About every Wednesday, we spotlight some of our favorite overlanders and their owners for you. Today, we’re doing things a little different. We have a roundup of impressions and hot-takes on the striking 2021 Ford Bronco. Will this be a good platform for overlanding expeditions? Only time will tell. But we can certainly ask the experts what they think!
Daniel Marcello of Brooklyn Coachworks
I love it! It’s a true off-road rig. 35” tires standard, front and rear lockers and a crawl gear. Crazy approach and departure angles. I think it’s more geared toward the weekend off-roader with those specs than an all around overland truck. I’m only worried how it will be on-road over long distances with driver fatigue. I ran 35” tires on my Defender for years. I never got stuck off-road. But the road noise, size, and handling is a bit too much for an overland truck.
The doors and roof coming off are cool, but again more of an weekend off-road thing than an overland thing. You don’t want dust, dirt and water coming into your cabin on your overland truck. And you want a solid roof for carrying a decent payload on the rack, if fitted. You ever change a 35” tire? Better hit the gym first.
Issac Van Essen of Radventure4
Ford killed it, every aspect of it. The Bronco seems to be everything the FJ should have been. This is the first Ford I’ve ever considered buying. I’m a Toyota guy through and through, but I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of one!
Cole Pennington of HODINKEE
The Bronco sticks out visually, sure, but ideologically what makes it even more compelling is the idea that Ford didn’t compromise anywhere when it comes to weighing traditional design against modern regulations. Safety, emissions, and dozens of other restrictions are placed on automotive designers and engineers. The new Bronco proves that we don’t have to accept the boring designs that modern limitations often spawn. Ford figured it out. They’ve honored heritage in a fantastic way all while working within the constraints of modernity. So what does this mean? That everyone else better get back to work unless they want to get trampled by the Bronco.
The classic truck market has been slowly heating up for the past few years. With the introduction of the Bronco, it looks like the market for modern heritage trucks is about to get just as interesting.
David Gensler of Vanish
I already want a Cactus Grey four door model with the Sasquatch Package. The new Defender seems like a bit of a kitten in comparison. From the looks of it, the actual functioning off-road tech is going to be wild. I envision a massive enthusiast community building around this rig. We’ll see if the core overlanding community will start to mod it, I believe they will.
Overall, the Vanish team is thrill that Ford seems to have struck the right balance of retro nostalgia, tech-infused ingenuity, and straight-up-we-get-it cool factor with the 2021 Bronco.
