Yahoo Autos 2021 Ford Bronco Sport Suspension Deep Dive
It happened on the trail, in parking lots, and at home in my own driveway. “Is this the new Bronco?” they’d ask while pointing at the word ‘BRONCO’ spelled out in big block letters across the front grille. “I thought it’d be bigger.” My confused inquisitors were correct, the new Bronco IS bigger. What they were looking at was actually the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport, and specifically, the off-roadiest version available, the Badlands.
As I would explain, unlike the body-on-frame Bronco with removable top and doors that's comparable to a Jeep Wrangler and Toyota 4Runner (and that I did a speculative suspension deep dive for months ago), the Bronco Sport is a compact crossover that's a tougher offshoot of the Ford Escape. It uses a unibody design with a transverse engine driving the front wheels. But the Bronco Sport differs from the Escape in that it comes standard with all-wheel drive, rolls on a slightly shorter wheelbase, has significantly stubbier front and rear overhangs and has more ground clearance.
And that makes the Bronco Sport interesting in its own right. What’s wrong with a compact crossover with a bit of Bronco styling and attitude? When I got home from my trail run I pulled the wheels off for a look underneath. Pardon the mud I missed at the quarter car wash.
Because it is a compact crossover, it should be no surprise that the Bronco Sport rides on strut front suspension. But the spring rates, damper calibration and other suspension components are optimized to suit its more rugged personality.
Before I get too far, I thought I’d back up and show you something I noticed as I was taking the front tire off. The Badlands comes standard with 225/65R17 rubber, which amounts to 28.5 inches in outside diameter.
The ability to fit larger off-road tires on strut suspensions is often hampered by tight clearance between the tire and the strut’s spring perch. But here there’s plenty of room, both above and behind the tire. I can’t speak for any other clearance issues that may prevent the fitment of larger tires, but strut interference doesn’t appear to be an issue.
From here we can see that the lower control arm (yellow arrow) is made of aluminum. The steering knuckle (green) is made of steel.
The lower control arm employs a reverse L shape which, among other things, makes it easier to produce a vehicle with a shorter front overhang. Here the forward bushing (yellow) is lined up close to the axis of the ball joint, which means it’ll be the primary load path for side forces when cornering. The rear bushing (green) is larger and oriented horizontally, which makes it well-suited for absorbing longitudinal impacts applied at the wheel as inward pulses.
A closer look at the lower control arm’s rear bushing shows details in its molded rubber shape that are calibrated to absorb inward pulses.
My Badlands had a full-with aluminum skid plate attached to the underside of the front subframe. It’s more substantial that I’m used to seeing on vehicles in this class, although I’m kicking myself for not removing it to see how well it protects various hangy-downy bits, such as the lower radiator tank.
The front stabilizer link (yellow) is attached directly to the strut housing. This makes it a direct-acting mount that gives the stabilizer bar a 1-to-1 motion ratio.
The stabilizer bar itself loops up and over the steering rack to pivot bushings (yellow) that are tucked inboard of the rear bushings of the lower control arm.
With the steering rack and steering arm (yellow) running behind the drive axle, the brake caliper must occupy the unoccupied space opposite up front. This one is a single-piston floating caliper, and it clamps onto a fairly chunky ventilated front rotor with a decent amount of heat capacity.
Moving to the rear, we can see a prominent trailing arm (yellow), a long vertically-mounted damper (green), and at least one lateral link (red).
