i have a 82 bronco 5.0L 8cyl auto sitin on 31in mud ter. ....i am lookin at a 94 jeep wrangler 5 speed 6cly stock

what do you think is better for muddy ter.


tom
82 ford bronco

 

Both have their trade offs. HP isn't really a big deal offroad. Its all in how you gear. The jeep has a solid D30 front axle, but there are no disconnects on it except at the tcase. So if you run into problems and you need to pull it you need to get the thing in park or pull the front driveshaft. The D30 has its issues too, its smaller and won't handle tires as big as what your bronco will. You get better average ground clearance with the D30 over the D44TTB. The bronco on the other hand has a D44TTB front axle. This will handle a little bigger tires than the stock D30. It has manual lockouts on the axle, so if something happens you can unlock the hubs and you can free roll. Problem is with the TTB you will always have camber issues. You also have to have a 3rd ujoint in the front axle shafts whereas the D30 only has 2. This gives another weak spot. The advantage of the D30 is that its upgradeable. You can get a manual hub conversion for it and you can get alloy shafts for it so it'll handle the same size tires as a D44TTB can without breaking all the time. Nobody makes alloy shafts for a TTB axle so its really not upgradeable. Both trucks have pros and cons. If you don't have the cash to regear then its probably better to stick with the truck that has a little higher HP, but if you have the cash to gear and enough to spend on upgrades to the Jeep then thats the better choice. BTW alloy shafts, stronger u-joints (need to have those), and manual hub conversions will run you $1500-2000. Then add in gears and lockers, and lift since you can now handle 36" tires. You can't really cut the fenders since I think the Wranglers (I know the XJs are this way) don't have a frame and are unibody. So you need to spend the money for a lift. Figure $1000+ for a lift (more if you want the Rubicon Express lift) then $1000 for tire and wheel package.


Lets add this up:
Warn Alloy shafts: $500
CTM joints: $500
Manual hub conversion: $500
Gears and lockers + install: $1500
Lift: $1000
Tires and wheels: $1000
Total: $5500


Having a truck that won't break every 2 feet in the mud and still having insane ground clearance...........priceless



Bottom line Jeeps are good when built, but stock they're only so-so.

 

thank you for the advice



tom 82 bronco

 

i like the stability of the bronco in the mud better.

 

thanks for the help

 

go to www.jeepsunlimited.com. You are going to receive biased responses at either site.

 

94 Wrangler is not a unibody, it has a full frame.

Rob

 

Looks like u ended up with a 97 dakota extended cab huh 82 bronco kid. It looks nice.... but its a dodge. Really though.. nice truck. Good luck with it.

Vinny