Are Bronco Flat Tow Issues Resolved?

[OverDavidLand]

Bronco was just delivered.

RVI works fine and pumps juice. Attaching my work order, so you can see that they did an entire swap.

The above is pretty much like it was the entire trip, until the battery voltage started to drop despite the charge amps being the same.

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[grtharris]

Been doing a little digging this evening. Looked at a couple of videos of replacing the clutch pack in the 4A transfer case but they when no farther. One video showed how the motor engages the clutch pack. Did read there is a planetary gear set for four wheel low but do not know how it is physically engaged. Can find nothing on how neutral tow physically disconnects the shaft from the transmission.
One interesting note, there is only power to the Transfer Case Control Module in Start and Run Mode. Which leads me to believe the failure accrues when going into Neutral Tow Mode are shortly there after. Something like the device that disconnects the shaft from the transmission was not fully disengaged. Just my ¢¢

 

[OverDavidLand]

Which leads me to believe the failure accrues when going into Neutral Tow Mode are shortly there after. Something like the device that disconnects the shaft from the transmission was not fully disengaged. Just my ¢¢

That is is interesting.

I have flat towed this Bronco behind a smaller Super-B van on a few occasions (call it 4) for shorter distances (say, less then 100 at a time) and it was fine except for the Brake light staying on that would always reset after a short drive.

That's not to say mine didn't fail early in the 272 mile trip. The mule is 36 foot diesel pusher Newmar that's heavy enough that that you barely remember you are pulling your Bronco.

 

[Tilzbow]

I’m not sure of the mechanics behind it but I almost always hear a distinct motorized sound followed by a mechanical shifting sound when putting my Bronco into flat tow mode. If for some reason I don’t hear it (not paying attention, other noises, etc.) I’ll remove the Bronco from flat tow mode and repeat the process.

So far so good with over 12,000 flat tow miles and over 80 times in and out of flat tow mode. Hopefully at the end of this year I can report back on over 20,000 miles of successful flat towing

2022 Badlands with a 2.7 and 4A automatic transmission, running an Air Force One brake system and a charge line.

One common denominator I’ve noticed is many people with failures seemed to be running a RVI3 brake system without a charge line and maybe that particular unit has more battery draw than others.

 

[grtharris]

I’m not sure of the mechanics behind it but I almost always hear a distinct motorized sound followed by a mechanical shifting sound when putting my Bronco into flat tow mode. If for some reason I don’t hear it (not paying attention, other noises, etc.) I’ll remove the Bronco from flat tow mode and repeat the process.

So far so good with over 12,000 flat tow miles and over 80 times in and out of flat tow mode. Hopefully at the end of this year I can report back on over 20,000 miles of successful flat towing

2022 Badlands with a 2.7 and 4A automatic transmission, running an Air Force One brake system and a charge line.

One common denominator I’ve noticed is many people with failures seemed to be running a RVI3 brake system without a charge line and maybe that particular unit has more battery draw than others.

Good idea to listen for the shift in neutral.

 

[dgorsett]

Been doing a little digging this evening. Looked at a couple of videos of replacing the clutch pack in the 4A transfer case but they when no farther. One video showed how the motor engages the clutch pack. Did read there is a planetary gear set for four wheel low but do not know how it is physically engaged. Can find nothing on how neutral tow physically disconnects the shaft from the transmission.
One interesting note, there is only power to the Transfer Case Control Module in Start and Run Mode. Which leads me to believe the failure accrues when going into Neutral Tow Mode are shortly there after. Something like the device that disconnects the shaft from the transmission was not fully disengaged. Just my ¢¢

I really think on 4A units the clutches for the front drive may hang up while the rear drive does disengage, giving just enough rotation to turn the transmission output shaft eventually heating up the internals and destroying things. The first few posts in the currently active Transfercase Technical Discussion thread give an idea how it works. This may be battery state of charge related or a mechanical clearance issue, IDK.

I use an RVI 2, with no tablet, and note the compressor only runs every 3 or four braking cycles on set up and the way I have it set seldom brakes at all. I do run the RVI charge system now, due to paranoia caused by this forum .

I seldom hear the shift to or from Neutral. And the "Neutral Tow Engaged" message either doesn't appear or flies by so fast when I open the door I can't read it. I just trust that if I get the message upon completing the procedure that it worked.

Probably 10K miles towing, part time transfer case

 

[Iowa Hawkeye]

I have never heard anything engaging either. The dash message appears and stays on for awhile and also comes on for quite awhile when we open the door. This is how we check that it's on when we stop for a break when flat towing.

 

[nmmike]

I have watched the indicator lights. All was green (and blue for RVI)

The RVI monitor/table5 (not a phone) clearly showed voltage going in.

RVI Command Center

I clearly remember looking at the voltage from the battery side and watching it slowly drop below 12 and specifically checking to see if it was getting voltage from mule —and it was.

