My Race Red Heritage Edition 2024 Bronco Build & Story

First off, many thanks to all that have provided ideas and inspirations. Too many to list so I will start with the details of my order.

I initially thought I would go with a Gladiator only because I did not like the round wheel wells in the Broncos but after renting a Gladiator and driving 200+ miles I put that idea behind me. I kind of gave up on a new 4X4 to replace my aging XJ 2-door then, while pursuing through the Ford website, I came across the new Heritage Edition and thought, “yep, that looks more like my dad’s 70”.

On August 16th, 2023, I was stuck in the northbound lane of I5 just south of Portland heading to the airport. An 18-wheeler decided to burn itself to the ground and held up traffic for two hours and while sitting in my rental with nothing better to do, I decided to call my local for dealer and chat about Broncos. I was told the order bank was going to open that day and that they did not do dealer-mark-up, so I placed the order on the spot, while stuck in traffic.

All the paperwork was done via email except for the deposit when I reached my hotel that evening and he placed my order with Ford the moment the order bank opened. I arrived back in Idaho late Friday night and headed to the dealership Saturday to give them the required deposit. While accepting my deposit the dealer told me that I could expect to see my Bronco late February or early March and at the time I laughed and told him that I think that I would be fortunate to see it by June or July.

On August 18th I received my order confirmation from Ford. On January 10th I received notification that it was built and it shipped on January 13th, 2024. I was away on business when it arrived at the dealership but on a rainy February 3rd I took delivery.

My order was rather stock, I chose the base lighting in keeping with the Gen 1 look at the front facia and optioned the 2.7 engine with auto, auxiliary switches and tow package.

As the 2024 HE’s come with the slide out tailgate, my first stop was Home Depot to get rubber flooring and indoor/outdoor carpet to protect it from my two hoodlum Brittany’s. I cut the rubber mat to fit and added strips of Velcro to the carpet to keep it in place. It is easy to remove and can be hosed off as needed.

Next order of business was to set down and think about what modifications were needed to the Bronco to transform it into my ideal bird hunting vehicle. I did not put my ideas in any particular order but I did list what was going where as there is not of lot of extra room with two dog crates taking up the majority of rear cargo area.

I primarily hunt on BLM land where there are a few thousand miles of ORV trails. The trails are not maintained and go from relatively smooth to rocky with off camber ruts. The stock Territory tires were not going to survive. Pointy lava in the area had destroyed my ATV tires in the past so switching the Territory’s to MT Baja Boss AT’s was a no brainer.



The MT’s weigh 20+ pounds more than the Goodyear's and the spare would add more stress to the tail gate. After reading good reviews on the Hammer Built, I ordered their tailgate support and accessory arm and installed it before the tire change.



My two puppies drink an average of 64 oz of water a day each so I needed to be sure I have plenty of water for them when we are out and about. I like the Roto-Pax containers with the spout mod but their brackets are, in my opinion, way overpriced and their locks have a nasty habit of needing to be drilled out. I ordered a less expensive mount from Amazon and changed all the hardware to stainless steel. For a lock I went with the Gorilla Clamp and use a stainless steel padlock. All in its still less than the Roto-Pax mount and I don’t have to worry about a frozen/corroded lock.

With the new spare mounted, it was time for a cover..

Glad they put the Everglades wheel wells on the HE. Are those intermediate size Ruff-tuffs?

MNBigfoot said:

Glad they put the Everglades wheel wells on the HE. Are those intermediate size Ruff-tuffs?

Click to expand...

No, they are Back Seat Riders. I had the intermediate's but they were 3 inches too long. I had a discount code at the time and bought the two Back Seat Riders for what I sold the intermediate's for.

As I was close to 1K on the odometer, it was time for a fluid change. Front diff was a little dirty but not bad. Engine oil was still decent, and I added the UPR drain to make future changes easier and cleaner. T-Case had a lot of shiny metal and to my surprise, the drain plug did not have a magnet. I purchased the Ford Performance rear diff cover and utilized the bolts and magnetic drain plugs suggested by CarbonSteel during the install. The T-Case now has the stock magnetic drain plug that was in the rear diff.





Almost immediately after taking delivery I installed the single Mishimoto Oil Catch Can. At almost 1,000 miles it captured approximately 1/2 teaspoon of oil. I know the 2.7 is dual injection but at startup and until you reach a certain RPM, Ford engines are PI only (switching to DI & PI blend as the RPM’s increase) and low RPM’s is where you see most of your blow-by. Granted, once you manifold pressure builds blow-by becomes a nonissue but around town, stop-and-go traffic produces a lot of blow-by. I know the air fuel mixture will keep the tops of the valves clean but I’m not a fan of oil in my fuel unless its Castrol bean oil in my 2-strokes.

Ford decided that payload was more important than protection, so a skid package was in order. As SW Idaho has decided to go away from sand and start throwing Mag Chloride/Salt Bine in the winter and being that I’m not a serious rock crawler, aluminum skids seemed the most logical choice. After looking at the different MFG’s, ASFIR’s package was the most attractive and the ease of the fuel tank skid sealed it for me as I would be doing most of the installations by myself. For the shocks I choose Barns rear shock skid plates.





I did the step mod to raise the steps 1” and installed IAG front mud flaps to hopefully keep the slush out of the door handles.

As I mentioned, I chose the standard lighting package, but I need off road lights as days are short during Chucker and Hun season and it gets a tad dark in the Owyhee’s. I went with Diode Dynamics SS3 MAX driving on the A-Pillar’s mounted on Mountain 2 Metals brackets, SS3 MAX Fog and SS3 MAX Combos in a 4X4LED’s bracket in the bumper. The Fog lights are wired to the stock fog light switch and the Combos and Driving lights and switched.

I was fortunate enough to get in on the Suma mirror group buy and though it took a bit to get used to how dark the standard gray is, I’m very happy with them.

Before summer hit, I decided to have the driver’s and passenger’s front widows tinted to match the rear. In addition, I added high gloss B pillar trim covers to match the tint.

The stock rear taillights are abysmal at best, and the backup lights were even worse especially with the Tint/Suma mirrors. I installed the Diode Dynamics hitch light and LED backup bulbs from F150LEDs and it made a world of difference without washing out the camera. I used the Magic harness to put the backup lights on one of the factory auxiliary switches.





Bulbs from F150LEDs replaced the stock tail/brake/turn bulbs. I used 3M double sided tape to mount the resistors. One thing that I always do is use a heat gun on the tape as it helps the adhesion considerably.

Nice!

As I mentioned, my list was in no particular order, and neither were my upgrades. I decided to wait until I had most of it done before starting a build thread and show the exterior and then interior modifications.

I did add a 6 position terminal strip for the factory auxiliary switches. I made it much cleaner and simpler to wire.



Additionally, when Forscan became available for the 24 model year I made the following changes:

• Goat Modes
• Add Rock Crawl
• Add Baja
• TPM from 35 to 30
• Bambi Mode (Fogs W/High Beams)
• Keyfob Panic Button To Double Click
• Key In Vehicle Chime
• Door Ajar Chime
• Fog lights come on with blinker and turning the steering wheel

As well as turning off the seat belt chime via the hack.

Last on my list for the exterior is tow hooks. I removed the standard single black loop and replaced it with a pair of Ford Performance Red tow hooks. I have a pair of the Ford Performance front tow hooks currently on order and will post them after the install which I trust will be next weekend.