Ford Ranger Super Duty review: Is it the ultimate farm ute?

For as long as I can remember, if you wanted a proper farm ute in Australia, there was really only one choice: the Toyota 70 Series LandCruiser, be it the older 75 Series or the newer, equally bare-bones 79 Series.

The 70 Series is mechanically simple, dependable and practically unbeatable on the farm. Sure, it’s about as refined as a ride-on mower, but on the land it set a benchmark no other mid-size ute has been able to touch.

Until now. Maybe.

Ford launched the Ranger Super Duty mid-last year and, on paper, it eclipses every other mid-size ute sold here, pushing into light truck territory at a highly reasonable and competitive price point.

We’re talking a 4,500kg Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM), an 8,000kg Gross Combined Mass (GCM), and a 4,500kg braked towing capacity. Better yet, you can tow 4.5 tonnes and still have more than a tonne of payload left to play with, putting even some 1500-class American pickups to shame.

Pricing starts at $89,990 before on-road costs for the single-cab chassis. Our test vehicle came in at $111,229 thanks to the long list of optional extras, but even then it's playing in similar territory to Toyota's LandCruiser 79 Series WorkMate single-cab chassis, which starts from $76,800 before on-road costs.

But numbers only tell half the story. To find out what it’s actually like to live with, we took the Super Duty to my family’s property a few hours north of Brisbane and put it to work.

Is it finally time to sell our 79s? There’s only one way to find out.

While the Super Duty shares the same 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine and 10-speed automatic transmission as the standard Ranger, its powertrain has been detuned to 154kW, down 30kW, while retaining the same 600Nm of torque. That was done for durability and to meet ADR 80/04 truck emissions standards.

To achieve a factory 4.5-tonne GVM and 8.0-tonne GCM, Ford has heavily re-engineered the Ranger platform to handle the extra mass, and it seems to have covered all bases.

It features a reinforced chassis, bigger diffs, beefier axles and heavy-duty eight-stud hubs from the American F-250 Super Duty. Virtually every major component underneath has been strengthened to cope with the extra load.

Ford even claims the 4mm-thick steel underbody protection can take the full weight of the vehicle, even under the fuel tank, if you happen to get stuck on a rock somewhere.

It also ticks the right off-road boxes straight off the showroom floor, with 33-inch all-terrain tyres, a snorkel, a 130-litre long-range fuel tank, and front and rear diff locks.

Add 300mm of ground clearance and an 850mm wading depth, and it’s seriously equipped for the rough stuff.

The first test of the day was a supply run to the local timber yard, Paulgers Logging, to grab a trailer load of fence posts and get us close to the Super Duty’s 4.5-tonne towing capacity.

Running empty out to the yard, it drives like a Ranger but feels significantly tougher. You’re sitting behind a higher bonnet, looking out over wider arches, and the steering is a touch heavier, likely because of the larger tyres and wider wheel track.

Despite the beefed-up underpinnings, the Super Duty remains quiet, comfortable and loaded with the sort of tech that makes it far more refined than the common alternative.

It is noticeably slower than a standard V6 Ranger when you’re pedal to the metal, but the torque curve is lazier and offers more effortless pull. Peak torque arrives nice and low in the rev range, which is exactly what you want if you’re towing or carrying big weights.

Loading it up is where the Super Duty really stands out over other mid-size utes. It’s fitted with onboard scales for the tray, but the seriously handy feature is Smart Hitch, which tells you the tow ball weight as well. We loaded the trailer with around three tonnes of fence posts, putting us at roughly four tonnes once the steel trailer was factored in, and tow ball download sat just below the 450kg limit.

This is where the Super Duty separates itself. Most conventional utes require expensive GCM upgrades to legally tow this much weight, while many American pickups sacrifice most of their payload when towing at capacity. The Super Duty still leaves you with around a tonne to play with.

With the load on, it was definitely working, but the gearbox and engine are tuned well together. The torque comes in early, and the 10-speed auto holds gears without hunting around.

It’s the sum of small changes that makes the Super Duty such a confident tow rig, with the wider wheel track, larger brakes and higher tare weight all contributing. At no point was the tail wagging the dog, so to speak, even at 100km/h on pretty average country roads.

