Hey Kathleen just ran across your thread and thought I could drop some information for you! I too will be towing with my bronco and actually had an opportunity to tow my 2021 Little Guy Max from Buena Vista Colorado to my home in Harlingen Tx. Roughly a 20 hour drive. I tested in all conditions from Colorado mountains and hills to Texas winds!
Here are the specs.
my trailers dry weight is 3020 lbs with a tongue weight of 318lbs. I was pulling it with a bone stock Outerbanks 4dr with the 2.3L combined with the 10speed. I did not have a trailer brake controller installed so all stoping was done via the Broncos original brakes. Nor was a using a weight distribution or anti sway hitch.
Topics I took note of:
POWER-
I was truthfully worried the 2.3l would struggle. Even though both powertrains 2.3 & 2.7 are rated for the same towing capacity. However early on I quickly was flabbergasted on just how well the 2.3 was performing. It had absolutely no problem accelerating from a dead stop to highway speeds. Running 70mph I had ample passing power too. At about 80mph was the limit that I found it didn’t like too much. But everything up to that mark was incredible. Never did I feel like was slowing traffic or couldn’t get out of the way or in front of someone I’d I needed to.
TRANSMISSION-
My previous vehicles were a 2016 Trd Tacoma and a 2017 Trd 4 runner. Both would downshift and stay in 2nd or 3rd to run 70mph. My Tacoma seemed like it was blind folded in a pitch black room looking for a door in the way it CONSTANTLY haunted for gears. What a sigh of relief that the bronco never seemed to be searching for a gear. 1st through 4th we’re quick and precise. It would cruise in a higher gear and stay there comfortably about 2500-2800rpms. Downshifting to pass was smooth and efficient too. Made the drive comfortable and and enjoyable.
EFFICIENCY-
Again I was running 75mph for two days on average. My fuel consumption averaged about 14 mpg. Personally I was ok with that as I was being aggressive on acceleration the entire trip.
STOPPING-
While my trailer is equipped with electric brakes I did not have a controller installed on the bronco. All stopping was done via the factory bronco brakes. I did have to make one sorta aggressive braking maneuver at a light while it was pretty quick to come to halt I definitely could tell in an instance like that again I’d fell much more confident with the trailer brakes live. Now normal braking, stopping, slowing, the 3000lb load I felt totally confident in all other cases.
SWAY-
This was another top concern for me! The bronco is light and short in retrospect to my trailer. I didn’t have an anti-sway or weight distribution hitch either. I was very concerned I’d have issues here with wind more so than load or weight distribution. Once hooked up the bronco and trailer both set level to one another (318 lb tongue weight) the bronco squared in the rear about 1”. I never once experienced any sort of sway. Keep in mind trailer specs will affect this a lot. Weight, hitch height, trailer tongue weight and length, axle placement on the trailer, and the load in the trailer itself. I had no problems here personally. Is one those hitches requires? Probably not. Will I run one any? Probably as a precaution
ISSUES-
In order for me to hook up I had to remove the spare tire off the bronco to hook up my trailer so my trailer tongue jack wouldn’t make contact with the tire. I’m honestly not sure what the work around will be here just yet. But my particular trailer would definitely have made contact with spare otherwise. If you use an extended hitch that puts tongue weight further behind rear axle which is not ideal. So that kinda was a bummer.
And baking up make sure your parksense is disabled or it will emergency stop as it thinks there an object behind you. I wish it knew I had a trailer hooked up via the 7 pin.
OVERALL-
BRONCO is a great towing platform. While it’s only rated for 3500lbs I fell it could definitely tow alot more. I could only imagine what the 2.7 would perform like. Personally finding a trailer that was no heavier that 3500lbs was challenging and sorta frustrating. It seemed like the tongue weights were all too heavy so it made it difficult to find one that would meet towing specs.
Conclusion
3000-3200lbs with a hitch weight of 250-350lbs bronco does well! Hope this helps
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