My Little Mule - 2DR Badlands / Sasquatch build

[Lil Mul]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of mud, at least for my truck. I was supposed to go to Xtreme few months back but that fell through. Are you eyeballing anything particular for tires that suit that area?

It's a daily driver, so nothing crazy. Probably BFG KO2's after these. I kept the badlands beadlock wheels and will mount some aggressive mud/all terrain tire on those with the beadlock rings installed for weekend adventures out to Mason TX or up to the Arkansas Ozarks.

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[Lil Mul]

ARB rear bumper installed. Bit of PITA to get the main brackets installed.
Not a fan of the spare tire license plate. Will be ordering the DV8 low tail gate plate bracket tomorrow.

Still waiting on the winch and RTR grille to do the front bumper. VisionX lights on order for the fogs and top bumper light

 

[Lil Mul]

Time for some sound upgrade while I wait for front bumper parts

Kicker 4" for dash
Kicker 6.5" for kick panels
Kicker 6.5" with Mabett pods for the back
Kicker 8" sub to go in factory box and location
Musway 1400 watt amp to power it all
PlugnPlayKits harnesses and wiring.

Very nice complete kit from Plug-n-Play. He even threw in a set of panel removal pry tools for free. Harnesses are well made with OEM wire coloring and everything needed to tap into factory radio and run it back to the amp in the back.

Should sound waaaay better than stock crap in there now.

 

[DBX2]

Another great looking 2-Door!

Nice find.

Congrats on joining the 2D Team!

 

[Lil Mul]

VisionX lights for the bumper arrived.
4.7" SAE cannon for top of the bumper and 3.3" SAE fogs. Both in yellow
The 3" fog lights fit in the ARB bumper fog light holes like they were made to go there
Kudos to VisionX for fast shipment. Glad I didnt waste $100 on expedited shipping cause their "free" shipping only took 2 days to arrive.

Thanks to @Inlinejohn for the inspiration on the light choice with the ARB Summit bumper
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/2023-badlands-story.64045/page-9#post-1937238

Now if RTR will just ship the freak'n grille that's been on order for 2 weeks I can get the front bumper installed....

 

[Fmuguira]

Please share measurement changes from stock to ARB bumper changes… assuming you ll go down a 1/2”+ on both ends. Also photos and any advice on bumper changeout

 

[Lil Mul]

Please share measurement changes from stock to ARB bumper changes… assuming you ll go down a 1/2”+ on both ends. Also photos and any advice on bumper changeout

Sure thing. Only went down about 1/4" on the back. The rear bumper isnt that much heavier than stock. The two giant frame wrapping brackets that the bumper bolts to are an absolute bear to get fully seated. They were designed for a tight fit without the powder coating... with it they take a tremendous amount of hammer persuasion to get in place.

Warn winch just showed up on the brown truck and I've started tearing apart the interior for amp and speaker install. The interior side panel popped off surprisingly easy. Not looking forward to reinstalling it. Also still amazes me Ford went to the trouble to install and wire and plug in a completely fake speaker and amp.

 

[Fmuguira]

Crazy!

 

[Lil Mul]

Speaker upgrade is finished. I'm now an expert at removing all interior panels

I would say it sounds night and day better, but it's more like the deepest darkest cave to noon day sun better. Still need to play with amp gains and cross over cut offs for the different speakers but well worth the time and money spent.

Had hoped to mount the amp to the factory sub box but quickly discovered it was never going to fit there. Luckily Ford left me a perfect little cubby hole on the driver side.

Still waiting on that RTR grille.....

 

[iBrad81]

That’s a 2nd fuse holder I hope and you have 1 under the hood near the battery!
Fuse holder needs to be closer to the battery to do its job and protect the wire

 

[Lil Mul]

That’s a 2nd fuse holder I hope and you have 1 under the hood near the battery!
Fuse holder needs to be closer to the battery to do its job and protect the wire

Yes, there is another 125amp fuse right next to the battery under the hood.
You need one next to the amp and next to the battery to really do it correctly.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

After cruising the forum for a bit now a feel bad for all you guys that had to wait years for your truck to get built.

I got a spur under my saddle a couple of weeks ago and went on Autotrader looking for Broncos with real pics on the dealer lot.
Found this gem sitting at a dealer 2 hours away from an order cancel. Gave them my info to do the paperwork and drove up and picked her up.

I had a very specific wish list. 2 door, badlands, Sas, V6, black or gray, with high or lux trim...... This one has the High trim, which is fine.

