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Tow capacity will keep me from switching...

skeeter97

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Count me in the "I hope they raise the tow capacity at least a little" camp. My Xterra Off Road is rated at 5000lbs and is no slouch in the dirt. My previous FJ Cruiser was rated at 4700lbs, and also no slouch off road. Honestly I'm buying either way, as I'd rather downsize my boat than not have a Bronco!!
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Dads_bronze_bronco

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Questioning your understanding of automotive engineering and physics. I mean no offense, just making an observation.

An off road vehicle, and what is needed to achieve the dynamic requirements of a vehicle capable of high levels of articulation, speed, payload, optimal break over angle, etc do not directly translate to the needs of a vehicle capable of performing mule duty; that is why we have pickup trucks as you’ve observed.

A proper off road vehicle is desirable with the shortest wheel base, with highest ground clearance possible with the addition of a low speed transfer case as you know.

The gearing requirements for an off road vehicle and that necessary for towing vary quite a bit. Sure there are pickups that manufacturers have defied physics to achieve off roading, but there are compromises made in several areas such as breakover.

Aftermarket aside, as you can upgrade Bronco to tow more if you wish, but there will be compromises there as well. Boats don’t do off road, so you wouldn’t use an off road vehicle to tow a boat is my point, so don’t do that.
Land Rover Defender 2dr 7,716 lbs
Toyota 4 Runner 5,000 lbs
Cayenne / Touareg 7,700 lbs
Maycan 4,400 lbs
....
 
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Dads_bronze_bronco

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What you people are asking for is called "air suspension" and you have to ask yourselves ... do you really want air suspension?
No, but air helper (which can be detached or articulate deflated) would be good. And we are talking about 350 vs 550 lbs on the tongue.
 

MadMan4BamaNATL

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My point is with todays engineering capabilities 5500lbs really isn't that high of a tow capacity, there's sedans that can tow 3500lbs doesn't take a truck or suv for that anymore. So yea I'm hopeful for a Bronco to beat that. There's off road capable suvs that can tow 8000lbs, so making the bronco a lot more capable than those with a decent tow cap thats a bit less should be easy. And I already stated I'd be getting a gladiator as my compromise, raptor isn't a compromise for me. I don't want an f150 at all and glad the bronco is its own thing, but it is still built from a ranger platform with the engines from the ranger and the f150, so at its heart still truck based. And lets face it, regardless of how good it is offroad from the get go, it'll never be good enough for everybody, people be upgrading and swapping parts anyways. Even with all the extra modes, it'll never be perfect for every off road condition so there will always be compromise somewhere on it. I'd love to have something thats actually capable of some off road fun, but I tow a toy hauler with an 800lb bike few times a year on different trips, and even if i downgraded the toy hauler it's unlikely to come in at less than 4000lbs with the bike inside. Currently its at around 5600lbs with bike(4800 empty). And if you think thats a lot of weight, its still one of the lightest toy haulers by far(plenty can weigh 12,000lbs empty). So yea I'd love to be able to tow the camper anywhere in the country, roofless and doorless, unhook once there and hit whatever trails nearby, and spend a few days off road with the bronco or on road with the bike. Forgive me for having more than one hobby. Still holding out to see if the Bronco can manage that, but know the Gladiator can, don't have much need for the bed though.
See your perspective here. Think Ford doesn’t want Bronco owners cross shopping with their trucks. The gearing of Bronco is heavily modified for off road; remember, target here is to dethrone king Wrongler. They’re not even aiming this thing at 4 Runner. I feel another model will emerge to take it on once it’s refresh is released next year.

Basically Ford is entering the world of truck micro segments Bronco may be first out of the gate.

Feedback from guys like you may encourage them to improve towing before launch, so there is a chance.
 

MadMan4BamaNATL

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Land Rover Defender 2dr 7,716 lbs
Toyota 4 Runner 5,000 lbs
Cayenne / Touareg 7,700 lbs
Maycan 4,400 lbs
....
Those last two aren’t off road, only SUVs. Bronco is not a family hauler SUV. Ford is intentionally bypassing these type of buyers. This is an off roader, nothing more and that’s the point.

Defender is where your argument is and I was cross shopping that with Bronco, but it’s a unibody, which I hate off road.

4 Runner is a Tacoma, so yeah, but what a lame ass 5 speed auto flaccid vehicle.
 
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The Pope

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Those last two aren’t off road, only SUVs. Bronco is not a family hauler SUV. Ford is intentionally bypassing these type of buyers. This is an off roader, nothing more and that’s the point.
Not trying to derail the towing topic, but....

FoMoCo missed this mark by not offering the manual transmission across all of the engines.. just saying...

Now back to the subject of this thread....

I believe that the 3500lbs listed is just a place marker. FoMoCo wants to One-Up the Wrangler on as many things as possible, so I do expect this tow rating to change. Also as it has already been said, listening both 2 Door and 4 Door with the same tow rating just doesn't pass the smell test. I'll wager that the 2 Door will end up with something like 4000lbs and the 4 Door will be something like 5000lbs.

Time will tell......
 

Dads_bronze_bronco

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Those last two aren’t off road, only SUVs. Bronco is not a family hauler SUV. Ford is intentionally bypassing these type of buyers. This is an off roader, nothing more and that’s the point.

Defender is where your argument is and I was cross shopping that with Bronco, but it’s a unibody, which I hate off road.

4 Runner is a Tacoma, so yeah, but what a lame ass 5 speed auto flaccid vehicle.
My point on the Maycon is the size is similar to the 2dr. and yes all the luxury ones probably get there through electronic suspension settings which likely won't allow for Badlands or Wrangler like articulation.

