Mediocre Bronco traction control performance in TFL vehicle comparison

[indio22]

What's up with the mediocre traction control on the Bronco? TFL posted a video comparison, and the Bronco did not fare well in the 3 wheels slip tests and related trail comparisons.

Ford engineers seem to have failed in terms of aggressive use of wheel spin sensors and brake actuation to maintain traction. Unless TFL was doing something wrong in terms of the GOAT mode settings (which if the case is also a problem in terms of ease of operation).

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[Wartman]

I was curious about this too. They do have an old video with their First Edition bronco that does the exact same test using the trail control mode, and the Bronco pulled right off of the sliders no problem. So unless the traction control has gotten worse since 2021, I think it may be a settings thing?

 

[RagnarKon]

Saw the video, they did a good job on it.

Traction control automatically turns off (at least for me) in 4x4 Low, so absolutely no surprises there. He acted surprised but not sure why, mentions right on the gauge cluster that traction control is turned off. What's more strange to me is that at 18:19 he mentioned the Jeep also says traction control is off even though it's clearly still turned on.

The one-pedal drive/trail control thing is very interesting though. Would love to recreate to see if the settings were off, or if it can be replicated. But that's not a feature on the 2.3L... would need one of your 2.7L folks to guinea pig for us.

 

[indio22]

I was curious about this too. They do have an old video with their First Edition bronco that does the exact same test using the trail control mode, and the Bronco pulled right off of the sliders no problem. So unless the traction control has gotten worse since 2021, I think it may be a settings thing?

Yeah I hope there is some alternate explanation, other than poor implementation of traction control. The First Edition version had lockers and all, so I'm not sure in that earlier video you mentioned if the Bronco had those all turned off, and relied only on traction control.

 

[indio22]

Saw the video, they did a good job on it.

Traction control automatically turns off (at least for me) in 4x4 Low, so absolutely no surprises there. He acted surprised but not sure why, mentions right on the gauge cluster that traction control is turned off. What's more strange to me is that at 18:19 he mentioned the Jeep also says traction control is off even though it's clearly still turned on.

The one-pedal drive thing is very interesting though. Would love to recreate to see if the settings were off, or if it can be replicated. But that's not a feature on the 2.3L... would need one of your 2.7L folks to guinea pig for us.

That's interesting. So is there no way to leave the traction control on when in 4-low, I wonder why Ford would do that?

Watching the Jeep easily make it's way on the trail, using only traction control which as you mentioned seems to still have been on somehow, shows the value of traction control in low speed trail work. I don't get why Ford would not implement the same.

 

[RagnarKon]

That's interesting. So is there no way to leave the traction control on when in 4-low, I wonder why Ford would do that?

Normally in 4x4 Low you would want traction control off so you are not guessing what the vehicle would do while on an obstacle. With lockers you know exactly how the vehicle is going to act, but traction control is all based on what the ABS computer decides to do, so you don't really have a lot of control of the vehicle. Honest I was very surprised when I saw Jeep use traction control while in 4x4-Low, but now I'm wondering if that Jeep has a limited slip rear axle that he didn't mention.

I have no idea if you can turn traction control back on in the Bronco while it's in 4x4 Low, but going to test that when I head off to lunch today just out of curiosity.

With One-Pedal Drive and Trail Control those are obviously newer technologies so I don't know what the overall intention is there. I guess I would assume traction control would remain on since it's a "hey will help you out" kind of mode?? But I don't really know how that mode is supposed to work and only briefly used it while at Off-Roadeo, so can't experiment myself. If the intention is for traction control to be turned off, well then that certainly explains the results they got.

 

[Wartman]

Yeah I hope there is some alternate explanation, other than poor implementation of traction control. The First Edition version had lockers and all, so I'm not sure in that earlier video you mentioned if the Bronco had those all turned off, and relied only on traction control.

They definitely weren't using lockers. I'll link the video if you want to check it out. Should start right at the 3 wheel test I was talking about.

 

[KABQ]

Normally in 4x4 Low you wouldn't want traction control off

This feels like the opposite of what you are trying to say

 

[RagnarKon]

This feels like the opposite of what you are trying to say

Oh yup, typo, thanks. Rewrote that sentence to remove a double-negative and still left one of the negatives. Edited.

 

[RIDE]

I get its purpose but I do wish they’d give the ability to let driver shut off traction control completely and have total control of both lockers. In places where it’s more fun without, the shut-off switch has never fully shut off for me. My belief is its connection to the ABS and it’ll screw you over particularly during turns on loose roads at drift speeds or while breaking fresh trail in deep snow. Wish there was a full bypass.

