A recovering Jeep guy here

[jscherb]

I've been active with Jeeps for most of this century and after I was able to leave the high tech world I started designing my own Jeep accessories because I never seem to be satisfied with the products on the market. I've always done this as a hobby for my own enjoyment, but companies have noticed what I've done and picked up many of my designs and brought them to market.

My current vehicles are two '06 Wranglers and a '13 Wrangler. All have custom homemade hardtops and other fiberglass parts as well as hardware and fabric accessories of my own design and the pickup is also a project of my own design. All built in my home garage.

I'm not a fan of the JL Wrangler and the Jeeps pictured above are probably the last Jeeps I'll own. I'm much more likely to swap the '13 Wrangler for a Bronco at some point than I am to buy another Jeep, for me the JK Wranger is the end of the line.

I joined this forum to learn more about Broncos and because some of the companies that have picked up my designs have asked me to do Bronco designs for them. So far I've done a few Bronco things like door pockets and a tailgate MOLLE panel in canvas and leather. These photos are of the prototypes I sewed, I turned them over to a company and they're now in production:

MORryde has asked me to do a no-drill installation kit for their Trail Kitchen, which is shown here in my JK Wrangler. The Trail Kitchen is also one of my designs, they picked up the design and it's been on the market for several years now in the Jeep world.

I visited the local Ford dealer the other day to get measurements of the tie-down points in the Bronco cargo area and I've sent a design along to MORryde so hopefully they'll make a Trail Kitchen installation kit for the Bronco available soon. They may be looking for early adopters/influencers when the installation kit is available and I'll be happy to pass anyone's info along to them.

For the record: I am not an employee of any of the companies that have picked up my designs nor am I a vendor, I am "retired" from high tech and not an employee of any company. I do these designs strictly as a hobby, mostly to improve the use of my Jeeps and now perhaps my future Bronco.

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[Taltyman]

Awesome stuff.

 

[Fordified1]

Very cool! Welcome to the forum.
What trim Bronco do you think you’ll buy?
I recently ordered a Black Diamond non SAS and have only been here a short time.

 

[jscherb]

Very cool! Welcome to the forum.
What trim Bronco do you think you’ll buy?
I recently ordered a Black Diamond non SAS and have only been here a short time.

I really don't know which trim level I'd want - there are almost too many to pick from. And I'd be outfitting it with a lot of my own designs as well, for example perhaps a custom hardtop, so it'll take some study for me to decide what options to get vs. which ones to build .

 

[userdude]

Love the truck, that's really awesome!

I'm guessing you'll go 4dr WildTrak or OBX. If you go Heritage, know there's a long wait and a deadline (early December I think) to get an order in. The HLE is really cool but you might look for one on a lot that's an abandoned order. I don't think they're easy to order.

If you do look at Badlands (), definitely look at the non-SAS. That's a nice one without SAS. The SAS package is cool (I have it), but if you're not really wanting bigger tires, it's not as useful and kinda spendy. The BL non-SAS has some slightly bigger tires than the others and just looks good.

Also look at the accessory switches, that prewires things for you and is a good buy unless you like running wires.

 

[userdude]

There's a member around here called @BigMeatsBronco who made his First Edition 2dr into a little truck. Pretty cool, I'm sure you'll see it soon enough.

 

[jscherb]

There's a member around here called @BigMeatsBronco who made his First Edition 2dr into a little truck. Pretty cool, I'm sure you'll see it soon enough.

Thanks for letting me know, I'll look for it. I could be interested in replacing my Wrangler truck at some point.

Lots of people turn Wranglers into "trucks" by throwing a half cab hardtop on but the bed is pretty much useless. I wanted a "real truck" when I was designing my pickup so I lengthened the frame and added a real bed and designed it to be a modern version of the classic Willys pickup.

 

[userdude]

That looks nice. It kinda reminds me of the mid-50's Dodge pickup my uncle restored years ago.

You can see BigMeats truck if you click on his name in my message above. It's his avatar. There's also a build thread around. He's, shall we say, an active and effective member around these parts.

 

[CarmeloS]

Welcome welcome

just curious, what is it about the JL’s you dont like now?

 

[jscherb]

Welcome welcome

just curious, what is it about the JL’s you dont like now?

They're smaller inside than my JK, and I'm 6'6" so it's a bit tight. There's a minivan worth of plastic trim inside, they're harder to accessorize for real world expedition use than previous generations, and they're very expensive. A small example - Ford engineers seem to understand that people who really use their vehicle for expedition use will need a roof rack over their hardtop so they've made provisions for it, Jeep has yet to understand that.

