cherokee? I'm hoping it doesn't suffer from excessive body roll, dive, and squat, which can really make my wife carsick and forces us to take her car a lot of the time. I know it's a bronco, but i'm wondering if I should be looking at a higher end model for a more upscale ride quality on-road. Do the big bend models have the exact same suspension as the base?
2. Similar Vehicles to Test Drive: Does anyone know if any other vehicles share this model's manual transmission, engine, and/or suspension? Do we have any idea what this transmission is going to feel like? Eg is it out of the ford focus of yesteryears? I think that manual was widely regarded as excellent.
3. Wheels and Tire Size on Base: What size tires and wheels can I fit on the base model? Given the manual's higher gearing, i'd like to put some 33s on, which unfortunately are far and few between in terms of sizes that will fit correctly on the stock steely 16x7. Again, this is all dependent on how well it drives and probably wouldn't be until a bit down the road, but figured I'd start thinking about what's possible.

The only thing I've found online about base model suspension are that it has HOSS, and from the following article in Jalopnik, screenshot pasted below, which says it's getting HITACHI shocks. I don't know anything about hitachi shocks, but I imagine they're cheaper/different than bilsteins...

Link to Article

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[HoosierDaddy]

The 7speed manual is brand new for the Bronco....nowhere to test drive one.

I have no knowledge of any reviews of the suspension, but I expect it to be on the soft side because they are chasing flexibility.

The motor is the same as the Ranger, "they" say to test drive a Crew Cab Ranger to get a feel for the motor with a similar vehicle size and weight.

-I made a post last night covering tires in the 33" range ..
-...as I recall, 285/75-16 had a good selection of tires to choose from ....32.8 x 11.8 .

c&p:

Base.... 255/70-16 = 30.1 x 10
Bg Bnd 255/75-17 = 32.1 x 10
Blk Dmd 265/70-17 = 31.6 x 10.4
Bad Lnds 285/70-17= 32.7 x 11.2
Squantch 315/70-17 = 34.4 x 12.4

Yes, Big Bend tires are actually taller than the offroad Jr's (Blk Dmnd) tires. A whopping half inch, but BD tires are a bit wider.

Me : Looking at extremly limited tires in 16" wheels .... https://tiresize.com/chart/
255/85-16 .... 33.1 x 10
295/75-16 .... 33.4 x 11.6
285/75-16 .... 32.8 x 11.2.... lot of choices here
305/70-16 .... 32.8 x 12 .... ok selection

 

[Old Guy]

I would go drive a 2 door jeep with her. It should be more comfortable than that, but it might give you the closest comparison.

Agree with driving the Ranger, to see how motor feels.

I am a broken record here on tire sizes, but I think if you are determined to put 32/33's on, you may find you cannot correctly update the speedo, and that has other possible associated issues. I would get a higher trim if you want bigger tires. Then you are ok {more or less} on the speedo for 33's. I think 33's will "fit" on there, but no one knows for sure.

 

[Hey19]

I would expect the two door to be a little more "jumpy?" compared to the 4 door.

But yeah, any ones guess at this point. Just wait till march to order, should get more info by then. I hope

 

[Deleted member 3063]

long time lurker?
these topics have been beaten to death.

 

[Old Guy]

long time lurker?
these topics have been beaten to death.

Nice warm welcome.

 

[Sampsonrustic]

I would go drive a 2 door jeep with her. It should be more comfortable than that, but it might give you the closest comparison.

Agree with driving the Ranger, to see how motor feels.

I am a broken record here on tire sizes, but I think if you are determined to put 32/33's on, you may find you cannot correctly update the speedo, and that has other possible associated issues. I would get a higher trim if you want bigger tires. Then you are ok {more or less} on the speedo for 33's. I think 33's will "fit" on there, but no one knows for sure.

Good call on the jeep and ranger. I haven't driven any jeeps newer than a TJ so didn't think to try that. The JKs may feel bigger than those and more similar, so yeah good idea.

Regarding the wheel size thing, you really think it's possible no one will be able to reset a speedo on any of these vehicles? Dealer or aftermarket? Definitely something to consider. Considering how locked into certain packages the buyers are, I imagine people will be modifying heavily in the aftermarket. Unfortunately there are only a small handful of features I want that don't make the higher trims worth it for me.

