How Works the Ford Bronco’s Crawler Gear?

One of the most anticipated vehicles to hit the roads next year - the new Ford Bronco. With impressive features like the removable doors and roof and an extra crawler gear transmission. This is an off-road beast capable of conquering the roughest terrain.

The crawler gear function is nothing revolutionary and has graced off-roading trucks and is any SUV's challenge for more than 25 years.

Called the Granny Gear, back in 1991, this feature allows the driver to shift to a lower gear for lower speeds while maximizing wheel torque which helps the vehicle navigate extreme terrain.

Now, the Bronco’s manual transmission has an extra ‘C’ gear that can be engaged by pulling the shifter all the way to the bottom right, in the opposite direction of the reverse gear.
The Bronco’s first gear, which has a ratio of 4.2:1 - for every 4.2 engine rotations, the wheels rotate once. The new crawler gear has a ratio of 6.588:1 and paired with the shorter 3.06:1 low gear and the shortest final drive gear of 4.70:1, the overall crawl ratio is 94.7:1. The extreme amount of torque while rotating the wheels at very low speeds is called torque multiplication.

The super-low gear allows more accurate throttle control instead of overpowering the tires and thus losing grip when you need it the most.
It’s easier to ease off the clutch at slow speed to clear difficult obstacles, and you don’t need to worry about burning or slipping the clutch.

Available on the ten-speed automatic transmission aided by a torque converter transforms any difficulties clearing obstacles into something usual. The prices for the capable Badlands model will start at $42,000 for the two-door version and the fully-loaded First Edition will set you back at least $57,000.