More Bronco hear say.

[bobbywalter]

1. Did you buy it brand new in 88'?

2. Is the drive train 100% original or did you give up and start from scratch?

3. . Looks like you got a brand new F-150 as a daily driver, even if it sits in the barn as a just in case, the rest is kind of a mute point.






I have nothing against drive a 30yo car every day. I drove a '92 F150 with 250+k miles for years before someone rear ended it doing 60 while I was stopped behind a school bus.

At some point I will end up with a '78/'79 F series for a daily, but at the moment I have too many 25/30 year old rust buckets to fix......

I have 5 children and four grandchildren...


I have had lots of vehicles ....never intended on keeping any of the later units.. ....they come they go. But they are not for me. I work remote and it's cost effective to have something reliable for my wife to serve my family in my absence.


I bought one of the trucks in 92.


That 150 i only pay for....and tow with.

I got the bronco 2 for free.....I gave a gift....and got it as a gift out of the blue. And it was supposed to be for my wife. So really....those are both her trucks.




The ranger..I am the second owner.


It has over a million three on it. It tows hauls, powered air tools and welders and fed my family for 30 years this year.....has been on some of the best trails in the country...and all over it..

I have driven over 90k miles...simply to GO TO WORK .....some years...90 k one year......not driving for a living.... simply going to work..... outside...on an oil rig....working....then driving home.


When I have contract work....I tend to rent a house instead of living out of a hotel....and always have my rig with me.

And drive it almost every day.


The current stripper bronco, just like my ranger.... is a very easy platform and engine to work with ... And unlike my ranger...very desirable. Owning and keeping it running for 30 years is nothing.

The day I bought my ranger ....I never intended on keeping the a4ld and 2.9.....it was a purchase of harried convenience.

The intended replacement powertrain was a 4.3 and manual trans from an s10 the day I bought it....that changed with chance and consequences....

When I buy a bronco ... I will modify it as my needs change . . I will construct it to my bidding .. won't be hard ..it's damn close out of the gate.

It will likely be a hybrid version by the time I am ready to purchase........or will end up a hybrid of some sort.


May even end up full electric if I live that long and don't want to fly around in the new fangled space cars.



My ranger..... I have been thinking of retiring it.

I do like the new rangers.

If I decide to build a new ranger instead of a van....


know this.



I will take a brand new ranger and cut it in half...extend it.....build a bed I can use instead of the joke it comes with..put a full floater rear end in...

..and drive it till shit starts falling off.....


Then..


Long arm or TTB the front....instead of buying oem stuff.....unless that oem stuff proves to be adequate.



and when the engine gets whipped or broken....it will get a diesel if it is a viable option ..... And most likely hybrid of some sort ....

And it will probably be around longer then me.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

My ranger..... I have been thinking of retiring it.

It is kinda late.

I don't want to toss and turn sleeplessly all night.

So I am going to presume that "retiring it" means fixing the floor proper and retiring it from daily driving and keeping it in ship shape for cruise nights, ice cream runs and TRS events.

 

[bobbywalter]

It is kinda late.

I don't want to toss and turn sleeplessly all night.

So I am going to presume that "retiring it" means fixing the floor proper and retiring it from daily driving and keeping it in ship shape for cruise nights, ice cream runs and TRS events.

Nope.....I will feed it to the shredder.

 

[sgtsandman]

Nope.....I will feed it to the shredder.

Teenage Mutant Turtles Shredder?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

There is no comparing a 79 and current bronco in off road prowess.


Just like comparing a 79 to a 76.


On road daily driving prowess is even harder to compare.

I would have a hard time believing you would prefer a 79 over a 21 back to back.


Driving to town in 10 below blizzards....or running Moab when it's 120 degrees....


In the relatives ..

This new Bronco is the boss. Sure ....it needs heavier skid protection...and...the steering is a bit weak for radical rock climbing, but that is a short easily fixable list ...



Why ... Would a straight axle be better?

There were more independent suspension broncos and bronco 2s and explorers and expeditions then anything.


Conversely...the two trucks I drive and the bronco 2 are straight axles.

And I prefer them for a very narrow reason.

48 years seperate the 22 super duty, from the 74 system on my bronco 2. Hard to see what changed. They are both coil spring radius arm systems with Trac bars.


The ranger is on leafs. Even more captain cave pig.


For daily drive and ride ..

I like the jeep cher o car better then the explorer...or a Wrangler.


And prefer a bronco 2 over any wrangler or the early Bronco.....even equipped with a d35 ttb.


On the 78/79 fullsize bronco ... I would rather have a Dana 60 strength TTB....

Unless it was strictly trail trash.

The 79 f trucks and bronco are also my favorite. And I would daily one with a modern cost effective powertrain....


Which would cost more then a high end truck let alone a bare bones edition.


You have to love lying to yourself....there is a bare bones cheap as fawk wheeler with a manual trans and the best off road capacity ford has ever done....


And you get meh from the tire kickers ...


You can't make this shit up.

A kingpin straight axle like in the 78/79 is better because it requires less maintence and will take more pounding. I like things that function like stone hammers. You know this.

