6G v2.0

[tobyw]

Well, what can I say... another year, another rig

This will be our second dive into the world of the 6th generation Bronco, and having learnt a few things from the first go-round ( http://www.peakputters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7190 ) I'm hopeful this one will turn out even better.

First, some basic specs: it's a 2022 Wildtrak with the High package wearing Area 51 blue. The Wildtrak variant automatically czeks the boxes for the 2.7L twin turbo V6 and the Sasquatch package, neither of which really excite me but they also are not deal breakers, particularly with he days of the early 2.7L's dropping valves well behind us. There are (5) other key differences between this Wildrak and our previous Badlands:

* This one has the High package, which does not include adaptive cruise like the Lux package did in our Badlands. This is critical to allowing a winch to be mounted in what's to be considered a normal location, which is key...
* This one has the upgraded power leather seats, which net you unlimited adjustability (including the headrest, which was in a terrible fixed position on the Badlands with MGV seats), and rear seat cupolders
* This one has the factory soft top. We found the OEM hardtop to be, essentially, miserable. It squeaked and rattled and was shockingly loud at road speeds. Not to mention cumbersome to store when removed. The factory soft top is not without it's issues, but I look forward to the change.
* This one is not equipped with an electronic disconnecting front swaybar like the Badlands... This took some consideration, as the e-bar in the Badlands and Rubicon Jeeps is just lovely. We'll just have to address this later
* This one has the factory tow package. This is key because it means I can much more easily install a legit brake controller instead of carrying around the Bluetooth controller that plugs into the cigarette lighter and requires a separate box to be mounted on the tongue of the trailer. It's a fantastic unit and works perfectly, but it is admittedly cumbersome and really sucks if you have multiple trailers...

Anyhoo, on to the pics:

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[tobyw]

The first step was to remove all of the ugly that I could from the previous owner's life choices. Off came the step bars, mudflaps, and I swapped the factory Sasquatch flares for some factory narrow flares for a much sleeker look:

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With that handlt, it's time to get down to business. One thing the PO did right was the front bumper; it has good lines and is reasonably well built. As much as I love to fab, I can't really justify starting all over on this one... With that said, I do need a winch... And here is a lesson from v1.0: I don't want the winch completely hidden. The Lux package forced me to mount the winch way down low to avoid interfering with the adaptive cruise module, which is mounted front and center between the frame rails, ie the ideal location for a winch Since the High package does not have this feature, that real estate becomes mine After a few tape measure sessions and with a little blind faith that I could just pharmer my way through it, I dove in:

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I made a little bracket to mount the control module in engine compartment:

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Overall it's a very tidy setup that keeps the winch tucked away enough to maintain approach angle, yet allows me to actually see it to ensure the rope is winding properly and allows easy access to the clutch lever. I'm still debating on wireless versus a simple extension harness for the handheld controller, but for now we at least have functional self-recovery czeked off the list

[tobyw]

After some internal debate and pondering, I ended up going the wireless route for the winch controls. I picked up one of the inexpensive wireless controllers from Harbor Freight, which I used over 10-years ago on an XJ build where I hid the winch behind the factory front bumper (this seems to be a familiar theme ). Another quickie mounting plate and voila:

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Next up was to address onboard air. Again taking lessons from v1.0, I built a quick mount to hang the compressor in the engine bay and was able to wire it up to one of the factory auxiliary switches:

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Although the compressor ended up in the same location as before, one thing I never liked about v1.0 was that I was lazy and never found a good external location for the air coupler, which meant I had to pop the hood to connect the air hose. Simply barbaric This time, I was determined to find an suitable location for the coupler, and settled upon this:

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[tobyw]