Heading down a steep dirt grade that required us to ride the brakes a bit, the Super Duty’s improved stopping power was a seriously welcome upgrade. It pulls a full 4.5 tonnes really well, and we’d have no hesitation running this heavy on a daily basis.

Back at the farm, we had to drag the fence posts across soft ground to one of the back paddocks, which required us to run down through the adjacent paddocks and across a seriously sloppy gully. Short of cutting a fence, it was the only way.

Before shooting off, we put a skid-steer bucket in the tray, as we’d be needing it over there for the next few days, adding around 600kg of extra weight into the mix.

The ground was wet and rutted after a lot of recent rain, so there was a high chance we’d get stuck. We’d normally use a 79 Series LandCruiser for this, but it wouldn’t be pulling this much weight and, even then, getting stuck is just part of the game.

We headed out in four-high and left everything else in Auto, figuring we’d only reach for the diff locks if things became properly slippery.

A thoughtful feature for farmers is the ability to delay DPF burns through the centre display. When you’re driving through long grass, the last thing you want is a hot exhaust starting a fire, so we used the feature throughout the day.

As we approached the boggy gully, we flicked both diff locks on, but the combination of deep mud and a heavy trailer on tiny tyres proved too much. We got royally stuck, but that’s farm life. You’re constantly pulling trailers into places they probably weren’t designed for.

I reckon just about any ute short of a Unimog would have gotten bogged there, although more aggressive off-road tyres, or perhaps even bigger 35s, might have given the Super Duty a better chance.

Thankfully, we were surrounded by machinery, and it was light work for the trusty Massey Ferguson 6170, which dragged the Super Duty back to firmer ground.

After dropping the trailer in the top paddock, where we’d be fencing across the weekend, it was time to see if the Super Duty ticked another very important box as a farm ute.

See, a farm ute can’t just be about work; it has to be fun, too. That’s one thing the old Cruisers have always been good for. They might have hand-wind windows and side mirrors that deflect about as much wind as a parachute, but their simplicity makes them an absolute hoot to wheel.

The real question here is whether all the electronics and drive modes in the Super Duty are a killjoy, or if it’s genuinely fun to thrash around the paddock. My brother, Aden, behind the wheel of his 79 Series, was adamant he’d get us bogged again too.

We set off to a few spots we knew would challenge both utes, including sloppy access tracks, rutted climbs and a creek crossing that’s steeper than any photo or video ever does justice.

There were plenty of times the Cruiser crab-walked up climbs, singing the V8 song it’s so revered for, while the Ranger simply walked its way up with the help of clever electronics that make use of every last bit of grip. The Super Duty is fiercely capable out here.

You’d expect the heavy-duty leafs up back to hurt the ride, given the weight it’s designed to carry and tow, but it was impressive empty. The damping feels typical of a leaf-sprung ute, but it also soaks up big hits without bucking you out of the seat.

But is it as fun as the 79? It depends who you ask. The raw mechanical simplicity of the LandCruiser makes you feel like you’re in complete control. It’s just you and the vehicle, with no electronics jumping in to make you look good.

Honestly, though, I’d rather drive this off-road than the 79. I like the Toyota’s V8, but the Ford does it all so effortlessly while still letting you kick the back out if you so please.

Has the Ford Ranger Super Duty earned a place on the farm?

The trusty Toyotas here will probably outlast all of us, but the Super Duty is vastly more capable in terms of carrying capacity and it’s also much more comfortable.

Long-term durability is the only real question mark, but given how heavily engineered the Super Duty is, we’d expect it to stand up well to farm life.

Pricing starts at $89,990 plus on-road costs for the single-cab cab-chassis, which is what farmers are used to paying for a ute. Our as-tested vehicle came in at $111,229, kitted out with a steel tray, winch, rock sliders, water tank, bullbar and more, but these are things most people add to any ute, and tipping into six figures is pretty normal.

Ford also offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty and 15,000km/12-month service intervals, so the level of coverage is on par with pretty much all the competition.

The Super Duty offers light truck numbers, but it retains the footprint, ride and driveability of a ute. For the modern farmer who wants something seriously capable, but still wants modern technology and comfort, it’s an option worth considering.