Vehicle: 1988 Ford Bronco II XLT
Owner: Ian Schiocchet
Upgrades I got this vehicle from a dealer in the Ottawa area in Feb '95 for a straight trade on my old 91 Civic CX. I drove it around as a stocker untill the transmission blew on me when I was about 800 Miles from home. After about 2 weeks in a shop in the Niagara Falls area I finally got it back home. At that point I decided I didn't was to have the thing break down on me again so I proceeded to give it some new parts. Droppped out the suspension that week and ordered a 4.5" Softride system from Skyjacker.
A week later the suspension had arrived complete with dual shock mounts and all sorts of cool new toys. After some pure hell getting all the old bolts out I installed the new stuff. Wow did that suspension ever make a difference. If any of you are worried that a suspension system called Softride would be too soft, don't worry. People under 200lbs can't make the suspension even move even if they use all their body wieght on a bumper. So now I had a baby bronco with this huge gap between the 27" tires and the body. Proceeded to get some gears (4.10) and some new tires (33" BF Goodrich Mud Terrains) when I realized that the tires wouldn't fit onto the vehicle.
Not enought space.... Time for a body lift. Installed a Trailmaster 3" body lift (all of the body mounting hardware on the truck was rusted, due to the salt they spread on the streets around here!!!). The dual shock setup created some troubles since they stick out a bit from stock and I had to get some new 8" rims with a 3" backspace, got some really cool ones (Bassett Steel Oval Track rims weigh 16lbs each). Some more fun getting the body lift into place and then the tires back on. I was up an running. went out for my first trail ride and got MEGA-stuck... Seems my truck went out of the factory without even limited slip installed... Back into the parts shop.
Time to orders
some lockers. Ordered a Auburn for the back and a lockrite for the
front. Wow... Another mega-diff. Just last week I upgraded again.
Slid a detroit locker into the 8.8" rear end and put some 4.56
gears in the front and back.
Security Well. Maybe your in an area where there isn't alot of thefts but in the hi-rise I live in there were 270 recovered stolen vehicles found by the police in our parking lot in one year.
WOW! Security is a concern in this area. I have found, from my experience, that the only thing that will save your vehicle if a pro wants it is IGNITION DISABLE or STARTER DISABLE. Don't even bother with the club. Drop by my house and take a look at my club. It was broken into multiple pieces by a car thief. Well my truck was not stolen, but they tried really HARD. Luckily 3 days before someone tried to steal it I had installed an Autostart unit (due to the unbearably COLD Canadian winters I have to endure) with a special little feature, Starter disable!
They broke my rear door lock, steering column, ignition,
gear shift, drivers door, stole my CB, radio, amplifier, busted my
club and left some used hypodermic needles in my truck (GROSS!!!).
But didn't get the truck. Lucky because I only have liability
insurance, no theft or vandalism. Still there was lots and lots of
damage. I still haven't fixed the vehicle completely.
Future I have a lot of things planned for my baby. Immediately I will be putting a 9000 lb winch, bumper, and brush guard on the front. A roof rack and lights are on there way already. Nerf bars are in the same order. My main future plans are to get down to the Rubicon trail next summer. I really want to try cruising the US off-road. It would be really cool if I could make it from California back to the great lakes.