I *highly* doubt a new bronco is more capable then even a 80-96, much less a 78/79. Cant say that for sure....but....whats considered "capable" nowadays would of been "average" back then off road.

Thirdly, there is nothing wrong with a 351M/400. Sure they would drink more gas but they are much more simple, dont require a computer to fix, have enough acceleration to get out into traffic just fine, the older ones will tow more, and they can cruise 65-70 no problem.

If i had two sets of keys dangleing infront of me, one for a 22 bronco and one for a 78....id take the 78 all day everyday. Go ahead and react with your stupid haha emoji thing but the 78, in my book, is a vastly superior vehicle.

Like ive said before, and I personally believe this but trucks and SUVs peaked in the late 70's, leveled off till roughly the mid 90s, and have gone downhill since.

Rugged, simple, dependable, thats what does it for me. Something i can mistreat, use hard, run hard, etc etc and not worry about maintenece untill something breaks. Then its easy to fix and roll.

I change my oil. Thats about the only routine stuff i do. I dont fix brakes till they grind, shocks till they leak, ball joints till the tire is sitting like this \, etc etc.

Older vehicles just seem to deal with it better.

 

[fastpakr]

I *highly* doubt a new bronco is more capable then even a 80-96, much less a 78/79. Cant say that for sure....but....whats considered "capable" nowadays would of been "average" back then off road.

This is the kind of statement that makes it hard to take you seriously.

Bobby has been there and done that. Everywhere. With things he built by hand.

You've done... what, exactly?

You've certainly never even attempted to show up to a gathering with anything. No matter what claims you've made or the number of times you've been offered the chance to challenge a vehicle up close. Will made repeated offers years ago to demonstrate the differences. And yet you never had the gumption to actually show up.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

This is the kind of statement that makes it hard to take you seriously.

Bobby has been there and done that. Everywhere. With things he built by hand.

You've done... what, exactly?

You've certainly never even attempted to show up to a gathering with anything. No matter what claims you've made or the number of times you've been offered the chance to challenge a vehicle up close. Will made repeated offers years ago to demonstrate the differences. And yet you never had the gumption to actually show up.

Cause i take people even online at their word....and i expect the same respect back.

I dont question anyones knowledge or skill or what they say. Do i vocally disagree? Yes. But i dont sit here and in a roundabout way say they are full of shit.

But i guess thats to much to ask for these days.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I like old and simple.

Kind of at a conundrum in this debate.

A LC105 in a lot of ways similar to a old kingpin bronco but with 4 doors and a mechanical diesel. I would rather have one of those than a new Bronco.

But for my wife... Bronco hands down.

And I did try to keep the build simple for upkeep down the road. 2.3 will be easier and cheaper to maintain than the 2.7, advanced 4wd deletes the front axle CAD, vinyl seats/rubber floors, 17" wheels. We even debated on the manual trans but she wants remote start and that put the kabash on it when we discovered that.

For a 2021/22 it is easy to spec one out a fairly old school one.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I have a remote start for an import car with a manual. So they exist. So what happened with the Bronco? Too much computer? Or too much nanny re; leaving the shifter in neutral?

 

[Blmpkn]

I have a remote start for an import car with a manual. So they exist. So what happened with the Bronco? Too much computer? Or too much nanny re; leaving the shifter in neutral?

Too much nanny I would assume.

It's not even nanny really... it's just that ford doesn't want to deal with lawsuits from idiots.

 

[Ranger850]

Spotted in the parking lot at work. I think I mentioned it before as a Black Bronco. Turns out, it's gray. "Black Diamond" steel wheels, hard top

 

[Roert42]

Could probably get an aftermarket one easy, I'll bet ford didn't want to bother.

Had a friend that installed remote starts and stereos for Best Buy. If the car was a manual all the had to do was add a switch to lock it out if it wasn't in neutral, and disable the factory clutch switch.

 

[bobbywalter]

A kingpin straight axle like in the 78/79 is better because it requires less maintence and will take more pounding. I like things that function like stone hammers. You know this.

I *highly* doubt a new bronco is more capable then even a 80-96, much less a 78/79. Cant say that for sure....but....whats considered "capable" nowadays would of been "average" back then off road.

Thirdly, there is nothing wrong with a 351M/400. Sure they would drink more gas but they are much more simple, dont require a computer to fix, have enough acceleration to get out into traffic just fine, the older ones will tow more, and they can cruise 65-70 no problem.

If i had two sets of keys dangleing infront of me, one for a 22 bronco and one for a 78....id take the 78 all day everyday. Go ahead and react with your stupid haha emoji thing but the 78, in my book, is a vastly superior vehicle.

Like ive said before, and I personally believe this but trucks and SUVs peaked in the late 70's, leveled off till roughly the mid 90s, and have gone downhill since.

Rugged, simple, dependable, thats what does it for me. Something i can mistreat, use hard, run hard, etc etc and not worry about maintenece untill something breaks. Then its easy to fix and roll.

I change my oil. Thats about the only routine stuff i do. I dont fix brakes till they grind, shocks till they leak, ball joints till the tire is sitting like this \, etc etc.

