4Runner vs Bronco vs Wrangler Off-Road Rumble: One Is Great, One Is Good & One STRUGGLES!

This video is brought to you by our friends over at 4Runner6G, the number one community where you can go online and find out about what folks are doing with their 4Runners, what to expect, what the biggest tire size you can fit without a lift is, and everything in between. A huge thank you to 4Runner6G for sponsoring this video. Check them out in the link below. Tommy, today we have three of the best off-roaders you could buy. We've got the veteran, we've got the challenger, and we've got the new kid. And we're going to take them up over the That's right. So we've got the JL Wrangler, which has been very well established in the off-road community for a number of years now. We have the new Ford Bronco, which has really taken the off-road world by storm. And of course, the all-new Toyota 4Runner Trailhunter. We're going to put them up against some off-road obstacles and see what happens. Let's get right to it. Keep going. You're okay. You can really feel that lack of front-end articulation. Are you worried about going sideways? Yeah, we're all the way maxed out on the gauge. What if I go left here? Not bad, Toyota. Tommy, I've called this Wrangler the veteran because literally it's been around since the Second World War. Yeah, and this version of the Jeep, the Wrangler JL, has been around for about seven years now. This is the new 2025 Wrangler Rubicon X. It's got pretty much every option on it, including the one-touch power top. There we go. Except it took you three touches. It took you a couple tries. But this is a really nice feature on the Jeep. You push a button, top slides open, and now we got the fun in the sun. Yeah, also the 4xe, but all that means, Tommy, is that we're looking at $79,000. That's a lot of money. It's the most expensive vehicle here. By quite a long shot, but I've just gone ahead and stuck it in the electric mode. So now we're just running off the battery stored in that 17 kilowatt hour battery underneath the rear seat. And in four low, it is absolutely eating this trail up like it's nothing. Yeah, I mean, there's a reason that Wrangler has been the yardstick for everybody else to try to emulate. And what's cool about the 4xe is not only do you get the 470 pound-feet of torque, 375 horsepower, it's the most powerful car here, but you also get this kind of silent creep through the forest, which is a pretty cool thing. It is a really cool thing. It's something that I'm sure all you Rivian guys and gals out there know about. The Rivian guys and gals don't know about solid axles off-road, and that's where we're going to see a big differentiation in this Wrangler. The beam front and rear axle going over the Razor Rocks. This is going to be really interesting. Now, Razor Rocks is a really cool obstacle here. It is a really sharp set of jagged rocks that shoot up above this ravine. You want to spot me up to stand? Yeah. Are you going to lock anything up or what's the plan here? We're going to start out with everything unlocked. Yeah. And then once we start struggling a little bit, we're going to kind of mess with things a little bit. Are we going to take the novice, in other words, the easy way or the veteran way? We're going to go the hard way. We'll show you what the Jeep can do. Of course, we've got underbody protection. We've got it all. All right. I'll spot you, dude. So, let's go. Let's go the difficult way. You can see how difficult these are from this angle because, look, this rock is almost at my chest height. And that Jeep, while it has a lot of ground clearance, is in chest height. All right, Tommy. So, this Jeep has a 44 degree approach angle. And what's nice about this Jeep is it has the factory integrated winch. And you can see that it's tucked within the bumper. Unlike the Bronco, that's kind of just stuck on the front end. It actually really eats away at the approach angle. This is nice and flush. All right. Take the hard way, dude. Straight up. Here we go. This is going to put you really at a weird angle. This is with off-road plus enabled. Okay. So, what we're noticing here is something interesting. So, we should start to see the benefit of the solid front axle. But we're not because I didn't disconnect the front sway bar. So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to back it up. See if I can get that sway bar disconnected. It is a little fussy getting it disconnected on the Wrangler. So, it's still flashing at me. I think I got to go to a more level ground here. There we go. Now, it's disconnected. Now, we can get that benefit. And I'm also going to go ahead and lock the rear diff. Rear diff locked. And I can use my select control to climb us up this. So, this is all the Jeep at this point. 