S3, E63 - Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Welcome back to another episode of the truck show podcast recorded from the pod shed in lovely Huntington Beach, California, where it is currently 70 and sunny outside. And while I'm a little bit jealous of those of you getting a white Christmas, I do have to let you know there's a tree in my front yard that has changed the color of its leaves, so not all is lost here in Southern California. And at night it gets down into the 40s here at the beach, so it does feel a little winery. I wonder how many of you guys are saying,

not Winner, Holman. Well, this for us. Anyway, with the annual SEMA show behind us, it's time to get caught up with our normally scheduled programming. And I've got a lot of bank content to get to, so we'll start ripping through that and hopefully end the year off nice and strong. So in this episode you get to join me as I head out to Johnson Valley, California at the invite of Ford and RTR to attend the second annual Bronco golf invitations. But before we get into it, we have to thank our awesome sponsors. And as you know, the truck show podcast is proud

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We have the lifted, we have the lower neck, everything in between. We'll talk about trucks that run on diesel, electricity and our gas of the truck show the truck show the truck show.

It's the truck show with your host, Holman.

Let's get started. So as I mentioned in this episode, I head out to Johnson Valley, California. In fact, I was there just about a week ago and joined Ford and RTR in their attempt to merge two sports into a news board.

Say what? So here's the description. I got an email from Ford that said, hey, we've got this thing going out. It's in SoCal and the desert. We'd love for you to come out and cover it.

The chance to talk with Dave Rivers from Ford and Vongett and junior, who I saw him as he made and have a chance to an interview with. I think that's great. So the email comes. It says Ford and RTR creating a new sport, merging the popularity of off-roading with the growing trend of recreational golf challenges and a whole new landscape. We're bringing an epic experiential golf experience driven by Bronco to Johnson Valley and you're invited featuring Vongett and junior Lord and he Lee Bailey Campbell, a trio of pro golfers and a ray of golf influencers.

We're bringing a Bronco scramble in the three whole parts. Well, of course, featuring technical crawls, high speed desert runs, challenging dunes, the most capable golf cart ever. Join us as we redefine the phrase ready golf says day one introduces guests and participants to three of the most unique holes of golf ever imagine golf influencers team up with Bronco owners and members of the media to experience the Bronco and untamed barren expanse that Johnson Valley participants will traverse huge elevation changes, blistering speed, technical rock crawling and that's just getting to the holes.

There's a unique and extreme environment designed to test man and machine a par three par four and par five hole give golfers different challenges meant to push the limits of their game. All right, so here's the deal.

We got to use broncos as golf carts to chase these I guess pro am golf influencers and was led three groups won by each of the professional drivers. So Bailey Campbell was there, Vongett and junior and Lauren he Lee each leading a group.

And we went into three different holes one was like on a whipped out section one was in a slot canyon with a hard right hand turn and rocky hills and I'm sure you can only imagine what it must be like to find a golf ball after you hit it and it's bounced a hundred yards away off some rocks on a desert hillside

and then hopefully sticks and some sand somewhere near the tea. My favorite hole was our final one where they took a Bronco with the RTR rover package on in a roof rack and they had put astro turf on the roof rack

and that was the T box and it was actually articulating on some rocks so it was off center and down and the golfers were like, I feel like I can't hit it as hard because I'm going to fall. It was pretty wild. So the whole point of this is apparently in 2026 the pro league network is taking the date.

So I was there for day one, the media part, the day two was the pro golfers and the racers challenging each other and they're doing a content series and that'll be on the pro league network sometime in 2026.

So keep your eyes out for that. Anyway, to facilitate my observation of the golf tournament, I was also able to spend the day driving a brand new Bronco free wheeling package on a four door and it was Sasquatch 35 of the Bill Steins and I was chasing the golfers around Johnson Valley.

I got to drive it both on and off road. So stay tuned to the end of this episode for a truck review there and then I also connected with Ford's Dave Rivers to have a conversation about Bronco and RTR founder and race driver Vaughn getting junior as he takes us for a ride in the latest RTR Bronco creation. So let's start with Dave.

All right. So I'm sitting in a brand new free wheeling Bronco with Dave Rivers and what's your job title now at Ford?

Yeah, so I'm the head of our enthusiast brands. It's a pretty important job. It's a fun job. Like super fun. Like it's Bronco, Bronco support and Mustang and you know they're really passion products for us really for owners.

I mean that's somewhat argue if you had to have the ability to touch any product in the portfolio, those are the ones.

Right? Yeah, like you know each name play plays a specific role. Sure. But for our product lines it's like people truly love to be behind the wheel or in a vehicle like a Bronco like the one we're sitting in or you know the ones all around here.

Same can be said for Mustang.

So it's been a while since you and I worked together and I don't know this story hasn't really been told that much but I was part of a panel for almost five years.

Yeah, and that was during the Bronco development you brought some industry people in that was lucky enough to be one of those people who helped kind of guide the Bronco.

And here we are. Is this model year four or five into Bronco and just seeing the I haven't driven a regular Bronco in a while.

It's I drove a Raptor last year and on a Bronco owner's trip to Colorado and back and it was it was great. But I hadn't been in the standard Bronco.

So we're in a freewheeling. Yeah, this is a Sasquatch. This is a four cylinder. So I've driven the Ranger of the two seven. Yeah, this is the new MCE 2.3 liter. Yeah.

And what's special about that is even though it has the exact same displacement as the old one. This is a completely new engine family with your I guess modular cylinders and you don't have to agree or not or blink twice or anything.

But what I heard was the rating is the same on on Ranger and Bronco as the outgoing 2.3 but the capability of the engine you can see the power numbers on Mustang is a lot higher.

And to be honest, other than engine note, it felt really close to the V6. Yeah, really interesting.

So I can imagine there's room for improvement. If somebody had Ford performance wanted to do something, there's some overhead on the engine.

I would guess that there's two things that play probably one is not to encroach to high in the V6 territory but also durability off road and truck use.

You probably don't want it to be as high strong as you could get away with in the Mustang. Yeah, right exactly. I think you're spot on.

And it gives us a lot of flexibility on what to do with it. You know, it can go higher if it needs to and it gives us just a great really solid product offering.

Like you said, you're on you're on 35s here. Yeah. My wife's got the Heritage Edition also the 2.3. It's got so much capability but it has to watch on it.

And it's just it's a phenomenal engine that gives us a lot of room.

I'm really impressed. I don't always love the smaller displacement boosted engines and more durability dependent applications, but I've been nothing but impressed driving this today.

So we started the Bronco industry expert panel. We saw the original bucks that were foam. I mean, that's how far back before the clay is before the design was even finalized.

We would go back to Dearborn a couple of times a year. We'd have some video chats and we really helped kind of guide it to where it was launched and then beyond that, it's back within the walls of Ford.

But I have noticed just in driving this, the amount of tiny details, the fit and finish, some of the like the gauge cluster design now or digital.

All digital doesn't have the bar graph for the tack. It has a sweep which I like better for off-roading.

