The mission to build a mountain goat that hauls like a pack horse
How do you teach a pack horse to climb like a mountain goat?
For the Ford engineering team behind the Ranger Super Duty, this wasn't a riddle; it was the core mission. The challenge was born from conversations held not in boardrooms, but on the rugged edges of forest tracks and remote mine sites.
Jeremy Welch, a Ford Australia special projects manager who was on the journey since the beginning, remembers: “The stories we heard in our research groups were always about ‘compromise’. They told us about being unable to reach critical locations because the only vehicles strong enough to carry their gear were simply too big and unwieldy for the tracks, or those that could reach out of the way places, couldn’t carry all their gear.”
The mission was clear: deliver heavy-duty hauling capability in a vehicle capable enough to navigate demanding and technical terrain.
“We’d already given ourselves the task of engineering the truck to handle a massive 1,982 kilogram1 payload2” said Drew O’Shannassy, Ranger Super Duty program engineer. “But what good is that capability if you can't get it where it needs to go? We had to build a truck that could carry the load and reach the destination, delivering it where it needs to go.”
Compared to the Ranger, the Ranger Super Duty boasts a thicker, stronger chassis. It has fortified axles - the toughest rear differential ever used on a Ranger, and a more robust transfer case for enhanced low-range crawling. It borrows the 8-stud wheel hubs from its F-Series Super Duty sibling for enhanced load management.
Ranger Super Duty’s track width is pushed out by 90mm matching the Ranger Raptor’s, and it runs 33-inch tires, increasing running clearance to an impressive 298mm and offers long-travel suspension at the front and rear for enhanced off-road capability in technical terrain. For added confidence, the team fitted front and rear locking differentials and armoured the underbelly with up to 4.0mm thick steel shielding.
But the real proof wasn't in the parts list; it was in Ford’s punishing test regime. Ranger Super Duty’s off-road testing was longer and harder. From multiple high-speed mud bog runs and dedicated packing on more than 600kg of mud3 to intentional ‘abuse’4 scenarios to push features like Trail Turn Assist to the limit, as well as added ‘corrugation’ mileage4 at high load, and more. It was all designed to test durability for a life that will be lived off road.
Away from Ford’s You Yangs proving ground, the team sought out enthusiast-level tracks right across Australia, looking for the ultimate test. One of those was the aptly named ‘Rocky Track4’ - a brutal trail barely wider than the truck, littered with jagged steps and sharp rocks.
“Rocky Track isn’t the kind of place you’d normally bring a standard production four-wheel drive,” notes Rob Hugo, vehicle engineering supervisor. “But Ranger Super Duty isn’t just any production vehicle. And we didn’t just drive it up Rocky Track. We drove it up with more than 1000kg2 loaded on the back.”
“We know owners will drive these sorts of tracks, so it was important we drove them, too,”
said Hugo.
In addition, the team tested Ranger Super Duty in the harsh deserts of Outback Australia. And even spent time on a remote station in Outback Queensland, working with remote area fencing teams, running road rollers down air strips, mustering cattle and more. These drives were about assessing how the vehicle handled life on the land, towing and hauling heavy loads and how it dealt with the never-ending hard hits of corrugations.
“We drove many thousands of kilometres on these trips and endured tens of thousands of corrugations,”
said Hugo.
But it wasn’t just Ford engineers who experienced Ranger Super Duty. “We spent weeks with the people we’ve built Ranger Super Duty for,” said O’Shannassy. “We shadowed them and used the trucks the way they do, only we were able to go down tracks they couldn’t and carry loads they weren’t able to. There was a real sense of pride that we’d been able to deliver the truck they told us they needed.”
This wasn't about ticking a box on a test schedule. It was the ultimate proof point. It was the team fulfilling its promise to build a truck for tough work and terrain, ensuring customers have a vehicle capable of doing its job, so they can do theirs.