For something completely different, I thought I'd showcase our 1988 Ford Bronco II. It's so old that one of our friends calls it the Broncosaurus.
This past week, we drove the Bronco out to Sedona, Arizona. Videos of these hikes will appear later.
Last year we went to Sedona in our Buick but this year we wanted to explore some trails that are only accessible by 4-wheel drive roads. Also, a storm was forecast and we thought we might need snow chains. We don't have chains for the Buick, and none are recommended, whereas we have 4 chains for the Bronco, one for each wheel.
We bought the Bronco new in November 1987. It was my daily driver for quite a long time but now we only drive it when we need the 4-wheel drive capability, the cargo capacity, or we're driving separately. It has 227,000 miles on the original engine and is still running great, getting 22 mpg on the highway, the same as when it was new.
I do almost all the maintenance myself. In fact, many garages refuse to work on vehicles older than 1996, i.e., those that don't have On Board Diagnostics (OBD)-II.
This Bronco has a fuel-injected 2.9L V-6 engine. It's OBD-I with an Electronic Engine Control (EEC)-IV computer. I have an EEC-IV "breakout box" that facilitates probing the computer's inputs and outputs with a voltmeter or oscilloscope. Using an oscilloscope, I can diagnose any drivability problems. It's proven to be very reliable and, to date (touch wood), has never left us stranded down a dirt road.
We bought it without A/C because that option added $1,500 to the cost and we didn't want to spend the extra money. On account of global warming, however, I found it increasingly unbearable to drive in the summers, even in temperate San Diego. I finally bit the bullet and retrofitted it with factory A/C using a mix of new (if available) and junkyard parts. That was quite an adventure, but it cost only $1,000 for the parts. Along the way, just for the heck of it, I got an EPA license to work on automobile A/C systems commercially.
Driving to and from Sedona we didn't see one other Bronco II on the road. However, we did see quite a few of the new Bronco Sports. Although Ford touts the Bronco Sport as an offroad-capable vehicle, it's a unibody construction that is not as robust as the body-on-frame design of the truck-like Bronco II. There's also a lot more technology in the new Broncos and therefore a lot more things that could go wrong. You have to wonder how reliable they will prove to be.
The Bronco II was built on a Ford Ranger chassis and shares the same engine. Engine and drive train parts are still readily available, and for very little money.
Adding the bigger Bronco II body onto the Ranger chassis gave the vehicle a higher centre of gravity, which led to a slew of rollover incidents, and lawsuits. The majority of these rollovers were confined to the 2x4 version. The 4x4 versions have a lower centre of gravity and, perhaps also, are driven by better drivers.
Despite having to make the occasional hard turn to avoid a collision I've never felt as though it was going to roll. I don't know what the critical angle is at which it would tip over. I just try to avoid driving on steeply side-sloping dirt roads.