Just the way things feel, the how much more quiet it is. I feel like you guys have done a lot of incremental improvements since I last was kind of engaged with this product.

Well, just going back in time, so 2026, which launches in January, that'll be our sixth model year. So we had 21, 22, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

So we were six model years inserted. That's crazy. It doesn't seem like it's been that long.

No, right. And then if you go backwards from that, when we picked up having you part of our expert panel.

Gosh, that was like 2016. Yeah, something like that started way back then.

Yeah, and so we're yeah, we're 10 years ago and plus something like that from when we were engaged in kind of getting this product back to market.

And every time I see one, it's funny people will ask me, well, do you know anything about Bronco? I was like, yeah, just a little bit, you know everything.

You know, all of the inside from back then. And I think what's so cool is we listen to people like you and our expert panel, you know, the Dave Coles of the world.

We listen to our dealers. We listen to customers thousands and thousands of research hours.

Yeah. To bring out at least the first iteration. And if you can believe we've already had a turn on it.

So you mentioned things that we've improved NVH, right? So so things like changing out the tire offering to get a little bit quieter tire.

We put more insulation in the inside of it. We heard a lot from rear passengers on needing rear a, you know,

Yeah, it's right now. Yeah. So we have that in the back.

You know, and we continue to evolve what it is. So in 2025, you recall in 24, we brought out the two doors strap.

So I, if you looked around, Bronco Raptor to me is a little bit different than Bronco. It serves a different purpose.

It's a performance model. It's an icon. It's a kind of top echelon, you know, kind of it's an aspirational type vehicle.

Everybody's gonna, it's our apex. Yeah. And it has completely different chassis. And it's like an ultra four car that you could put a license plate on.

And it's just so different. So take, take away that from this discussion. But one of the things I've always loved Bronco here.

This drop was always something that growing up as a kid, you would see one. You would know what the color scheme is very, very unique.

And you give a little strap badge, you know, on the fender. And car shows or Bronco place. They would pop up from time to time.

Yeah. I was so stoked when you guys did the strap. And I believe now it's the only way to get a two door V6, right? It is.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We just get Sasquatch on it. You get Sasquatch standard. You get Hoss 3.0. So you get the higher, the better suspension, the higher suspension.

But we, the interesting thing about a shot is that we saw there, there's so much of a move to four door.

Yeah. So in 26, we just launched the four door strap, right? So we're gonna, we're gonna sunset the two door.

And we're gonna shift to a four door just because of the peel. Yeah.

We saw the opportunity, as you mentioned, heritage is so important to us.

We don't want to look back. We're always looking forward but paying tribute to what got us where we are.

But the appeal to a four door is that much bigger. We just want to open the market up and give people more of that.

So they'll have everything, all the design cues that the two door had in all of the capability.

There's just a purity to the two door. And I know we even talked about this back when, you know, the development team was in process and the expert panels in process.

And they're, I still think that the two door, especially roofless, just, it's, it's bronco, it bulls eye. Yeah.

It's hard with the four doors to get the proportions just right. Obviously, they look bit great on 37 inch tires and all that.

But some of the things that I did love, I still do, and I kind of forgot about because I hadn't been one in one.

It was the trail sites on the leading edge of the hood, you know, off-roading today.

And then you forget, on the higher trims, there's such a great camera ecosystem.

This one doesn't have the front camera. And I found myself missing it going over the hills and things like that.

And it's funny how you become reliant on, you know, that technology before you wouldn't care.

But it's, it's amazing how you don't realize those little things impact your ability to crawl without getting yourself into trouble

and being out on your own, because it's like having a spotter. And your cameras are really good, because they're very high definition.

And the screen's a very high definition screen. So it's easy to pick out obstacles and rocks and things like that.

And a lot of other little things I love about bronco, the fact that you have at the base of the windshield of Powerport.

And so you can read architecture or your dash cam or whatever.

The aux switches are on the ceiling and this so it doesn't take up dash space.

Just a lot of those little things that are great. And then, of course, trail turn assist.

This has it. So this package is missing over the higher end package, like Baja mode.

And sway bar just connect. But it does have a front rear locker. It has trail turn assist.

And it has, I think, maybe six or seven goat modes on it.

So I was playing with them out when we were rolling around out there.

And this one, I think, stickers around 58. And it's a lot of capability for money.

Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting, you just mentioned it, because it's built off of our big bend.

We started with kind of a big bend and then we built off of it.

But it's like, what are all the things that people want that get, like you just said, most of the capability that they're ever going to use.

And you head on all of them with trail turn assist with rear lockers, this one has front lockers on it.

Interesting. You say the, the port for powering, Blake from Alabama, one of our owners.

He's got, he showed me his, he's got all his cameras.

Oh, yeah. And he's got, you know, the, the, the rail up there, right?

And, and then plug in, you know, so I think that, like stuff like that, but that came by way of us listening to people like you.

Like, I just remember those conversations. Hey, have you guys thought about this?

Well, we, I remember one of the ones we talked about that I was really, you know, kind of hell bent on was make the wiring gauge big enough to the rear power so that your fridge doesn't think you have a voltage drop and then not keep your, you know, snacks cold or your drinks cold.

And, I mean, those are the types of details that we got into, like what do owners want to see?

What are the little things that will make the experience better?

And it just keeps getting better with Bronco.

Now, selfishly, I am sad that we weren't able to push Coyote into the platform. I know that was something that was talked about and tried.

Yeah.

The three-liter V6 twin turbo and the Raptors obviously a really special engine.

Yeah.

And now this 2.3 and the 2.7 are, are pretty darn impressive.

And, uh, spend a lot of time over the years with various drive trains.

And, they're all good. There's not, there's not like one real estate away from that one on it.

Yeah.

You guys have done a great job and the 10 speed is so much more refined.

Yeah.

And the other thing I'll say is on Bronco Raptor, one of the most impressive things about it is how dialed your traction control and goat mode systems are.

Yeah.

We were up in the San Juan Mountains doing, and I was using trail turner system because we were going up switchbacks.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

We were doing a tight one. So I was playing with that and then the different modes and there are other vehicles around us that were doing a lot of wheel slip.

And I was just walking up in that because it was so dialed.

And I think that's one of the things that forced in a great job of bringing to the Bronco platform is all the modes that I think originate probably in what F-150E maybe.

Yeah.

And a lot of them did.

Yeah.

And, you know, as you say that too, we're out here at an owner event.

Yeah.

We have some newer owners that that's one thing that again, you guys pushed us was make it easy, right?

Yeah.

So I remember having these conversations around the dial and making the dial just change for you rather than have to in and out with a bar and, you know, it just so happened that we were able to brand name it.

The goat mode's goat system right goes over any terrain.

Yeah.

Which harkens back to the original code name of Bronco but just that encouragement by the panel to make it easy, right?

So I just think about all the, and I will tell you, I hear that so often from owners is I'm new into this space.

I just wanted it to be easy and you guys made it easy by way of whether it's that.

Like you mentioned gauge wiring so that, and Justin from Vancouver, he showed me his back end and how he's got power back there.