0.6 mile an hour. Letting the Jeep do the climbing. Come on, Jeep. Looking good. This is select control trying to figure it out. So, you can see it's a little herky-jerky. But it did get us up that obstacle. I smell tire burning. And that was with just the rear locker, dad. If we wanted it to be even smoother, we could have clicked on the front locker as well. But we did make it up that using all of the automated systems. Got to kind of play with some of the buttons in this Jeep. Tommy, I call the Bronco the challenger, right? Because not only did Ford bring it to the Wrangler, but they actually called out the Wrangler. And they said, you know what? We're going to do one better for everything. So, this is Ford's answer to the Wrangler. And in this case, it's actually cheaper. It's only $55,000. Yeah. And look, to have this be a direct comparison, we really need the Wrangler on 35s, which you can now get because that was kind of the response to the Bronco. But yeah, the Sasquatch package you can get on the Bronco, which includes the locking discs and the 35s is such an amazing value. Especially if you get it on like a lower end base Bronco, it's hard to go wrong. Yeah. And this is the Everglades, which was an interesting trim package that no one bought. Yeah, that's right. Because it was still pretty expensive. The sticker on this one was $57,000. And it only came with the smaller engine, the 2.3 liter engine, which is 300 horsepower, 325 pound feet of torque on premium gas. So, you couldn't get this with the V6, which is what a lot of people wanted if they were spending nearly 60K on a Bronco. Yeah. And I get that, you know, if you want to do apples to apples, you got to get the Wrangler with the 35s. But dude, that would make it even more expensive. That's true. Yeah. Now, we are here at the Razor Rocks in the Bronco. Now, unfortunately, the Everglades doesn't have the optional sway bar disconnect that like a Badlands would have. So, we're going to have to go on this obstacle with that sway bar connected. Right. I'll spot you. As always, take the hard route, please. Yep, will do. We can try some of the Bronco trail control features. So, first, we will make sure we are in the rock crawl mode, which automatically turns on the rear locker. I'm going to turn it off for now, and then we'll click it on just like we did with the Jeep, and we'll be able to see some of the articulation difference. All right, here we go, Dad. So, you can see Broncos rely a lot more heavily on lockers. That's the exact same line. They end up doing a lot of bouncing. So, I'm going to go right to the locker on, and then I'm going to use the trail control feature, and we'll see how that compares. Set it to the one mile an hour. That's trail control on, rear locker on. Okay, it's a little fast, so a little bit less control than the Jeep. Had to use the brake there because it didn't like what it was doing. Oh, wow. You're digging yourself in, Tommy. I'd back up. Yeah, I don't like that very much. No, you are way off kilter there, my man. Back it up. And in this one, you can really feel that lack of front end articulation compared to the Jeep. So, I'm going to go ahead and put the front locker on as well. So, what happened, Tommy, is when you started digging, the whole truck moved backwards, and you got yourself into a different line than the Wrangler. So, you want to try hitting it again from the same line? Yeah, let me undo this. There you go. There you go. You got it. All right, we'll try that again. I'm going to go lockers on this time. I would go forward and just go around again. Don't back it up. It's too dangerous. Take two. But what we see with the trail control system in the Bronco is it's a lot less sophisticated than the Jeep, and there's a lot more kind of bouncing and spinning, I find. I don't really like Ford's trail control at all, especially when compared to the Crawl Control. All right, you're good. You're good. Straight back. Straight back. Which we'll check out on Toyota. That thing is awesome. Okay. Go, little passenger. We've kind of dug a hole here, dude. All right, I'm going to put your wheel on this rock over here, okay? Cool. I'm going to go front locker on this time. The ultimate in control, and I'm not going to mess with any of the automated settings. I'm just going to drive it. Let's see if she can do it. That's front and rear lockers. There's that transition. Now go drive. Go, passenger. Passenger. Oh, you're right. Other passenger. There you go. You got it. That's it. You got it. There we go. Up the rock. Keep going. You're okay. You'll come down. There we go. And that was a butt puncher. It's funny how it goes from being a test of different abilities to a butt puncher moment. Yeah. I mean, I think that certainly we dug that hole a little bit with the spinning, and then I think certainly the lack of front-end articulation really had an impact on kind of that stability there, but we were able to get up it. Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, it didn't do it elegantly. Nope. Not as elegantly as the Jeep. Yeah, the Jeep did. I think it was a sway bar disconnect because you were like a ******* Bronco. We should try one with that stability bar disconnect to see the difference. It'd be cool to see. Next video, okay? Yeah. I'm already too nervous right now. I was really nervous about that. I mean, I don't know if we came close to rolling over, but it was like 30 degrees. We had another three or four degrees before. You rolled it on top of me, huh? Tommy, I call this 4Runner Trailhunter the new kid or the newcomer because, well, it's brand new. It's the first time Toyota has ever had this trim, and so it's new to the off-road game, and this is actually meant to be more of an overlanding rig than an off-roader like the TRD Pro. But you say that. This has more underbody protection than the TRD Pro. Yes. So I actually think that this is more of the ultimate off-road one because it has the rock rails and the rear diff protection. And old man emu, which I think is maybe a step better than the Fox you get. Bold fighting words. I know, I know. Sorry about that, all you Fox folk. The other thing is it's right in the middle price-wise. This one is $69,000, so it's almost 10 less than the Wrangler, but 15 more than the Bronco. Yeah, and this vehicle is the