 

[jscherb]

Very cool! Welcome to the forum.
What trim Bronco do you think you’ll buy?
I recently ordered a Black Diamond non SAS and have only been here a short time.

Does any Bronco trim level support removable hardtop sides replaceable with roll-up soft sides? I like the open air experience I get with my custom hardtops but I don't like the sun on my head so I can remove the hard sides for the summer and run with soft sides and roll them up whenever I want more air.

Rolled up:

Rolled down:

If I get a Bronco I may do a custom hardtop or modify the factory hardtop to support soft sides.

 

[GroovyGeek]

They're smaller inside than my JK, and I'm 6'6" so it's a bit tight. There's a minivan worth of plastic trim inside, they're harder to accessorize for real world expedition use than previous generations, and they're very expensive. A small example - Ford engineers seem to understand that people who really use their vehicle for expedition use will need a roof rack over their hardtop so they've made provisions for it, Jeep has yet to understand that.

Welcome, cool stuff you have done there.

You will find that the Broncos are likely somewhat more expensive than an equivalent Jeep, and have just as much plastic inside, except that the plastic is not as robust as the one inside the Jeeps. But unless you are doing very high end rock crawling they drive helluva lot better. For overlanding the Bronco beats the pants off a Jeep any day, IMO.

As to the obvious oversights in Jeeps - part of that is complacency due to lack of real competition, part is the customer base itself telling Stelantis "don't move my cheese", and part is proper desire not to disrupt the thrid party ecosystem which is essential to the brand.

I drove a JK for 10 years, initially after getting the Bronco I was somewhat disappointed, but 6 months later I truly appreciate how much better vehicle it is for my needs - a combination of a daily driver and 4-5 rated trails once or twice a month.

 

[userdude]

Does any Bronco trim level support removable hardtop sides replaceable with roll-up soft sides? I like the open air experience I get with my custom hardtops but I don't like the sun on my head so I can remove the hard sides for the summer and run with soft sides and roll them up whenever I want more air.

Rolled up:

Rolled down:

If I get a Bronco I may do a custom hardtop or modify the factory hardtop to support soft sides.

Hmm, a fiberglass safari top with dropdown windows? That could be interesting... One of the Heritages (or both?) have removable side windows. I think the back would be harder. But an aftermarket top without sides and hardier than the plastic MIC 2.0 would be a nice option, if you sold it.

 

[jscherb]

Hmm, a fiberglass safari top with dropdown windows? That could be interesting... One of the Heritages (or both?) have removable side windows. I think the back would be harder. But an aftermarket top without sides and hardier than the plastic MIC 2.0 would be a nice option, if you sold it.

I don't sell anything, I just design stuff. If something I design is going to be sold, some company or person would have to pick up the design and market it, I have no desire to ever sell anything. For example, I designed the hardtop on my black Wrangler just for my Jeep but shortly after I finished it, a company picked it up and it's been on the market for some years now, although they left out a few key features (like the soft sides!).

I probably could design roll-up soft sides for the Bronco Heritage top if it comes with removable side windows, I'll have to look into that model.b

My homemade JKU hardtop also has soft sides but I haven't made that one available to any companies. Both hardtops have other features I would want to add to a Bronco, such as a rear barn door (I really dislike the two-step tailgate/liftgate process).

The barn doors I did for my Jeeps are fiberglass and bolt to the factory tailgate; adding a similar barn door to a Bronco to work with the factory Bronco hardtop would be pretty straightforward; I would definitely want to do that.

 

[userdude]

I don't sell anything, I just design stuff. If something I design is going to be sold, some company or person would have to pick up the design and market it, I have no desire to ever sell anything. For example, I designed the hardtop on my black Wrangler just for my Jeep but shortly after I finished it, a company picked it up and it's been on the market for some years now, although they left out a few key features (like the soft sides!).

I probably could design roll-up soft sides for the Bronco Heritage top if it comes with removable side windows, I'll have to look into that model.b

My homemade JKU hardtop also has soft sides but I haven't made that one available to any companies. Both hardtops have other features I would want to add to a Bronco, such as a rear barn door (I really dislike the two-step tailgate/liftgate process).

The barn doors I did for my Jeeps are fiberglass and bolt to the factory tailgate; adding a similar barn door to a Bronco to work with the factory Bronco hardtop would be pretty straightforward; I would definitely want to do that.

Well, I mean someone. Hard tops are one of the Bronco 6g bugaboos. Having some manufacturer producing options, especially ones we can't get, would be cool. So having someone who builds their own tops would seem like a good development in general.

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