He powers his lights.

Sure.

And we're seeing way more of that even now is the back end being used for storage and it's what it's the next iteration of kind of how we're thinking about this.

And it sort of stays there all the time, right?

Like all the time.

Like rather than having an open storage for whatever, people say no, I got drawers and cubbies in my fridge live here full time because this is my adventure vehicle.

100%.

It's interesting too.

This is one of maybe the second or no, it's probably more than that because I've been to some off rodeos as well.

Yeah, maybe the fourth or fifth owners event that I've been with Bronco with you guys.

Yeah.

And I love the fact that you get a lot of owners who are new.

Yeah.

Never been off road.

And even today we were talking to some people.

Yeah.

And they're like, we're going over that, right?

And they don't, they may think it's cool.

They always wanted one, whatever the case may be, but it's pretty fun to watch a new owner conquer an obstacle and then be like,

I can't even believe I just drove over that.

I just went up that.

Yeah.

Like the trepidation maybe in, you could see it in their eyes, right?

And we had some new people out trailing with us today.

And you could see it in their eyes, but once they, once you walk them through it and we got, you know, of course, great spotters.

But, you know, the vehicle does it.

Yeah.

We're teaching them one pedal drive.

Like you could do two pedal.

But we've got a mode that you just hit a button and it goes automatically into one pedal for you.

You just work the gas.

You just work the gas, right?

Yeah.

You know, a trail control, right?

Up and down.

You know, so it's that off-road, you know, cruise control is the off-road, right?

And I think that's what I love is when you get somebody out here that's never done it.

Yeah.

And they, they had that new appreciation just to get them from Vancouver.

He was telling me this morning that I never did this stuff.

And this isn't this backyard type of terrain either, right?

We're on Johnson Valley in the middle of whoops and rocks.

And, you know, washes and, you know, completely varied from forest roads and things like that.

100%.

And he's not having a blast.

He's having a blast.

And they drove down from Vancouver, which is what about a 20 or so hard drive, right?

Yeah.

And I think that's the thing that we're seeing more of is the community.

We've got, we've grown our Bronco Nation member, like the number of people in Bronco Nation over 120,000.

Oh my gosh.

Amazing.

It's awesome.

And it's so much fun.

We do events at, like, we'll do a big event at King of the Hammers again this year.

And we'll invite several hundred owners in.

We did Raptor Rally that the team's done now two years in a row.

And that's one of those, kind of like the three tenants were, they get it right.

Yep.

Be, build community.

Hunter, see, have it, accessory ready.

Those were sort of the things that when we were involved in kind of helping you build out the business plan or

what the marketing and go to market plan would be.

Those were some things to focus on.

So here we are, six years after launch.

Yeah.

And you have this community.

And it's kind of fun to see the Bronco versus Jeep guys and stuff.

Yeah.

And that little bit of that, you know, and it's always fun to have that kind of adversary on the trail.

Right.

You know, the two of you guys are like, wait, what about us?

But I feel like you've kind of leapfrogged a lot of those guys, right?

Yeah.

We're enjoying that part.

You mentioned we were chatting earlier to say about SEMA.

Yeah.

Even at SEMA now, we see way more people with their own customized Bronco.

Yeah.

You know, and doing their own thing to what you mentioned, accessorization.

We're seeing way more people accessorize that we ever thought before.

And again, push from the expert panel.

It's like, you know, things that you mentioned trail sites.

Like use it for functional use, but use it as a tie-down.

Use it to customize.

Even on the Bronco sport.

Yeah.

It was the Batlands version.

You got the ones that kind of pop out from the side to tie down the front of your Yokai

Acc.

Or something.

Yeah.

About those were so smart.

The metal bumpers.

It's fun to see some of the real kind of features intact from the big Bronco.

Yeah.

Triggered down to the sport because I was out on the sport launch for 25.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Early this year.

Yeah.

And it was about nine months ago.

Yeah.

And I couldn't believe how capable those things were off-road.

And if you're trying to out Subaru, Subaru.

Yeah.

I don't want to be like, listen, we can give you that kind of efficiency, but we can give

you way more capability than you're going to get from that.

The high end off-road trims on that little SUV are quite impressive on road night.

It's like, you know, that in Maverick.

I wanted to hate Maverick.

Oh, it's just going to be like 100 originalized unibody pickup truck.

I can't hate Maverick.

I love Maverick.

And it might give me one for one and say for a time for a meat alone.

Yeah.

And so just fill it up.

Yeah.

You can still use it.

Yeah.

And I was like, for the right person, this is the perfect vehicle.

And to see that in Bronco sport on the same platform.

Yeah.

Two completely different user bases, but people out using them, see them out on the wild.

You see them out on the trail.

Yeah.

And I'm glad that Ford has sort of taken that off-road heritage and doubled down into maybe non-traditional

off-road markets and all the things you see there becoming more mainstream.

You know, there's two things that we picked up in the five years of Bronco's been in market.

One is our owners use the vehicle at rates almost 15, 16 points higher than our competition.

And that speaks volumes, I think, from vehicle, like what the vehicle is capable of, but what

the people want to do with it.

So, like, that's a lot of, meaning I bought the vehicle for its capability, but actually

use the capability.

Even on a Bronco sport, it's even higher than that, meaning our next closest competitor,

this pales in comparison to the capability we give somebody to use at Bronco sport with

you mentioned.

Like, we brought Sasquatch down to Bronco sport.

Yeah.

We have a black diamond package now, and it's just like we had for Bronco, but people

use it for the capability, and it doesn't mean that I go hardcore off-road or say it's

just like, I want to go enjoy the mountain.

Totally.

I've sold a couple of those for you because somebody came to me, they're coming from like

a cross-strike SUV.

Yeah.

I want to go rock climbing or mountain biking, or it may not be the adventure, but it's

the facilitator of the adventure, right?

Yeah.

And they're like, I'm looking for a small, efficient SUV.

I can only have one car, and he's got 30 miles to the gallon, so I still need all that,

but I want to be able to down a more, you know, hairy dirt road than I can today, or I want

to be able to go down a two track with some rods, and I need better, you know, traction

or capability.

And I'm like, go look at a Bronco sport.

The people that have bought Bronco sports for their use case have absolutely loved it

and use it for exactly that, and they, you know, go to Moab and go to some of the unimproved

campgrounds that might be two miles off the highway.

No problem.

Yeah.

Going rock climbing or rafting where you have to go past the trailhead to get into a secret

spot, or whatever the case, yet they're still getting their 30 miles per gallon when

they hop on the highway on their way.

100%.

You're spot on.

Like that is, I feel like you know, that is the customer, that's what they use it for,

kayaks on the top, bikes on the back, fully geared out, and they're actually using it.

That's what we love, is they're using the vehicle for what it's intended.

You know, we're sun setting escape, but we've got this really great, well-positioned Bronco

sport.

It's priced right.

It's at the heart of the small utility set.

The set was really good.

Standard big screen.

Yeah.