Example: My trailer has a GVWR of 5200 lbs with a max load of 4000 lbs. So assuming the trailer is 1200 lbs, plus the boat dry weight of 3100 lbs, throw in 36 gals of gas, a full yeti and miscellaneous life jackets and gear and it is probably 3500 lbs. So I am currently towing an estimated 4700 lbs with a measured 470 lbs tongue weight on a vehicle rated for 3500/350. Since the "braked capacity" of the same vehicle in Australia is 2300kg (or 5070 lbs) and the trailer has surge brakes, I figure I am fine. Especially if it is just me and the dog in the Jeep as the Max GCWR is 9200 and the '08 JKUR is 4180. To over compensate, I did:
- put heavy ARB OME springs in back, and Air Lift helpers
- put on bigger brake discs front and rear
- convert the trailer surge drums to discs

(I could swap out the factory class II hitch for a class III rated at 4500/675. Since it bolts into the same 4 holes, I am not sure there is a real material difference though.)

Sure, I'd rather have a Yukon or Gladiator for long trips, but the rig trails pretty well, and stops fine to and from the lake. Yet my ground clearance is 14" when the Rubi is 10.5" stock.

So yes - early Broncos were used for towing, Jeeps are now, AND offroad recreation other time.

Ford Bronco Tow capacity will keep me from switching... Boats_038
Ford Bronco Tow capacity will keep me from switching... IMG_6143


Some of us (as our nest empties) want a smaller / enclosed swiss army knife of a vehicle.And so, I am really hoping for 5000 for piece of mind, but I will probably tow it anyway at 3500.
 

Gilveabn

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My thoughts on this:
My F80 M3 is not a track car. It can do ok on track but that is not a purpose build track car. Therefore, I have a dedicated purpose built e36 M3 not road legal for that reason.
In my opinion, Bronco is not a dedicated offroad vehicle. Dedicated will be towed to the trail and purpose built. Bronco will have all the bells and whistles available to thise who opt for lux package etc. Its a mass produced road truck.
Dedicated Tow vehicle will tow 12000lbs plus in my opinion. Something like F250+.

My M3 is rated to tow 4000lbs in europe (quick google search, unconfirmed). In addition there are hitches for sale that are rated 6000lbs. Thats just fyi.

So, asking for Bronco to tow 5000lbs few times a year is like wanting an M3 to have rear seats. In my opinion it is a 100% reasonable request.

Stating that Bronco is an offroad vehicle that should not tow up to average 5000lbs is weird to me. Bronco is a road truck that can be good offroad.
 
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Nickp

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After doing quite a bit of reading, IMO I will have no problem towing 6500 pounds with a V6 4-door Bronco even if they don’t rate it that high. If a 2005 4Runner with a 270 horsepower V8, and 6 inch shorter wheelbase can tow 7k pounds there is zero reason a Bronco can’t do the same. Might need some bags in the back but it’s probably all lawyer speak and beam counter garbage that they can’t get that tow rating.
 

Thehime

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I find it weird no matter 2-door or 4-door, engine size, and auto or manual its rated to 3500 lbs. It sounds like Ford really limited the rating on the class II hitch receiver. I really hope these are just place holders and they do further testing since they offer a tow capability package.

1FE52FD4-9976-4543-AE3E-27461B3BDEE4.jpeg
 

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FLTrojan21

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I totally get it.

Increased towing comes by sacrificing off-road capability, but a large number of owners will never come close to maxing out that capability to begin with. Ford says “we want you to build toward your outdoor pursuits” and for a lot of people, their pursuit involves towing things to lakes and/or campgrounds. A conventional SUV or pickup would work, but they also want the ability to take the roof off. They‘ll opt for a Gladiator.

I’m not saying Ford should offer a tow-oriented Bronco, but it would seem to be a mistake to not give it consideration.
imho, best reply yet. I didn’t realize 90 percent of Americans were scaling large rock faces on the weekends...
 

The Pope

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Some comments from another thread (https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/everybody-please-be-calm-this-is-only-the-beginning.2349/) in regards to towing capacity....
I have been doing some soul searching and after talking with a friend, he said that there’s no way it will only tow 3500lbs in V6/auto/4 door. Or if it’s only rated for that, there may just be one specific criteria that it can’t pass past 3500 lbs. He said to buy it and if it needs bags or anything you can always add that to tow more, but honestly I’m going to be towing my crawler maybe 5 or 6 times a year. Will probably just end up doing that, but honestly I still don’t believe the 3500 tow rating. Makes no sense that it’s the same regardless of wheelbase/engine/trans.
Not nearly as well. Half the articulation rating. 60% the suspension travel. Heavier longer wheelbase. All those add up pretty quick to help rating.

I’ve also heard that the removable top is the reason why the lower toe rating. Due to some stupid NHTSA rule about convertibles
Just trying to get information from other threads on the topic of this thread for others....
 

jtzako

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I'm a bit surprised about the 3500lb capacity. My 2017 escape (with the 2.0 engine) had that much and my xterra has 5000. The new defender has 7500+ even with its full offroad setup. 3500 isnt enough to tow anything other than a small camper.
 

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DrewL

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The limiting factor for tow capacity of the Bronco seems to be the rear suspension. The current Ranger with the 2.7L, 10 speed auto and tow package is rated up to 7500 lbs. The Ranger has a leaf spring rear suspension vs. a softer 5 link coil suspension on the Bronco. I plan to tow my 18 foot boat that is around 3500 lbs. loaded with trailer very short distances.
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