With recovery and air under control, it's time to address rocker protection. I have two distinct schools of thought here, and have had good success with both so it was a toss up on which way to go... In one camp is the theory that you can't hit what isn't there, meaning keep things high and tight and you'll essentially eliminate the clanking and banging associated with most overly done options out there (this directly applies to rear bumpers as well, but we'll get to that later...). The other side of the coin is to add protection in such a way that it self sacrifices above all else, meaning it's essentially guaranteed to get in the way but at the same time protect the precious bits they are intended to. After much internal debate, I decided to go with the latter on this build because of the platform itself: the 6G isn't a rockcrawler, and it's big. The suspension and belly clearance just aren't as good as a comparable Jeep for big rocks, and unlike the JK/JL platform where the fender flares are several inches wider than the body, the Bronco door skins are barely inset from its flares... I did what I could to keep the sliders low profile from a ground clearance perspective, but made them intentionally wide to keep shopping carts at bay. I also incorporated a bump-out at the rear section to try and further push any errant rocks/roots away:

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[tobyw]

Keene eyed viewers may have already noticed, but I yarded out the front sway bar since the Wildtrak doesn't have the electronic disconnecting version from the Badlands. As it turns out, I have noticed very little additional sway, and don't miss it in the slightest:

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One other thing that bothered me about the overall aesthetic was the all black wheels. They just scream LEO, or perhaps your neighbors 1993 Camry that lost it's plastic hub cap... A quick spritz with some appropriately colored paint, and we are in business:

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Soooooooo much mobetta:

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[Roman]

Those sliders are slick!

How have you been liking the Badlands? Winch enough?

[tobyw]

Those sliders are slick!

How have you been liking the Badlands? Winch enough?

Thank you, sir

This is my second Badland winch, and I haven't fired it up other than to spool the winch rope on. However, my first was the Badland APEX 12k that saw plenty of use on the first 6G Bronco and then on the Gladiator. I will openly admit my initial skepticism, but was more than pleasantly surprised with consistent operation that never let me down. It was quiet, pulled hard, and worked every time (and that was a lot ). Given the price point and local availability, it's hard to look elsewhere these days...

[tobyw]

I spent a few minutes conjuring up a mounting system for my patented Harbor Freight interior storage rack. I've used this sort of arrangement in numerous other builds, but the mounting provisions have always been a bit of a hinderance for one reason or another. This time, I chose to utilize the existing threaded inserts in the factory C-pillars and just made some Z-shaped brackets to hang the rack:

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This way, nothing protrudes below or beside the rack and I don't lose any other available stuff space in the direct vicinity

[tobyw]

Time for a slight altitude adjustment. Because of the rather finicky IFS, meaning there is A LOT of geometry going on that needs to be kept in czek, lifting the 6G properly is a bit of a thing. The biggest concern is with the angle of the CV shafts at full droop, particularly so on the Sasquatch package because FoMoCo already took it to the razors edge to allow the fitment of the factory 35's... The right answer is to maintain the factory travel limits, but add height via introducing additional preload on the coil spring. This keeps everyone happy in geometry class, adds some height, and the preload also helps compensate for sag due to the winch/bumper as well as combat brake dive. It's as simple as dismantling the coilover and sliding on a machined collar that raises the lower spring perch:

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With the easy part taken care of, it was time to address my twitching left eye... I'm not a fan of living on the aforementioned razors edge, and I also want the ability to add a little more lift up front if I should find it necessary. The easy way to add lift is a spacer above and/or below the coilover, which obviously adds height but also changes overall geometry and more importantly the location of the range of travel relative to the stationary differential center section. Translation: droop travel happens lower relative to the pumpkin, increasing the CV angle. No bueano... Hence the eye twitch Thankfully there is a solution, and that is to drop the differential center section. There are currently only a couple of aftermarket kits to address this, none of which enticed me, so I decided to develop my own brackets. Sounds easy, but it's really not But since I'm a pharmer, I dove it and did it anyway:

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With the differential brackets removed I could put an eye on what I needed to come up to lower it down a bit. Here is the primary factory bracket:

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After a bit of Cardboard Aided Design and general tom foolery, I came up with this:

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And here it is installed:

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There's quite a bit more involved here, but it's difficult to get good pictures in the tight confines below deck. If anyone has specific questions I'd be happy to answer them, but the bottom line is my pumpkin centerline is now just shy of 1" lower than where it used to live, which translates to a tidy improvement to CV angles under all conditions

[tobyw]

Out back, FoMoCo ran into some packaging issues trying to get reasonable wheel travel while keeping interior space unobstructed. What that translates to is axle end mounting brackets that hang way low:

