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For the last several months I've been collecting data with @Gene Dios with my own personal goal of getting a lot more articulation out of my bronco. I'm a data driven person and I've been planning upgrades. Spoiler I made those upgrades, I went with Teraflex Flacons and I'll talk about those too. Suspension threads seem popular right now and considering all Badlands and Sasquatch rear coilovers are now basically scrap, I would assume that's has something to do with it. Recall: Bronco Rear Suspension
Suspension was not really on my 2024 upgrades list but a forced decision after installing the Ford Performance Winch and seeing how much the front suspension ended up sagging - at least this is how I justified the upgrade to myself and my wife. At that time I went with the pretty obvious - affordable solution Bilstein 6112's. I ran those for a year but I generally knew they would not be my long term solution. For ride height and leveling, they were great and if that's what you're looking for they're great. @Snacktime recently posted a pretty detailed thread about this suspension and Ride height. A Ride Height Focused Thread - by Snacktime What I learned is that I really wanted travel, and the Bilstein's do not give you that, so in 2025 I made a change. In fact, I didn't even really look at ride height.
I'll try to avoid the recipe blog trope of giving you a life story before I get to the secret sauce, well do that after. Way back in 2023 a Stock Suspension and Calibration thread was started by @87-Z28. It's been a few years, more suspension for the bronco has been made available since then. So below is an incomplete table of available suspension options for the Ford Bronco with compression and extended lengths - BUT - that's not all. The complete table linked just below has much more data. We're adding any information we can find, and so can you. There is a lot more information in the google doc than shown here. I really focused on this compression data, emailing manufactures or hunting it down on their websites when available or in the threads. I welcome others involvement in building this data (if you're a high level contributor I'll give you direct access to edit the file.)
Available Bronco Suspension Data
A bit about the data. I personally emailed 8 companies and requested the above information while others had this info directly on their product specifications page. Of those that I reached out to all but 1 responded with the compressed and extended lengths and total travel. ICON claimed said information was "proprietary." *ICON has since joined to conversation and confirmed their numbers.* If it didn't come directly from the manufacture, it was from measurements posted on B6G.
So, what do I think the data shows. Really I believe it boils down to a simple thing, maybe two. All of the available suspension is designed for either 1) high speed whoops and jumps or 2) maximum articulation over obstacles. Novel right. The second thing I think is shows is, how accommodating will this suspension be for 37" tires. You might also read this as; how much do we not want customers complaining to us when their 37" tires smash-in their fenders.
Take any Fox suspension for example; all versions of the Fox suspension cut almost an entire inch off the factory Badlands suspension travel up front. Why? Fox suspension has almost always been advertised as the desert runner, whoops, and jump suspension. Also, I think it's a fair point to make; anyone spending the money to upgrade to the higher end Fox Suspension is going to be running 37" tires. They're also going to sell a lot of suspension, they're arguarbly the most recognizable consumer brand in suspension, they don't want problems. I love Fox Suspension. *Edit* I think it’s valuable to add a clarifying point here, the Fox suspension uses a 1.5” bump stop, most other are using longer, so travel may not be that much less.* I've run Fox suspension and if I was looking to go fast they would be high on my list, maybe that is what you want. I'm not looking to go fast in my 2.3L, 2-door bronco. I'm looking to articulate over big rocks and keep the count of wheels on the ground to 4 as much as possible (anyone who went to AOP with me this weekend knows I'm doing a bad job at that).
There is 1 other thing I calculated from the data. This is the ratio of suspension travel to wheel travel. Wheel travel is extremely ambiguous but, If the claim was made I included it, and calculated this ratio. Why, because the average should give you an approximation of any particular brands wheel travel. It's also a check of sorts, outside of other mods (front lower control arms, etc.) you can't really extend straight on -no articulated - wheel travel beyond the limitations of the Broncos front and rear axles. Without front lower arms, and in the rear without making modifications to brake lines and the drive shaft angles you won't extend much further and this ratio is much closer to 1 based on suspension design vs. the front. As of writing the average front ratio is 1.62 and the average rear is 1.29.
So why did I go with Teraflex suspension, and why specifically did I get the max travel option for 35" tires and immediately install 37"s. The answer is calculated risk. Based on the above data I noted the Teraflex Falcon's are not any longer than ICON for front travel, and I'm not too worried about rear travel. I've seen broncs with ICONS and true 37's rub only a little. No spacers, body lift, nothing. I called Teraflex and I asked, "Will I smash my fenders", and the guy I spoke to was like, "I would prepare yourself for the possibility of smashing fenders." Not confidence inspiring, but he also said these magic words, "our 37" mid travel suspension designed for no frame or body modifications." Which was enough for me to say, cool because where I'm going we don't need crash bar mounts anyway.
