Ford Bronco Badlands vs Jeep Wrangler 392 - Two Epic Off-Roaders Face Off!

Hey folks and welcome to the Truck King YouTube channel. We are here today at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. You can hear the race cars in the background but we're not going on the track. We are heading off-road with some exciting vehicles. That is the Ford Bronco Badlands with the Sasquatch package and that is the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with that 392 V8 and we're going to compare them. So in this video we're heading off-road and we'll tell you which one of these two is better. Okay folks it's going to be a fun day out here in a Bronco and a Wrangler. But I first have to give you a little bit more of an explanation. The event that Dad and I are at today is called AJAK Test Fest. Now AJAK is the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. We are both members of it and AJAK puts this together once a year where we're able to gather together and test basically all the new vehicles or exciting vehicles that came out that model year and that's what we're doing today. Now the real reason I'm telling you this is these test drives we're on are only supposed to be 45 minutes long so we do not have a lot of time. That's why things seem rushed in this video because we're just trying to get to the nuts and the bolts of it. Which one of these two is better off-road? We're not focused on too many other things because frankly we kind of can't be. We don't have the time. So now on to our comparison and the first thing I want to do is show you guys the specs. So yes when this Bronco came out I think the power out of this EcoBoost people were pretty impressed by it and then Jeep said oh wait a second hold my beer here's a massive 6.4 liter Hemi V8 in the Wrangler which doesn't sound like the best match. The Wrangler never had the best driving dynamics to begin with on road and then you're just going to shove a ton more power in there so I'm very curious to drive that one next and then of course to see how it feels off-road at slow speeds. But I'm in the Bronco now so let me talk you through the Bronco. First things first excellent seating position nice and high great sight lines. I love these front corners on the hood of the Bronco. Not only are they functional if you want to tie down a canoe or a kayak they just give you a really great sense for where those front corners actually are and yeah like I said the just the feeling of this vehicle is that it belongs here on the off-road course. So we're coming up to a nice little hill climb here I have it in four high with nothing locked up right now and the Wrangler's crawling up in front of me let's see oh he's spinning yeah he's got to lock up this hill is a really good test for that because if you're not locked up here and I can show you I got my big cam here yeah you get the articulation there mid hill oh wow dad's struggling dad lock them both up he thought he could get through without the lockers he thought he could cheat and he was incorrect oh look at that thing flexing now the one thing I'll say for the Wrangler and dad and I are gonna have to talk about this the lockers on the Wrangler can be hard to engage sometimes sometimes like on a lot of older vehicles you gotta rock it and roll it and kind of find that right spot my experience here in the Bronco was that the lockers were instant let's see rear locker on yeah it really is that quick front locker oh so the front locker you actually have to be in four low I'm just rear locked I'm just rear locked I'm just rear locked it just walked up there so I'm gonna turn on the trail control system now to give that a try it's cool actually you can set trail control at zero and it just holds you and then using your buttons cruise control buttons you can set your speed so I got it set at eight kilometers an hour and it just walks you down this hill this is the other thing that the Bronco really has done is they brought all of these off-road driving aids to this vehicle so you're getting that you're getting one pedal drive trail turn assist there really are a ton of features here now we're coming into these uh offset ruts and really one of the keys here is being able to disconnect your sway bar and the coolest thing about the Bronco is that you can disconnect the sway bar under pressure oh I gotta change my drive mode here that's obviously the problem it said I couldn't get the sway bar to disconnect in that drive mode okay so slippery mud and ruts how about now boom the feeling of the sway bar disconnecting under pressure is just hilarious and so cool the whole vehicle is just hanging on this hill and then suddenly the tires just go and fall down into that hole and give you the traction and once again the Wrangler has a disconnecting sway bar it works fine but it's finicky you gotta roll forward roll back find a specific spot get out and rock it I've had to do all of those things to get the sway bar to disconnect and here in the Bronco those lockers come on quick and the sway bar disconnects under pressure man that is a cool cool system and then lock the sway bar back up boom it's locked so far that's one of the things I find myself being most impressed by is everything here just works so seamlessly and so quickly it's uh it's very cool okay there's another little trick here in the Bronco I'm going to use on this corner trail turn assist so quite simply come into a corner you want to use a bit of speed you huck it in and it locks up that rear inside wheel and just allows you to slide around that corner that's another cool technology and uh that's something where you know if you were really precise and really good before with the rear wheel drive vehicle you could kind of break traction and swing your butt end around but the truth of the matter is that's a hard thing to do and be controlled and precise now like usual like everything else on this Ford I have a button that I can hit and boom she just takes care of it for me so we do have a full review on the Bronco here on the channel you've heard most of our thoughts on this Bronco now and here's the thing I've been in a million Wrangler Rubicons but I've never been in one with that massive MEV8 so it's time to get out of the Bronco go hit up the Jeep and we're going to run this exact same course and we're going to see how it handles and vehicle switch time here we are Wrangler Rubicon 392 now the first thing we're going to do is the hill that dad struggled on but I'm going to lock up first but here's something I have to tell you guys right off the bat here in the Wrangler if I want to lock up even just my rear I have to be in four low and over there in the Bronco in four high I was able to just tap the button on the dash quickly lock it up and get up this hill so it's one of these things where sure I have lockers here in the Wrangler front and the rear but I can't access them in four high that's a decision a lot of automakers make and I don't really agree with it especially just a rear locker there's lots of situations where I want four high with the wheel speed and I want that locker so I'm going to come up the same hill that dad struggled on with just the rear locked up just like I had it in the Bronco and let's see what happens okay okay so so the power the power is ridiculous oh my gosh I'm in four low right now and the torque is just hilarious and the engine sounds so good the entire off-road