Today in this article we will have a walk-around really cool Bronco that was complimented by Four-Wheel Parts accessories.
Ford had come to 4WP and offered partnerships with the aftermarket industry, and they had done a lot for the aftermarket industry before they even started adding the accessory points so that you could add lights in multiple locations. So 4WP came back with a plan to lift the Bronco, add armor to it, and make it fully functional and usable so that the customers can go from the dealer to the Four-Wheel Parts and load that vehicle, and hit the trail.
Let’s go ahead and dive into some of the details about this vehicle. We’ll start with the exterior of the vehicle and its front bumper. 4WP cut the clearance area so that you can get an obstacle right up to the tire and not rub the body on the ground. That’s pretty much key to most off-roading vehicles. The next thing is a 6-inch single row, so you’ve got options, and then there’s a 4 inch or a 2-inch pod in the front for multiple size pods for multiple different brands. There is also a winch, which is a bolt-on option. The winch plate is rated for 12 000 and the pull points are rated for 20 000. It is black powder-coated to 500 salt spray hours. And there’s a big opening in the front for the radar cruise.
Talking about fender flares, Ford did a great job removing them with no tools but that leaves unsightly holes in the side so 4WP made it so that you get that early Bronco look by cleaning up the side of the truck. Moving down to the sliders, there is a 2 inch 120 wall tubing, and the same powder coat with 500-hour salt spray, the factory pinch weld, no hole drilling. If you lay that thing over on its side it’s going to support the weight of the vehicle as you’re pushing your way through the trail. At the top, there are accessory points and 4WP made a place for pillar pods. And there is also a full roof rack assembly.
One of the biggest things that you will notice when looking at this vehicle is the bright red rooftop tent. So, the 4WP color matched the rooftop tent. This is a new tent by Smittybilt but they painted it to match the vehicle and then they’ve added the Bronco logo along with that. They came up with a solution so the soft top or the hardtop works. You can find it in black and it’s going to have the crinkle finish on it from Smittybilt.
At the back of the vehicle, there are a lot of the same features. There’s nice symmetry between the front and the rear bumper. You’re going to see the high line so that as you run over rocks and they pass through they don’t hang up on the rear bumper. But the big deal right here is the parking sensors. So all of the techs that Ford supplied 4WP did a really good job of making sure that they married that with their new products so that the customer didn’t lose any of that technology.
4WP raised the spare tire and pushed it out and we made sure that the bumper accommodated that. But it also accommodated the OEM bumper all the way up to 37s. There are a couple of little details on the inside. There’s molar power on the inside and the table on the outside. Inside the rear, there is the rack system, which in the future is going to pull out like a truck and you’ll be able to get to the refrigerator and all your recovery gear. 4WP put the Bronco logo on the recovery bags and there is also the rooftop tent, onyx, and air compressor, and shovels.
Speaking about the fridge, it is about 54 quarts, it is a single zone meaning that there is only got one temperature zone rated but it got a dual capacity. So in the upper part, there is the crisper vegetable area, and down below is the place for frozen stuff.
One of the big things that we notice when we look at this Bronco is the massive 37-inch tires. We know that standard is 35-inch tires that come with the Sasquatch package. So 4WP talked to BFG and BFG had an awesome load range D and a 37/17, they put it on a method 310, which is a great classic six-spoke wheel, which looks like a bead lock. It’s got a great 35-millimeter offset and that pushes the wheels in and makes sure that they clear the suspension. So if you push the wheels all the way out that’s a cool look but it’s going to rub the fenders and you don’t want to be trimming all that new bodywork on your brand new vehicle.
We also want to talk about some of the functional components of this Bronco. It’s a lot higher off the ground than a stock Bronco would be. So the very first question everybody asks is how big a tire they can put on and how much lift they need. Since 4WP did the 37s they got to get to 3 — 3.5 inches of the lift so they maximized the coil over so that it would have 20% more wheel travel and give you that lift. If you get into those bigger lifts you’re going to need an upper control arm that’s going to reset your camber and caster to make sure you’re within factory settings.
When you look at the bumper, there are some pretty beefy skid plates underneath. 4WP explained that Ford shared some data and gave information about what needs to be protected on the vehicle. So 4WP started from the front and made sure the front skid plate protected the front control arm pads. They also added the second skid plate that covers the oil pan and protects the rear set of tabs for the control arms. And then, farther back they covered up the transfer case. They also covered where the OEM reservoirs are going to be and made a shield around there. And since Ford also wanted a rear diff deflector 4WP built a big cradle that covered all that. Most of these are ready to be sold, and a couple of them in the back still have little tweaks because 4WP wants to do a lot more testing but they’ll be on the shelf before parts before the vehicle is released to the dealer.
On to the inside, we’re going to cover some of the features and some of the things that 4WP has done to the interior. From a high-level perspective, there are the marine-grade vinyl seats, the grabber blue accents the 8-inch screen. Up on the dashboard, there are the actual aftermarket parts from Four Wheel Parts. There is an aluminum ‘bring your own device’ rail that we first saw in the original camping concept. It is pretty cool and useful when you are actually on the road. You can mount things like your cell phone, a GoPro, a CB radio.
4WP promises that their parts are going to be out before Ford vehicles get to the dealers. If you go to the 4WP website, you can see more products and more displays about all the new concepts that are coming out.