Like I said, I wanted maximum articulation. If the above is not anecdotal enough to prove to myself this is what I wanted a few other minor things peaked my interest. 1) Was this thread and a similar youtube video I found of a Bronco completely flexed out with little more than lower trailing arms and the falcon suspension and 2) the somewhat complex instructions for the Teraflex suspension involving trimming of the gas tank skid to better clearance the drive shaft under articulation while having to remove and replace a control arm bolt to eliminate contact with the gas tank as well as the inclusion of brake line relocation brackets and a track bar relocation bracket; I was at minimum impressed with the level of R&D that went into development. I could also make a good case regarding cost comparison to alternate options and a respected following in the Jeep world.
I did all this digging because I was also kicking around the idea of installed the Rock Krawler 4-link conversion, and if you asked me in December I was 100% going to do this install, and its still an option for future me. However, in all my reading up of this modification it almost seems like for every person that loves it another at least partially regrets it, or have found they have needed to make several other compromises and upgrades to accommodate this kit. @Bird Dog Off Road @coffeetwitch @Mdsuits have all commented on some of the challenges with the 4-link conversion. I will note @SierraBronco does get extreme - almost unreal - flex out of this setup particularly while paired with portals.
With all that I ultimately went for the full Rock Jock rear trailing arms and track bar. Also, while I was originally running an Apex Designs adjustable front sway bar this design ultimately made contact with the spindle after going with the longer front Falcon suspension so I've offically joined the no-sway bar club, and seeings as I'm a 2-door with no intent of putting a massive roof on top of my bronco, I don't think I'll be going back. The Teraflex suspension has settings all the way from plush to stiff, and I find running anything 2.6-3 on the settings seems to be pretty solid for on road manners.
Prior to the Teraflex and Rock Jock rear trailing arms and track bar, from an articulated front and rear lift by a fork lift I measured 16" front (Sway-bar engaged) and 18.5" rear, (ground to tire) but now measure 24.5" and 27" respectively gaining 8.5" of articulated travel front and rear. The numbers I measured are very in line with what I have seen for modifications including the rock Krawler kit. In off-roading I have not observed any signs of gas tank or skid contact. Maybe a small amount of fender contact on the rear passenger heard while off-road, but no signs yet . Pictures below, including a picture of me getting almost too sideways at AOP in Tennessee.
I hope the data is found to be useful, and others find opportunities to build on it. I excluded very custom options like ORI STX struts, and I'm sure I missed many options, feel free to include or maybe we'll search them out.
Suspension was not really on my 2024 upgrades list but a forced decision after installing the Ford Performance Winch and seeing how much the front suspension ended up sagging - at least this is how I justified the upgrade to myself and my wife. At that time I went with the pretty obvious - affordable solution Bilstein 6112's. I ran those for a year but I generally knew they would not be my long term solution. For ride height and leveling, they were great and if that's what you're looking for they're great. @Snacktime recently posted a pretty detailed thread about this suspension and Ride height. A Ride Height Focused Thread - by Snacktime What I learned is that I really wanted travel, and the Bilstein's do not give you that, so in 2025 I made a change. In fact, I didn't even really look at ride height.
I'll try to avoid the recipe blog trope of giving you a life story before I get to the secret sauce, well do that after. Way back in 2023 a Stock Suspension and Calibration thread was started by @87-Z28. It's been a few years, more suspension for the bronco has been made available since then. So below is an incomplete table of available suspension options for the Ford Bronco with compression and extended lengths - BUT - that's not all. The complete table linked just below has much more data. We're adding any information we can find, and so can you. There is a lot more information in the google doc than shown here. I really focused on this compression data, emailing manufactures or hunting it down on their websites when available or in the threads. I welcome others involvement in building this data (if you're a high level contributor I'll give you direct access to edit the file.)
Available Bronco Suspension Data
A bit about the data. I personally emailed 8 companies and requested the above information while others had this info directly on their product specifications page. Of those that I reached out to all but 1 responded with the compressed and extended lengths and total travel. ICON claimed said information was "proprietary." *ICON has since joined to conversation and confirmed their numbers.* If it didn't come directly from the manufacture, it was from measurements posted on B6G.
So, what do I think the data shows. Really I believe it boils down to a simple thing, maybe two. All of the available suspension is designed for either 1) high speed whoops and jumps or 2) maximum articulation over obstacles. Novel right. The second thing I think is shows is, how accommodating will this suspension be for 37" tires. You might also read this as; how much do we not want customers complaining to us when their 37" tires smash-in their fenders.
