My 'Un-wheelable' Bronco (35"s, 3.73's, no lockers)

[BlueWaffle]

Wasnt going to bother documenting my '"build'" initially.. as its unlikely to recieve fancy bumpers, big dollar suspension, winches, bourgeois lighting packages powerful enough to illuminate a stadium, or complete the TAT... simply put... my bronco is destined for a life of such modesty it might as well be considered mediocrity (at least until it's paid off )

"Why bother?" You say... "your shits weak, shoulda just bought a escape bro" you might be thinking.. and thats fair enough.

I'm doing this to tell the story of the underdog. To show that.. no.. you don't necessarily NEED locker(s) or an axle ratio that starts with a 5 (or even a 4) to get offroad and enjoy TF out of your experience. These are simple truths unjustly deemed as fallacy by what we'll refer to as gear-snobs.

The story of my Bronco actually begins with a broken 2021 ford ranger..

Apart from leaking water into the cab immideately after the b2b warranty ran out.. It's driveshaft center bearing took a crap at 40k miles, still under warranty, but new shafts were backordered with zero ETA. Noisy center bearing will fail a vehicle for a sticker up here (which conveniently just ran out ) and I couldn't have a vehicle that wasn't legal to drive.. indefinitely... so I took it as justification to upgrade to my 'dream' vehicle..

May 22, 2023.

Drove across the border and purchased it from londonderry ford in NH, where it had been sitting on their showroom floor for 90+ days. I thought it was odd they kept this one in their showroom... when they had 2 or 3 much fancier models sitting on the lot that would make a much better showcase... but I DID relatively quickly find out why...

...it's because it ALSO leaks water into the cab . Lazy assed MF'rs. Oh well, at least I have a one piece driveshaft now .

Apart from the water ingress.. the factory also forgot to install a grommet/plug in the drivers side firewall..

... and put the drivers side big bend sticker on pretty crooked..

.. way more obvious in person.


Other than these few little niggles.. everything was all wavy gravy with the new rig. No mismatched seats, mismatched flares, unpainted interior of the swing gate or any other ridiculous f-ups only ford could manage to do lol.

2.5 minutes after I got it home I had the stock wheels/tires off to switch em for the set I had on the ranger...

275/65/18 grabbers on 9" wide method 316s.


..the end of that week I installed a Flowmaster muffler delete..

.. and ford's rubber mats..

... few weeks after that I had a RC 2" lift installed along with a set of 285/75/r18 Kenda Klever R/Ts.. awesome tire..

.. and shortly after that I had its underside bathed in NHOU love this damn thing.. want it to last!

Obligatory side-of-driveway poser shot:

..even had it out in the woods on its first wheelin adventure while I was still rocking temp plates

Belittle and degrade me on my mismatched spare all you want.. theres just no GD way Im gonna spend 360$ on a matching method lol.. especially when I originally bought all 4 wrapped in brand new tires for 450$ (still excited about that) eventually I'll get around to ordering a spare tire cover so I'm not getting mercilessly ridiculed.. eventually

Video from its first wheeling trip at Jericho Mt. State park in Berlin NH:



It pains me to have to go to NH to get some solid wheeling in... Maine is great at a lot... but it sucks serious ass for legal wheeling oppurtunities.

.. and some quickie donuts.. or as I HILARIOUSLY refer to as BROnuts.. during what I seriously hope was our last snowstorm of the year last weekend..



The sound of the muffler delete comes through relatively decently in the donut video... should anyone have pre-purchase curiosity.



Next order of business is installing a partial set of skids and a half rack I bought with some tax returns, followed by a pair of ditchlights whenever I feel like torturing myself (I hate wiring. My understanding of electricity and all its assorted spaghetti is that it's WITCHCRAFT)

id like to get the trans skid and the tcase skid this year too of course.. depends on finances though. Need to buy a house!


