In the shadow of towering concrete pylons; among fields of cassava deep in the Thai jungle; powering through rutted mountain tracks; grille-deep at a 4×4 testing facility: Whatever the world brings, the new Ford Ranger is in its element.
Built Ford Tough, an online documentary series from Ford that launches next week, captures a team of Ford engineers in the field, punishing the new Ranger in conditions that echo what customers may experience – only taken to the absolute extreme.
A film crew followed the engineers as they traveled across Thailand in search of the most grueling environments, testing four key elements that define the Ranger’s tough versatility: its load box, torque output, water-wading capability and engine cooling systems. That search led the team from an under-construction BTS Skytrain transit hub in Bangkok all the way to mountains along the northern border of Thailand, where the roads are rough and the jungle is unforgiving.
Episode 1: Heavy Drop
The new Ranger was subjected to a punishing day at the job site, with pallets of wood, concrete tubes, bags of cement and stacks of steel dropped from 2.6 meters above the truck bed to test the outer limits of the Ranger’s load box.
Episode 2: Tough Towing
At a working limestone quarry – over the course of a day marked in equal measure by torrential monsoon rains and high-intensity sun – Ford engineers put the truck toe-to-toe with industrial rock haulers to demonstrate the Ranger’s towing capability. The test employed a wheel-less steel sled designed to showcase the vehicle’s impressive breakaway force.
Episode 3: Deep Water
In the jungle of Kanchanaburi Province at a 4×4 testing facility, extensive water wading tests showed the new Ranger’s smart design taking on challenges that would stop others in their tracks. Engineers tested the Ranger in a variety of different scenarios, from higher speeds at 200 mm all the way to 800 mm with a full payload in the bed.
Episode 4: 24H Endurance
A 6.5 km jungle track through mountains on the northern Thailand border served as a gruelling test site for the Ranger’s cooling systems, intelligently designed to manage high RPM stress and extended periods of extreme towing and payload demands – even for 24 hours straight.
The first instalment of Built Ford Tough debuts on 4 April on Ford Malaysia Facebook Page – subscribe to tune in.
