I recall when Ford released the 3rd gen. At that time we all were hearing about a "concept bronco" being re-released. It left us "off road" guys scratching our heads. We hoped that Bronco would materialize because it just didn't make any sense as to why they made the changes to the 3rd gen as it wasn't as capable to "explore" out of the box.
Think about this.
Ford in 1966-1977 had a Bronco, the first compact SUV that came STOCK with a 5.0 V8, open top, Dana 44 on coils and Ford 9" with a 92" wheelbase. It was built to compete with Jeep CJ7 and International Harvester. That's a pretty sexy combination out of the box. Arguably the best stock powertrain for that size of truck.
Chevy introduces a full size Blazer, takes market share
Jeep introduces the Cherokee a Full size wagoneer.
Ford ditches the small Bronco for a full size truck to compete for this market.'
Ford transforms the Bronco into what we have today as the 3rd generation Explorer.
Jeep has the Grand Cherokee, Cherokee and now 3 models of Wrangler.
We have scratched our head a lot with Ford's appeal to off road midsize trucks.
The classic Bronco was lost to a full size model to compete with the Blazer
The Bronco II came back to compete with Cherokee and S10 Blazer.
International Harvester went away and Jeep defined the true "open top, solid axled, good for off roading and not too great of a daily driver vehicle"
The Explorer replaces the Bronco II, adds a bunch of weight with slight upgrades to the front and rear axle, still no upgrades to powertrain to appeal the off roader. The vehicle gains weight and gets less strength in the drivetrain for off road and towing but the ride gets better and it gets 4 doors.
The A4LD is a 4x4 transmission that was found in the Pinto, developed into a 4x4 model in a Bronco II, then a heavier Explorer with no major changes.
Ford then scraps the TTB for IFS, a ride more sought by the passenger vehicle while the Explorer becomes the top selling SUV in America.
The Explorer did get some goodies in the sense of a 5.0 and even the SOHC added about 50 hp, but most off road guys now looked at the Explorer about as trail worthy as a Nissan Pathfinder, Chevy S-10, Toyota 4-Runner with IFS and leaf sprung rear axle.
Meanwhile the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee became very popular on the trails because their suspension was similar to the Wrangler. A coil sprung solid axled truck. This is fact, you see these trucks much more often in builds and on the trail
For $2000 in a XJ, ZJ you have a long arm suspension
For $2000 in an Explorer you get a drop bracket IFS lift.
Yes, I will say it, the Jeep XJ/ZJ is in fact easier to build into a capable off road beast with readily available parts. BUT the Explorer is still a sweet truck, innovators on this site and other Ranger sites continue to build up these with long travel prerunners and long travel 4x4, solid axle swaps, even just good slight upgrades to make them very capable on stock running gear.
Then Ford introduces the 3rd gen ex.
We're all scratching our heads wonder why. Why is there more plastic cladding, why is there rear axle shafts running through the center of the frame? Ford gave off roaders yet another hurdle to overcome in making these trail worthy.
I'm sure this debate has been said over and over by the guys who were pissed to see the classic Bronco go, then mad to see the BII get replaced by a more station wagon looking 1st gen, then see the Ford specific TTB go away to IFS, then see our 8.8 axle that we know, love and brag about get replaced by something that is similar to the rear suspension my Mercedes S4330 has.
It's not hate towards 3rd Gen owners, it's frustration.
Jeep has a wrangler and a 4 door version
their new Grand Cherokee is more along the lines of where the Explorer went a few years ago, even the Liberty got the jeep guys mad.
Nissan had plenty of extreme sports commercials for the Xterra to dabble in the offroad market, but nothing too hard core, more selling the lifestyle in commercials
Land Rover had the D90 and even Camel Trophy commercials showing a relatively stock based truck getting it done on commericals and even test tracks at their dealiership but has gone away from both of those models for the mortgage broker style Range Rover and soccer mom LR2.
GM and Toyota laid low until they introduced the new Land Cruiser and the H3 for compact off road oriented trucks.
I would say GM, Jeep and Toyota are gearing up trucks towards the off road crowd with the H3, Wrangler and FJ cruiser.
Hate on the H3 all you want, but if I had to take any vehicle off a rental car lot and show up at Truckhaven or Moab it would be my truck of choice if they didn't have a Wrangler available.
Most compact SUVs can be pretty capable with slight mods. It's just frustrating that a 3rd gen explorer is harder to modify.
Now the interesting point is that GM, Dodge and Nissan all have IFS full size trucks, while the F250 and F350 are still a solid front and rear axled truck. If you go to a place like Glamis where people really break out the wallet to build a truck, 90% of the trucks out there are Super Duty's as tall as the sky and most long travel trucks are Rangers.
That has boggled me, Ford has remained hard core and built a tough chassis for the Super Duty and even a new Ford Van has I-beam suspension, but they haven't brought a vehicle to the market that appeals the offroad or even hip off road lifestyle.
Bring back a Bronco!!! Not hating on a 3rd gen, they just seem more luxury to me and that is where Ford is going. We are not hating on those guys on this forum modifying them, we didn't like the suspension because we saw the hurdle right away.
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