Ford Bronco 4-Door vs Jeep Wrangler Luggage Test | How much cargo space?

The Ford Bronco 4-Door has 35.6 cubic-feet of cargo space behind its raised back seat when equipped with the hardtop. It goes up ever-so-slightly to 38.3 cubic-feet with the soft-top, and should you only want two doors (good for you!), the number falls down to 22.4 cubic-feet. That's actually 10 cubes less than the Bronco Sport that I have previously luggage tested.

Now, how does the Bronco 4-Door's cargo capacity compare to its primary competitors? Well, as luck would have it, I've luggage tested all those. The Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with its own hardtop has 31 cubic-feet behind the back seat (its two-door has only 13 cubes). The Land Rover Defender 110 lands at an even 34.0 (with a 15.6-cube figure for the two-door 90). Finally, the Toyota 4Runner is the king of the hill with 47.2 cubes, though that does go down a bit with the roll-out cargo floor. There is no two-door 4Runner and in a dreadful lack of foresight, Toyota stopped selling the FJ Cruiser years ago.

OK, now that the numbers are out of the way, let's see how much the Bronco can actually carry and how it compares to all those.

Here is the 4-Door's cargo area. Like the Wrangler, you swing the gate open first (into the curb) and then open up the glass hatch. It will take a very long time before I remember this order when closing it all. As it is, I put the glass down first roughly 90% of the time. Not sure why, maybe it's driving my mother's CR-V in the late '90s? That did gate first, then glass. I don't know. I'm sure I'd get it eventually.

OK, now here are all the off-road SUV cargo holds in one place, clockwise from upper left: Bronco, Wrangler, 4Runner, Defender.

I don't know about you, but it's immediately obvious looking at all those that the Wrangler is at a disadvantage that's perhaps greater than its on-paper-figures would indicate. Its diagonal structural support is further inboard than the Bronco's, meaning more of its on-paper cargo capacity is on the outside of it, and therefore less useful.

OK, let's get to the bags. As with every luggage test, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).

Um, yeah, I basically only needed half the cargo area. There was so much room remaining, I didn't even need to remove the massive collection of carrier bags included to keep the doors and various roof panels safe when you remove them. They even include a little diagram to show how you can Tetris them all in the cargo area. That's a test for another day, certainly.

OK, here is the same luggage test set of bags in all of the above SUVs. Again, clockwise from upper left: Bronco, Wrangler, 4Runner, Defender.

First, keep in mind that the leftover space is not created equal. Both the Bronco and Wrangler need to leave a decent amount of space open near their swing gate latches. Basically, nothing can fit behind that gray bag in the lower left of the Wrangler.

OK, now let's filler up.