 

[Sampsonrustic]

I would expect the two door to be a little more "jumpy?" compared to the 4 door.

But yeah, any ones guess at this point. Just wait till march to order, should get more info by then. I hope

Yep thanks, I was hoping someone knew someone who had test driven one and could comment on it. I agree the shorter wheelbase 2D is likely going to be a bit twitchier. I'm just hoping for a reasonable ride quality. Thanks.

 

[Sampsonrustic]

The 7speed manual is brand new for the Bronco....nowhere to test drive one.

I have no knowledge of any reviews of the suspension, but I expect it to be on the soft side because they are chasing flexibility.

The motor is the same as the Ranger, "they" say to test drive a Crew Cab Ranger to get a feel for the motor with a similar vehicle size and weight.

-I made a post last night covering tires in the 33" range ..
-...as I recall, 285/75-16 had a good selection of tires to choose from ....32.8 x 11.8 .

c&p:

Thanks. Yeah the base trim comes with a 16x7 tire, which i thought made 285 width possible out of the question, but i'm not actually sure. We'll see. Do you think there will be speedo calibration issues with these? I can't imagine they don't want anyone throwing bigger tires on the base model.

Regarding the tranny and engine size, that's what I thought thanks for confirming.

 

[Sampsonrustic]

long time lurker?
these topics have been beaten to death.

Interesting you say that, because not a single post on this site has mentioned the hitachi shocks on the base model...

 

[Old Guy]

Good call on the jeep and ranger. I haven't driven any jeeps newer than a TJ so didn't think to try that. The JKs may feel bigger than those and more similar, so yeah good idea.

Regarding the wheel size thing, you really think it's possible no one will be able to reset a speedo on any of these vehicles? Dealer or aftermarket? Definitely something to consider. Considering how locked into certain packages the buyers are, I imagine people will be modifying heavily in the aftermarket. Unfortunately there are only a small handful of features I want that don't make the higher trims worth it for me.

I think eventually maybe. This is what I know from my dealer, and small experience with my Mustang and its tuner.

• Mustang tuner, tire size adjustment disabled, reason being, tuner cited liability issues, and they were not going to enable the feature.
• My Service guy at my dealership told me they removed the ability to adjust tire size at the dealer level 5 years ago.
• My Online sales person for my Bronco, confirmed, that dealer cannot do tire size adjustments.
• I was put in touch with the after market technician my dealership uses to add performance tunes that are under Ford performance. He said that he can adjust for the Ranger, but that Sync 4 has more protections, and while he believes that it will be able to be done, he cannot guarantee it, and has reservations about it. His not dealership business is performance modifications. He works on cars and 4wd's.
  Flashes Jeep CPU all the time for tire upgrades, but says encryption on the new cars is getting more difficult, and more systems are intertwined.

This is only info from a small data point, but I have posted this before, and no one has shown contrary information on the new Bronco. I will admit I am overly conservative when it comes to these type of modifications, and others would not hesitate and likely could do it without incident.

 

[Sampsonrustic]

I think eventually maybe. This is what I know from my dealer, and small experience with my Mustang and its tuner.

• Mustang tuner, tire size adjustment disabled, reason being, tuner cited liability issues, and they were not going to enable the feature.
• My Service guy at my dealership told me they removed the ability to adjust tire size at the dealer level 5 years ago.
• My Online sales person for my Bronco, confirmed, that dealer cannot do tire size adjustments.
• I was put in touch with the after market technician my dealership uses to add performance tunes that are under Ford performance. He said that he can adjust for the Ranger, but that Sync 4 has more protections, and while he believes that it will be able to be done, he cannot guarantee it, and has reservations about it. His not dealership business is performance modifications. He works on cars and 4wd's.
  Flashes Jeep CPU all the time for tire upgrades, but says encryption on the new cars is getting more difficult, and more systems are intertwined.

This is only info from a small data point, but I have posted this before, and no one has shown contrary information on the new Bronco. I will admit I am overly conservative when it comes to these type of modifications, and others would not hesitate and likely could do it without incident.

I think that's a pretty substantial amount of information and definitely a good call out. May just have to love the smaller stock tires until there's an answer!

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