The Ford Bronco is one of the most popular off-roading cars in the world, both in its classic form and in the modern guise that caused so much hype. The classic Broncos are still incredibly capable machines despite their age, and they do actually respond quite well to modifications. Perhaps better than you might think. So much so that YouTuber Westen Champlin has gone ahead and built up his own classic Ford Bronco to take on some of the wildest off-roading challenges ever.
Champlin himself is from Kanasas, and his Instagram bio says he has a PhD in propulsion and that he is all about Redneck Science. At the start of this latest video, he talks about how he bought his Ford Bronco and decided to take it “lightly off-road”. Lightly was certainly not what he really meant, but hey we digress. Champlin wants to modify the truck though a little bit more so when he goes all across the country with it, it is more prepared for the off-roading terrain it is going to come across. In fact, he wants it to be good enough to go and find Bigfoot.
Building Up The Bigfoot Finding Bronco
There are a lot of upgrades to go onto the Bronco. First of all, a six-inch lift kit is going on the Bronco, and they are going to weld the rear-differential too. The next steps will involve new Beadlock wheels, 35-inch tires and a winch as well. Then cue a montage where they struggled to get a few of the old parts off. It definitely did not take them two days of hammering to get rid of the old goodies from the car. Quick fast-forward to two days later, and we see an interesting build.
Cue a very unusual looking Bronco with only the new front wheels with the back still lower. So before Champlin and his team get onto the back of the car, they do a few burnouts with the car with the original back wheels and the new, bigger front wheels and tires. Champlin is a bit puzzled as to why anyone would willingly do that with their car. We then get the weird sight of Champlin driving this half lifted Bronco through town and off-road to see if it does perform at all. Somehow, it doesn’t crumble under the stress he puts it through.
Taking The Bronco Off The Beaten Track
Amazingly, after taking the Bronco off-road with just half of the car lifted, it is still working. Champlin even runs it up a jump, more than once, to get a bit of air under the truck. He doesn’t quite succeed, so it's back to the workshop to try and finish the lift kit. It's then we see a slightly bent front axle. The front right is not really meant to be pointing diagonally. So that is another job that needs doing. Fixing the new lift kit.
Some rather big six-inch off-road lift springs are heading onto the Bronco, and they very much look like they can do the business. As they try to weld the differential up, they sort of set that part of the car on fire. Not ideal, but the differential is now locked so onto the Bronco go the springs and the rest of the lift kit. eBay Motors are sponsoring this video so that is where the new wheels and tires come from. They arrived in a few days and Champlin and his team threw them onto the Bronco.
Ready To Go With The Bronco’s New Wheels And Tires
Champlin drove the Bronco straight to an off-road park after the wheels went on. No testing, no nothing. So no pressure, right? Champlin has faith in the car though, so that is all that matters. Onto the trail Champlin goes with the Bronco and well, it's certainly doing better than you might expect with no testing. Although, an almost sheer drop and then sheer incline are something Champlin isn’t so confident about taking the Bronco on. Especially as the surface is very rocky, very bumpy, and perhaps not the best for an untested vehicle.
Proving The Doubters Wrong With A Heroic Performance
Amazingly though, to Champlin and probably many viewers, the Bronco gets down the drop and then back up on the other side as well. Even as the Bronco it lurches very off camber. It's a performance akin to that of his new off-roading Corvette. It's not a pretty sight from the outside, nor does it look very comfortable. But this rather untested machine with its new wheels and tires does make it up the hill. After the run, they do find that a couple of parts did come off the Bronco. For the most part though, the Bronco seems to have done pretty well in this first effort up the hill.
Source: Westen Champlin YouTube Channel