Robert Bodell Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 I live in Alaska and I don't drive on the road an more, but I have a bronco 2 I bought for my grandson to drive me places. We decided to take the bronco off road for the afternoon to see what it actually could do. Since we only had street tires, I bought a set of snow chains to even up the score a little but that was all. This little v-6 made this thing jump up and move. We got to a big sand hill he wanted to try but I didn't think we would make it without off road tires, but we actually went up without even a strain, hardly even spun a tire. I was totally impressed what an off the showroom floor vehicle can do off road. We went on some 4 wheeler trails and we went everywhere they went. We didn't get into much mud but what we did go through it did fine except one time when both front wheel were off the ground and nothing is going to move in that. That wasn't the best part though, when we got back home I went to turn off the front hubs and discovered that we both had forgotten to engage the front hubs. We were in 2wd the whole time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Moses Ludel Posted October 18, 2016 Administrators Share Posted October 18, 2016 Hi, Robert, welcome to the forums! The Bronco II is a very functional 4x4. We bought an '85 model new with unusual factory options: both front and rear automatic locking axles. That vehicle was obviously intended for some serious traction! What year is your Bronco II? Ours was the last year for carburetion and the 2.8L V-6. The following 2.9L V-6 models with EFI were even more efficient. Moses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Bodell Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Mine is an 84. I am going to keep this one for off road and get another one for daily driving. I am going to look for one with fuel injection. Mine is the xlt with the Eddie Bower package. I would love to have the lockers, but I think I really might not need them. Obviously this vehicle has it's limitations, but I am old and I am not going to get myself into too bad of a place. There is a possibility I do have the automatic locking but I haven't seen any mention of it anywhere. Considering this has all the other upgrades, it might be on there and if it is, that would explain why it climbs so well in 2WD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Moses Ludel Posted October 25, 2016 Administrators Share Posted October 25, 2016 Robert...You likely have at least a rear Trac-Lok differential. Frankly, the front and rear automatic lockers were too much. On an off-camber slope or road in 4x4 ranges, any wheel slip and the vehicle wanted to slide toward the low side of the road—actually dangerous under a variety of conditions. Our '85 2.8L V-6 model was also Eddie Bauer, nicely appointed and functional, except for the shortfalls of Trac-Lok differentials front and rear. I learned the value of manual lockers (ARB Air Lockers and such) from the limitations of those twin automatic lockers. To this day, a rear locker only, or better yet, manual lockers rear and front, have been my choice...With manual lockers, you can control and predict traction, using the open (non-locking) differential mode when both wheels of an axle might otherwise spin at the same time and create side-slip. I prefer a 4x4 with open (non-locking) differentials on icy or muddy off-camber roads, slippery side-slopes and such. Keep us posted! Moses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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