Ford Bronco Raptor – No Matter How Capable, It Always Comes Down To Tires

One of the most important lessons I learned right at the beginning of my engineering career was the importance of tires. Regardless of how sophisticated the powertrain or suspension components of a vehicle are, inevitably, performance comes down to the four smallish patches of rubber that come in contact with the earth. This was proved to me yet again when I decided to take a brand-new 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor to an off-road vehicle (ORV) park to see what it could do.

The Ford Bronco, even its standard form is a remarkably capable ORV, capable of clambering over rocks and fallen trees and across desert sands. The Raptor takes all of the Bronco goodness and turns it up to 11 starting with a larger 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 with 418-horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque. Even with all that power, a curb weight of 5,700 lbs, and the aerodynamics of a barn mean the Raptor doesn’t feel exceptionally quick, but no one is likely to complain except possibly those that have driven Jeep’s Wrangler 392. But performance-wise the Bronco powertrain will do just fine until Ford sees fit to build an electric Bronco Raptor.

However, that barn-side aero profile that is exacerbated by nearly 10-inches of extra width and 2.5-inches more height than a Wildtrack and tires that are not known for low rolling resistance, means the Raptor has a prodigious thirst for dino juice. When it first arrived I drove it to a lunch meeting on the other side of Detroit, about 1 hour each way, mostly highway and it averaged 15.5 mpg.

The Bronco’s shape also means it lacks the “quiet flight” characteristics of a Lincoln. In fact, while road noise actually wasn’t bad, there was a surprising amount of wind noise that seems considerably higher than previous Broncos I’ve driven. The ride quality however was surprisingly good. I haven’t yet tried the current generation F-150 Raptor, but the prior model had a very softly sprung and damped floppiness that was rather unpleasant on paved roads. The Bronco Raptor was much more composed, much like the Jeep Gladiator Mojave.

All that extra width also makes it very stable running across a desert, but it means you have to take extra care to keep it within the lane markings on pavement. Unfortunately, the lane keeping assist didn’t seem to be very interested in doing much to assist with that process other than turning the alert in the instrument cluster from green to amber. The adaptive cruise control did however, work fine up until it didn’t about which more later.

The Raptor rides on 37-inch BF Goodrich “All-Terrain” T/A KO2 tires. It’s important to know that for trucks and SUVs, all-terrain has a connotation not entirely dissimilar to all-season tires. While these big tires look chunky and knobbly and ready to bit into any terrain, they are in fact jacks of many trades, but not necessarily masters of any. No doubt to some degree, Ford worked with Goodrich to make sure they wouldn’t be annoyingly loud on the road. This is important, because no matter that this SUV looks like it could run the Baja 1000, the reality is that most customers will never venture further off pavement than the dirt road to a cabin.

When I got to the Mounds ORV park in Mt. Morris, Mich. I bought my day pass and ventured in. Most of the people using the more than 200 acre park with 9.5 miles of trails through the forest were on dirt bikes or ATVs with a smattering of SUVs on the fall Saturday morning when I visited. I spent about 90 minutes exploring the wide variety of trails, sand areas, rock crawl features and more. On most of these surfaces, the K02 tires were fine.

The Bronco’s G.O.A.T. modes and four wheel drive low range, make easy work of most of this. Probably one of the best features is the ability to to keep the cameras on at speeds up 20 mph when in off-road modes. When driving without a spotter in unknown terrain, this is extremely helpful to be able to see what is beyond the crest of a hill or around a corner or where you are placing the tires when crawling over rocks.

However, it turns out that there are limits to all-terrain tires. Just as winter tires are generally a much better choice than all-season tires when the snow falls, regular all-terrain tires that come from the factory are not suited to mushy surfaces like mud or even deep, slushy snow. I learned this the hard way when I encountered what looked like a large puddle, about twice the length of the Bronco. Not being familiar with the terrain, it looked like I should be able to make it across as I tried to find my way back to the access road to head home.

Famous last words

Throughout the deep woods trails, speeds were never more than a few miles per hour as I gingerly made way through the unknown. I slowly ventured into the puddle only to realize that this was more of a mud pit. Unfortunately, by this time, the Bronco was already sinking axle deep into the muck. I tried backing out to no avail. I tried some rocking back and forth to try to break free which only got me more stuck.

In four-low, with all diffs locked, it just spun all four wheels helplessly. I realized I would need help. I opened the door and the rock ralls were at water level, not a problem since the Raptor can ford through 37-inches of water. But when I tried to leap to what looked like it might be relatively solid ground, I sank knee deep into the mud. I tried jamming a log under a tire to see if it could get some purchase, but the Bronco Raptor wasn’t going anywhere and it wasn’t equipped with a winch that I might have used to wrap around a tree.

I trekked back to the parking area about half a mile away and called for a tow truck. Before it arrived a nice older couple that live near the park and visit regularly rolled up and I asked for assistance. They had an 1980s vintage Jeep Cherokee with what looked like tractor tires with big deep treads and a winch on the front. We headed back to the pit, maneuvered around behind the Bronco and hooked up the winch cable to one of the tow hooks. The Raptor has two robust tow hooks on each bumper.

My helpers got the winch going and we slowly backed the Bronco out of the mud pit. Unfortunately, once it did get some purchase on more solid ground, it move a bit quicker than the winch cable was retracting and end up rolling a tire over the cable and wrapping around the axle which likely damaged the connector to a wheel speed sensor. It then threw up a bunch of fault codes that features like the parking brake, stability control and ABS were no longer working. The Bronco was still driveable though, so once we unwrapped the cable and unhooked it, I gradually made my way out and headed home.

The lesson in all of this is first to be extremely wary of anything where there is water in a heavily wooded area like this, it may be much deeper and stickier than it appears. More importantly, if you do intend to use a vehicle like a Bronco, Wrangler or Defender in the manner in which its creators intended, make sure you get suitable tires. Factory equipped tires on ORVs are generally good on the road and on drier surfaces like dirt and sand. But wet, sticky stuff is where the trouble starts. BF Goodrich makes a mud terrain tire called the KM2 that is much better suited for this stuff. There are also even more extreme tires from a variety of specialty manufacturers.

The Bronco Raptor is not an inexpensive vehicle, starting at $75,375 including the $1,595 delivery charge. If you are going to make this sort of investment, and you intend to use it in this environment, you might as well spend a couple of thousand more and get the right tires for the job. You should also equip the vehicle with a winch so that if you get stuck somewhere where help isn’t nearby, you can wrap the cable out around a stout tree and get yourself out. I’ve done most of my off-roading previously on pre-scouted trails with manufacturers and I was fortunate to find people willing and able to help, but you might not be so lucky.

The Bronco Raptor is a really impressive vehicle, but as good as the hardware is, it’s still ultimately dependent of just four patches of rubber.