The Ford Bronco Returns after a long absence, and it is both thoroughly modernized and fundamentally different from the original Ford Bronco that debuted in the mid 1960s. The new Ford Bronco is a capable body-on-frame SUV, but it deviates from the original in that it uses independent front suspension. The top two models, as far as off-roading are concerned, are the Wildtrak and the Badlands. Both come with Bilstein off-road dampers and front and rear locking differentials, but the Wildtrack has the Sasquatch package with its signature 35-inch tires, while the Badlands comes with 33-inch tires, extended suspension travel, and a disconnecting front stabilizer bar that allows rock-crawlers to take full advantage of the extra travel.
The First Edition combines the 35-inch Sasquatch package with the disconnecting stabilizer bar of the Badlands, but even with the disconeect mechanism that combination won’t flex as much as a 33-inch shod Badlands because suspension travel is restricted so the bigger 35-inch tires will fit in the wheel wells without rubbing. Even though it may not be the best flexing combo, the First Edition does give us a chance to see all of those bits and pieces on one vehicle.
Some will gripe about the independent front suspension on the new Bronco. I get it, but there are those that want a good daily driver, and they’re willing to give up something to get it. So far, their only choice has been the Toyota 4Runner. The 4-Runner is great, but it doesn’t offer the open-air experience you get when you remove a Jeep Wrangler’s top and doors. The Ford Bronco slots in about halfway between those two vehicles, giving off-road shoppers a choice they never had before. It’s roof and doors come off to give owners the open-air experience of a Wrangler, but its independent front suspension should give it the nicer daily-drive road manners of a 4Runner.
But the suspension on the new Bronco shouldn’t be characterized as “like a 4Runner” except at a very high level. And it's not an SUV version of our Ford Ranger, either. That's because Bronco borrows its suspension from a vehicle we don’t get here in North America: the Ford Ranger Raptor. As the name implies, the Ranger Raptor is a long-travel wide-stance truck like our F-150 Raptor, but based on a new next-generation Ranger chassis that ours is *not* based on. The Ford Bronco is essentially an SUV hiding Ranger Raptor mechanicals and that's especially true especially in the Badlands, Wildtrak and First Edition models.
Why am I doing this? I geek out over suspension stuff. I'm a former suspension development engineer that worked for years on truck and SUV suspension development projects for two automakers at their remote desert proving grounds. Later on, I somehow stumbled into auto journalism, and for several years I created a popular photo feature called a Suspension Walkaround for Inside Line, a now-defunct offshoot of Edmunds.com (no relation). Today I have resumed writing these features under the name Suspension Deep Dive for Autoblog. Between the two outlets, over 100 of them have been published. Along the way I managed to grow a good-sized fan base, and one question I often heard was, “When are you going to make video versions?”
I never seemed to have the time, the equipment, or the confidence to get in front of the camera, but I got over that by hosting at least 80 professionally-produced videos over three years on the Edmunds You Tube channel. If you like it, please tell your friends, click subscribe, share links, give it a like and check out the other videos on my channel, which is simply called Dan Edmunds. You can also type in the channel’s alias: SuspensionTuna. And I take requests. I can't promise that I can get my hands on any car or truck, but the odds are good. And the more views I get, the more horsepower I'll have when requesting cars to examine.
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