Long Ranger
first featured in 4x4 magazine, june 2018
Off-road training centre and overland tour leader Ardent Adventures recently bought and specced up a new vehicle. And having progressed from Land Rovers into Jeep Wranglers, its latest chariot is a very nicely prepped Ford Ranger.
A few years ago, this would have been a story about a Land Rover Defender. If it wasn’t, it would have been a story about a Toyota Hilux. But this is 2018, and that means only one thing – it’s a story about a Ford Ranger.
Keen off-roaders with their finger on the pulse have long since been noticing a sway in popularity from Defenders to the more and more popular pick-up truck.And as time has gone on, the Ranger has come to be the most popular of these among Britain’s 4x4 users.
There’s an obvious reason.The few more conventional off-road options that are still in production have tended to be expensive.That’s not to say new pick-ups are available for it’ll-buff- out money, but they’re less dear for what you get – and of course, they come with extremely attractive tax breaks if you buy one through your business and/or run it as a company car.
That points to another plus point for the Ranger. It’s not the cheapest on the market, but for what you get it’s definitely not the priciest. Ford dealers tend to be particularly competitive with their discounts, too, so the price on the screen is often several grand more than what you actually pay.
There’s also the small matter of the Ranger being very, very good.The best, many would say – including us, if last year’s triumph in our Pick- Up of the Year Awards was anything to go by. Anyway, the Ranger’s stock is high, of that there can be no doubt.
And with that, the accessory market has grown too. Pick-ups were once a bit of a weird world for people who wanted to be different – but if you’re starting out in the 4x4 business now, chances are you’ll give Land Rovers a swerve altogether and try to make your mark in the world of either Jeeps or Rangers.
A good example is the Ranger seen here, which is run by Ardent Adventures.The company specialises in leading 4x4 tours to exotic destinations that’ll still be part of Europe this time next year, and it has a parallel business called Ardent Off-Road which kits out vehicles for its customers’ specific requirements.
In its own case,Ardent needed to ready its Ranger for the rigours of regular overland trips to the Alps and beyond, including the dust and sand of Morocco. So robustness and reliability figured large in the list of musts. It needed to be very capable, too – but at the same time it didn’t want to be over the top to the degree where it could put punters off. If you turn up to a clay pigeon shoot and the guy in charge is toting an AK47, you’re probably going to do a swift runner.
Although Ardent is largely pulling out of the UK laning business, which used to be its bread and butter in the days when it was known by its old name of Yorkshire 4x4 Specialists, the Ranger will still be doing a few local runs every year too.And the company also has a training centre for off-road driving tuition - so between all that, its vehicles need to be able to cope with British damp and mud as well as Mediterranean dust and rocks. Basically, they need to be able to do everything.
How do you spec a pick-up so it’s ready to do everything? Here’s how Ardent specced theirs.
With the 3.2 TDCi power unit, the company’s Ranger is the most powerful offered by Ford, boasting 197bhp and 347lbf.ft as stock. But,
a TDI Tuning kit has been fitted that boosts these figures to 260bhp and 412lbf.ft while also promising to improve fuel efficiency.
The vehicle is a Limited spec model, which came complete with two-zone air conditioning and heated seats – not things you tend to use both of at the same time. In addition, a Cobra CB Radio has been fitted – because as with everything else in life, on overland trips of any size communication is key.
To improve the Ranger’s off-road capabilities, a +2” Old Man Emu suspension kit has been fitted in place of the standard springs and dampers.The stock wheels are tyres are gone, too – steel wheels wrapped in General Grabber X3 rubber now provide for all the vehicle’s traction needs.
There’ll always be a time when they don’t manage, though. Or, more likely, when a customer runs out of intelligence. For these times, a wirelessly controlled Warn Zeon 10s winch sits on a Rhino front bumper.
At the other end, the stock bumper has been fetched off in favour of a heavy-duty Summit job from ARB, and in between the Ranger’s bodywork has been beefed up with 35mm wheelarch extensions. Underneath, meanwhile, it’s all looked after by Rival aluminium plating, and a Safari Snorkel provides the other kind of protection should a wading incident develop into, simply, an incident.
We’re getting into the sort of off-roading where ropes and so on are needed here, which of course means carrying equipment. For this purpose, the Ranger wears a body-coloured RSI Smart Canopy – a steel, structure that’s light in weight but good and strong.
The canopy has blank gullwing side panels that open on gas struts, and a rear window with mesh reinforcement. On top of it is a roof rack upon which a James Baroud tent is mounted.
Beneath it, the truck bed has been fitted with a Gearmate drawer set for more organised storage of everything from camping pans to first aid kits.For help in sticky situations,there is a set of Treds 4WD recovery tracks for on- the-spot grip mounted to the passenger’s side of the canopy.
We’ve not mentioned LED lights yet, but needless to say the Ardent truck has got some. They’re WLD jobs, in the shape of a 20” bar and a couple of Comp Scene spots on the front grille. Useful, if not essential, when you’re still on the trails and night closes in,but for the job this vehicle does they also come in handy for illuminating the camp sight when the day’s trails are done.
It’s not an extreme truck, this, and it’s not meant to be. It was built with the aim of being able to do everything well – whether it’s leading the way over the mountains of Galicia or teaching a newbie what engine braking does back home inYorkshire.And that’s exactly what it is.Whether the conditions are cold and wet or hot and sticky, neither the truck nor those aboard it are ever going to break a sweat.
