Daily Drive Overlanding Bronco?

[Inlinejohn]

Curious how many chose this path:

1) Built an Overlanding Bronco with all the amenities (RTT, Awning, Gear, Etc etc) and have chosen this would not be a preferred daily driver, constantly getting dirty (mine has so many nooks & crannys)?

2) Bought a second vehicle to be that daily driver in rain, snow, etc?

Reason I’m asking is I’m considering adding a Bronco Sport to become my daily driver when the weather is just constant nasty out on the roads, use for going snowboarding, locals trips in some snow, etc. My BIG Bronco just has so much hanging off of it, I prefer it not be constantly dirty/wet

Thoughts?

pics are my EG Bronco & potential Sport idea

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[BlueWaffle]

I bought a 27 year old 2wd ranger to be my winter beater/summer burnout rig


Gonna save the Bronco from as much rust belt BS as possible.

 

[Overcooked]

My bronco won’t fit most of the garages near my office due to height so I daily drive a RWD sedan. When the weather gets nasty I work from home

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Remove the tent an awning during the winter if you don't plan to use it? It make me laugh to see around my area how many rigs run all the gear all the time. Traction boards, fuel cans, water cans, tents, awnings, shovels, etc. It's all just added weight and drag for daily driving.

 

[Bruno]

I thought overlander builds were built to get dirty? What am I missing?

Regardless of getting dirty or not - Yes you face the super common problem of over-building an overlander, then getting stuck with it as a daily.

Nobody would want to drive that around on the daily, and for overlanding, its a pretty heavy build. You could easily delete half that stuff.

And yea, you sort of painted yourself into a corner becasue its such a pain to unbolt all that stuff, then bolt it all back on again for your frequent (or infrequent) excursions.

If you are lucky, and have little responsibility, and live within a couple hours of adventure - you can use most of that stuff often, so take off some things and suck it up.

If you are like most people, and have a job, a family, and it takes more than 2 hours to get off road - yea, buy a Fiesta ST to daily. You could probably find one for half the cost of all that "stuff".

 

[ar1]

I guess we should address what "overland" really means. I think for some it is synonymous with having a bunch of gear strapped on the exterior. I would consider that to be directly in conflict with daily driving for attention and height clearance reasons. I've arranged around keeping everything inside the car for this reason. Back to my first point, maybe this means it is not an "overlander".

 

[NewtownPA]

With two $50k+ Broncos and their 18-20 mpg, we are leaning toward keeping or buying a third, less expensive car with higher gas mileage, for the highway commuting miles. So far kept our small suv but also ordered a Maverick, albeit an Ecoboost.

 

[Bruno]

I guess we should address what "overland" really means. I think for some it is synonymous with having a bunch of gear strapped on the exterior. I would consider that to be directly in conflict with daily driving for attention and height clearance reasons. I've arranged around keeping everything inside the car for this reason. Back to my first point, maybe this means it is not an "overlander".

Yea - this is more of a "camper". Overlanders are built to be compact, fit into an international shipping container, and cover long distances. Like 4XOverland. Everything accessable from the inside.
https://www.4xoverland.com/two-person-ultimate-troopy-overlander-2021-2022/

A Bronco "Overlander" - would use a Pop-Top you access from the inside.
https://ursaminorvehicles.com/b30-bronco-pop-top.html

The Ursa Minor is not ready yet.

Looks like Ford is working on one too, or this maybe the Ursa Minor:
https://fordauthority.com/2020/08/2021-ford-bronco-prototype-spied-with-apparent-pop-up-roof-tent/

 

[RC Bronco]

I keep telling myself that when the finances allow, I’ll be interested in a slim profile RTT that still lets me get use of taking off the front two roof panels

But there are a bunch of other things that I should spend money on first…

Bronco is my only vehicle. If I had to pick, I’d shed a lil bit of weight when I’m not going camping

Love your ride dude!

 

[tourproto]

This thread is what is keeping my wallet full of money

I love the builds I have seen on B6G, and am jealous of many of them.

I like "exploring" with my Bronco (hunting, fishing, car camping), but I have gone the cheap route, with the Deep Sleep mattress so I can pull over anywhere and just crawl into the back and go to sleep on one side. I have my cooler on the other side (4 door) and my gear on the rear passenger seat that isn't folded down. Fly rods and/or rifles are mounted on the ceiling with straps.

And when I am at home, I can pull everything out of the Bronco in 15 min and store it in my garage and get my daily driver back with seating for 5.

The one addition I really want is the roof mounted awning (even more than the RTT), but I am still OK with a cheapie Costco popup sun shade.

It really is the "taking stuff off, putting stuff on" that is keeping me from joining the full-on overlanding train. Love the concept, love the looks, but I need a "normal" vehicle 90% of the time, but that is just me. Maybe when I retire I can do a full overlanding build when it will be used enough to justify having all the "stuff" on my Bronco 24/7 and dealing with issues like ground clearance in parking structures, and thieves stealing stuff of my rig (I live in crime-ridden Portland).

 

[MEAT_GOD]

My solution is to keep everything simple and removable. It's also called being broke, but I prefer the fancier term.

Not only do I not trust the Bronco's roof strength, but I personally don't find rooftop tents to be as comfortable as a ground one. The awning I have has an optional attachment for a tent extension, and I'm considering getting that for when I'm overlanding, and keeping it at home when out of season and not having to unbolt anything.

It's also a good idea to keep most of your stuff in roof rack duffles or boxes, rather than having everything bolted down permanently (tables and beds etc).

As @Bruno mentioned, it is easy to overbuild your overlander when you've got a hole burning in your wallet and no clear guidelines as to when to stop. You need to be realistic with your wants vs your needs.

Unbolt and sell 75% of that crap and drive your Bronco to work or to go skiing.

Here is another thought, Instead of selling the tent, just light the tent on fire so you could spare some future Bronco owner the indignity of strapping a giant stupid tent to their brand new SUV.

Did an overlander screw your wife or something?

 

[Bigeye27]

Did an overlander screw your wife or something?

Yes!! in the pop up shower! At the mall! Thank god it didn't rain!

 

[Inlinejohn]

Oh I thought my comments were very constructive. You were already coming to the conclusion in your original post that you built a really neat but bloated and virtually unusable vehicle. Step one is admitting you have a problem. Good job.

I simply agreed with you and provided advice on how to begin rectify the situation.

Too bad a sense of humor isn't as easy to buy.

My build is perfect for what I intended it to be and none of your comments have relevance to that. They just waste our time and energy so this is my last attempt to bring you into being a nicer more constructive person. Your choice from this point forward. Good luck

 

[MNBigfoot]

You're a snorkel away from a SEMA build, seriously if you need to buy a second Bronco to haul your snowboard, you did something wrong. If one is going to add that much weight to the top of your Bronco, the last thing one should do is buy the heaviest winch/bumper available. You need to ask yourself if looks are more important than practicality.

 

[Inlinejohn]

You're a snorkel away from a SEMA build, seriously if you need to buy a second Bronco to haul your snowboard, you did something wrong. If one is going to add that much weight to the top of your Bronco, the last thing one should do is buy the heaviest winch/bumper available. You need to ask yourself if looks are more important than practicality.

Many many many Overlanding Broncos, Jeeps, Toyotas, etc are no different than mine, some even more extreme. The GOBI rack is taking all the top weight and I really don’t think it’s over weight overall. All the things I’ve added are fairly light. The HUGE 270 Bush awning is only 75lb. I’m not concerned about weight at this point. My main start to this thread was simply wondering how many of you Overlanders think like me and have chosen a different daily driver.

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