I can't say 100% for sure that a fuse didn't blow, but I the Bronco back today or tomorrow and I will plug it into the RV and see what I see and report back. My little beast is finally on a truck from Page AZ, where it melted down over a month ago now.

My best guess is that the daytime/automatic lights came on 200 miles into the trip and/or the screens/computer activated.

I cannot positively say that battery voltage was my problem. I am not sure I wanna attempt to attempt a repro case by running it down to 11.5 in the middle of a tow.

Thanks for the heads up about the transfer case thread. I will check that out.

Have you considered setting in the Bronco monitoring the RVI tablet voltage while turning on things like lights or running the RVI brake system through setup to see if you can create the low voltage condition? I want a Bronco for a toad but this is concerning. No Jeep for me either!

 

[Iowa Hawkeye]

I just don't think Ford has this flat towing mode totally figured out. If you do some research, they have also had issues with some F 150's. We did have an issue with our F 150 flat towing back in 2020, and they did take care of it, but they didn't for everyone.
FYI from 2005 thru 2018 we flat towed multiple Chevy Suburbans with no issues. We love our Bronco other than being very nervous every time we go camping. Maybe Chevy will re-introduce the S-10 Blazer!!!

 

[OverDavidLand]

Have you considered setting in the Bronco monitoring the RVI tablet voltage while turning on things like lights or running the RVI brake system through setup to see if you can create the low voltage condition?

You can buy mine. Already set up and ready to go with a brand new transmission. Heh.

I guess I should further clarify that this is was not a temporary low voltage situation. This happened after "about" 125 miles of flat towing and the voltage stayed low. The mistake I made was not further investigating (the voltage thing) after this happened. At that point, I had put down 272 miles and my Bronco wouldn't go into gear in the middle of 1-way at the campground so I had my hands full.

I've watched the voltage intently during all the start-up/test procedures and my multiple test runs. The voltage was usually 12.Xxx and never feel below 12.00 in all of that time.

So, for me to do what you are saying. I would have to sit in the car while it's being towed for over 100 miles to (maybe) see the situation again.

Normally use of the blinkers, tail lights, and RVI brake (which I barely use, I have it set for emergency stops or a light touch depending on what I am doing) do not impact the voltage and the charge line does it's job.

 

[dgorsett]

Here's a new one after a 2500 mile tow. We towed through some weather the first day, light snow. The second day we unhooked and went on an excursion. After the Bronco warmed up we had a burning smell, kinda oily kinda not. I checked thoroughly and found nothing. Over the next several days towing/driving the smell diminished. I theorize that the road grime accumulated in the first days bad weather gradually burned off. FYI

 

[Go_UL_Cards]

Completed our first RV/Bronco Tow over the weekend. Full RVI setup. Only twice did we brake hard enough to engage the RVI brake. Once I put on the brakes hard, let up a little and pressed again. RVI Tablet gave me a warning it was not properly setup and then cleared within a second. Never happened after i modified my braking pattern. Bronco did two things when i got home. Brake fault when i first turned on the ignition which cleared as soon as i started it. Slight tire burn smell for about 24 hours.
The biggest problem was keeping the tablet connected. finally found the sweet spot in the middle of the bed in the back bedroom. Stayed connected the entire trip home.
Never got the tpms to work on either the RV or Bronco.
We drove the Bronco about 20 miles after we got there with no issues.
Drove fine after we got home. Mileage didn't change. Took pictures before we started each trip.
Transmission temperature when i got home was about 90 degrees. It was about that temperature outside. I assume that if the transmission/differential was not properly disengaged the temperature would be higher than ambient temp. I wish there was a way to monitor the transmission temperature from the RV. If it starts getting hot then there is probably a problem.
I know when i play around with changing stuff in Forscan the battery will sometimes go into save mode and i have to quit for the night. The RVi brake has to draw some power as it's always on and monitoring.

 

[OverDavidLand]

Completed our first RV/Bronco Tow over the weekend

I am glad to hear you are having success. I also put my hub in the middle of the bed (I am 36 feet DP). Keep an eye on that battery voltage.

Personally, and sadly because it's why I bought the Bronco, I don't trust the car after my transmission failure. I am going to switch teams to bowtie as you disconnect the battery entirely when flat towing.

 

[grtharris]

Here's a new one after a 2500 mile tow. We towed through some weather the first day, light snow. The second day we unhooked and went on an excursion. After the Bronco warmed up we had a burning smell, kinda oily kinda not. I checked thoroughly and found nothing. Over the next several days towing/driving the smell diminished. I theorize that the road grime accumulated in the first days bad weather gradually burned off. FYI

Yes that is road curd you are smelling. Turn your Heater/AC off as part of your tow mode setup.
Then do not turn is back on until you put about 20 minutes of heat time back in the engine.

 

[Iowa Hawkeye]

Never got the tpms to work on either the RV or Bronco.

Off subject, but we have never gotten our RVI tpms to work, so we quit using it. RVI has great customer service, they gave us new sensors 3 times, but we should have just asked for our money back

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