That is really nice.

We upgraded all that for 25.

We went through, we listened to customers against, like they told us that your interior

technology needs an upgrade, so we did bigger screen, all digital.

We doubled down on some capability, and you know, we gave them some, like we brought

a heritage down to Bronco sport, it's doing very well.

The one five does really well, or two liter does well, it's just like, yeah, we've got

this nice little offer.

And you have everybody wants to be in that space, you know, of the Korean manufacturers,

teasing, teasing, teasing, you know, Hyundai has their HRT, Kia has their thing, you've

got some of the Japanese manufacturers like Toyota now with a more, you know, adventure-ready

RAV4, and you're going, okay, that's great, but I think you guys still have the credibility

of really entertaining people in that space, without, you know, not every car needs to

go in an overlanding adventure, but that's what the commercials are for everybody, right?

Sure.

Yeah, yeah.

We're all kind of, I think we all see the same thing in terms of the push.

I think what's different about us is, like for Bronco sport, we offer the off-roadio,

we offer you Bronco nation, we offer you all of this, we, you know, we did it last year,

we do it again this year, we invite Bronco sport owners to join us at KOH26, we do a different

drive for them, and this is all post-buying experience, you're not, you're not like, you're

buying and you're walking away from them, you're trying to include them in the tent.

We want them in.

Yeah, we want them to be a part of Bronco, every bit, every bit a part of the brand is

anyone else, and that's what, I don't know, I was raised in the South and I love just

the hospitality of community, I love campfires, that was the one thing that we said when we,

and again, I go, going back to the expert panel, when you said community, it's like, oh,

this thing about the campfire, it's like you go do the trail, and then you sit around

the campfire, and you talk about it, and you enjoy each other, and I guess there's just

something in that that our owners really love, they tell us about it, and so we just want

to, we want to do more of it, and we're doubling down, I mean, more of that to come.

Well, I mean, we're sitting here, and there's probably 30 Broncos, some are corporate

own, some are owner vehicles, all different colors, all different design style, where do

you go from here?

What's next for Bronco?

Obviously, in the world of automotive, there's going to be a mid-cycle refresh at some

point, you don't want to lose the heritage, but you want to get modern with it.

There's going to be, you know, you look at Mustang, and you look at Bronco, and they have

heritage designs, how far can you take them to still be modern, but not shirk away the

roofs with people like about it, I mean, that's going to be a really delicate balance, as

a car manufacturer to get that right.

Yeah, we, you know, again, the one thing that I feel like the design team just absolutely

nailed, we hear this from our owners is the design is timeless, and you know, whether it's

around headlights, the one piece grille, the flat surfaces, I don't think, I don't see

things like that changing, I think, I think there's more of that, we hear a lot, and

more, most recently, our heritage edition, people love it, they love it, they love the

white roof, they love the, some of the pastel colors that we've had, the white rims, so

that's a super important piece for us.

Not very many people can get away with the white rim from the factory.

I know, right?

That's pretty cool.

My wife's got one, I can mention it, and we get stopped all the time, she has the

Robinson blues, we get stopped all the time, what color is that, those rims are amazing,

and so there's that, we just launched the 60th anniversary Bronco, it comes to market

now, and orders are very strong.

So we're enjoying that, like the 60 years of history, but going forward, I mentioned

Strop as a foredoor, you know, we got, we're not here to share a whole lot more of what's

going on.

But I will say that our owners, we, we love, I mean, I love the brand, I've been around

the brand, it's my 31st year with Ford, wow, I was Ray, my father was, I'm a second generation

Ford, Ford employee, my father worked for Ford for 35 years, I was raised in a muscle,

we were going through old pictures of my mom's over Thanksgiving, and we've got a whole

bunch of old pictures of, he had a boss, he had a Mach 1, it was so cool, and I see

these things in our driveway, and then there's this picture of a Bronco, I'm like,

yeah, dad, he's since passed away, so I was more like to my mom, I'm like, why did we

get rid of all of those, you know, and she's like, well, we have five kids, right, yeah,

so, but I don't know, it's just like, it comes back to passion, enthusiasm, I mean, I love

the brand, I love the company, we have a phenomenal team, one thing really quick about our team,

they listen, pushes like what you guys, encouragement, really great direction, listening to that, but

they come with us, like we've got a whole line of designers, engineers, and wider program

team members that'll be here again with us at KOH this year, they came last year, we

do Bronco Safari at Moab in April, they came with us there, you know, we're in front

of a couple hundred Bronco owners, and we use it as focus group time to hear what's

on their mind, what makes, what do they want, you know, differently, and you know, it's

like we're always looking to, you know, make things better.

So one last question, I know this is sort of not necessarily a forward thing, but curious

from the Bronco, the Bronco accessory performance, enthusiast guy's perspective, we know that

regulations are changing, we know that we have things like Ados and things like that that

are coming into play, I'm guessing, and if you can answer it, that Ford is committed to

still allowing their customers to accessorize, because that's such an important part of

what we do is allowing it to, I mean, look at all, not one of these Bronco's the same,

but I know there's a lot of people that are worried that with Ados and the manufacturers,

you know, not wanting the liability, that the ability to accessorize might not be there

in the future, I know that something that Seema's working with the OE's on, but talking

to you, clearly it's an important part of the business model plan, yeah, we, in fact,

our former general manager of enthusiast brands, Matt Simpson, he now runs all of our

vehicle personalization team, so he, and they've elevated the role, it's critical to our

company, there's tons of opportunity, we talked about Seema earlier, you go there and

you see everything, and so we see it as that's what our owners want, and we're growing

in that space.

It's great, Matt will be here at KOH, he'll have his team out here, we're not stopping

so we're all in, yeah, we appreciate your time, yeah, good to see you again, I like

you guys, man, thank you.

All right, so that was Ford's Dave Rivers, great guy, and really super passionate about

the brand, awesome to catch up with him, I hadn't seen him in, I don't know, probably

a couple of years or so, so it was nice to catch up and kind of get a little of that insider

perspective into where Ford goes from here, and next up, a ride along with Vaughn getting

junior.

All right, I'm in a special vehicle, this is the RTR Rover, ROVR edition, and I'm in

number 235, and it's got the dude who's driving signature on the dash, what's up with that?

Yeah, dude.

Welcome.

Dude, this is awesome, so I'm sitting with Vaughn getting junior, and you guys have heard

of him on the podcast before, but it's been a while since we checked in, it's not you

and Lauren at Seema, it was just a brief hello, but I'm out here with you and kind of

this Bronco program, so all right, this is the second year of this hair brained idea,

and it was so crazy last year, Ford said we're signed up for this year, and they made

it bigger with all these owners and stuff, so want to explain what we're doing out here?

Yeah, so this is the second annual Bronco Golf Invitational, so last year, people would

have saw the video for the first time, we came out with a smaller group and kind of tested

this idea that I had of golf is such a good vibe right now, and I'm not a big golfer,

but outside looking in, I really like the energy and the fun that everyone's like kind of

a rebirth of it.