Super excited to go wheeling again. I'll be headed back to Jericho Mt as soon as I can.. and I'd like to give Armor Ditch off road park a try this year too.. if anyone is local
-ish and wants to come along LMK! I promise I'm a much more regular and enjoyable person in real life

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[tock13]

Best grille of the bronco bunch in my opinion so I had to chime in and throw a hearty “hell yeah” your way for saying sour grapes to the posers and living large in a sweet looking ride!

If only I could find a set of Big Bend take off wheels local to me I’d be a happy camper!!

 

[PlayTime]

Mismatch spare should be new cool, you got better things to do than coordinate new doilies for the headrests

 

[srick76]

You stop the water leak? Muffler delete sounds good, I've been eying the RC one for awhile. Hell yeah, you can have fun w a base bronco with no mods. To each their own, nice rig! Throw a spare cover on there and nobody is the wiser lol

 

[HoosierSquatch]

Glad you got all of the hate out so we don’t have to! JK

I’ve only observed support in this community. Everyone has their own goals and budgets, brought together by the nolstagia of the OBS and the desire to not have ducks in our windshields. Own it, love it! Good looking ride!

 

[Noremac]

Kudos to you wheeling in a "lowly" (said sarcastically) big bend. my wife has a big bend with 3.73's and 35's...

We have only found one place that she couldnt go that my badlands could. The only reason she couldnt make it over that particular obstacle on that certain day was that we didnt air down, wasnt familiar with the trail ahead, and not sure what we would run into further up. we have since ran the trail with a group and will go tackle it in hers soon enough.


F the haters and rock on. watch your trans temps, and dont be afraid of using 4lo to keep em down if necessary.

 

[Jazer]

Looking good! Mine is also part of the no-locker crowd. I am always kicking myself for not optioning the rear locker, but I was checking boxes getting overwhelmed, trying to be financially conscious.. but now I look back like, that would have added only a few $/mo to my payment

Ultimately though, they do great even without lockers. I am unlikely to wheel mine hard enough to really need one. It’s done about the max of what I am comfortable doing with a 50k vehicle and Has done so with ease. It’s more of the thought “better to have and not need, than need and not have” that has me regretting not checking that box every so often.

With that said, I LOVE seeing the no-locker Broncos out there proving the sasquatch elitists wrong

 

[Big Boss]

Balls of steel wheeling that hard without skids haha.

First time I went out I was surprised what my BB 3.73 was able to get through. We didn't do anything close to what you did but we had water, mud, dirt and it handled it like a champ even with the factory tires.

 

[Noremac]

Glad to see more support for Stinky Fab . They are a great group of people

 

[Sitruc_btb]

No Dana 60 with portals and 38's and a BD light bar? Weak.

It's a nice ride, and a good color! Nothing wrong with "budget builds", so to speak. If I saved the money I spent on my parts, I could have purchased one set of coilovers.

 

[Aonarch]

Nice.

I purposely chose 3.73s without lockers.

1) I wanted to maximize fuel economy
1.5) I am running 33s, and will never go bigger than 285/75/17s (Skinny 34).
2) 2.7l has way more power than needed
3) I installed an Eaton LSD in the rear

I'd love a front LSD too.

The only thing I wish that I had was 4A.

 

[indio22]

There's a lot of over equipping/spending that goes on with Broncos these days. On the plus side, down the road there will be a lot of used Broncos for sale with barely (never?) used off-road functionalities.

 

[broadicustomworks]

No shame to be had, man.
I find the elitists who only think the most expensive thing is the ONLY thing worth having to be in the same camp as the "Magpul" crowd at the range.
You probably know the type.
Point out their pinky finger, twist their mustache, regard your crap that is not as cool as their crap with a look of disgust.
Rock on.
It's a good look on a 2 dr. and a solid tire choice.
And even without lockers you'll be putting in (and already have) more dirt miles than a ton of those with them.

 

[SROC3]

Looks great and NOT WEAK at all bro!!! nice videos and super good you focused on the bottom-half......cause its a total learning thing for me when I watch these vids and it gives me an idea of clearance, approach angles, etc....Sweet wheel choice too! Update us on the future mods when done!

