Details & update for 2021 Bronco Badlands with steering rack failure on King of the Hill K2 Trail

[OX1]

This is normal damage of any off road vehicle navigating in the rocks. Broken tie rods, axles, and steering boxes are commonly damaged anytime you are enjoying a rock crawl.

Are these new rigs really that delicate across the board? Tie rods are not regularly broken on EB's or FSB's with a 36/37" tire. Steering boxes really don't ever break (yes, could have been a fluke here and there, but the equipment we are talking about for steering boxes is 25 to 55 years old). Is a 41 year old Ford steering box really better than Ford's premier, brand new designed, offroader?

The other disturbing thing, if this wasn't just a fluke, was that this design's FOS was not made to handle much of an upgrade.

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[johndeerefarmer]

The lift kit and 37's would void the warranty.

 

[JPG]

Are these new rigs really that delicate across the board? Tie rods are not regularly broken on EB's or FSB's with a 36/37" tire. Steering boxes really don't ever break (yes, could have been a fluke here and there, but the equipment we are talking about for steering boxes is 25 to 55 years old). Is a 41 year old Ford steering box really better than Ford's premier, brand new designed, offroader?

The other disturbing thing, if this wasn't just a fluke, was that this design's FOS was not made to handle much of an upgrade.

Yeah, the 41 year old Ford is probably better than the new one. Like everything built today, it's built not to last ( Thin foil hat On, lol ) The rack and pinion is probably nothing special, just re-appropriated from another model, that probably was on another model, and so on. It's probably not designed with this particular situation in mind.

Nothing lasts today compared to before, today it's cheaper/faster/throw away/buy another one...

 

[johndeerefarmer]

How many Bronco's have broke at the Bronco Offrodeos?
There IS a limit on what you can do on a stock machine.. This guy obviously went over that limit and/or abused it

 

[AZBadlands]

@tmason10 - great pictures and information. The one thing I learned for sure is that I am so far out of my league.

 

[AZBadlands]

@tmason10 - great pictures and information. The one thing I learned for sure is that I am so far out of my league.

 

[Nodrama43]

I've seen enough videos of broncos wheeling on 33" and 35" tires to understand how great a machine it is. Can't wait to get mine. Everything has it's limits.....big tires, aggressive driving, and rocks break all kinds of stuff. No surprise here.

 

[ollie]

Independent suspension (and 4 wheel is better at this) does a better job at keeping tires in contact with the surface.

I'm sorry John but that is a very poor argument for independent suspension used in rock crawling. It has its place. Rock crawling is not one of them.

 

[vrtical]

weight kills period plus I think the rock bash attempt was outside the normal use case. You can have similar results with a RC Bronco breaking stuff and stripping internal gears that are not hardened or better material type.

 

[JohnnyBronco]

I'm sorry John but that is a very poor argument for independent suspension used in rock crawling. It has its place. Rock crawling is not one of them.

the Apollo missions thought enough of IS to include it on their rock crawlers

But I climb rocks with ropes and carabiners and do not rock crawl so I yield

 

[ThrvinBronco]

I broke a steering box off a jeep wrangler hitting the rock hard off-roading at 10 miles an hour. Shit breaks. it happens!

 

[Aaonter]

I'm sorry John but that is a very poor argument for independent suspension used in rock crawling. It has its place. Rock crawling is not one of them.

Beat me to it. At high speed independent suspension does better at keeping tires on the ground but slow speed it is far worse. You are far less likely to need to use your lockers on a solid axle rig.

 

[Bronco4]

Beat me to it. At high speed independent suspension does better at keeping tires on the ground but slow speed it is far worse. You are far less likely to need to use your lockers on a solid axle rig.

I guess will forget about King of the Hammers.

 

[Aaonter]

I guess will forget about King of the Hammers.

Not sure that means what you think it does. Solid axles articulate better period.

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