experience in that Bronco sort of at slow speeds like we are is quiet and absolutely calm you don't even really notice the powertrain the first thing you notice in this 392 is the powertrain and uh yeah it's you know what just can't replace that sound that big v8 sound and it does make this Wrangler sound pretty dang good so coming down a hill now uh jeep also has an off-road cruise control they call it select speed you actually use the paddle shifters to bring up my speed there we go now I've got it set at eight kilometers per hour oh and the engine braking is epic coming down this hill you can absolutely feel it but even just cruising along here all you hear is engine uh yeah you know what this experience is just dominated by that big v8 up there in the front okay so now we're coming up to our off camber ruts and I want to disconnect my sway bar so let's see I just hit the button and now it's flashing in progress flashing and disconnected so if it is to be believed how long that took yeah it's just longer here in the Wrangler now that wasn't finicky at all but uh definitely takes a beat as compared to that Bronco now I'm just gonna creep through here and let's see how this feels wow interesting okay so I don't have an RTI ramp but based on what I just felt the jeep is flexing better even with the sway bar disconnected and I have them disconnected in both the Bronco I had more of that side to side action the Wrangler coming through there felt absolutely flat and I don't know if that's just because it flexes more or if that's because it has that solid front axle still as compared to the Bronco's independent front suspension but either way yeah I don't know the numbers like I said I'll have to look them up for you but based on what I just felt the flex here in the Wrangler was better coming up to the corner now where I used trail turn assist in the Bronco which of course drags that inner wheel to help you turn now one of the reasons the Wrangler has always been great off-road is because of how small it is and how tight and how well it fits in trails so I don't have that here but let's just see how how it turns yeah I mean it turns well it certainly doesn't feel big out here or anything so that's one of those things where that feature on the Bronco is kind of cool it's a fun gimmick it is fun to use and that's important as well I'm not sure how often it's really gonna like save your bacon though if you're in a situation where you just can't make a corner in other vehicles and it will but you know what at the are fun to use and intuitive that's maybe the most important thing and the trail turn assist and this jeep does have some nice off-road cameras as well you got the rear cam and then you can access that forward facing camera so we're done on the off-road course now and admittedly it was a short course like I said I have to work within the parameters of the event today my big takeaway honestly these two vehicles feel so similar getting out of the Bronco getting into the Wrangler it's so obvious that those Ford engineers they bought a ton of Wranglers and benchmarked them and so the result is a vehicle that feels a whole heck of a lot like a Wrangler off-road and now if you straight up have to pick one to be better off-road man it's a tough choice I think I'd still probably take the Jeep Wrangler the other thing I have to mention is that new extreme recon package that allows you to get 35 inch tires on your Wrangler straight out of the factory of course our Bronco up there today does have the 35s but the Jeep only has little 33s so yes there's an even more off-road option you can get from Jeep all that being said I just can't help the feeling that yes if you're still a dedicated hardcore off-road guy or lady you probably lean towards the Wrangler but let's be honest it's all about the rounded look at a vehicle we don't just off-road we drive them on-road a heck of a lot more so now I'm going to go do a couple quick loops on-road and then we'll come to a full conclusion all right now we're on road here in the Wrangler 392 and the first thing I'll say is off-road my conclusion was that these two are super similar on-road the differences are much bigger between a Wrangler and a Bronco so talking about the Bronco first the biggest deal in the Ford independent front suspension and they knew that they drove a lot of Wranglers when they were developing it and they obviously decided going for the IFS was a little bit of you know giving up some off-road ability but you get the on-road comfort that the Wrangler just doesn't have it just the Wrangler loves to wander all over the road and it's just it's a it's a very busy driving experience the Ford Bronco on-road is just smooth and quiet so just on-road NVH if you're never going off-road you probably want to get the Bronco but I haven't even mentioned this insane engine yet I mean I'm only talking about driving dynamics this is the 6.4 liter hemi v8 and it seems like over at Stellantis their entire planning department right now just says well put a v8 in it put a v8 in it got a v8 put a v8 in it put a bigger engine in it yeah you know and and it's hilarious now it didn't improve any of the Wranglers driving dynamics that I just talked about but it did does allow you to do this there's a performance exhaust button down here so you can make it louder or quieter and this thing just takes off it's it's ridiculous for a Wrangler now you've got to hear this 392 here it is with the performance exhaust off turn it up nice so folks we're coming to the end of this one and the conclusion is a little bit hard I think I've already said this but I'll just restate if off-roading is your number one concern and you want the best off-road vehicle you can buy I still lean towards the Wrangler I just I think the sight lines are a little bit better it has a little bit of a smaller feeling to it the front axle you get better articulation out of it now is it a huge difference no it is not but it is there now though on the flip side if you're driving on road you want to get that Bronco because it's so much better sorted on road and then off-road it's amazing and it has all those fun technologies this is such a hard one to actually call if I was spending my own money I think I'd buy myself a new Bronco honestly the off-roading is great but the difference is so small that I would take the Bronco for all those fun off-road features and then not have to suffer on road while I was driving it now you said fun and it's the only comment I've really got is a 6.4 liter Hemi in this vehicle now that's fun and there's nothing wrong with spending your money on fun yeah fair enough and you know what that's a good overall takeaway they're both fun all those off-road features on the Ford that dig feature it's so fun to use and I think maybe dad our conclusion here is we are thankful that both of these vehicles exist thank you to the Wrangler for keeping the Bronco dream alive and forcing Ford to bring it back and yeah if you're interested you gotta go check these out thanks to Ford for keeping Jeep on their toes there you go so folks that's the end of this one now please go down in the comments let us know what you think of these two vehicles and which one you would buy as always while you're down there don't forget to hit like and subscribe hit join to become a member of the trucking channel and then come right back here to see what we're testing next see ya