Daily driver so I can't get too wild on the build.
Mod List to come:

Engine:
Mishimoto airfilter box and catch cans
Whipple intercooler - High Mount Mishimoto intercooler /charge pipes - Backorder end of 2023
RTR cat back Borla Climber Touring
Whipple tune
That combo should push the 2.7 real close to 400hp and 500ft torque.,

Interior:
Full speaker, amp, and subwoofer upgrade with 6" rear speaker pods
Goose Gear full rear seat removal deck system

Body:
RTR grill
ARB summit bumper and rear bumper
RTR rear tailgate reinforcement
Lots of added skid plates underneath
Trailrax roof rack

Suspension:
Bilstien 6112's to start I think. I just want to level it for now
Billstien 6112's installed. 1.5" lift

Wheels:
Something in a 17X9 with gray and 20+ mm offset. Just enough to get the side walls poking past the sas flares.
Probably keep it on 35's for now. 37's would be awesome.... but again its a daily commuter.
17X9 KMC Mesa black with gunmetal +18mm offset. Goodyear 315's


I'll update as I make progress... not in any rush.

View attachment 573450

That's a great looking Bronco-Congrats on the new ride!

 

[Lil Mul]

I found someone that had a Mishimoto high mount intercooler kit in stock, so I will be able to get it done with the bumper install.

Bumper is prepped and ready to install. I highly recommend jumping to the middle of the ARB instructions and doing this BEFORE you tear your truck apart.

The attached PDF is the color copy of the instructions I found on the forum. Very helpful over the black and white instructions that come in the box.

How to install VisionX street legal SAE 3.3" fogs in the ARB Summit bumper using the factory fog light brackets that come with the bumper...

Got lucky they fit with very little trimming and modifying of the ARB bracket meant for the OEM fog light. Just had to attach a small angle piece of aluminum to give the VisionX fog something to sit on and bolt to.

Align the VisionX bracket to the fog light bracket to get it square. Once you have it squared up mark where the VisionX bracket's bolt hole is and drill the hole.

Full rotation and tilt adjustment of the VisionX bracket is still usable.

 

[Lil Mul]

Pepe's really warming up now !

Big note to anyone wanting to install the Mishimoto higher mount intercooler with the ARB Summit bumper. It will take heavy customization of the mounting brackets to work.

Let's start with that....

The Mishomoto intercooler comes up right next to the front frame rails. Normally this is not a problem but ARB heavily reinforces that area with brackets and bolts running through the frame rail.

The top bracket with yellow arrows pointing to it must be discarded completely.
The inner side bracket must be cut and ground down until it looks like pictured below.
The outer bracket can be installed as is.

From this...

To this...

After looking at what ARB was doing here I had no problem making this modifications. ARB is reinforcing an already strong assembly from the factory. I was able to maintain most of ARB's reinforcement and feel confident it's stronger that what came from Ford if not as over the top as ARB had in mind.

Be prepared for struggle to make it work, but it can be done...

With Bilstein 6112's on perch #4 on the front it really did not sag at all from the weight of the bumper and winch. Maybe 1/4". Truck is sitting level front to back at 40" from ground to top lip of the SAS flare.... About 1.5" higher in front and 1/2" higher in back than stock SAS ride height.

The Bilstein 6112's ride about the same as the yellow shocks, but with noticibily less body roll when pushing it.


The Mishimoto high mount intercooler and charge pipe kit was extremely well made and packaged. ARB gives you a giant grab bag of nuts and bolts. Mishimoto individually bags, labels, and bubble wraps every piece to OCD levels.

To help hold the spacer shims in place while mounting the bumper I loosely bolted them in place to get the alignment perfect then used a hot glue gun to glue them to frame. Worked like a charm.

The Borla Climber Touring exhaust took about 1.5 hour to install and I love the sound. With Mishimoto stuff and the exhaust the truck sounds awesome at WOT. No drone and not loud on cold start.

I absolutely love the way the Mule turned out so far. I can definitely feel a difference in power from the upgrades and it sounds awesome. Bumper turned out perfect, wouldnt change a thing. The 4.7" amber spots on the bumper are wired up to Aux switch #2 and the fogs on #3 using Ford's pass through wiring. Love it. Made it so simple and clean to install and work. Just need to wire the winch up now.

Whipple tune is here as well. I will get that installed this week and report back thoughts. With the tune and all other goodies installed it should easily be at 400hp and 500ft/lbs.

 

[Lil Mul]

Whipple tune review:

Got the tune uploaded this morning and been driving it around to get a feel.
1. Noticeable power gain, but nothing crazy
2. Transmission finally shifts like it should. The skip shifts and shift logic was the one real gripes and displeasure I had about the truck. Mid rpm shifting is much better, running through every gear as it holds rpms right at that peak torque 3,500 rpm area.
3. Pedal response and feel are light years better. Gone is the 1 to 2 second lag between pushing the go pedal down and anything actually happening

I would do the tune just for the pedal and transmission recalibration. The power is nice as well. It always felt like the power just flat lined after 3,500 and wouldnt really keep accelerating in a linear feel. That is gone now. Power comes on smooth and predictable and keeps pulling until you let up. 0-60 is definitely much peppier feel if not tremendously faster.

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