What is your goal for wheel travel and articulation on your new Bronco?

[BigMeatsBronco]

Curious what others plan to eventually do to the suspension on the Bronco make it satisfactory for each user?

For example, my longterm plan is to eventually have 15” of wheel travel at all four corners.
This will include longer A-arms and tierods and axles. I've been playing with suspension systems all my life so I'm excited to see others ideas and dreams. On my other IFS vehicles I've always redesigned the suspension to extract the most possible out of it. Here's a pic of my last rig. I plan on getting even more flex outta the Bronco.

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[WuNgUn]

A perfectly stock 2 door, squatched Badlands
That's it!

 

[BigMeatsBronco]

Similar obstacle, and you can see how the rear of the Bronco is very limited in flex for a solid axle. Lots of room for improvement.

For comparison the other vehicle has 11 front wheel travel and over 14 in the rear.

 

[TeocaliMG]

Somehow I missed this thread before. I am being torn in several directions!

Least ambitious: Swap to 35s on my non sas badlands for a while before eventually upgrading to whatever seems like the best value extended/long travel kit out there to get me around 12" of travel with 35's or hopefully even 37's

More ambitious: fabricate my own diff drop and steering gear mods (if neither are available for reasonable cost) and combine with a quality long travel kit to pair 37's with decent wheel travel

Most controversial: (caveat I have not investigated the feasibility for this) I do a 1-2" body lift, but instead of lifting only the body, I try to lift everything with it aside from the frame and driveline. This keeps my hardpoints closer to stock while doing two very important things: 1, practically everything that currently hangs lower than the frame (looking at you fuel tank) gets lifted up improving break over and quality of my ground clearance. 2, it allows significantly more up travel/tire package for upgraded suspension. Body lifts get a bad rap, for a number of reasons, and I never seriously considered one before, but I think it can be an excellent way to squeeze more performance out of suspension mods. Hard to justify spending $$$$ on an couple inches of rebound travel when there's plenty of jounce travel sitting there unused and ready to go. I say, why not both!

Most ambitious: To be honest this step happens long after one of these previous steps.
I build a fully custom borderline ultra4 4400 class rig that can accept either the whole bronco body (this means very unique tube frame limitations). Or at least accept most of my Bronco interior and exterior. Think doors, windows, seats, dash, removable top. Why? Because I want to. Will I race it? Maybe lol

 

[greatlakes]

They put in an unnecessary roundabout in our neighborhood. I want enough articulation to ignore it.

 

[TeocaliMG]

They put in an unnecessary roundabout in our neighborhood. I want enough articulation to ignore it.

I envision something like this?

 

[greatlakes]

I envision something like this?

A little slower, but yes!

 

[Bmadda]

Similar obstacle, and you can see how the rear of the Bronco is very limited in flex for a solid axle. Lots of room for improvement.

For comparison the other vehicle has 11 front wheel travel and over 14 in the rear.

I agree...rear articulation is piss poor. I would concentrate my efforts there to start!

 

[BigMeatsBronco]

I agree...rear articulation is piss poor. I would concentrate my efforts there to start!

I agree 100% for a solid axle it's pathetic! This is because ford errors on the side of safety with their huge bump stops and shock placement. I gained over 3 inches droop beyond stock.

 

[Oldhippie]

If I get serious...Portals + 5” on Sasquatch...with 37s...yes it is ridiculous how many times I see the rear wheels hanging in the air...

 

[Bmadda]

I agree 100% for a solid axle it's pathetic! This is because ford errors on the side of safety with their huge bump stops and shock placement. I gained over 3 inches droop beyond stock.

I am following your other thread and I think when I get mine I might try removing the rear bumps entirely. In the front I would shorten them, but rear I think you could go full stroke and not break anything

 

[BigMeatsBronco]

30k miles like this and zero issues with shaved bump stops...

 

[87-Z28]

Interesting. I think you cut length close to a factor of 3. Bump stop force is near linear with length, as long as cross-sectional area and elastic modulus remain the same (E*A / L). Which they do for what you did. That suggests ford design is very conservative. large factory of safety, more than three at least.

just curious. In your configuration, you must reach full compression and smack the bump stop occasionally? Clearly the force from your shorter stop is still quite low if you do.

 

[Merc4x4]

Goal:
Go fast over (almost) any terrain, handle small jumps, comfortable on the highway, and 7-8/10 trails. Basically a rally car that rides like a Cadillac and can crawl blue/black trails.
Obviously there will be compromises and "feel" is way more important than times.



I think the Bronco is too wide already, so I'll probably be skipping over mid/long travel, raptor, etc setups.
I'm interested in where the Ranger Raptor front arm length fits in relative to stock Bronco and Raptor Bronco (and 3rd party mid/long travel setups). Could be an interesting compromise there.

I want electronic shocks. That cuts down a bit on options. Icon CDEV or SDi EClik. SDi doesn't have a Bronco specific kit, so alternative is their universal kit on Kings.

I need to be cognizant of the front extended length and CV bind.
It just occurred to me a couple people on here have used simple spacers for a little front diff drop. I am against that simply for losing a bit of clearance, but the gain from coilovers and 37's would be more. Plus I haven't scraped there yet; not with the V6 K member and rear control arm brackets hanging so low... , could be just enough for a bit of a "safety" margin.

The rear is easier and Ford left a lot on the table. Besides the matching coilovers, new links, RockJock or Icon. I'm still astonished no one sells a rear brake line extension bracket; although I heard if you call RoughCountry they may sell you the part separate from the lift kit. Also would be an easy fab project, even for me.

I would like to go with 37's. Upgraded steering rack is a must.

After all that, I'd start to consider if I need/want to upgrade the axles. Dana ultimates just bolt in. Looks like a good choice for the front. A rear truss on the stock 44 might be all I need.

Then portals with 39's or 40's if I want to go crazy. Might need to revisit shock tuning.

The biggest hurdle is finding the sweet spot between so custom you can't find parts anywhere, and stock OEM where it "only" takes 4+ months to get parts.

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