Yeah, totally.

And I'm like, what if we could bring the golfers out, and the Broncos be the golf carts,

and we give them a gnarly fish out of water experience, and so where else in the birthplace

of Bronco and King of the Hammer says Johnson Valley.

So here we are, so we did three holes, and they're what they're like between part three

and five, or something like that, and these things are basically in and out of washes,

and one of the T's, T-Holes, or T, I don't even know golf, the T's where he started.

The T.

Yeah, anyway, it was on top of the roof of a Bronco.

Yeah, yeah, and we have, so we have a T-Box, that's what we're saying, we both have a T-Box

on the top of the rover, which was sick.

You know, we're just trying to like really, really surprise people.

Oh, they were surprised, I saw the golf in those spaces, because they were all cocky-talk

last night at dinner, and then they got out here and they're like, wait, what are we

doing?

And they had their full golf bags and taken them on the back of the Bronco, and then you're

going over like terrain, whoops, by the way, Vaughn's driving us over some gnarly whoops in

the Bronco.

So you'll probably hear me going, but uh, it's pretty cool.

So anyway, there, like on one side, it's rocky cries on the other, it's like a sand dunes

so you don't know if your ball's going to stick if you slide, so you've been out there,

you've been out there.

It's crazy.

It was great, and like, you see I'm trying to like putt and it goes up inch up her hour,

you know?

So it was super cool, and like the concept works, they all had a blast, and my favorite part

of it though, and one of my real passions is sharing off-roading with people, and so these

people have never had dirt, you know, tires on dirt, and so we had them rock call and

using all the goat modes.

Dude, it was awesome, because they were like, I can't believe we're driving up that, right?

Like they were, you take some people who are obviously really good at what they do, they

love golf, they're influencers, they're semi-prose, whatever, and then you put them in a Bronco

and they never done it before, and they're like, what do you mean we're driving up

with that?

Like where's the road?

You're like, that rocky trail that's part of the Johnson Valley race course from KOH,

like, what?

To see them stoked, because they'd have to go drive down the trail to get, again, golf

cart, to get to where they're, they're ball eyes, right?

Yeah.

So rad.

Yeah.

They, yeah.

It was, it was sick.

It was really, really sick to, uh, to do this and like, you know, it's just nice to

mesh worlds, you know, and that's kind of been, you know, me, right, bringing drift friends

out the off-road, they all fall in love with it, totally.

And, you know, some of the vehicle dynamics are the same other than the bumps, but I mean,

like, chassis control, kicking the rear out, all that, I mean, that's all stuff that

a driftier could get used to really quick, and the right, you know, deal, you gotta pick

your lines of force, but I could see some crossover discipline there.

Oh, yeah.

Well, you did it.

Yeah, the, you know, the vehicle placement and the comfortability of being loose, you

know, is really where that transcends.

So okay, tell me about this vehicle that we're in, this is number 235, this is your Rover

package.

These are known for doing RTR, especially the Mustang side.

Yup.

And now you've jumped into Bronco, and it's kind of a natural progression you went from

one of fours, enthusiasts, icons, the next one, you guys are obviously dialed through your

race team, through the funhabers, and you and Lauren are out there racing Broncos, and

you're out drifting, you musting.

So tell me about this vehicle, where the idea come from, like, what are you doing to this

vehicle from you guys?

Yeah, so you know, you know, for those that don't know RTR, started RTR in 2008 with

Mustang, but my vision has always been to, you know, we're only solely focused on Ford

vehicles, not because Ford tells us to do that, but because it's my passion.

And you know, we started out with Mustang, we just saw we have a production Mustang coming

out from Ford, and the way that our other Mustangs work, our spec Mustangs, they basically, you

know, we get them from the plant, we send them to our fit partners, and then all the parts

we've designed, engineered, and had manufactured get installed into, like, a package, if you

will.

So with Mustang, we have everything from appearance to just appearance all the way to

fully adjustable suspension, and 810 horsepower, the warranty.

And very similar approach with Bronco, you know, we actually were one of the first to have

a complete Bronco package, you know, we had early prototypes and data from Ford, and, you

know, really almost had them available since they came out.

And this is our latest package, this is the Rover, so this has a full roof rack, a very

well-built engineered roof rack that we've done ourselves, like most all of our parts.

And it's got our rock sliders, which have a kick out on them, super strong.

You can drop the truck on them, give any off-rocks or trees in the trails, a good amount more

body protection in the factory sliders.

We've got our rear bumper on it, that's got some hooks and mounts on it, our rear tire

carrier, that's super sturdy, it also allows the rear tire to extend, and you'd put gear

behind it if you want, there's a mollipan on the rear, and also has 37, so 37-inch Nitto

recon grapplers, Fox performance elite, shocks, two-inch lift, and, you know, that's it,

protection, we've got a light bar on it, so we've got protection roof rack, enhanced suspension,

and it's fun for just about anything.

Basically set up to be, like what I like to call go-over landing, it's your go-fast

overlay, or it's set up for adventure, but you don't have to crawl, this is more of a,

like let's cover some ground and see some cool stuff, and that's the type of wheeling

that I like to do, is I like to camp, but I want to get there and do 100 miles in a day

or something like that.

As we're chasing Lauren Healey and his Raptor.

So, yes, Lauren Healey, who is your race partner, and the famous off-road racer on his own

ride, is in front of us in a Raptor, and we are hanging with them in this rover here,

and it's pretty fun to watch the, you know, the Raptor special, it's got like 14 inches

of travel, and you can just, it's an ultra-fort car with the pedal license plate on, and here

we are in kind of an overland sort of setup, and we're just hanging with them, and I'm

watching all the vehicles, and suspension movement, and then feeling it in this vehicle,

it's pretty bad.

Yeah, you know that, you know, Lauren Eyre partners, I'll be able to know this, but,

you know, the RTR vehicles off-road team, Lauren Eyre been partners in that initiative

now for going on six, seven years, we just built the new 20,000 square foot facility

in Farmington, that backs up to BLM Land, which will be doing an open house in the coming

year, and we're just basically, you know, enhancing the Bronco with the enthusiast in mind,

you know, Ford obviously has to, you know, build a lot of vehicles for everyone, and we're

getting a little bit more niche, you know, we're offering full-color paint, and this vehicle

is actually painted in Mr. Chrome, which is one of our premium extended color palette colors.

So that's a famous color that was on of Kilber for like two years, if you go to my Instagram

or our Trucksha podcast, through a reel up of it at Sunrise, and it literally goes from

purple to amber to a forest green to blue, depending on the light and the angle, and the

highlights and low lights from the body panels, it looks, it looks, I never thought this

would be a color that looks like on a, on a Bronco, and it totally works.

It works, yeah, and it's cool like, you know, being able to have the ability to do

full-paint, you know, it's something that, you know, obviously, it'd be really tough for

Ford to do the volume they'd do, but because the volume that we're doing, you know, our

targets are, you know, a thousand issues, it's a year, we're able to get a little more granular

with the customer, we're even doing paint-to-sample, it's an option. So someone wants any color,

they can send us a chip, we send them back up, speed-shaped colored, and then we get, we get

a cranking. So, yeah, it's a real honor, you know, I'm still, you know, RGR has grown so much

more than I ever imagined, like I'm not surprised, kind of how much work we've been doing.

