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Are you an owner/driver of an Isuzu N Series, Fuso Canter or Hino 300 small truck?
Then this might be for you, because Ford is banking on breaking into the light duty (LD) truck class with something completely different to the cab-over chassis norm with the coming Ranger Super Duty.
Due out sometime next year, the Australian-designed and engineered version of this country’s best-selling vehicle will be considerably more capable and off-road-ready than the existing version, as well as the first ex-factory medium-sized ute of its kind anywhere in the world.
Still undergoing final development, pricing and specification details are yet to be divulged, but the 2026 Super Duty will include 4500kg maximum braked towing, 4500kg Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) and 8000kg Gross Combined Mass (GCM) capacities.
Despite being 1000kg, 1220kg and 1600kg greater than the best that any other Ranger can currently muster respectively, it (only just) still allows for a standard driver’s licence to operate, putting the Super Duty right into LD truck territory, where the Isuzu has dominated for three decades and most models have markedly improved in safety thanks to freshly mandated regulations for 2025.
Now, Ford has said that while the newcomer has been designed with big industry, government departments, emergency services, mining, agriculture and farming applications in mind, smaller businesses and personal buyers are also a big part of the story.
According to Ford Motor Company Ranger/Everest Ford Performance, Special Vehicle Engineering and Customisation Chief Program Engineer, Dave Burns, the Super Duty’s ability to balance weekday workhorse muscle with weekend family-friendly passenger-car comfort, performance, safety and refinement because of its Ranger basis has its advantages for owner/users.
“There is a really interesting customer insight we have had with the cab-overs (LD trucks),” he told the Australian media at Ford’s 100th anniversary event in Melbourne last month.
“A lot of people have it for the Monday to Friday (work days), and then they have a Ranger (for example).
“So, when they get home, they park the cab-over in the driveway and they take out the other vehicle instead, out to the shops, or take the kids out, go to the footy.”
As a result of such research, and harking back to Ford Australia’s world-first ute back in 1934 that followed on from a Victorian farmer’s wife’s request for a more-civilised truck, Burns believes the Super Duty could likewise be pitched as a ‘two-in-one’ proposition, making LDs redundant for many prospective consumers.
“What we've found, with Super Duty, is you don't need a cab-over anymore,” he stated.
“You can do the Monday to Fridays, then – going back to (original ute inventor) Lewis Bandt example of (combining a car for) church on Sunday and (a ute for) taking the pigs (to market) on Monday – what we're giving the customer is a single product that can do both applications.”
Burns added that this could save consumers tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of not needing a second vehicle as a result of having a LD truck workhorse for weekday-only use.
“You can do both things, with one vehicle,” he said. “If you talk about cost of ownership, one vehicle's going to be a lot cheaper than two.”
To that end, the Super Duty will have the same interior space, multimedia technologies and security features as every other corresponding Ranger model, including all of the advanced driver-assist safety tech.
Ultimately, this is a workhorse, however, and so, to help achieve its extended towing, GVM and GCM capabilities, the Super Duty has undergone extensive modifications.
“In terms of the proportion of parts, let's talk about how much stuff has changed,” Burns revealed.
“If we talk about reliability and robustness and how the thing has got to last, it's got to be durable, it's got to be reliable… so, the underbody in the car, we’re talking powertrains, suspension, frame… 70 per cent of the content of that underbody is all new for Ranger.
“It’s all been beefed up, it’s bigger, it’s badder, plus all the protective (items) like the bash plates straight out of the factory… we know how our customers use these trucks. They're brutal, and we've tested them in those conditions to make sure that the car's up for the job.
“So, in terms of confidence, we have absolutely taken this thing to the ends of the earth and back, tried to break it, and you know, the thing is performing really, really well.”
Extra toughness, then, but within the same dynamic parameters that make the Ranger one of the best utes to drive and ride in, period.
These are backed up by substantially altered bodywork, including a new bonnet, guards, grille and a (uniquely steel for Super Duty) front bumper, as well as wider wheel arches, bigger exterior mirrors, extra side lighting and larger wheels with an eight-stud pattern and 33-inch General off-road tyres.
Ironically, given Ford’s desire to go after the Isuzu N Series and other Japanese-made cab-over LDs, the company used to rely on then-partner Mazda to supply its own version, the Trader, from the 1970s internationally, and during the 1980s and 1990s in Australia.
Whether the Super Duty succeeds is anybody’s guess.
But with the N Series averaging about 7000 sales last year and the Fuso and Hino with around 2000 units apiece, in an overall 3.5-tonne to 8.0-tonne GVM segment taking in LDs as well as vans that accounts for about 25,000 sales annually, there is certainly room for the toughest Ranger to grow.
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