2026 Ford Ranger Super Duty review

The sales figures already reveal the Ranger is the golden goose for Ford Australia. Now, the new Ford Ranger Super Duty is set to cement it.

Joining the regular Ranger line-up is the new Super Duty, bringing a heavy duty bent to Ford’s popular hay hauler. It joins the prodigious Ranger Raptor performance ute, not to mention the evergreen Everest family SUV (which is based on, you guessed it, the Ranger), It also marks the first time Ford Motor Company’s esteemed Super Duty nomenclature has been deployed Down Under.

Ford is making no secret of its intentions to topple the Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series with the Super Duty. It does that based on our first impression, with the exception of one critical unknown.

How much does the Ford Ranger Super Duty cost?

The Ford Ranger Super Duty range opens at $82,990 plus on-road costs for the single cab chassis in Australia – roughly a $35,000 premium over the 4x4 XL Ranger single cab chassis (on which it is loosely based) from a grade perspective.

The 'Super Cab' chassis Super Duty ups the RRP to $86,490 plus on-road costs, while the dual-cab chassis is $89,990 plus on-roads. Keep in mind these prices are before a tray has been added, so factor in an additional $7000 to $10,000 there. Potentially more if you look at the aftermarket.

Of course, it would be unfair to simply compare the Super Duty with the regular Ranger, such is the amount of engineering and development work that has gone into the newcomer, which we’ll detail below.

In terms of rivals, there is one that Ford Australia is squarely aiming at: the Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series. Although archaic in most respects, the 79 Series has a devoted following on account of its legendary durability (and simplicity).

The LandCruiser 79 Series single cab chassis opens at $76,800 (plus on-road costs), while the double cab chassis starts from $77,300 (plus on-road costs).

Elsewhere, rivals for the Ranger Super Duty are listed as cab-over light duty trucks (including from Isuzu and Hino) and the American pick-up set, including the Ford F150, Toyota Tundra, RAM 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado 1500.

What is the Ford Ranger Super Duty like inside?

The Ford Ranger Super Duty is much like a regular, run-of-the-mill Ford Ranger on the inside.

For the most part, that’s a really good thing: terrific incidental storage, supportive seats, decent touch points and an excellent outward view and driver positioning.

Additionally, the integration of technology and safety is top of the class in the mid-size utility segment.

The downside here is the cabin fit out is based on quite a low specification of Ranger – in keeping with its workhorse positioning. This means, even at close to $100,000 on the road, you’re jumping behind the wheel of something without heated or ventilated seats, cloth furnishings, manual seat adjustment and more. Naturally, there are customers out there who demand this sparseness in a work truck – vinyl floors are another touch – but it would be nice to have some comfort mod-cons at a minimum.

Noted, the Super Duty is positioned as a workhorse – a duty it will happily fulfil for fleets and commercial operators. However, for private buyers seeking additional payload and towing capacity, it leaves a bit to be desired. To that, Ford says watch this space.

Dual cab versions offer moderate rear seat proportions complete with dedicated rear air vents, power outlets and ISOFIX attachment points on the outer pews.

What equipment does the Ford Ranger Super Duty come with?

The Ranger Super Duty comes standard with cloth seats, vinyl floor, eight-way manually adjustable driver’s seat, electronic park brake, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry (front doors only) and start, LED headlights and DRLs, automatic headlights and wipers, and an auto-dimming rear-view mirror.

Infotainment comprises a 12-inch centre touchscreen display with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Bluetooth connections, matched by a separate digital display in the instrument cluster. Front and rear passengers are provided USB connections, and there is a wireless phone charger up front.

Then there’s the work-centric side of the Super Duty’s equipment and specs: on-board scales which allow operators to weigh how much is in the tray area, a sealed snorkel as standard (or deleted as a no-cost option), a steel front bar and overhead auxiliary switches.

Mechanical changes include 18-inch, eight-stud wheels and hubs borrowed from the F150 Super Duty with 33-inch all-terrain tyres (including full-size spare), extra underbody armour, a strengthened chassis, 130-litre enlarged fuel tank, and upgraded suspension with reinforced mounting points.