 

[userdude]

Wasnt going to bother documenting my '"build'" initially.. as its unlikely to recieve fancy bumpers, big dollar suspension, winches, bourgeois lighting packages powerful enough to illuminate a stadium, or complete the TAT... simply put... my bronco is destined for a life of such modesty it might as well be considered mediocrity (at least until it's paid off )

"Why bother?" You say... "your shits weak, shoulda just bought a escape bro" you might be thinking.. and thats fair enough.

I'm doing this to tell the story of the underdog. To show that.. no.. you don't necessarily NEED locker(s) or an axle ratio that starts with a 5 (or even a 4) to get offroad and enjoy TF out of your experience. These are simple truths unjustly deemed as fallacy by what we'll refer to as gear-snobs.

The story of my Bronco actually begins with a broken 2021 ford ranger..

Apart from leaking water into the cab immideately after the b2b warranty ran out.. It's driveshaft center bearing took a crap at 40k miles, still under warranty, but new shafts were backordered with zero ETA. Noisy center bearing will fail a vehicle for a sticker up here (which conveniently just ran out ) and I couldn't have a vehicle that wasn't legal to drive.. indefinitely... so I took it as justification to upgrade to my 'dream' vehicle..

May 22, 2023.

Drove across the border and purchased it from londonderry ford in NH, where it had been sitting on their showroom floor for 90+ days. I thought it was odd they kept this one in their showroom... when they had 2 or 3 much fancier models sitting on the lot that would make a much better showcase... but I DID relatively quickly find out why...

...it's because it ALSO leaks water into the cab . Lazy assed MF'rs. Oh well, at least I have a one piece driveshaft now .

Apart from the water ingress.. the factory also forgot to install a grommet/plug in the drivers side firewall..

... and put the drivers side big bend sticker on pretty crooked..

.. way more obvious in person.


Other than these few little niggles.. everything was all wavy gravy with the new rig. No mismatched seats, mismatched flares, unpainted interior of the swing gate or any other ridiculous f-ups only ford could manage to do lol.

2.5 minutes after I got it home I had the stock wheels/tires off to switch em for the set I had on the ranger...

275/65/18 grabbers on 9" wide method 316s.


..the end of that week I installed a Flowmaster muffler delete..

.. and ford's rubber mats..

... few weeks after that I had a RC 2" lift installed along with a set of 285/75/r18 Kenda Klever R/Ts.. awesome tire..

.. and shortly after that I had its underside bathed in NHOU love this damn thing.. want it to last!

Obligatory side-of-driveway poser shot:

..even had it out in the woods on its first wheelin adventure while I was still rocking temp plates

Belittle and degrade me on my mismatched spare all you want.. theres just no GD way Im gonna spend 360$ on a matching method lol.. especially when I originally bought all 4 wrapped in brand new tires for 450$ (still excited about that) eventually I'll get around to ordering a spare tire cover so I'm not getting mercilessly ridiculed.. eventually

Video from its first wheeling trip at Jericho Mt. State park in Berlin NH:



It pains me to have to go to NH to get some solid wheeling in... Maine is great at a lot... but it sucks serious ass for legal wheeling oppurtunities.

.. and some quickie donuts.. or as I HILARIOUSLY refer to as BROnuts.. during what I seriously hope was our last snowstorm of the year last weekend..



The sound of the muffler delete comes through relatively decently in the donut video... should anyone have pre-purchase curiosity.



Next order of business is installing a partial set of skids and a half rack I bought with some tax returns, followed by a pair of ditchlights whenever I feel like torturing myself (I hate wiring. My understanding of electricity and all its assorted spaghetti is that it's WITCHCRAFT)

id like to get the trans skid and the tcase skid this year too of course.. depends on finances though. Need to buy a house!


Super excited to go wheeling again. I'll be headed back to Jericho Mt as soon as I can.. and I'd like to give Armor Ditch off road park a try this year too.. if anyone is local
-ish and wants to come along LMK! I promise I'm a much more regular and enjoyable person in real life

Those SFR plates are solid. I've got the full set to put on (currently at dealer service for leaking pinion). The bumpers and rock rails are also solid.

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