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I got the call and the reservation so I went down to Moab. I got there kind of early, so I got a chance to see some of the accessories from ARB, 4WP, and RTR. Also since I was there early, they asked me if I wanted to spend an hour out driving the Bronco Sport on the trails, which was actually quite fun. I was really surprised at the "Baby Bronco" but the main course was definitely the full sized.
Some of these notes are based on driving the Sport, but should carry over to the full size, as well...
1. You can lock the front axle without locking the rear axle. This was really great for climbing, but where it really shone was when he turned on trail turn assist with the front axle locked. The Bronco was making tank turns around the rear wheel. It was much better than I expected. I was impressed.
2. As I understand it, the front sway bar locks when the hydraulic fluid is dammed off. I could be wrong, but it sounds that way to me. Disconnecting the sway bar lets the fluid flow and the pressure on the hydraulic fluid seems to make it still give some damping even when disconnected. In other words, when I'd disconnect the sway bar on my Wrangler, it would get squirrelly. The Bronco, not at all. It was still really stable side to side but didn't make my head bounce back and forth once the bar was disconnected. It was a good thing.
3. The GOAT modes make a lot of changes, it's actually pretty substantial. It's not a gimmick. I definitely felt the difference in the Sport when I switched from Normal to Sand or Normal to Sport, and Eco kind of sucked actually. I won't use that.
4. The way the lane assist worked surprised me at first and then I started really playing with it. About that time, the leader for our group called on the radio to talk about it. I called back and laughed that he must have been watching me drive all over the road like I was drunk in his rearview. It wasn't that kind of jarring sort of thing, but just a gentle nudge. I suspect you could put on the lane assist, set cruise control and play a game of cribbage while the thing drives itself.
5. Trail assist and single foot drive mode are sort of opposite. Trail assist, you set a speed you want to maintain and the Bronco does it. 1 MPH, not a problem. 15 MPH, fine. I think it is up to 20, but not sure. Single foot was cool - we turned on the wheel cameras, drove up on a rock, let off the gas and the Bronco stopped immediately on top of the rock. Then just eased down the rock again. Very cool.
6. With the top off, the trail camera was hard to see. The screen is glossy and gets quite a bit of glare, might be able to be fixed using brightness settings...
I was in a 2 door Bronco and the top was open. We didn't get dusted out or anything, even driving fast over sand. I agree with other posters, the top was rattling behind me. I felt like it was loose or something. I suspect it'll be fixed in production models or could easily be fixed with weatherstripping. Maybe I have low expectations of those things because I have had something like 5 Jeeps at various times...
Some photos:
ARB has many groovy things for the Bronco. I particularly liked the rock sliders and the front bumper. They said they are about to have a front bumper with a winch mount that doesn't cover the trail camera... I will admit to being slightly a fanboy to ARB but they have always really done me right.
I liked this rack from 4WP - that's a tent on top of it. I need a tent.
Seriously, if I have a rack with a soft top, I don't see a reason to need a hard top any time soon.
This is pretty much exactly my build except I've changed the color to cactus grey - until I changed the color, this was exactly my build. I asked if they'd just let me take it home to take work off the factory, but they told me no.
This is the one I rode in
And this is me, well it's a Bronco, I just photobombed it.
Found this guy sitting around lonely in Moab so figured I'd stop and visit:
Some of these notes are based on driving the Sport, but should carry over to the full size, as well...
1. You can lock the front axle without locking the rear axle. This was really great for climbing, but where it really shone was when he turned on trail turn assist with the front axle locked. The Bronco was making tank turns around the rear wheel. It was much better than I expected. I was impressed.
2. As I understand it, the front sway bar locks when the hydraulic fluid is dammed off. I could be wrong, but it sounds that way to me. Disconnecting the sway bar lets the fluid flow and the pressure on the hydraulic fluid seems to make it still give some damping even when disconnected. In other words, when I'd disconnect the sway bar on my Wrangler, it would get squirrelly. The Bronco, not at all. It was still really stable side to side but didn't make my head bounce back and forth once the bar was disconnected. It was a good thing.
3. The GOAT modes make a lot of changes, it's actually pretty substantial. It's not a gimmick. I definitely felt the difference in the Sport when I switched from Normal to Sand or Normal to Sport, and Eco kind of sucked actually. I won't use that.
4. The way the lane assist worked surprised me at first and then I started really playing with it. About that time, the leader for our group called on the radio to talk about it. I called back and laughed that he must have been watching me drive all over the road like I was drunk in his rearview. It wasn't that kind of jarring sort of thing, but just a gentle nudge. I suspect you could put on the lane assist, set cruise control and play a game of cribbage while the thing drives itself.
5. Trail assist and single foot drive mode are sort of opposite. Trail assist, you set a speed you want to maintain and the Bronco does it. 1 MPH, not a problem. 15 MPH, fine. I think it is up to 20, but not sure. Single foot was cool - we turned on the wheel cameras, drove up on a rock, let off the gas and the Bronco stopped immediately on top of the rock. Then just eased down the rock again. Very cool.
6. With the top off, the trail camera was hard to see. The screen is glossy and gets quite a bit of glare, might be able to be fixed using brightness settings...
I was in a 2 door Bronco and the top was open. We didn't get dusted out or anything, even driving fast over sand. I agree with other posters, the top was rattling behind me. I felt like it was loose or something. I suspect it'll be fixed in production models or could easily be fixed with weatherstripping. Maybe I have low expectations of those things because I have had something like 5 Jeeps at various times...
Some photos:
ARB has many groovy things for the Bronco. I particularly liked the rock sliders and the front bumper. They said they are about to have a front bumper with a winch mount that doesn't cover the trail camera... I will admit to being slightly a fanboy to ARB but they have always really done me right.
I liked this rack from 4WP - that's a tent on top of it. I need a tent.
Seriously, if I have a rack with a soft top, I don't see a reason to need a hard top any time soon.
This is pretty much exactly my build except I've changed the color to cactus grey - until I changed the color, this was exactly my build. I asked if they'd just let me take it home to take work off the factory, but they told me no.
This is the one I rode in
And this is me, well it's a Bronco, I just photobombed it.
Found this guy sitting around lonely in Moab so figured I'd stop and visit:
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