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The Ford Ranger Tremendous Obligation might be probably the most Australian ute produced since new-car manufacturing ended regionally.
Born from an thought by Ford Australia CEO Andrew Birkic in 2018 – when Mr Birkic was international product advertising lead for the Ranger and Everest – and a senior Ford Truck supervisor on the time, the Ranger Tremendous Obligation has been designed, engineered, and examined by the Ford Australia group proper from inception, all the best way as much as manufacturing.
Regardless of sporting the identical badge and sharing interiors and exteriors with the usual Ranger, the Tremendous Obligation is nearly a completely new car – particularly created to handle the desires and wishes of fleet patrons.
Mr Birkic mentioned the “spark of an thought” got here from a dialog with a key buyer, who advised them there wasn’t a car in the marketplace that met all of his wants.
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“[The Ford Ranger Super Duty] is a manifestation of that, and it actually is an excellent story of innovation and creativeness, you recognize, constructing off an unbelievable platform of Ranger,” Mr Birkic defined throughout a roundtable dialogue.
Ford’s engineering group says it labored intently with representatives from the mining, forestry, fireplace administration, and agriculture industries all through the event of the Ranger Tremendous Obligation, regularly checking in and discovering methods to include their suggestions.
“We went out and listened to folks, and simply listened and listened and listened – till you couldn’t hear anymore,” Justin Capicchiano, chief program engineer for the Ranger Tremendous Obligation, Ford Racing and Particular Automobile Engineering, advised media on the launch.
That suggestions boiled down to 6 core necessities: payload and towing, security, the combination right into a product ecosystem, functionality, simplicity, and effectivity.
With a gross car mass (GVM) of 4500kg and a gross mixed mass (GCM) of 8000kg, Ford created the Tremendous Obligation by redesigning the chassis with thicker strengthened metal, re-engineering the suspension, upgrading the steering, brakes, and drivetrain, and borrowing the eight-stud wheel hubs from the US-market F-250 Tremendous Obligation.
Together with a beefier switch case, Ford retuned the transmission, upgraded the engine with higher cooling, added a 130-litre gas tank, after which fitted 4mm-thick metal underbody armour.
Based on Ford engineers, the armour plate for the gas tank can face up to the automobile’s complete weight, ought to the car discover itself see-sawing on a rock whereas off-roading.
The Ranger Tremendous Obligation has additionally borrowed different improvements from Ford’s F-Sequence, including built-in weight scales to assist keep away from overloading.
Mr Birkic particularly referred to as out the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Sequence as a direct competitor, whereas making the occasional off-the-cuff remark about autos not even coming with cup holders – a thinly veiled comment concerning the LandCruiser.
However whereas Toyota has dominated the phase for arguably many years – with restricted competitors from the Nissan Patrol ute and Mercedes-Benz G-Class Skilled, each now axed – Ford clearly has its crosshairs on the 70 Sequence, whereas additionally going after cab-over vehicles just like the Isuzu N-Sequence.
Although rivals just like the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Sequence ute and the Isuzu N-Sequence truck had been seldom talked about by title, it’s clear Ford Australia believes there may be alternative within the heavy-duty, car-licence ute phase – which has arguably been uncared for by most automakers.
MORE: Discover the Ford Ranger showroom