Yeah, totally. But it's like, you know, our recipe has been very simple, and it's that cool

it wins. Exactly. And we just do the stuff that we love, and those that vibe with what we're

doing are all about it, and, you know, we're all about the, you know, customer experience,

and taking our customers out on rides like this, and just showing people the, you know, the community,

and getting them immersed in the things that you and I love. You know, this is, this is a very

special thing that we're able to do in America, and the more I travel the world, the more I see

people wishing they could off-road and have the places we do, and it's so fun for me to share that.

We're, yeah, we're so lucky. The fact that we have the ability to do this kind of stuff,

and all this public land to use, and all that, and it's, it's pretty rad. By the way,

this is the gnarliest off-road I have done since my accident, so this was sort of my welcome back

hotter moment right here. So I drove a little bit today, and the Bronco Fort gave me,

and then getting a little e-ticket ride with you. Pretty, pretty badass, but thanks for

getting me back on the trail. Let's talk about how you, let's talk about how you did a golf today,

but how was that? So I didn't, I didn't golf because my handicapped is like 50 when there's windmills,

and so it's like 200 out on this deal. I probably could have borrowed like a pitching wedge,

but I saw the golf influencers who were with us pulling out like full on golf bags,

they're wearing golf shoes, they're in the middle of the desert, and I'm like, yeah, that's,

that's a different level from what I used to, so I purposely chose to just talk.

I mean, almost that's fun. Almost that's fun, of course.

Well I was thinking next year you could do a Bronco Polo, take the doors off,

and you could have those polo sticks out the window, and it hit the ball that way.

That would be a sick color, right? Bronco Polo, and then I just had fun driving, and

you know, somebody would hit a ball toward us, and I'd be like, four by four,

lots of golf puns in off-road puns, believe it or not, and we're just going over these

whippers right now. So this has the Fox Shops on it, I'm actually pretty impressed with

the bottom out control, it feels like there's a lot of valving toward the end of the travel on the

stack, because we're not blowing through the jams, and you've hit some pretty big stuff,

and it just sort of soaks it up. Yeah, and this is our like how we ship it,

because I like when I'm out and doing these types of things, the experience exact is our

customers, I mean I've definitely signed off on it, but my point is it can get stiffer.

Yeah, these are adjustable, these are the podium elites, so they have the low speed and high speed

adjustability, and you know, they work great, they are, you know, built in, you can get the two

inch lift out of them, and they perform, you know, really well, they are definitely a upgrade.

So I'm just really happy, you know, wouldn't never put anything out with RTR on it that, you know,

both myself and Lauren aren't super pumped on, and we have these, you know, these are over

with the paint, which is the fully loaded everything, and we have packages that just, you know,

you can get our suspension, our lighting, and or our protection, and then of course add

the other things you want if you like. And you can just go to RTRVicals.com. Yep, RTRVicals.com,

we have dealers all over the country, and we get vehicles, like I said, directly from Ford,

RUP, Fit Partner, build them, and yeah, it's really, really amazing to be able to create and,

you know, supply these types of products to, you know, people I want to have fun with them.

So what's next for you? Obviously, KOH is coming up in about another month and a half or so.

Yeah, you guys will be back, I'm sure you'll be out here before then tuning and testing and stuff,

or yeah, we got a big year planned after this, I'm going on vacation, but then I get back,

get back, and we're on a full, you know, full hammers focus. We've got a big year next year,

we're doing hammers, we're doing some of the more desert races in the U.S., the Mint,

Vegas, Torino. I love the Mint, by the way, the Martellies. They do such a great job on that race.

Agreed. I went for the first time in a long time earlier this year, it gets us in March,

and I thought they just nailed it from an experienced standpoint, being able to view the racing,

all that stuff. We're looking at a left-hand turn, but because we have so much rain out here,

there's a giant truck gobbler right in the middle, and there's no way we're making, yeah,

no, not unless we had 42 or something. I thought you know what, Lauren, you know, you look fabulous.

Should I do this for you? Yeah, by the way, Balania. Lauren, you're famously has a video of him

watching off of a waterfall straight down. Yeah, King of the Hammers, was that like three or four years

ago? Yeah. Funny story about that. Yeah. I followed him over that in the dark wheel,

practicing for qualifying. Oh, no. And, and it was fine. And I was playing on doing it,

because it doesn't look fine from the from the video. No, but in the dark, I didn't even know

what we went down. It was just a big drop. And then I was like, all right, me and him were playing,

like we're both doing in qualifying. Yeah. And I totally went down. I totally went down.

Oh, man, it could just go, it could go bad. And then we're not starting in the back.

I just remember watching it in like the first half of the video. I'm like, this is we're

to learn dyes. And then he landed. I'm like, oh, my god. Oh, no, it's so cool. Yeah, that's

Lauren. Healy, lazy. Yeah, remind me of that time. Mel Wade rolled the the Jeep. And then let

the get rid of his every man or whatever. It got back on his wheels and went right back up. I mean,

it's just like, it's crazy. The amount of action that happens and that kind of racing because your

vehicle has to be good at everything. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, speaking of being good at everything,

you know, the hall 1000 this year was. You wrapped it up. It was my first 1000.

I was my first 1000. No way. Yeah, I was impossible. Well, I did the 500 this year,

pulled the corner off my race track. Yeah. As happens in the hall, which I learned. Yeah.

And I just never done the 1000 because I never. I mean, it's a big commitment. And you got to

go with the right people because it's not, it's not easy. Like every time I've gone down there,

I've been with a factory back team. And every time I've ridden or co-dogged, it was with, you know,

driver I knew who had a factory back. It's the logistics of getting down there. The parts,

the chasing, all that was already in place. It's really hard to be a privateer and go down there.

Yeah, and it was, you know, I just, I didn't. If I'm going down there with Ford, like, I'm giving

that my all. Yeah, totally. And I didn't want to compromise it. And this year, as I got,

I'm committed. I'm in. And I got, I pulled the rookie card and got the nightstand.

I love night, though. Night's my favorite to race. It was my first at that level.

Dude, it's just to me. The thing I love about night is if you have a good co-dog who's falling

out of the dangers and double dangers and something like that, and you can just drive. I like it because

it's cooler. You don't have, you know, you're only driving the tunnel of light that you create.

And it's just chill. Like there's just something about night that's just like magical out there.

You're going to cross the planet at like sunset and then just racing through the night to get

that. See when the sun come up. Oh, so badass. And I was worried because I go to, you know,

I'm on the East Coast. Yeah. So I didn't get in the truck until 11 o'clock by time. Oh, dude.

Right? Yeah. And sorry, I lied. I won a clock in the morning by time because it was 10.