best equipped of all three. It's the biggest screen, it's got ventilated seats, it's got a heated steering wheel, right? It's got all the shenanigans that you'd want. But it doesn't have a winch, Tommy. It doesn't have a winch, and it has the smallest tire. So we're looking at like a 32-inch tall tire, which is definitely going to hurt us on the Razor Rocks. By the way, I don't love the way that the Bronco's winch is installed. Yes, it kind of juts out on the front. I was talking about that in the Wrangler, but it does have Toyota's fantastic crawl control system. So let's try the Razor Rock and see what happens. All right, now we have to be careful here because I'm not sure you got enough ground clearance for the traditional approach, but I'll let you know, okay? Yep. What is the biggest tire you can fit on a stock sixth-generation 4Runner? What are some of the pros and cons to owning this vehicle? Well, that's where our friends over at 4Runner 6G Forum come in, the number one go-to community for everything sixth-generation 4Runner related. Be sure to check them out using the link below. So this vehicle has 33 degrees of approach angle. I've got my locker off. I do have my sway bar disconnected. I'm going into... You're on the same line. The sway bar disconnected. And here we go. I think you're going to be okay. Oh yeah? Yeah. There you go. Come on Toyota, show us what you got. Look at that, even with the locker off. Beautiful, beautiful approach there. Oh man, this Toyota Multi-Terrain Select, their crawl control setup is amazing. Now, I'm in this position. I'm going to go ahead and turn my rear locker on just so I have some added control. I remember, go passenger now. Passenger. Passenger. All right, I'm trying crawl control. All right. And we're going to see how crawl control works. It's just so good. Look at that. Look at the control, unlike the other two. Passenger. Passenger. Nice. So there we are, hard on the skid plate. But look, I did it. Wow. Not bad, Toyota. I was ready to get down on this for not having the clearance of the approach angle. Locked the diff, crawl control on. Pulls us right up that. Good job, Toyota, with that sway bar disconnect. A lot of front end travel there too. It's pretty good. Young Mr. Micah, take a poke underneath there. See what you did to that skid plate. We used it like it's designed to be used. Truth or dare, Tommy? Well, we're going to go up the dare side, of course, Dad. Of course we are. Now, here's the thing. So this is the most expensive vehicle here, but it is also the nicest, I think, in terms of its interior. We've got real leather. We've got these really nice buttons and switches that actually feel very tactile. They feel like they do things. So I see why this is the most expensive. It's also a step above the hybrid Toyota. I mean, this is about 20 miles of all electric range. So you can do this kind of very quiet and, you know, very serene off-roading. Look, I understand that this vehicle is very well equipped, but it still doesn't have some stuff that the Toyota has. For example, the Toyota has ventilated seats. This vehicle only has heated seats still, right? Hallelujah. I know, it's got the top of doors, but asking $78,000 for this vehicle does seem a little much. And I know I always complain about Wrangler prices, but when you come out here to this kind of terrain, the vehicle is just so unbelievably in its element. Feeling those axles work underneath you with those coil springs keeping the body nice and level is such a cool experience. And then, you know, you've got the locker actuation, which is pretty easy. You've got that sway bar disconnect, which is a little pussy, but when it's engaged, it's like bringing a racehorse into its element. That's what this feels like right now. And it doesn't feel like that on the road, but under this specific situation, it feels great. Yeah. I mean, look, I'm not getting any, I just said that I got head bob, but for the most part, it's about as comfortable as you're ever going to get off-roading because you do have the disconnectable sway bar. You do have a heritage of off-roading that, like I said, goes back to the second world war. And look, this Jeep has a circulating ball steering, which is kind of Roman era. Not you era. I'm not talking 1920s. I'm talking even older than you. Yeah. I was running the Renaissance, but not quite that far. Not the Roman times. The Roman era, right? So we're circulating ball, terrible on the road, imprecise, but when you get it off-road, you get this smooth, linear actuation of the front wheels. You don't get any kickback to the steering wheel. Truth there. Of course we're going up there. Of course we're going up there. Here's the thing about bigger tires. 