TrailRax Bronco Badlands Build
This long traveled Overland Swiss army knife is our TrailRax Bronco. In this post, we will go into detail about this off-road beast that is both capable off-road as well as the perfect camping set up.
Year: 2023
Make: Ford
Model: Bronco
Trim: Badlands
This Bronco Started life out with a sasquatch pacakge from Ford factory and was quickly changed to RPG Off Road's +3" Mid travel kit giving this Bronco a wider track width for stability and travel. RPG was able to pull 13+" of travel out of the front giving this monster tons of capability. Inside this kit is as follows: billet upper control arms, billet full tie rod kit, fabricated lower control arms, and RCV extended axle shafts (optional upgrade). Paired in this kit are Fox Performance series 2.5 coil-overs front and rear with DSC adjustment. This has drastically increased the drivability, comfort on and off road, and capability. In the rear, we have the RPG billet upper and lower control arms as well as the panhard bar. The billet looks so great! With all these billet parts and fox shocks, this Bronco rides incredible anywhere you take it. This kit offers confidence you would never expect while off-roading giving some Bronco Raptors a run for their money!
Complimenting the wider track width from the RPG mid travel kit are some Advanced Fiberglass 8" fender flares front and rear with the added inner fenders. This kit gives the Bronco a whole new look making it unique and functional. These wider fenders offer great coverage from mud, rocks, and other debris from getting flung up at the body of the vehicle. This kit also offers the perfect amount of clearance for those big 37" tires to fit perfectly on the Bronco.
For wheels and tires, we run the Method 706 bronze wheels with Falken Wildpeak R/T 37s that we have been very happy with. The on road benefits of the AT3W but with the aggressiveness of the MT, this tire truly is the perfect middle ground. We could not be more pleased with this tire and wheel set up. The Bead grip technology offered by Method is awesome for those who want to avoid true beadlock wheels due to being DOT approved and such are a great option that still give the ability to lower tire PSI for ride comfort and grip. The Bead Grip technology is an amazing design by Method and definitely worth while for your rig.
For lighting, We have the full array offerings from Heretic Studios, we run their fog light kit in all amber, 20" modular bumper bar in amber, Quattro clear combos on the A pillar, and a combo 40" clear LED bar on the roof rack. We also have 2 BA2 ambers for the rear of the Bronco as a chase light.
On the roof, Our Bronco runs our TrailRax Modular Roof Rack for the 4 door Bronco with the optioned Pak Rax that helps distribute weight to the body of the vehicle. Through years of testing and abuse, Our rack design has proven to be up for the task! We wanted to offer an extremely durable and low profile design that worked well for us as well as our customers. With our knowledge in fabrication and product design, we knew the mainstream aluminum roof rack design in the market was not going to cut it, nor Ford's OEM roof rack (sorry Ford). We wanted something that was Pak Rax capable, low profile, and offered 360 mounting capability. This is the birth place of our 90 degree bend added into all TrailRax Modular Roof Rack designs dating back to 2021.
Mounted to our TrailRax Modular Roof Rack on the Bronco is our collaboration between GP Factor and OK4WD. This is our brand new Alu-Cab 3R tent mounting kit that is designed from our beloved 4 Door Bronco Roof Rack but made for any extrusion based rack looking to mount the Alu-Cab 3R to their roof rack for proper weight distribution and stability with the Alu-Cab tent line up. Attached to the side is the Alu-Cab Shadow 270 awning, the best awning on the market hands down. Inside we upgraded the mattress to the HEST Dually Long mattress, added the Alu-Cab adjustable back rest, the Alu-Cab drop down table, and added HEST Camp pillows. All of these add ons added a ton of comfort and great sleep while out on the road with this Bronco.
Before we get into the interior, a lot ask us about the engine bay, we chose the 2.7L Ecoboost engine. This engine has great power throughout the RPM range for something with this much weight and terrible aerodynamics. We also added the Whipple superchargers replacement air filter that allows us to clean the air filter and allow more efficient airflow into the engine when the turbos ask for more. We always carry an extra one in the vehicle considering how easily they get dirty and congested.
For the interior, We run a 67 Designs dash board mount that holds the driver's phone for almost a heads up display feature with a phone, our radio face plate mounted so we can see when someone is trying to communicate with us via radio, and the Mag mic holder for our mic connected to our radio. As we move to the rear, we have added the seat delete system from Goose gear with their drawer system. This offers tons of space and some weight savings in the bronco. We house our air compressor and all of our fuses for our wiring in the 60% seat delete along with some tools and spare parts floating around in there. Above all that we are using the Blue ridge overland Bronco attic which has been extremely handy to hold all of our light clothing layers like jackets, wind breakers and rain coats, highly recommend this accessory for Bronco owners looking for a place to store their extra jackets and layers. In the cargo area, we are running 4 Dakota lithium 14 Ah batteries daisy chained together connected to one of our favorite products from REDARC, the 25A BCDC charger which runs off the car battery to charge the auxiliary batteries. Covering this is a Goose Gear base plate to host the drawer system. The drawer system has been an awesome addition that allows us to organize our stuff neatly in drawers.
All in all, we are pretty confident we have put together an extremely capable rig while keeping it realistic as well. This Bronco can take on tons of trails in Moab but get to camp at some amazing views in the evening, it is a well balanced rig that will see roughly 16-17 MPG on the highways with speed limits in Utah being between 65-80 MPH.
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