How safe is the Ford Ranger Super Duty?

The Ford Ranger Super Duty carries over all of the driver aids and safety features of the regular Ranger, which is good news.

That said, it won’t retain the existing Ranger’s five-star ANCAP safety rating – owed in large part to the tweaked underpinnings and the fitment of a steel front bumper, which is expected to preclude it from a five-star pedestrian safety rating.

Ford Australia is currently in discussions around whether the Super Duty will be provided for independent crash assessment.

Otherwise, the Super Duty offers all the important safety trinkets: nine airbags, adaptive cruise control with stop and go function, traffic sign recognition, lane centering, blind spot monitoring, stability control, lane keep assist, autonomous emergency braking, a 360-degree camera and reversing camera, tyre pressure monitoring, and front and rear parking sensors.

The trailer safety suite is also noteworthy, with specialised blind spot monitoring capability, integrated trailer brakes and a Smart Hitch function which helps operators manage trailer weights and distribution.

Best of all, the safety tech and driver aids are relatively benign in their interventions, meaning they don’t detract from the driving experience.

What powers the Ford Ranger Super Duty?

Powering the Super Duty is Ford’s familiar 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 engine – codenamed the Lion V6 – albeit with a thorough once-over of internals to ensure it is fit for the Super Duty brief.

In this tune the V6 diesel makes 154kW at 3250rpm (down from 184kW at the same rpm on the regular Ranger), but an unchanged 600Nm at 1750rpm.

Revisions include the installation of additional cooling, retuned engine and transmission calibrations and the introduction of stronger engine mounts. Taking on feedback from mining and commercial operators, Ford has also deleted the auto stop-start feature (designed to save fuel use) and has given owners the chance to safety delay DPF burnoffs to a more appropriate time.

Ford insists it has comprehensively tested the Super Duty in an unprecedented testing program, which has included autonomous testing loops, GVM and towing testing, water wading testing and packing 600kg worth of mud underneath to simulate roles in mining environments.

The car maker has detailed “calibration changes” to the engine and gearbox mapping of the new model – reducing combustion temperatures and cylinder pressures “significantly from base Ranger” - together with different final drive and transmission ratios. There’s also front and rear locking differentials – a boon for off-roading.

Elsewhere, the Super Duty features a beefed-up chassis, heavy duty underbody protection, upgraded suspension with reinforced mounting points, strengthened tow bar mounting, long leaf springs and larger brakes.

The 130-litre diesel tank extends driving range to about 1000km claimed, and AdBlue has been introduced to comply with heavy duty emissions regulations.

All models in the Super Duty range quote a 4500kg braked towing capacity (using genuine Ford towing equipment), 4500kg gross vehicle mass (GVM), 8000kg gross combination mass (GCM), 1900kg maximum front axle load, and 2800kg maximum rear axle load.

That is up significantly on the 3500kg tow rating, 3280kg GVM, 6400kg GCM, 1490kg front axle load, and 1959kg rear axle load of a Ranger XLT V6 4x4 cab-chassis.

In terms of payloads: 1982kg for the single-cab chassis, up to 1896kg for the Super Cab chassis, and up to 1825kg for the dual-cab chassis – the lattermost compared to 1150kg for a regular dual-cab chassis Ranger XLT V6.

Ground clearance is rated at 295mm in the dual-cab, 297mm in the Super Cab, and 299mm in the single-cab.

There is an argument to say the equivalent Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series offers similar utilitarian values for less. However, it has a smaller engine and lower load ratings (3500kg towing, 3510kg gross vehicle mass and 7010kg gross combination mass).

What is the Ford Ranger Super Duty like to drive?

Anyone who has driven a modern dual-cab ute with some underbody mods, raised ride height or with increased GVM will know it is a game of compromise: compromised road dynamics, compromised power delivery, and often a noisy, industrious cabin environment.

