The towing on these are great. The engine and trans are from the Ranger anyway, which was already proven. I have towed a lot with mine, but the longest tow was a trailer with 2 heavy motorcycles and a bunch of other crap that filled the trailer move xcountry
That's really nice until you have the unfortunate event of the rear washer fluid not working like many of us have had lol. It's a random decoupling of the hose at a random joint. Sometimes it's near, sometimes....it's right in the middle of the Bronco. I had to remove the side panel and the...
I haven't ever seen the issue myself. I've had mine for over 2 years now. It's got 40k miles on it and it's been outside 100% of the time. I think you just got lucky.
The waffle looking cover is the transmission pan, yes. The transmission cooler is directly in front of it with 2 coils connecting yo the tranny right above that pan.
I was out off-roading in my lifted badsquatch on 37s. It comes with the steel skid plates and I sit fairly high off the ground.
The factory transmission pan isn't protected at all, and it is cheap, flimsy, brittle plastic. It weighs about a pound. I have been wheeling for about a decade in...
May just be me, but I think it looks like ass. Why make this off-road package white on white, plastic bumper, bolt-on wide flares, keep the same crappy tires that get shredded off road.....
That's what a heritage should have looked like.
I think it would look better (to match) if you had the capable bumper and painted those stock D rings on there white. The hub caps really set it apart.
I know the rack will hold it just fine. On all OEM specs, they usually hold (or pull) 10-25% more than advertised and they put a safe number on. The roof might have a minimum breaking strength around 150lb dynamic, so they put 110....who knows.
My right UCA one year and my left UCA the next both came loose. I took it to an after market shop instead of ford next. They put loctite on it and it hasn't happened since.
I have the Stage 5 with Heavy Rate rear springs and still have 12 inches of rear ground clearance.
For anyone interested, I have 37s and a 175lb RTT with the Trailrax roof rack. I have 12" of clearance at the rear differential.