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While Ford sees if civilians want a three-axle Super Duty, British soldiers get early access as Ford pitches it as a Defender replacement
Ford has quietly revealed a six-wheeled Ranger Super Duty that Chasing Cars understands could eventually make its way to Australian showrooms – if enough people want to buy one.
At Ford Australia’s ‘Ford Uncovered’ event last week, jostling for attention alongside the Bronco Basecamp, Transit City and Mustang Dark Horse T8 was a white Ranger Super Duty with a third axle. Understood to have proper six-wheel-drive, Ford is said to be gauging public reaction to see if production is viable.
Bar the fifth and sixth wheels, the white Ranger displayed is the Super Duty already on sale. This means a three-litre turbo-diesel, producing 154kW and 600Nm, drives all six wheels through a ten-speed automatic transmission.
The Ranger Super Duty already features impressive stats such as its 4.5T braked towing capacity and GVM, plus an 8T GCM – these could be enhanced further in this configuration. At the very least, the rear axle capacity would likely be considerably higher.
The third axle on the concept car is not a simple bolt-on job, since Ford’s T6.2 platform (shared with the Ford Everest and Volkswagen Amarok) wasn’t originally designed for it. The third axle is driven from the transfer case on the transmission.
Reasons for the extra wheels include more traction, greater towing stability and a theoretical doubling of the maximum rear payload weight; the latter would suit motorhome conversions. Loose-surface traction benefits too, with 50 percent more rubber without 50 percent more weight. The turning circle and fuel consumption would, however, suffer.
A third axle conversion is not unheard of; such conversions are a niche aftermarket job costing between $20,000 and $80,000. Though normally restricted to trucks or tuners such as Hennessy or AMG, a conversion for the Mazda BT-50 was once available, and Ford has patented an aftermarket third axle for the F-150, with an optional electrically-driven third axle.
The 6×6 Ranger can be test-driven now. If you’re among a select few British soldiers.
Ford is collaborating with OEM supplier Ricardo and General Dynamics to enter the Ranger Super Duty in the British Ministry of Defence’s Light Mobility Vehicle program. The British MoD needs to replace the extremely long-serving Land Rover Defender, which dates back to 1948.
A series of Ranger models have been showcased to suit different roles, with the Ford squaring up against the Ineos Grenadier, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and current Land Rover Defender for the lucrative military contract.
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