That’s where the Ford Ranger Super Duty differs. Ford has managed to extend the bandwidth of its clever utility without wildly deviating from its core on-road strengths, which remain top of class in an ever-evolving segment.

This means that, in large part, the Super Duty on-road ride remains settled and compliant, the cabin is quiet over most surfaces and the suspension does an admirable job in minimising head bouncing and unwanted feedback.

Granted the Super Duty isn’t a complete carbon copy of its polished Ranger donor. The ride is marginally stiffer and busier at lower speeds than the regular Ranger, the steering feels slower through the rack with more input required, and the beefed-up ute feels its weight more during changes in direction. However, given the strides it makes in towing and off-road settings – which we’ll get to in a moment - those are easy compromises to make.

Similarly, the diesel V6 engine is a peach in this tune. It offers a civilised engine speed and smoothness at idle, plus the same signature torque-laden power curve, which will happily play in the upper echelons of the tacho if asked. If anything, the 10-speed automatic gearbox calibration feels more decisive than the regular Ranger, leaning more on the torque of the engine rather than chopping and changing between ratios. That’s just as well, because the manual override selector that carries over from the regular Ranger is clunky in its positioning and operation.

The biggest test for the engine and the Ranger platform on launch comes in the form of a three-axle trailer and a lot of hay. The trailer weighs 4500kg in total, while the hay in the back of the tray pushes our tested Gross Combination Mass (or GCM – the maximum total of weight of tow vehicle and trailer when fully loaded together) to 7700kg. With your correspondent and a passenger on-board, we’re at nearly 7900kg – 100kg shy of the Super Duty’s 8.0-tonne GCM limit.

In short, the Ranger Super Duty passes the test resoundingly. It remains stable under load, controlled over rugged pockmarked surfaces, and feels strong from an engine performance standpoint.

The diesel V6 feels obviously encumbered by the load but still musters energy to gently pile on speed, merging onto the highway safely. It also holds speeds on gentle inclines and makes excellent use of the aforementioned gearbox, largely avoiding the tendency to feel languid.

In handling terms, the Super Duty feels strong and stable under the heavy load. The comment was made inside the cabin that you wouldn’t want to tow such a large load around Australia, but for the occasional stint, the Super Duty proved up to muster – and did so without the truck-like footprint of American pick-ups.

Notably, our testing did not include a standalone payload test (sans towing), so stay tuned on later reports for this.

Off-road, the Ranger Super Duty conquered everything we asked of it on both a manmade off-road course, and some challenging terrain in the Victorian mountains. Wheel articulation and pedal modulation are both boons in these settings, with ample shove and flexibility over undulating terrain underneath. An exercise in approach and departure angles also reveals careful consideration on Ford Australia’s pass; the Super Duty passes with flying colours.

A couple of carry-over criticisms of the Ford’s off-road electronics suite remain – it feels quite reactive in its interventions, which can lead to excess wheel spin, and heavily reliant on the diff locks to get out of bother. But the good news is that all Ranger Super Duty models get these as standard.

The Open Road’s take on the Ford Ranger Super Duty

The Ford Ranger Super Duty is arguably the ute that other carmakers should aspire to with respect to its towing and workhorse capacity.

Not only does it make the Blue Oval’s new utilitarian offering make a neat fit for commercial and industrial-level operators around the country, but it arguably creates a better match for the hordes of caravanners towing their potentially overweight rigs around the country. You can tow your caravan and still have headroom for items on board.

Best of all, the Super Duty does this while retaining all that is great about the regular Ranger; proof once more that Ford truly does hold the keys to a golden goose.

What we liked

• Hugely impressive 4.5-tonne towing and off-road ability
• Largely retains the existing Ranger’s benchmark ride and handling mix unladen
• Some truly clever innovations have been included in development

What could be better?

• Even with its underbody revisions, the Super Duty asks a hefty premium over regular Ranger – and you need to fork out for a tray
• The cabin fit out feels quite sparse for a circa $100,000 ute – even for a work ute
• Finicky manual gear shifter with no paddles, highly reactive 4x4 traction control system