Bronco Factory Donut Doors Nixed, But Tube Doors Still Available

[AK SNO RIDER]

Tube doors have that center crossmember. Donut doors have a big hole there. Its not surprising at all tube doors would pass testing and the hole-y wouldn't.

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[Toastedtostito]

According to a Ford rep at Super Cel East, they did not pass crash testing and will not be available.

Since OP is asking, if they were available in the future, I'd guess they would cost $2000 for a 2-door, plus the cost of painting.

Tube doors apparently passed crash testing.

Maybe they are aluminum like the regular doors, so having the hole makes them fail crash test???
Where as the tube doors are steal????
Maybe???

 

[ColoradoGuy]

The beam would go right across the donut. Sorta defeats the purpose. I bet they tried to go with a halo architecture but couldn't make it strong enough while keeping the weight down for easy install/removal

I'm no engineer but couldn't they just reinforce the cutout door with something like this under the skin?

 

[BroncoHooves]

I'm no engineer but couldn't they just reinforce the cutout door

Yes; see my previous post.

 

[ColoradoGuy]

Yes; see my previous post.

Yep, I agree with that.

 

[JaxGtc]

I would venture to say this was probably a cost decision. To essentially build two doors into one (some type of structural/tube and conventional) for safety standards just didn't hold water with the bean counters.

 

[colintrax]

Im surprised it won't be offered as an "offroad" accessory.

 

[Wahoowa]

Cool, cuz tube doors on my wish list

 

[Austin26]

I don't see the appeal of them. The tube doors look like they'd be much less expensive to make and cool / off-roady to me. I'm not sure what the tubes are made of but they at least look safer than the doughnuts..

The doughnut doors are body colored and presumably must fit and have the tolerances of a normal door, meaning more expensive to make.

 

[Kos]

I'm no engineer but couldn't they just reinforce the cutout door with something like this under the skin?

I'm not a structural engineer, but I was a manufacturing engineer in a facility that made structural components for the automotive industry. My concern with what you drew above is that there is no anchor point for the vertical forces in center of the door to be transferred to which would require the horizontal bar at the bottom to be heavily reinforced (which is what I suspect they did on the prototype). If you look at the tube doors, the anchor points go to the door hinge locations which allows forces to transfer to the vehicle framework.

I'm willing to bet they engineered what they thought was sufficient reinforcement in the donut doors and when they went to crash test it failed. It left them in one of two situations. Either A) redesigns including crash test wouldn't be available for 2021 MY or B) they can't engineer sufficient reinforcement while meeting component weight targets.

 

[ColoradoGuy]

I'm not a structural engineer, but I was a manufacturing engineer in a facility that made structural components for the automotive industry. My concern with what you drew above is that there is no anchor point for the vertical forces in center of the door to be transferred to which would require the horizontal bar at the bottom to be heavily reinforced (which is what I suspect they did on the prototype). If you look at the tube doors, the anchor points go to the door hinge locations which allows forces to transfer to the vehicle framework.

I'm willing to bet they engineered what they thought was sufficient reinforcement in the donut doors and when they went to crash test it failed. It left them in one of two situations. Either A) redesigns including crash test wouldn't be available for 2021 MY or B) they can't engineer sufficient reinforcement while meeting component weight targets.

 

[Incognito]

Going naked, is the only way to roll.

 

[Boxmonkey]

“Hey, look at all this cool shit we can do...but aren’t!”
-Ford

 

[Squashed]

You mean I can't put them on my x plan ????

 

[Xodric]

This upset me greatly when I heard it, I seriously contemplated cancelling my reservation. This is honest to god 1/2 the reason I wanted the Bronco. I have a 78 Bronco. This is a want for me, not a need.

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