 

[indio22]

Normally in 4x4 Low you would want traction control off so you are not guessing what the vehicle would do while on an obstacle. With lockers you know exactly how the vehicle is going to act, but traction control is all based on what the ABS computer decides to do, so you don't really have a lot of control of the vehicle. Honest I was very surprised when I saw Jeep use traction control while in 4x4-Low, but now I'm wondering if that Jeep has a limited slip rear axle that he didn't mention.

I have no idea if you can turn traction control back on in the Bronco while it's in 4x4 Low, but going to test that when I head off to lunch today just out of curiosity.

With One-Pedal Drive and Trail Control those are obviously newer technologies so I don't know what the overall intention is there. I guess I would assume traction control would remain on since it's a "hey will help you out" kind of mode?? But I don't really know how that mode is supposed to work and only briefly used it while at Off-Roadeo, so can't experiment myself. If the intention is for traction control to be turned off, well then that certainly explains the results they got.

I hear ya, but my base Bronco doesn't have lockers, so I'd like the option of engaging traction control in 4low where most of my off-roading has been done. The Wrangler 4-low performance with traction control was impressive in the video compared to the Bronco.

I also wonder if that Wrangler had the limited slip option, although if you check the 3 wheel slip front wheel traction test (where only the front passenger wheel is down), the Bronco traction control seems to perform poorly in both high and low ranges, and that test negates any rear locker/limited slip interference since both rear wheels are on rollers.

Link to start of 3 wheel slip segment testing front passenger wheel traction:

 

[broncobase1]

I didn't think traction control was a thing for off roading. Isn't that what lockers are for? Could be someone looking to nit pick. My Bronco is just a base and I'm not an off roader, but my Bronco did amazingly well in a Utah ski area parking lot when Subarus and other AWD vehicles were getting stuck. I just put it in 4H and crawled out. Even some 4WD pickups were having trouble.

 

[indio22]

I didn't think traction control was a thing for off roading. Isn't that what lockers are for? Could be someone looking to nit pick. My Bronco is just a base and I'm not an off roader, but my Bronco did amazingly well in a Utah ski area parking lot when Subarus and other AWD vehicles were getting stuck. I just put it in 4H and crawled out. Even some 4WD pickups were having trouble.

Back in the day, most of my off-roading along with others I wheeled with was done with open diffs. (Due to lack of funds and other stuff.) You can do a lot with open diffs, decent articulation and driving skill.

A front locker was something people installed who had a particular off-road need. Now people are buying front/rear locker equipped vehicles for grocery store duty, it's kind of jumped the shark.

The video comparing the Bronco and Wrangler on the trail test shows the value of traction control off-road including in low range. Traction control is implemented by several manufactures, but apparently not well by Ford. The Wrangler made the Bronco look bad on the trail test, leastways I'm quite disappointed in the outcome.

 

[RagnarKon]

I have no idea if you can turn traction control back on in the Bronco while it's in 4x4 Low, but going to test that when I head off to lunch today just out of curiosity.

Back from lunch and just tested it, doesn't seem to be a way to turn traction control on when in 4-Low.

I hear ya, but my base Bronco doesn't have lockers, so I'd like the option of engaging traction control in 4low where most of my off-roading has been done.

Oh yeah I can agree with that.

I've often thought the Base trim would greatly benefit from a limited slip, although I never really made a big stink about it. Getting a rear locker on the Big Bend was always fairly affordable, and if you add a limited slip you'd have to disable features like Trail Turn Assist. But with 2025 Big Bend will be losing its standalone rear locking option, I think having the ability to use traction control while in 4-low would be an awesome improvement for the Base & Big Bend trims.

 

[NES-CO]

This was interesting to me as well. I’m new to the Bronco (24 Wildtrak) having come from several Toyotas.

Both my 2013 GX460 and my 2018 Land Cruiser had full-time 4 wheel drive with a locking center differential. To address very low traction situations, including tires in the air or cross axle situations, those systems relied on ATRAC. ATRAC is a traction control system that is available in 4lo and uses the ABS to lock onto the spinning/low traction tire to allow torque to the other side. I added air lockers to my GX but they were rarely needed given benefits of ATRAC. The Land Cruiser had a multi-terrain select feature where you could choose mud/ruts, rock, etc. and this would change the amount of brake intervention (or permitted slip). System worked very well so didn’t bother adding lockers.

When I took my Bronco out on some local Colorado trails, I was surprised about lack of traction control intervention in 4lo. I tried several GOAT modes thinking similar to multi terrain select but they didn’t seem to help. Clicking on lockers solved traction issues immediately. However, using lockers as a first resort seemed foreign to me as they were a last resort/not necessary in my Toyotas.

Thought I was missing something but TFL video sort of reinforced my experience. Sorry for the rambling post. Love my Bronco and super fun. Curious if others have thoughts about what we might be missing about using traction aids in our Broncos other than lockers.

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