Sydney, the Oxford White 2024 2dr Badlands 7MT

[JoHo]

building to be able to go anywhere looks cool, building to go anytime feels cool

In addition to details of what I have done to personalize my Bronco, I am also imbedding mini trip reports to show how I use the vehicle, why I have made things the way they are, and demonstrate what my priorities really are. If you are reading though my thread, the story I am trying to tell is that all the time and resources I have poured into this project is for the trips, not for the build. My objective isn't to build up the car, it is to break down all the excuses for missing an opportunity to make memories or capture them in my case.

For more of my photos along the way, follow on instagram!
www.instagram.com/joho585

2024, August-September (~ first month)

Infotainment screen protector
Front Runner tailgate table
DV8 door baskets
Rokblokz XL mudflaps, set of 4
StickerFab, Door sill vinyl, door handle cup protectors [fell off], fuse box index stickers
short radio antenna
bungee net attic above back seat area [moved to fridge/kitchen case]
paracord grips over door openings
Tentbox Go lightweight RTT
DV8 lower shock/link skids
Custom littelfuse bracket and lighting wire harness with DT style connectors
DV8 dual 3 inch light pod brackets
DV8 A-pillar drop mount light brackets
Mountains to Metal modular bumper light brackets [removed]
Diode Dynamics SS5 sport driving [converted to spot]
SS3 pro yellow fog [converted to yellow driving]
SS3 sport flood [converted to yellow fog]
SSc2 sport flood
Custom quick release license plate bracket for modular bumper [removed]

2024, late September

Mountains 2 Metal Tailgate reinforcement plate
Mountains 2 Metal Tailgate bracket
Trailmonkeys tailgate recovery boards mount
Trailmonkeys short tailgate gas strut [removed]
prototype plywood load floor for RTT ladder [removed]

2024, October

prototype load floor removed for test fitting dual battery system
rear speaker pods disabled with Forscan and removed for space/clearance (reinstalled)
RCI 20deg rock sliders with 3M grip tape
modified tailgate to relocate strut ball, removed short tailgate strut and reinstalled original

2024 November
Replaced bungee attic net with webbing attic net to stop sagging and bouncing
reworked grip tape on rock rails for more coverage over kick-out section.

2024 December
removed custom license plate bracket
Ford Performance winch kit
Tricky Motorsports modular bumper light brackets [replaced M2M brackets] [removed]
Redline Hood Struts

2025 January
modified DV8 rear cargo bin
Victron Orion XS charger
LiTime 2000W inverter
Custom Bracket installed over battery clamp with triple MIDI fuse box and bus bar
Barn's 4WD compressor mounting bracket
ARB Twin Compressor (not yet wired / plumbed)
Yankum Groove Fairlead
Custom license plate mount version-2

2025 Febuary
Custom hub for Inverter power at right rear corner of interior
8AWG compressor wiring harness
4AWG wiring for 50A auxiliary battery charger
Custom cargo area shelf for RTT ladder, auxiliary battery, fridge, tool bags.
LiTime 2944 Watt hour auxiliary battery
Iceco 21 liter fridge

2025 March
Power hub/extention in RTT
heated mattress pad in RTT
space heater in RTT
ARB remote air fitting, custom bracket, extension hose
Kenwood TM-V71a dual band radio [removed]
Icom SP-35 com speaker [removed]
Midland MXT275 GMRS radio
Mobilinkd TNC4
TrailRax trailsight mount x2
Comet NMO antenna cable x2
Comet CA2X4SRNMO antenna [replaced with compactenna]
Midland MXTA26 GMRS whip antenna [replaced with ghost antenna]
Carlinkit Tbox Plus [removed]
Rii Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad [removed]
programmable timer switch and lighted pushbutton for compressor (10 min timeout)
RakWireless WisBlock LoRa starter kit with custom mounting insert
Blue Sea Systems USB charging ports
15W wireless charging pad

2025 April
3L Driver hydration pack, bungee tether for drink hose
12V diaphragm pump for water, switch with programmable timer for 30 sec auto off
RV cold water faucet
dual Hydrapack Seeker 10L water carriers for rear footwell
heated blanket for RTT

