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Bronco Sport not as off road as Marketing Suggests? What’s that mean for Bronco?

DeltaBravo

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Pretty sure the dudes in Moab are going to be doing shit 90% of us will NEVER try.

the bronco sport is a bronco in name only
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DoubleADuster

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I thought Ford was advertising he Bronco Sport as the ride to the adventure and the Bronco as the actual adventure... or something along those lines.

If the Sport didn't perform well off-road, then I don't think it's bad marketing by Ford. In my opinion, they were pretty clear of the limitations.

The Bronco will be completely different.
I agree, in the article the Ford engineer defended the performance as the sport doing what it was designed for and tested against what the requirements they felt it would need to match to fit into the intended segment.
 

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I’m probably a bit less intelligent than you. However, for me it has been a lot of research and a steep learning curve. For example, I don’t fee it’s self evident what the difference between advanced 4x4 with automatic on demand engagement and 4x4 with part time selectable engagement is or the repercussions of gearing or a lot of the things I have relied on reading and researching to help me understand. I was only looking just to strike up conversation with more senior and more knowledgeable folks. Thanks
Your post and commenting is welcome. It's open and light hearted discussions like this that are encouraged and useful. @SEkevin 's reply is nothing to worry about. Them telling you to research (when that's exactly what you're doing by reaching out to enthusiasts) is nothing to worry about. They feel the need to put strangers down on the internet to feel better about themselves.

And you have apparently done zero research. Touch base again when you’ve done some.
Next time don't bother commenting when you have nothing useful to add to the discussion or the forum.
 

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@DoubleADuster - my $0.02, from someone who has had too much free time to idly amass forum and misc. article rote and trivia...

I'm not at all worried about whether the sport maps to big bronco performance. I think the sport only has a wet clutch transfer case, which means it's constantly going to be slipping those clutches and varying lockup (and creating heat). The big bronco, on the other hand, has two transfer case options... both of which offer full lockup. In that mode you're pure gear and are in turn not generating the same amount of friction... so a lot less heat, even considering the increased power delivery. Maybe MAYBE if you ran 4A (vs 4H) with the adv. transfer case, you could get a bit of heat in (uses wet multiplate clutch for AWD in that mode) BUT that case is probably overbuilt for the bronco, at least if they're pulling from the Raptor parts bin. I don't think we'll ever have transfer case heating issues in 4H, however.

Edit: the clutch thing really matters in cases where your car is going to try to deliver power to all 4 and the wheels are slipping. My subaru, for example, is front biased most of the time. When it senses slipping it will engage the clutches and send more power to the back. When you're not sending as much power to all 4 and the wheels aren't slipping, you're going to be burning less heat. So I could see situations like bombing around in sand to be an especially brutal condition for that type of AWD system.
 
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Rayder

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I love the quotes from some engineer budies this guy knows. "I'm not gonna tell you who they are or what they really do, but trust me they real smart according to me". What a fine piece of journalism.
 

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I love the quotes from some engineer budies this guy knows. "I'm not gonna tell you who they are or what they really do, but trust me they real smart according to me". What a fine piece of journalism.
I feel like Jalopnik has declined somewhat over the last few years, but I’ve heard some folks say the same for automotive journalism in general.
 

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I’m probably a bit less intelligent than you. However, for me it has been a lot of research and a steep learning curve. For example, I don’t feel it’s self evident what the difference between advanced 4x4 with automatic on demand engagement and 4x4 with part time selectable engagement is or the repercussions of gearing or a lot of the things I have relied on reading and researching to help me understand. I was only looking just to strike up conversation with more senior and more knowledgeable folks. Thanks
Consider this thread more research. We learn when we ask questions.

I think ANY comparing of the Sport to the Bronco will strike a nerve with a lot of people, especially those here who have expended much effort into learning EVERY nuance of the new Bronco. I'd suggest they have forgotten how they were when they were a NOOB also.
That entire scenario, the release of the Sport BEFORE the marquee vehicle in the new BRONCO line, in my opinion, was a major marketing OOPS by Ford and the customer base is still confused as to what they are looking at.

The new Bronco is important enough to Ford that the BRONCO is driving the new redesign of the Ranger. The Ranger will adapt to what the Bronco is, not the other way around, as is often suggested here.

A very basic crash course in Auto 4x4 transfer cases:

Auto 4X4 , in this Bronco, will have the following settings. 4A, 4Hi, 4Lo, 2Hi and also a neutral position.
The regular transfer case will not have the 4A option.

The 4Hi position is essentially 1:1 gearing that engages the front drive axle. IE: 4x4 with no gearing changes through the transfer case. While in this position, you are in full time 4WD.

THe 4A position could be considered a "part time" 4x4 system. You could use this on winter roads as ana example, sometimes the traction is great, sometiimes not and 4x4 is needed. The system will sense any tire slippage and react by tranfering power to which ever tire has traction. This is a common system in many newer AWD/4wd vehicles. No gearing reduction.

4Lo...... Full time 4x4 with a major gearing reduction, like 4:1 . The top speed in this range would be about 35mph. There are situations where this slow speed , high torque is very desireable, rock crawling for instance.

2Hi ..... regular ol' 2wd

Neutral ..... physically disenages the gearing inside the transfer case. the motor will rev, you will go nowhere. This position allows the Bronco to be flat towed, like you see people with big RV's towing their smaller "run-a-bout" vehicle. The tires will roll, the tranmission and engine will not move.
 

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As an owner of a Ranger FX4 who has taken it off road in a variety of ways I am more than excited for the Bronco and what it is capable of based on it being made off the Ranger Platform. The Bronco Sport being based off an Escape will have no impact on how the Bronco will be off-road
 

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I don’t really have a problem with that article. What it shows very clearly is that the marketing department is out of step with how the vehicle was engineered.

The Bronco Sport does not have a transfer case and uses clutches to simulate a solid connection to the rear differential. The Bronco’s transfer case is transferring power through the meshing of gears (auto mode not withstanding) so the transfer case will not overheat because there is no slippage.
 

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Body on frame, transfer case with locked 4x4 and LOW RANGE. Absolutely no similarities to the Bronco Sport. Probably the only interchangeable parts would be the letters on the grille (really)
 

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Hi all,
I am not new to cars, but relatively new to 4x4 and off road.
In reading this article, https://jalopnik.com/multiple-ford-bronco-sports-overheated-off-road-lets-t-1846450499/amp, the general vibe I get is that through fancy engineering ford can replicate a off-road-like experience in the bronco sport. However, it gives me pause on their overall approach. I have a reservation for a 2021 BD Bronco 4 door. Anyone else worried about this? I know the bronco sport and bronco are totally different.., but this has me not inclined to just assume that means it’s better. Anyone who has better knowledge of what goes into a good off-road and rugged design have info/knowledge to share about why this isn’t the case with the big bronco?
That’s about as accurate as saying a Wrangler will suck off road because a Fiat does.

it’s stupid they named that little thing Bronco Sport....but it has nothing to do with the actual Bronco.
 

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"The vehicle was in sand mode, the throttle was on the floor and Hall was “just not being gentle with [the car] at all.” It took roughly 15 minutes for the car to give the overtemp warning. Hall shut the machine off, and after five minutes it was ready to go again."

Let's recap. Full throttle in the sand for 15 minutes on a vehicle with no low range and they were surprised it got hot. 🤪
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