Take any Fox suspension for example; all versions of the Fox suspension cut almost an entire inch off the factory Badlands suspension travel up front. Why? Fox suspension has almost always been advertised as the desert runner, whoops, and jump suspension. Also, I think it's a fair point to make; anyone spending the money to upgrade to the higher end Fox Suspension is going to be running 37" tires. They're also going to sell a lot of suspension, they're arguarbly the most recognizable consumer brand in suspension, they don't want problems. I love Fox Suspension. *Edit* I think it’s valuable to add a clarifying point here, the Fox suspension uses a 1.5” bump stop, most other are using longer, so travel may not be that much less.* I've run Fox suspension and if I was looking to go fast they would be high on my list, maybe that is what you want. I'm not looking to go fast in my 2.3L, 2-door bronco. I'm looking to articulate over big rocks and keep the count of wheels on the ground to 4 as much as possible (anyone who went to AOP with me this weekend knows I'm doing a bad job at that).
There is 1 other thing I calculated from the data. This is the ratio of suspension travel to wheel travel. Wheel travel is extremely ambiguous but, If the claim was made I included it, and calculated this ratio. Why, because the average should give you an approximation of any particular brands wheel travel. It's also a check of sorts, outside of other mods (front lower control arms, etc.) you can't really extend straight on -no articulated - wheel travel beyond the limitations of the Broncos front and rear axles. Without front lower arms, and in the rear without making modifications to brake lines and the drive shaft angles you won't extend much further and this ratio is much closer to 1 based on suspension design vs. the front. As of writing the average front ratio is 1.62 and the average rear is 1.29.
So why did I go with Teraflex suspension, and why specifically did I get the max travel option for 35" tires and immediately install 37"s. The answer is calculated risk. Based on the above data I noted the Teraflex Falcon's are not any longer than ICON for front travel, and I'm not too worried about rear travel. I've seen broncs with ICONS and true 37's rub only a little. No spacers, body lift, nothing. I called Teraflex and I asked, "Will I smash my fenders", and the guy I spoke to was like, "I would prepare yourself for the possibility of smashing fenders." Not confidence inspiring, but he also said these magic words, "our 37" mid travel suspension designed for no frame or body modifications." Which was enough for me to say, cool because where I'm going we don't need crash bar mounts anyway.
Like I said, I wanted maximum articulation. If the above is not anecdotal enough to prove to myself this is what I wanted a few other minor things peaked my interest. 1) Was this thread and a similar youtube video I found of a Bronco completely flexed out with little more than lower trailing arms and the falcon suspension and 2) the somewhat complex instructions for the Teraflex suspension involving trimming of the gas tank skid to better clearance the drive shaft under articulation while having to remove and replace a control arm bolt to eliminate contact with the gas tank as well as the inclusion of brake line relocation brackets and a track bar relocation bracket; I was at minimum impressed with the level of R&D that went into development. I could also make a good case regarding cost comparison to alternate options and a respected following in the Jeep world.
I did all this digging because I was also kicking around the idea of installed the Rock Krawler 4-link conversion, and if you asked me in December I was 100% going to do this install, and its still an option for future me. However, in all my reading up of this modification it almost seems like for every person that loves it another at least partially regrets it, or have found they have needed to make several other compromises and upgrades to accommodate this kit. @Bird Dog Off Road @coffeetwitch @Mdsuits have all commented on some of the challenges with the 4-link conversion. I will note @SierraBronco does get extreme - almost unreal - flex out of this setup particularly while paired with portals.
With all that I ultimately went for the full Rock Jock rear trailing arms and track bar. Also, while I was originally running an Apex Designs adjustable front sway bar this design ultimately made contact with the spindle after going with the longer front Falcon suspension so I've offically joined the no-sway bar club, and seeings as I'm a 2-door with no intent of putting a massive roof on top of my bronco, I don't think I'll be going back. The Teraflex suspension has settings all the way from plush to stiff, and I find running anything 2.6-3 on the settings seems to be pretty solid for on road manners.
Prior to the Teraflex and Rock Jock rear trailing arms and track bar, from an articulated front and rear lift by a fork lift I measured 16" front (Sway-bar engaged) and 18.5" rear, (ground to tire) but now measure 24.5" and 27" respectively gaining 8.5" of articulated travel front and rear. The numbers I measured are very in line with what I have seen for modifications including the rock Krawler kit. In off-roading I have not observed any signs of gas tank or skid contact. Maybe a small amount of fender contact on the rear passenger heard while off-road, but no signs yet . Pictures below, including a picture of me getting almost too sideways at AOP in Tennessee.
I hope the data is found to be useful, and others find opportunities to build on it. I excluded very custom options like ORI STX struts, and I'm sure I missed many options, feel free to include or maybe we'll search them out.
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