Bronco

[EvanPeterson]

Watching the video in hindsight, the pop up by the passenger side that likely destroyed the bumper I think slowed me down enough to make the impact a little slower and less violent. Yeah, I mean, had I ever thought that was a possibility and in hindsight, I would have done a few things different. I just didn't know and I really got lucky I didn't side swipe multiple trees on the way down before hitting the last one. One thing I would have done differently, is at the bottom, had I gone a little more driver instead of straight, I woudl have gone down another trail that had an incline. That is the one thing I would have done differently, but hey, hindsight in 2020.

Sorry it happened at all man! Hopefully they get some answers!

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[lakesinai]

I didn't try that to be honest, I think I just thought if nothing else worked it wouldn't. If I had had an old style e-brake, I definitely would have grabbed it, but these weird new ones are electronically operated I assumed, so I think I just wrote it off.

Not enough time to find a little silver brake lever while you're rolling & bouncing backwards in a free fall while still trying to figure why you're rolling backwards and the car won't stop!

 

[omi205]

First off the Bronco looks great. Great color. Sorry this happened man. Total bummer. Bright side is all are ok. Things can be repaired/replaced. Thank god this was not on a cliff of some kind. I dont know how you manual guys off-road. That is some serious skill. I hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel and a cause is discovered.

 

[swooshdave]

Brakes don’t all of a sudden magically stop working and then go back to normal.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

If you had the Bronco transmission in gear, why didn't you simply let the clutch out? The vehicle should have been stopped by the engine being stopped. I understand there was a lot going on in a short period of time, but I've had the same type of situation in a 1971 Bronco and stopped the vehicle rolling by just letting out the clutch.

 

[Arrowbear Rider]

you know brake and the clutch for the engine to restart, which it automatically does once the clutch is pushed. Neither pedal did it's intended job at that moment.

If your battery is low on juice even just a little too much, and it doesn't take much since the starter draws so much power, the A.S.S. stops working. The system will disable itself if the battery isn't fully charged. I was driving a short distance back to back a few times and my battery didn't charge enough in between stopping and parking and my A.S.S. stopped working.

If you were crawling along, stopping and starting while waiting for others or just using that A.S.S. to restart your engine, while using lights or anything else that may let your battery drop even a little the A.S.S. disables itself. It happened to me on the trail, where an auto start didn't happen, I remember having to push the start button myself, but I didn't know why until the A.S.S. was disabled again in the city.

This time, I noticed the engine still running while stopped at a light and I hadn't hit that A.S.S. What had happened is, the battery was not getting enough time to charge due to too short of distance being driven between shutdowns and it disabled the A.S.S. After investigating I found in the dash's menu where it tells you when the A.S.S. is disabled due to charging.

So, if you were depending on the A.S.S. and it was disabled without you realizing it was, it would have felt just like you described.

 

[Joe Hillman]

I have my doubts anybody will ever really know what happened. We can always be keyboard experts though!
For future reference if I was in that series of advents, I’d stop on that first hop that landed me somewhat high centered and rethink my line I picked. Seemed with each attempt it slid more and hopped more. Knowing me with everyone watching I Start getting frustrated and do stupid things I normally wouldn’t do or even realize Later I did it. It’s an ego thing for me.
glad no one got hurt. Hope you get things figured out.

 

[2door]

Brakes don’t all of a sudden magically stop working and then go back to normal.

Unless it's an ABS failure

 

[Bmadda]

Situations like this are what crank in gear is for! Never touch that clutch pedal! My guess is when you stalled it, you also used up the remaining vacuum in the brake booster, and the brake pedal got rock hard? Really sucks, but should have just dropped the clutch...I get it tho...panic situation! Sorry that happened bud!

 

[APEX REX]

Ford isn't going to do anything other than give you a big bill.

 

[mpeugeot]

Your only real option in that situation was to take your foot off the clutch.

 

[illverado]

It won’t start at all when you’re moving over about 1-2 mph, very annoying when I’m clutch in creeping down my driveway on purpose. Have to completely stop.

 

[Moose Knuckles]

So I am no expert off roader, however, I would hardly say I'm green. This happened today and I am at a loss, possibly financially, but more importantly I don't know what actually went wrong. I have wheeled plenty of times in this Bronco since Aug 2022, I have been up this hill...successfully twice before...with plenty of witnesses. I have been up many other hills, in fact this wasn't even the steepest today, as I had done a 39 degree hill earlier, this one was likely upper 20's, lower 30's. I have stalled the Bronco before, it's always restarted before and I've never lost brakes no matter at what angle and what grade. So I really have no idea what caused this. It stalled out around a 1:00 in and I lost power to everything. I did like everyone else yelling brakes, LOL! Tailgate is shot, bumper is shot, driver mirror also shot. It appears that the quarter panels and hardtop were unharmed.

Concerning repair, yes this is posted, either Ford or my insurance will cover it or they won't. If Ford won't I will try my insurance, if this is excluded from coverage, shame on me for not having this coverage, I will not commit insurance fraud in case anyone calls me stupid for posting this. My real aim is to figure out what went wrong. Total damage best I can figure is roughly $3000-4000. Oddly the real rip off is the side mirror based on my quick research.

 

[MNBronc]

It won’t start at all when you’re moving over about 1-2 mph, very annoying when I’m clutch in creeping down my driveway on purpose. Have to completely stop.

That is not true. I have tested mine at about 5-10 mph and it restarts itself.
Not sure about reverse though.

 

[FloridaBurgBronco]

That is not true. I have tested mine at about 5-10 mph and it restarts itself.

Yeah, I think I have started it before rolling, but I wonder if the grade and/or loss of vacuum pressure or something else in combination prevented it from starting. The more I see these comments, the more I think I screwed up and simply should have made a different decision and I simply did not and made, while not the worst decision, I didn't make the best decision as it all turns out. Based on comments and common knowledge, I doubt Ford will do anything.

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