2025 May
Vornado fan for RTT
added red option to trunk area light strip
reinstalled rear speaker pods with separate Bluetooth amp powered by aux battery

2025 June
added 3D printed shroud for faucet bracket

2025 July
Food service sanitary wipes dispenser mounted to side Molle with foam saddles and straps
Diode Dynamics lens swap
SS5 sport driving beams converted to spot beams (reverted)
SS3 pro yellow fog beams converted to yellow driving beams, lenses moved to SS3 sports
SS3 sport flood beams converted to yellow fog beams

2025 August
Yaesu FTM-150R-ASP dual band ham radio (replaced Kenwood)

2025 October
Tackform Tablet mount
Samsung A7 tablet (Carlinkit T-Box removed)
SS5 Sport lights converted back to driving lamps (replaced spot lenses)
driver hydration bladder, Buffalo brand system replaced with Hydrapak

2025 November
SPV light pod brackets for modular bumper (replaced Tricky Motorsports)
Bilstein 8112 suspension kit
Icon tubular UCA

2026 Febuary
4-tire inflation kit

2026 April
Victron Smart Shunt
Rear Seat Delete with custom platform and support brackets
Ventilation system for Inverter with temperature controller, custom in/out ducts
Bison Gear attic shelf
Wolfbox Tripro with rear camera, extra camera not installed (yet)
Redrock 4x4 Muffler Delete Pipe
Midland MXTA25 Ghost Antenna (replaces MXTA26 whip antenna)
Compactenna 2m/440PLUS Antenna (replaces CA2X4SRNMO antenna)
Alpicool 10qt fridge
Kelty Sideroads awning
Pelican V550 kitchen case with custom interface plate to top of IceCo fridge.

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[JoHo]

First dirt on the first weekend

Took a hiking buddy out to trail head with a long dirt road for an overnight backpacking trip to lake Evelyn west of Fraser Colorado. On the way home, we took it to the top of Jones Pass for a better idea of what it could do.

 

[JoHo]

took my build buddy out to dinner after he helped be install the TentBox Go RTT. Ended up parking right behind .... another Bronco!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

OK, digging on the White 6G with the proper door count,

BUT DAMN !!!! ,

that light blue 1G has it going on!!!

LOL!!!

 

[JoHo]

I have a thing for lights. I'm a lifelong photographer and career telescope builder, if its optical in any way, it needs to not-suck. Even with the built in Aux switch wiring, I figured this was still something that could easily turn into an ugly rainbow colored rats next without a plan. I wanted the wiring to be somewhat configurable for future changes and not create serviceability challenges in the future. I bent up a custom bracket for a Littelfuse PDM box and connected to the aux wiring with a DT6 connector and put another DT4 connector just behind the bumper so the bumper can be disconnected and removed easily. The bracket is cut out of .040 6061 sheet and I ran a 1/4-28 tap through the weld nuts on the body to mount it. I didn't use the Diode Dynamics pigtails since they would have resulted in a hack-job splice at every light with unused wires at half of them. Instead I crimped my own solid contact DT style connectors onto my SXL wiring harness for each termination. The grounds end with ring terminals and a copper/brass blind rivet into the bumper inner frame or PDM bracket. I was planning to check the voltage drop for the bumper grounds but haven't done it yet.

[update] voltage drop from ground wire rivet at bumper frame to battery terminal is less than 0.25V or ~2% of 12V nominal voltage.

 

[JoHo]

After the bulk of the lighting install was done, I took my helper over Kingston Pass for an afternoon trail run. My recycling bin was packed like I just moved in when I tried to clean up from the tent and light install all in the same week. Whipped out the recip saw to get most of it to fit!

 

[Cobrafang]

Nice work on the wiring....

 

[Ford Motor Company]

First dirt on the first weekend

Took a hiking buddy out to trail head with a long dirt road for an overnight backpacking trip to lake Evelyn west of Fraser Colorado. On the way home, we took it to the top of Jones Pass for a better idea of what it could do.

These photos look amazing! We hope you had a great trip!

 

[JoHo]

I made my own license plate bracket!