10 there. When I got in it. And I, but I was so surprised at how well and how focused I was able

to be. Except for the last 45 minutes. Sun was off. And it was just getting to be like a lot. Yeah.

It's fun. You got to be an athlete to do it. You don't realize that you're just driving a car. No,

it's a hardcore. You're controlling your breathing, your thought process, your energy expenditure.

If you're a co-dog, you're getting out to run ahead to rabbit or to use a strap or help a teammate.

And it's, you know, it's a, um, from a energy level, you're, you're expanding a lot of energy

because you got down there. You're a crutch time. You're racing and everything's under the

clock. Even when you're not on the course because you're chasing train to the next pin. It's,

it's intense. It's intense for, for a week. It's one of the most incredible life experiences I've

ever had. Yeah. No, it was, it was that big and, you know, um, four and had a four Raptor

effort, one of the biggest efforts ever. It was so crazy. And uh, yeah, we achieved the goals and

it was, it was an honor to be a part of it. Say a funny story one year. I think it's Vegas,

Torino, uh, uh, Chad calls me and says, uh, through GM. Hey, we want to, you know, get a meet-a-guy

in here. Do you want to race with us? I think it was when they debuted the ZR2 or the Colorado ZR2.

And I'm thinking, yeah, no, no way they're going to have a back seat or in that one. So I'm in,

because I turned down all the back seat seven. Fouts have called me. He goes, hey, I'm racing a Raptor.

You want to come, you know, ride with me. I'm like, front seat or back seat. I'm like, no,

I'm not going to be balanced. Screw you, dude. I'm too old. If I'm going to do that to my body,

it's going to be because, uh, you know, I want to be a part of it and win, not because I just

want to go out right along. Yeah, I want to be part of it. And so he's like, all right, whatever,

you know, and so it was, uh, it was hilarious because he, uh, sees me and I get there and Chad's truck

has a rear seat. And I'm like, no way. And it had an X-Brace FIA case. There's no room for my legs.

Fouts like you could have been in mind with air conditioning and wind and wind shield. It's like,

damn dude. So I got, I got snooker once in, uh, missed my, uh, missed my Raptor ride.

Said, dude, that was awesome. So we're in the sand dunes on the west side of, uh, of the valley.

I just got to say thank you for, uh, I can't wait to interview you through that whole

woofer section. Oh man, Lord just took off on us. Oh yeah, he's going to sail the jump here in a minute.

I know him too well. All right, well, I'm going to let you, uh, let you drive. Thanks for the,

yeah, the time they interview you and, uh, can't wait to spend some more time in one of these things.

Yeah, we've got one dropped off to you. It'll be awesome. Yeah, it'll be great. And, uh,

yeah, I'm so stoked for your success in seeing how you've grown RTR over the years. And it's,

it's awesome to see you turning out like cool products actually work and are enthusiast focused.

And, uh, as an enthusiast, I definitely appreciate that. Thank you, my man. Well,

glad you had fun and came out. Hang out with us today.

All right. So as you can tell, I had a, had a good time with Vaughn there. We were, it was great.

We were just having a conversation while hitting whoops and chasing Lauren Haley through the desert

40, 50 mile an hour. It was so much fun. Once again, I want to thank Vaughn for giving me a ride that was,

that whole day was my first time back doing any sort of serious off-roading. And being in Johnson

Valley, it's not just a dirt road. Like we were rock crawling low range up and over stuff.

Scraping skid plates, lockers, sand, there's mud out there from recent rainstorms. I mean,

it was real off-roading. Had a lot of fun and felt pretty good after. So it was a good kind of

putting my toe in the water to see what my body will tolerate. And I felt pretty good. So

thanks again to Ford and RTR and Vaughn getting junior. And before we end the podcast,

I want to make sure that we get a little truck review on the Bronco free wheel and package,

because I haven't had a chance to get into a current non-raptor Bronco in quite a while.

All right, so I feel great to be back off road. I've been wheeling this thing all day long,

and I'm driving back to the hotel we were at. So I figured this is a great time for a truck review.

So this is a 2025 big bend with the free wheel and package. So it's got the retro wheels and the

orange yellow red graphics stripes on the side that kind of do the fade and it's got that repeated on

the inside of the interior as well. And I've got to tell you, I really like this thing. It's fun.

This one, I'll get in the monoroni as soon as I say goodbye. I'll tell you what options it has.

But it goes for a 58k and it's got the sass watch, the 35s, it's got the bill stands with the

end stop control valves on it, which are really great. And the ride and handling is great,

and it's got most of the upfront features. This one does not have a sway bar disconnect on it,

but it does have front and rear lockers, trail turn assist, and the modes, the goat modes are a

little bit different on this one, because it doesn't have a Baja on it, but it's got some other

ones like sand and rock and mud and ruts and all that kind of stuff. So I've been wheeling it all day

and took it over a bunch of pretty gnarly stuff. Definitely stuff that the average person would

not be taking their vehicle on if they got it from the showroom floor. Ford really let us push the

limits and use the skid plates and crawl over some rocks here in Johnson Valley, did a lot of sand,

did a lot of whooped, a ton of whooped out of roads. And I was pretty amazed at the fact that

the bill stands after miles and miles and miles of really rough whoops at like 25, 30 miles an hour,

no real fade until the very very end, there's a little bit of it as a shocks guide heated up,

but it was no problem. So a few things to talk about on this one and keep in mind, I have not been

in a regular Bronco in a few years, like it was, it's been a while. And the last time I was in

a Bronco was Bronco Rapture, which is kind of a different beast. So it felt good to get back into

more of the standard one kind of a more of a mainstream model. And a few of the things that I noticed

were this has the new 2.3 liter four cylinder and that's their new, I believe they call it the MCE

family of engines and it's really good. It's definitely peppy and torquey and it has a great

exhaust note to it. It doesn't sound wheezy or thrashy. It's got this kind of nice,

drummy noise to it. I don't know if that is partially pumped into the sound system or not,

since some of the manufacturer's platform likes to do that. But you know, I'm not a huge fan of

that, but overall driving experience is really good. I thought this was the V6 when I first got into it

and it turns out, no, this is the new 2.3. So not only is it the first time that I've been in the

Bronco in a while, but it's also the first time I've driven this engine. So,

trans-engine tuning are great and a lot of the little things I've noticed are the fitting finishes

better. The quietness of the interior is way better and it just feels more solid. And I think

they've done a nice job of kind of incrementally upgrading the Bronco.