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Holy rock magents, Batman!! You can clearly see the coilover mounting bracket is a significantly lower than the adjacent lower control arm brackets To address this, and at the same time add the elevation I was after, my solution was to drill a new holes for the coilover mounting bolt higher up inside the existing bracket, and then simply trim off the lower excess:

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That's better

Once all the grinding dust and paint fumes had cleared out a bit, I lowered it down and took a look at what I'd done... Here is a before/after comparison:

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And another:

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It's actually a bit higher than I'd like and I'm hoping it will settle a bit with a few miles, but we are headed in the right direction

[TJDave]

Nice! I may or may not have seen the lower version go by the jobsite recently.

[tobyw]

In my opinion and experience, there is no better all-around tire than the BFG KO2, and a set of them in the 37x12.5R17 flavor got the nod for the Donkey:

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[tobyw]

The well documented weak point for the 6G Bronco platform is the steering system. The tie-rods are pencil thin and very prone to breakage even on stock sized tires during vaguely spirited usage. The seemingly simple solution is to just make them stronger; however this has the unintended consequence of moving the weak link further up the food chain... In this case, that means the steering rack itself There are a number of solutions on the market, and as with most things, these come in at various price points and with various amounts of marketing magic behind them. My decisions here are purely a reflection of a little bit of research, taking into account my specific use case and driving style. What I ended up with was a combined solution from my friends at Rough Country, in the form of tie-rod sleeves and steering rack bushings.

The sleeves, as the name implies, replace the jam nut with a threaded sleeve that encapsulates the tie-rod and effectively triples the diameter, reducing the potential for snapping:

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The rack bushings are inserted into the rack housing and provide support around the steering rack itself to reduce deflection and ultimately reduce the load it imparts on the housing:

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Pretty simple stuff that will hopefully yield long term results

[Lurch]

Did those when I did my leveling kit. I've had good luck so far.

[tobyw]

When I picked up this Bronco, it was outfitted with a full array of RIGID LED lights in the front bumper, including (4) cubes in the bumper wings and (1) 20" dual row bar hidden in the center:

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My winch quickly replaced the 20" light bar, but I was not smitten with the array of cube lights, because as it turnt out all four of them were fog lights. Having heard good things of RIGID customer service, I decided to give them a call to see if I, not being the original purchaser, might have any options... As it turns out, they were more than happy to convert the cubes into any version that fit the existing chassis, and for a very reasonable price I might add After thumbing through their catalog filled with options like spot, fog, flood, driving, utility, white, amber, etc etc etc, I decided to convert one pair into amber fogs, and the second pair into driving lights. I boxed them up and sent them off, and a couple weeks later they showed up on my porch completely refurbished and with 100% factory warranty now it my name

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With that handled, I wanted to address FoMoCo's relentless use of the bucking Bronco image all over this turd... and I do mean all over. I think there are probably a hunnert of these things scattered about, leaving no question about what it is you are driving

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THE Donkey

[tobyw]

Next up was to begin addressing some shortcomings on the underside, in preparation for the pending Rubicon Run v4.0. Having spent a great deal of time scraping the underpinnings of our then-new JLU-R on Rubicon Run v3.0, and 5+ years later still not being able to get that horrific screeching noise out of my head, I want to take some time to try and mitigate that to the greatest extent possible. The low hanging fruit, pun intended, includes the rear frame side LCA brackets and some transmission crossmember braces that are quite possibly the worse design element of the entire rig, and that's saying something I'll get to the transmission braces later, but I found my solution for the LCA brackets in the kitchen aisle at Target:

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Another of FoMoCo's design misses in my opinion is the "complete open air experience" of the factory rollcage. This was a marketing scheme to compete with the Wrangler, which has a traditional B-pillar spreader/sound bar spanning the cage rails and, admittedly, potentially blocks the skyward view of your rear seat passengers. But... is that really even a thing? Is it worth giving up the strength gained by having a B-pillar spreader? I'm just a pharmer, but my answer is no. Here's what I did:

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This is mocked up and ready for welding, as it will live below the mesh shade... it's a simple pair of 2"x3"x3/16" angle iron brackets that grab two existing threaded inserts in the top of the factory cage, and a chunk of 2"x0.120" tube with some 20* bends centered over the front headrests for a little additional clearance and some strength in the span:

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[tobyw]

*** THIS POST CONTAINS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ***

Over the years, I have used a few different flavors of plastic bins/totes for wrangling in all my gear and keeping it somewhat organized and easy to load. For the better part of the last decade, the Rubbermaid Action Packers were my go-to because they are extremely durable, close very positively, and actually seal up to keep the dust out fairly well. For the most part, the bins have either been affixed to one of my patented cargo floors, and/or nestled in one of my patented storage baskets:

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When I built the Gladiator v2.0, I retired my trusty Rubbermaid Action Packers and opted instead for the Home Depot house brand bins that were just a touch shorter in overall height, allowing them to slide under my toolbox. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these bins, while comparable in outside dimensions, actually allowed for significantly more usable storage due to the more vertical sidewalls, and this meant I could consolidate (3) Action Packers plus my toolbox into (3) Home Depot bins:

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For the Donkey, after some mockup and decision making, I made another cargo floor with tie-down points specifically located to restrain these Home Depot bins, and since they nest very positively, I can double-stack them:

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Now, here is the PSA segment of this post: our friends at Home Depot have, without warning, completely revised the design of their bins and they are not backward compatible in terms of nesting or any other dimensional comparison. Very specifically, the 7-gallon totes are now taller and the lids have a deeper, more pronounced recess for nesting. And unfortunately as mentioned, the older bins will not nest above or below the newer ones. So if you had a storage system developed around the Home Depot brand bins, get ready for some headaches when it's time to add to the collection

[Roman]

As I read the text while waiting for the pics to load I assumed you meant the red bins w/ clear lids...

[tobyw]

As I read the text while waiting for the pics to load I assumed you meant the red bins w/ clear lids...

Nah, those are the expensive ones... I only deal in the poverty edition stuff

[tobyw]

Fire extinguisher mount:

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[tobyw]

For reasons that have not really been fully clarified / verified, FoMoCo went after the award for Best Factory Shovel, which as we all know was previously held by the '03-'06 TJ / LJ platform and it's bellypan. What Ford did to up the ante was install a 'V' shaped crossmember that hangs fully below the chassis:

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To be fair, this is only applicable to 6G Bronco's with the 2.7L engine, as those equipped with the 2.3L are blissfully missing out on this bit of factory kit

Anyhoodles, way back in the '22 model year, the Wildtrak version did not automatically come equipped with skid plates to protect the liquid-holding bits below the belt line. They could be optioned, but the previous owner of this unit did not czek that box... So, it was time to kill a couple birds with a few stones and delete that 'V' shaped rock grabber and add some protection where it is desperately needed.

The first step was to remove the crossmember and perform some surgery:

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Ahhhhhhh, that feels better already To cover the acre of open real estate left behind, I build a subframe that utilizes the leftover mounting locations for the factory front sway bar and ties back into the transmission crossmember:

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Then it was time to get busy with the hot knife and some plate. I first built a bash plate for the front differential that spans the lower control arm crossmembers:

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After that, I whipped up a belly pan to attach to the new subframe and protect the transmission pan:

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The last piece of the puzzle was the transfercase:

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It's now time for some finish work, a lot of grinding, and paint, but the hardest part is behind me:

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For those keeping score, you'll note that I didn't address the fuel tank... In a move that is very out of the norm for me, I ended up buying a skid plate that popped up on a Father's Day flash sale. It's aluminum and made in the USA, and honestly took longer to unbox than it did to install, which is worth something. At any rate, I do still want to come up with some protection for the rear lower coilover mounts but that is a project for another evening

[Roman]

Dude, this may be the cleanest part you've fabbed so far!

[tobyw]

Dude, this may be the cleanest part you've fabbed so far!

Thanks! I'm just a pharmer

And here they are all cleaned up and painted. I'm satisfied they'll never look like this again

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[tobyw]

Fabricated a little bracket for the spare tire carrier to hold some dust lights:

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[Roman]

Thats so cool, when I clicked i figured it was a ratchet strap around the tire kind of affair