I wanted to leave all my heat exchanger ports and light mounting areas open as well as keeping it out of my approach angle. With that in mind I conceded that it would have to block 'something' which ended up being a recovery point. That meant it had to be removable and I wanted it to be quick to remove and not have awkward protrusions or loose parts after removing. This is what I ended up with. Two pieces of 1/8x1.5 aluminum strip with a photo/video accessory mount in between. I'm still on temp plates, that's just an old one I cerakoted with the parts for pictures. I have 1/4 inch black blind rivets for installing the real plate, the zip ties are there for this fit check and pictures.

I might actually never use this mount. I'm still on temporary tags and already ordered the winch kit as soon as I heard about the price drop.

 

[JoHo]

The way my tent works, I need to use the ladder to get into the tent in order to deploy it. Putting the ladder up in the tent is too high up retrieve and the thing is annoyingly cumbersome to store anywhere so I ended up frantically whipping up this prototype load floor to store it in a slot underneath everything. This is a quick first run at this thing with every intention to remake it in the spring with a minimal dual battery and fridge install.

 

[genesisoffroad]

The way my tent works, I need to use the ladder to get into the tent in order to deploy it. Putting the ladder up in the tent is too high up retrieve and the thing is annoyingly cumbersome to store anywhere so I ended up frantically whipping up this prototype load floor to store it in a slot underneath everything. This is a quick first run at this thing with every intention to remake it in the spring with a minimal dual battery and fridge install.

Super cool ladder storage!
I'd love to hear your thoughts about your dual battery needs, maybe we can offer a solution. I'm assuming you're already familiar with our current offering - https://www.genesisoffroad.com/gen3-bronco-dual-battery-kit.html

 

[JoHo]

Super cool ladder storage!
I'd love to hear your thoughts about your dual battery needs, maybe we can offer a solution. I'm assuming you're already familiar with our current offering - https://www.genesisoffroad.com/gen3-bronco-dual-battery-kit.html

I have come across this product while looking for a dual battery tray to use as a battery plus compressor mounting platform but it doesn't seem like it would really work that way or is intended to be sold that way. I want enough battery power to run a small 12v fridge for a couple days and primarily looking at mounting much smaller batteries under the trunk floor even if it takes a small solar panel to close the design. I think the Genesis system will have more margin on capacity but cost more and wont providing an input for solar charging to supplement the system.

 

[JoHo]

As soon as the plywood load floor was installed for the ladder, I was frantically packing up the rig to go photograph the fall colors. As a system, my rig is far from optimized as and it took a lot of time to get set up for cooking and then get a meal prep cleaned up and packed pack in with ratchet straps and all. Right now I have to unbolt and remove the load floor in order to get to the OEM jack and tire tools. Part of this is from insisting on the 2 door (the 4 door looks like a damn bus) and not having anywhere in the house to store a back seat if I removed it, part of it was just not having spent time developing an efficient way to work with the available space. In any case, I left on a 600 mile solo trip before the car got to 1000 miles. The route included Boreas Pass, Lenhardy Cutoff, Tincup Pass, Cumberland Pass, Ohio Creek rd, Kebler Pass, Crystal Mill road, Independence Pass, and Fremont Pass. When I got home I decided I wanted to see all the colors one more time so I rented a beater and did some true OFF-roading/OVERlanding.

 

[JoHo]

A few more photos from the first big trip

 

[JoHo]

I never posted a clear photo of the trail monkeys recovery board mount attached to the M2M rotopax mount because I had a pair rough old boards from my last vehicle ratchet strapped on there to get out on the road. I put a new set of xbull boards on with their mounting screws which are pretty annoying with multiple pieces that fall apart when the boards are unmounted. I might give in and buy Maxtrax just to be able to use their much better retention pin system.

I was planning to install a second battery and fridge in the spring but the fridge was on a $100 discount so I ordered and sped up the design of the rest of the system. The prototype load floor is now in my living room for test fitting all the pieces and I also disabled and removed the rear speaker pods to make more room in the cargo area.

My RCI rockrails have also just arrived but aren't installed yet. I ordered the Ford winch kit a month ago and it still says in transit. Lots of upcoming mods!

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