95% of the time they make obstacles easier, but like we just demonstrated, what they can do is also raise the center of gravity and make it a little bit more tippy. Sure. And I think we just experienced that on the Razor Rocks. A little bit. Yeah. I mean, I think that the locker engagement in the Bronco is the best of the bunch. By no question, you stick the button on and it just cruises. But the traction control system is the worst of the bunch. It's the least effective at distributing torque and the crawl control or trail control is, Ford calls it, is also the worst of the bunch. You don't like, goes over any goat, goes over any, what does the T stand for? Goes over any terrain. Any terrain. I like the goat modes. I think they're quite useful and helpful as a whole. I think they're really neat. But the one pedal mode or the no pedal mode, I should say, is what I have a problem with. But listen, so like there, right? It just makes it harder than it needs to be. I do like a lot about this Bronco though. I like how wide and stable it feels. So even though we were canted over at 30 degrees back there, this is such a wide vehicle that you really get a sense of stability and you have a wide tire patch too. So I like that part about it immensely. But that could also be bad, especially when you're in the trees and you're trying to kind of thread of a sure needle, you know, it can be bad. Yeah, you're right about that. This forerunner trail hunter by far seems to be two things. The most solid, solid. What do you mean by solid? Just built out of one piece of granite instead of out of a bunch of different parts. Sure. And at the same time, the most luxurious. Sure. Even more luxurious than the Wrangler, I would say. But it also, because of that, feels the least off-road worthy because I fear for it. You do. And I think part of that's just because it's on the smallest rubber. So they've always, on their TRD models, undersized the tires on these things. They're very conservative. Yeah. But they do more than most people would ever think they would with the least amount of tire on them. And it's also the hybrid, the real hybrid. Not a plug-in hybrid, not a turbo. Well, it is a turbo, but it's the one that, you know, has the most basic hybrid system where you can't really go electricity all the time, but it kind of just works in the background. 326 horsepower, 465 pounds of torque, and you get the 2400 watt inverter. So when you're camping, you got all that onboard power. Well, it is the overlanding rig, isn't it? Yeah, the Trailhunter version. All right. Well, this is Sawtooth. Shall we see what kind of breakover angle it has? Yeah. So 10.8 inches of ground clearance in this vehicle, about a 37 degree departure angle. The way the Sawtooth works is the farther you go this way, the steeper it gets, and the more you're going to bash the bottom of your vehicle. In other words, the less breakover angle you have. So I'm going to try to take you as hard as possible, and we'll see if you scratch the rock, and if you do, we'll move it over. So come this way, and let's see if you hit over here. All right. So this is extreme, and the answer is keep going, keep going. Yeah, right there. So yeah, back it up. That's the thing about Wranglers is like, yes, they scrape, but it really doesn't matter. All right. As long as it's not yours. No, even if it was mine, they're just so tough underneath. All right. Well, okay. So we'll see how the Bronco does compared to the Wrangler. You want me to do an easier one? No, no. We'll see a big scratch on the rock, so we'll know exactly where you went. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Well, we got the Sawtooth. I'm going to turn around. Let's see how high you can take it. I think this should have more breakover because of the taller tires, but let's find out. Taking the same line as a Jeep. All right. I'm taking you over the exact same line. No farther. There you go. It's the same line as the Wrangler. Let's see if you hit. This little 2.3 liter, by the way, such a good engine. I really like it. Same line as a Wrangler. Just a gentle kiss, Tommy. Yeah. That clearance, that added clearance really helped there. We kind of just, just a little tap and off we went. Yeah. Yeah. I'll show you the difference. Once you go down, I'll show them the difference. This is where the Wrangler went over and scraped. And if you come over here, much farther down, that's where the Bronco went. So yeah, in this case, the bigger tires give you more ground clearance, which gives you a better ability to go off road. That simple. So we're coming up to the Sawtooth here. Now, definitely the least amount of ground clearance of the group, only 10.1 inches. So we're probably going to start to see some of those skid plates come in action yet again. Let's see. All right, here we go. There's going to be gnashing of teeth and scraping of metal right now. Yeah. I'm not sure we're going to do it. You may not do it. Oh, you're going to do it. Titanic moment there. What's the iceberg? Well, you certainly use those skid plates, Tommy. Well, we talked about paying for them. We used them. Yeah. Come over here, Mary. Look, the forward didn't wait till it got on the tallest rock. It hit right away on the lower rocks. So there we go. By far, you can tell that this has the least amount of break over. But nevertheless, it's a Toyota, so it takes the bashing and keeps on going. I'm impressed. Tommy, in the on-road world, there's a saying, there's no replacement for displacement. Yeah. But in the off-road world, there's no replacement for size. And with 35s, the Bronco's got it. Yeah, but it would be really cool to bring the Wrangler out here with 35s as well and put them head to head, because I think from an all-out rock crawling standpoint, the Jeep still one of the Bronco. And if you want a great all-rounder, something that'll do mild to medium trails and still be very good on the road, well, that's the Forerunner for the win here. Cheapest vehicle with the largest tire, $55,000, compared to $80,000, compared to $70,000. Come on, today, that one won the day. Well, let us know what you guys think in the comment section below. This has been Tommy and Roman saying, we'll see you guys next time. And by the way, if you come back every 10 years from now, I'm kind of thinking the Toyota would win. See you next time. Ciao.