Older vehicles just seem to deal with it better.

Yup...old school reliability is definitely a thing.....

.kingpin 60...check.

Captain cave pig multi fuel engine..that runs at any angle...and can run with no electrical at all....check.

More then one way to start engine....check.

4l80.......this ..is the previously undisputed heavyweight king of transmissions.....even stronger then any of the manuals...and I still manage to break them with dumb as a hammer 120 hp engine.....check.


In a failed transmission computer situation I can manually shift it still.....so redundancy to captain cave pig level....check.



That is what I drive.....no AC....no radio....manual windows and t case and lockouts......when I am not in my shop truck.....

I can and do fearlessly run 44 inch tires on it....or 32s... Sometimes in the same day.


And the new bronco will whoop it's ass in modern off roading.

Sure...the bronco won't haul or hold what my pick up or a 78 bronco does...but it will definitely out perform it off road.


As to off roading.....your dreaming...


What we do now....those back in the day can only dream about....because it would be fantasy. I can drive over 5 foot tall obstacles...


A 79 bronco is awesome....very capable...but will not go where a modern bronco will...unless the modern bronco is dragging it.

The 351 m is very complicated to keep alive.... It is very buildable and capable but you have to know what the fawk you are doing

And it requires propane or fuel injection to even think about venturing where I go ...and a very expensive or thought out oiling system. The timing of the journals and sump are unforgiving of starvation.


I know this.....I have built or assisted builds that can run the jungle or the tank trap and learned from those that do it.

Not opinion. It is what it is.

 

[Snoranger]

I have a remote start for an import car with a manual. So they exist. So what happened with the Bronco? Too much computer? Or too much nanny re; leaving the shifter in neutral?

I put remote start on my 5 spd swapped Explorer.... Ford was nice enough to put a neutral sensing switch on the M5OD for a few years.

A kingpin straight axle like in the 78/79 is better because it requires less maintence and will take more pounding. I like things that function like stone hammers. You know this.

I *highly* doubt a new bronco is more capable then even a 80-96, much less a 78/79. Cant say that for sure....but....whats considered "capable" nowadays would of been "average" back then off road.

The 05+ Superduty D60 is WAY stronger than the kingpin 60. It has stronger knuckles, better steering angle, bigger u-joints, bigger diameter stub shafts. I know for a fact that the SD D60 will handle a beating that rip the steering knuckle on a KP 60 in half.
Yes the SD 60 uses ball joints and unit bearings, but the inner Cs are huge on the 05+ axle. Some benifts:
Ball joint separation... the farther the ball joints are from each other, the less stress each one see. It’s all about leverage. The ball joints have to be far apart to fit the biggest u-joint ever stuffed into a D60 in them.
To fit those u-joints through the knuckle, they had to make the unit bearing hubs bigger. They don’t have the same bearing separation that the old D60s had, but they make up for it in bearing diameter. A good quality 05+ SD unit bearing (not a cheap no-name brand or smaller ’99-‘04 unit bearing) will last 100k on a daily driver... he’ll, the last 80K+ on our ABUSED plow truck. They got their reputation from the smaller, weaker 99-04 axles.


The whole capable now was average back then... Stop it... Just the tires we have now make pretty much every new 4x4 more capable than older ones.

 

[bobbywalter]

I put remote start on my 5 spd swapped Explorer.... Ford was nice enough to put a neutral sensing switch on the M5OD for a few years.


The 05+ Superduty D60 is WAY stronger than the kingpin 60. It has stronger knuckles, better steering angle, bigger u-joints, bigger diameter stub shafts. I know for a fact that the SD D60 will handle a beating that rip the steering knuckle on a KP 60 in half.
Yes the SD 60 uses ball joints and unit bearings, but the inner Cs are huge on the 05+ axle. Some benifts:
Ball joint separation... the farther the ball joints are from each other, the less stress each one see. It’s all about leverage. The ball joints have to be far apart to fit the biggest u-joint ever stuffed into a D60 in them.
To fit those u-joints through the knuckle, they had to make the unit bearing hubs bigger. They don’t have the same bearing separation that the old D60s had, but they make up for it in bearing diameter. A good quality 05+ SD unit bearing (not a cheap no-name brand or smaller ’99-‘04 unit bearing) will last 100k on a daily driver... he’ll, the last 80K+ on our ABUSED plow truck. They got their reputation from the smaller, weaker 99-04 axles.


The whole capable now was average back then... Stop it... Just the tires we have now make pretty much every new 4x4 more capable than older ones.

That's just it....he dont know that the
Ford kingpin knuckles are the weakest....

He don't know that I actually have increased maintenance from constant inspection after flogging with the 42s....because they are weak and crack...

He don't know that I have way more maintenance then a current SD axle every time I soak it I have to repack...

.the time to tear down and maintain a modern axle is a fraction of what I do ..


But I don't mind it.


I know he don't know shit about radical wheeling with a m engine....because they need very specific work to do the job...

But given that time and attention. They are monsters....huge power.

So there is that. And no carb anymore and dis ignition is even better.


To knock this current crop of broncos based on past performance is pure ignorance.