5,000 Mile Report

[ohvrider]

Got my Badlands Bronco towards end of January. Its a Fully loaded Cactus Grey Badlands 4 door with SAS. First off I ordered SAS only for the gearing as the 34.4" tires are a little small, but light weight improves mileage I suppose.

Features: SAS, Lux, Leather
Upgrades: ARB Summit Bumper on front, Winch, ARB twin air, ARB drawer system in rear

For upgrades the Bumper is a little heavy when I change tires I might look at stiffining the suspension some? it comes with a bracket to flip front plate up but that bracket does get in way of camera some. Effects parking more then off-road. Haven't used winch yet. With the GY's I found I don't have to deflate as much as I did with my old Jeep, it had swampers and they have stiffer side walls. The drawer system was gotten so I can access air and winch accessories when wife fills up the back. She is unhappy with it though as she lost 11" of cargo space as the drawer is that high.

I used Ford's bronco at Vegas off-roadeo and like others I was impressed with what a stock badlands can do.

I've done some minor testing at Hollister Hills SVRA and had a few observations. My 2 Wranglers were TJ 2-doors so quite a bit smaller:

Pro's:

• Driving Bronco from Bay Are to Vegs (505 Miles) it was more like my Raptor or a Tohoe than a car. Meaning you can get out and walk around without legs going numb etc. I found it 3rd or 4th most comfortable vehicle I drove there.
• Mileage is much better than I expected as once I put swampers on my Jeep it was less than 12. And it was much smaller and lighter. (Still Mileage will be bad for those not used to 4x4's)
• 12" screen!!! Really helps when going up a 30 degree hill, cresting and going down other side was the hood is so big you can see anything. (Jeep wins front visibility easily but also has less room under hood for same reason)
• AC - Well 2 weeks in Vegas and south Utah never used AC. You can turn front defroster on and front air in all cars and they usually are 10 degrees cooler then outside air. For bronco we did this trick, and it was good enough for 115 in Vegas and 112 in St George Utah areas. With Tahoe and Raptor AC was on whole time previous years.
• Hiway driving maers, its not a car, but it drives much better than my old Jeeps and not quite as good as a Ford pIckup (well Raptor is only ford pickup I had recently). It drives better then my 96-2002 Dodge, Chevy and GMC pickup though. But I'm sure the newer ones are much better as well.
• Parking - It really short and easy to park, fits in compact spaces and 360 degree camera makes it easy.
• Traction - Off roading at Hollister on sand stone on top of hard pack I expected some wheel slip like in my Jeep but never had any so far.
• 1 pedal - This helps to make up for the bad gearing
• Trail Control - This too helps one deal with automatic
• Sync 4, In raptor I can not use nav etc while driving, even when passenger. In bronco I just say I'm passenger and I can use it.
• B&O, I'm not an audio expert, but the B&O is much better then I thought from reading reviews.
• Trail Turn Assist - I this is really great when on tight switch backs up hill. But down hill since you have to accelerate to use it i don't use it as much.
• Sitting room, My jeep I used to hit knees on things, I'm 6'2" but long legs. Bronco has much more room but still not F-150 room

Con's

• Lane Keep system is disappointing. I thought I read Bronco had lane centering but its just lights and a little vibration in steering wheel and it not consistent when it works.
• ACC, I expected it to work like my Raptor which goes to 0 mph and turns off after 5 seconds of not moving. Instead if turns off at 10mph. In Bay I'm stuck at 0-5mph 1/2 way home in evening commute.
• Gearing. the 4.70:1 gears still feel too tall to me. But I've never driven a automatic off-road before so that might be part of it. Even in M1 it goes and 4Lo it seems much faster than my old TJ. I never used brakes in my TJ, just gears to go down steep inclines. I'd still recommended getting SAS but its you go 37's or 40's you need lower gearing IMO.
• Range, I can only get about 300 miles max, I need to find a way to add a 2nd tank or something.

Hopefully this information helps someone that is on the fence. I had to buy an auto which was reason I traded my Chevy SS perf Sedan in for the bronco. My wife can't drive a stick. She is able to drive bronco and drives it a lot. She likes the small size (well compared to F-150 Raptor) but thinks its too tall.

Overall, I'd buy it again as there is nothing else on market that fits my needs. I wanted something like a Jeep that I can off-road with, but I wanted to drive it 500-800 miles to get there and not have to trailer it. My Jeep was older but about 200-300 miles was max for me then my back would start hurting. Off-road is better than I expected from IFS and the Lockers are the #1 reason. So far I've yet to need front locker but have turn it on couple times just in case. I usually like to leave it off because I want to be able to steer.

Cheers,

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[BottleShark]

This is a lot of my same thoughts so far at 4000 miles. I deleted my muffler, thinking of adding an extra tank in it's place.