Couldn't tell you feel economy because I only spent a portion of the day on the highway and then

of course off-roading. So, you know, that obviously cuts into feel economy, but

power's good, throttle response is good, especially after the turbos get on the boil, passing power is

good. You know, I'm not always a fan of the turbo fours, but this one it doesn't feel like there's

a whole lot of light abilities to it when you are driving. I never once got into a situation today

where I was like, oh gee, I wish that I could have a bigger engine. So, on this particular one,

this one is, it starts as a big bend four-door and it has the big bend series package 10-speed

auto for 1495. It's got the black painted hardtop which is nice instead of just the raw kind of

black one. It's got the free wheeling package. So, let's see, the painted hardtop's 2495,

the free wheeling package which is the graphics, the wheels, the interior, additions 2495. So,

it also has the black diamond package which is 4495. That's advanced 4x4, steel bash plates,

rubberized flooring, steel front bumper, a Sasquatch package, 4180 which is a must-have. That's 470

gears, rear locking diff, front locking diff, 315 tires on 17-inch wheels, the Raptor style running

boards. Let's see what else. I think that's it. So, oh, the offensive accessory package which is

the one where you can 3D print accessories 135 and the running boards 755. So, this comes out to 58,

315 and it's listed at 17 city, 18 mixed in 19 highway which seems to be pretty much what

what I was getting. I would say that's probably pretty close to reality. I'm gonna merge out on

the highway here. So, hopefully you can kind of hear the power there or the engine note of

wide open throttle. And it's not overwhelming. It doesn't feel like it's crazy power but it feels

way better than the adequate. You could get the 4 cylinder and you would be happy. You wouldn't be

wishing for more unless you're doing things like towing and stuff like that. Or really heavy,

then I would recommend the V6 but the 2-3 feels awesome. And overall, like the Bronco is a great ride.

It's got really nice highway manners. It has the big screen. The ones that have cameras are great.

I love the new graphics on the screen where it's a full digital display now which is nice.

The seats are super comfortable on it with good lumbar and bolstering. And overall for less than

60 grand, you get a lot of capability. And I think I proved that today on all the roads and

things that I went on and really had a chance, especially the whoops. Like the Johnson values

no joke for that kind of stuff. And I mean we're doing miles and miles of whoops. And there's a lot

of times where I thought I was gonna get into a truck gobbler or blow through something where I

kind of puckered up and the, you know, Bronco handled it great. Part of the magic is those ESCVs,

the in-stop control valves. It's like an internal, a giant slumper inside the built-in shocks.

And they just mellow out that last, I don't know if it's an inch or so, but let's just say that

last bit of travel where it feels like you have a hydraulic bump stop but without the loud engagement

noise that you would get from a hydraulic bump stop. And right now I'm doing 70 on the highway

and a little bit of wind noise but it's not bad. And this has a part-top insulation like headlighter

panels in it. So I think they learned from the competition there. And makes it look a little bit

more finished. Some Broncos in the past have carpet. So I don't know why some have that and they

don't and this one has the panels. But overall, especially around the a-tiller, the noise level

is definitely noticeably improved over the last time I was in a Bronco. And then they've done

a lot of smart stuff. They've got the, right at the base of the windshield center is a power

access. You've got the four by four controls right above the screen on the dash. They're an easy

reach. The aux switches are above the rearview mirror. So that's super easy. And it just,

it's functional. It works well and kind of gives you a unique driving experience. And I've driven

a lot of different vehicles. And what I can say is getting behind the seat or the steering wheel

and the driver's seat and seeing what the hood view looks like. And just kind of getting a

bypass. The Bronco feels very old school in that sense. Like you see the high fenders on the

outside of the hood, you know, the hood is a drop center. And they've got those trail sites

which can be used as tie downs on the front corner. So you know where the corner of the vehicle is.

That works really well out for road, especially when you have a vehicle like this. That doesn't have

a front camera. That's one of the only things I think I miss. I didn't really miss the disconnecting

sway bar. That's a cool to have. But I would rather have a camera than the sway bar disconnect.

For at least what I was doing today, I thought it was totally, totally fine. Again, seats are comfortable.

Glass is nice and big. Visibility is good. I still think the mirrors are a little bit too far

forward. You know, Ford did it where the mirrors come off the cowl on the Bronco and aren't attached

to the doors. So that way the window glass as the doors are framed, let's go inside and make

some more compact when you pull the doors off. But they still strike me as being in kind of an

odd position. I don't know. I guess you can use to it, but it's still not my favorite. I

don't hate it, but every time I get it just feels weird. Steering is nicely weighted.

Brakes are totally fine. Good pedal feel. I thought today that I could use a little more throttle

input. I think it would be a little bit happier if it was a little crisper. There were times where

I was really slow to dip into the throttle going over an obstacle. And then it would

kind of like, woo! So I feel like if it was a little bit less traveled to modulate and was

a little quicker, that would have been a better for at least my style of driving. And I guess

that's it. I mean, I'm pretty impressed. $58,000 for a really capable off-road family hauler

with, you know, this is a Ford Ort. And it's got the free-wheeling package. So you can,

you could say, I don't want the retro free-wheeling package and save yourself some money and then

upgrade to something more functional. But all in all, as this thing says, it's a head turner.

It's cool. It looks good. It's really pleasant to drive. It's fun off-road. I thought, you know,

all the tech, the goat modes. You know, I think I said it in my interview with Dave. I'm really

impressed with how well Ford has those dialed in for different conditions. So we got to test some

of those today. And actually got to go through some mud today because there's still some mud out

on the lake bed. And the Bronco did find it was never in any danger of getting stuck. You know,

it was a really greasy kind of nasty mud. So anyway, that's that's my review of 2025 Ford Bronco.

And again, this is the new 2.3 liter MCE 4-cylinder. And it fits great. I mean, it just,

or it feels great. It just works well. And yeah, so there you have it. I'm going to give you guys

one last full throttle run here up the hill. So you can hear the engine. So here we go.

And that was basically 59 to 70. So good power. And I think if you were torn between the two and

you wanted the efficiency of the 4-cylinder, but the power of the V6, I don't think you would be,

if efficiency was your priority, you're not going to be disappointed getting the 4-cylinder. You're

not leaving a lot on the table. I think it's a great option for a lot of people. And you know

it, if you need more power, Ford's got the 2.7 V6. So you step up to the Bronco Raptor and get

the 3-liter. Well, all right, that's it for now. Thank you for coming along on this ride along.

And I guess we'll see you on the next Trek review.

All right, so there you have it. My day in Johnson Valley with Ford and RTR. Thanks again, guys.

Thanks Vaughn and thanks to the team that invited me out. It was great to see Bailey and see Lauren

out there and bunch of my friends and just get back to driving trucks and SUVs off road again. So

I really appreciated that. And that'll do it for this episode of the Truck Show Podcast. Don't

forget to follow us on social at Truck Show Podcast or hit us up on the 5-star hotline and wait

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S3, E63 - Vaughn Gittin Jr.

About this episode

RTR rover package

free wheeling package

Ford

MCE 2.3 liter engine

V6 engine

2.3L EcoBoost engine

NVH

Bronco Raptor

Hoss 3.0 shocks

Sasquatch suspension

camera ecosystem

front camera

PowerPort

sway bar

Coyote engine

one pedal drive

Bronco Nation

King of the Hammers

Jeep

Toyota Maverick

unibody pickup truck

Bronco sport

Toyota RAV4

Robinson Blues rims

OE's

vehicle personalization

chassis control

roof rack

Nitto

Fox Shops

X-Brace FIA case

end stop control valves

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