In 1988, I was 34 years old and, despite the fact that I'd been four-wheeling for years, I'd never owned a true 4WD vehicle.  My wife (now ex-wife) and I had just spent several days camping in Tuolumne County, packing all of our gear, two kids and a dog into a Ford Escort station wagon to make the trip possible.  On the long trip home, (we lived in the Bay Area at the time) we got to talking and we decided that it was time to get rid of the station wagon and get a four-wheeler.  I'd been lusting after a Bronco, ever since I saw my first Bronco, way back when I was a young teenager, in 1966.  So the next weekend, after spending a few pleasant hours at a local dealer, we came home with a year-old 1987 Bronco.  It had 22,000 miles on it and we paid $11,995.00 for the truck.  Wow!  That was a lot of money to us...

Left:  October, 1993, after a light snowfall at Tamarack Summit, east of Fresno, California.  Right:  My Bronco negotiates the Class-2 trail to the ghost town of Chloride City, California, located in Death Valley National Park, in early November, 1993, during Panamint Valley Days, 1993.

Why didn't I purchase a four-wheeler sooner?  Many reasons including the following:

* Money was tight.  I had a mortgage, car payments, rentals to manage and two kids.  What more can you say?

* Four-wheelers weren't, available in the quantities and competitive prices, until the mid-1980's

* Practicality, fuel economy and a wife that had another agenda

Left:  Photo clearly illustrates the changes I made to the back of the Bronco, to make it more "trail-friendly."  Right: I take a break, beside the Bronco, during a fall trip near Mojave.  Note the horseshoe on the front, mounted for good luck.  After having many of them stolen, I gave up on mounting horeshoes on the front of the Bronco.

After driving the Bronco around for a couple of years, I found out about the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs and immediately became a member.  I started attending trail runs and soon found out that a stock, full-sized Bronco wouldn't cut it.  (Note:  Back in the early '90's, the Association didn't have SUV runs like most of the current events include, which would have been perfect for my stock Bronco...)  So after a lot of research in magazines, (we didn't have the Internet in the early 1990's), discussions around campfires and a favorable tax return, it was time to send the Bronco into the shop for a few modifications.  A few thousand dollars later, the Bronco emerged from the shop with these trail-ready modifications:

* 4" Ranch suspension lift

* 33" x 12.5" BFG mudders

* Rancho 5000 shocks

* Warn 10,000 lb winch mount and bumper guards

* Auburn limited slip in front, Detroit locker in the rear

What a difference!  Now, I was ready for the trail!

And trails I did!  From 1992 until I sold the Bronco in 1997, I did practically every trail that you could imagine, up to, and including, some Class-5 trails, such as Santiago Canyon and Stone Canyon.  Class-4 trails didn't phase me, either on organized runs or runs I went on by myself.  I had an absolute blast!

Left:  Out of sequence, but I find myself in the snow near Pinecrest, in Tuloume County, California, in December of 1990.  Note the lack of accesories, much to the contrast of the photo to the right.  Right:  My Bronco and I are photographed at the top of Manly Pass, in April, 1995.  Note the winch, spotlight, radio antennas, flag, front-mounted shovel and the cowbell mounted under the winch.

However, it was to come at a price.  I'm ok with simple vehicles, such as the '67 CJ-5 and the '86 Samurai that I owned later, but the Bronco was too high-tech and too complicated for me.  After a couple of years of going on the difficult trails, things started happening.  Or, I daresay... breaking?  Many of the problems I could fix, but a lot of them I couldn't.  It seemed that after almost every trip that something would happen.  

When I purchased the Bronco, due to my lack of experience, I didn't realize that I'd purchased a "poor" platform to upgrade for serious trail work, due to the following shortcomings:

* Automatic transmission, leading to a very high crawl-ratio, estimated at only 30:1; not good for tough trails.

* "Push-button" electronic four-wheel drive.

Left:  The Bronco was good, but it could get stuck, as this June, 1995 shows me stuck at Peckinpah Meadows, east of Fresno, in the Sierra National Forest.  Right:  I staddle a stream, as a four-wheel with a group of friends in Nye Canyon, Nevada.

At the time of purchase, I was vaguely aware of these shortcomings, but life is full of compromises and, in addition to being a "weekend warrior," this truck had to be a soccer-mom special, grocery-getter during the week.  

After a couple of years and many trails later, I found myself divorced and the "soccer-mom" factor eliminated.  So, I really started working on the Bronco and made a few more modifications:

* Full interior roll-cage

* Huge "mechanics-style" toolbox in back, filled with survival goodies, tools and spare parts

* Removable, flexible bucket seats for rear-seat passengers

* Amateur radios for emergency communications

* Roof-mounted spotlight

However, despite all of these modifications, the Bronco seemed to favor the shop over the trail...

After Panamint Valley Days in November, 1995, owing to a too-high crawl ratio, I had to have a complete brake job done after wearing out the brakes coming down South Park Canyon.  Then, the tranny started slipping and it was a complete tranny rebuild. In November 1996, we attended Panamint Valley Days, but we had to abort the trail run in our Bronco because 4WD-low would not engage. Luckily, we were able to ride with friends in their Explorer.  In May, 1997, we drove all the way to High Desert Roundup and, again, we could not get 4WD-low to engage.  The trail run was aborted and we went railfanning instead.  Not to mention, I'd given up on the air conditioner, as it seemed to drain by itself after every trail run.  My current wife, Sharlene, did not particularly care to ride long distances in a truck without air conditioning.  She also didn't like the short-back bucket seats in front, as she felt they were uncomfortable for longer trips.

In August 1997, I attended "All For Fun" in Colorado, and nearly killed myself while four-wheeling up Tomichi Pass.  The Bronco was just too big and the trail was just too off-camber, narrow and weak to handle a full-sized truck. Thanks to my winch, a small lodgepole pine tree at the timberline, help of many friends and the Grace of God, the Bronco and I survived, albeit quite shaken.

A couple of weeks after returning from "All For Fun," Sharlene, her daughter Casey, a friend and I decided to spend a weekend in Reno.  As we pulled up to the hotel in the Bronco, Sharlene and the girls remarked that we resembled the "Beverly Hillbillies" and they were ashamed to be in the Bronco. Of course, I dismissed all of that, because the Bronco was a "manly" truck!

Left:  Here's another photo, taken in Panamint Valley, to give you an idea of the modifications that I made to the inside of my Bronco.  Right:  August, 1997, photographed at the top of Fordyce Summit, in the Tahoe National Forest.  This is the last photo I took of the Bronco, a short week before I sold it.

However, on the way home, on attempting to roll down the power rear window, it stuck in the middle so you couldn't roll it down for ventilation, or roll it up for security.  With it being stuck in the middle, it prevented the tailgate from being opened, thereby not allowing access the cargo area of the vehicle.

Enough was enough!  The following weekend, we traded it in for our current 1997, Ford F-250 truck.  After stripping the Bronco of as many add-on accessories as I could, I received a whopping $2,500.00 trade-in from the dealer towards the purchase of the new, $32,000.00 truck.

In retrospect, for what it was originally designed for, the Bronco was a good truck.  It's designers never intended it to undergo the punishment that I gave it, so I can forgive the Bronco of it's many faults.  All in all, it was a good truck that gave me endless hours of pleasure.