Will be ordering '21 Ranger in the Spring; would appreciate any feedback

[TimmyB]

Greetings, all. My wife and I are planning on getting a Ranger in June, when our lease on our Explorer ends. I'll give you some background so you can get an idea of how to offer helpful suggestions.

We live full-time in our motorhome, with the bulk of the year in Florida, and the rest travelling or visiting relatives in Michigan. This vehicle, like our Explorer, would be our toad, hauled behind our RV wherever we go.

We are very active retirees, with running, cycling, kayaking, and hiking being a big part of our lives. We have four bikes (road and hybrid), but this year we added gravel-bike tires to our road bikes and brought only those two to Florida. So far, we have not missed our hybrids, so we may end up selling those. When we head out to bike, we plan to use the truck bed as opposed to our current Thule hitch-mounted rack. (Looking for ideas here!) Our kayaks are Sea Eagle inflatables, so they can easily fit in the bed or back seat area. I mention these things so that if you are involved in any of these activities, you might share your experiences with how you handle equipment.

As we have been planning this Ranger for about a year, we thought we were pretty sure of what we would be getting. Definitely, a crew-cab, 4x4 with 501A package. As for options and packages, we were probably going to get the FX4 package with some other individual options (push-button entry, step rails, etc.) I like the idea of a metal, roll-up bed cover like the BAK Revolver X4 but that is not a definite at this point.

Now, Ford has muddied the waters greatly with this Tremor package. We are not off-roaders in any way, but I absolutely love the way this truck looks and if you add up the options we were looking at, it's within $1000 of the Tremor and the Tremor has a lot more things of value in there.

This will be our first pickup truck that we've ever had. We've test-driven a couple of different Rangers so we're comfortable with the handling, acceleration, ride, etc. We would just love to hear from you current owners if you have feedback for things that we may not know or have not considered. Thanks for any feedback.

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[P. A. Schilke]

Greetings, all. My wife and I are planning on getting a Ranger in June, when our lease on our Explorer ends. I'll give you some background so you can get an idea of how to offer helpful suggestions.

We live full-time in our motorhome, with the bulk of the year in Florida, and the rest travelling or visiting relatives in Michigan. This vehicle, like our Explorer, would be our toad, hauled behind our RV wherever we go.

We are very active retirees, with running, cycling, kayaking, and hiking being a big part of our lives. We have four bikes (road and hybrid), but this year we added gravel-bike tires to our road bikes and brought only those two to Florida. So far, we have not missed our hybrids, so we may end up selling those. When we head out to bike, we plan to use the truck bed as opposed to our current Thule hitch-mounted rack. (Looking for ideas here!) Our kayaks are Sea Eagle inflatables, so they can easily fit in the bed or back seat area. I mention these things so that if you are involved in any of these activities, you might share your experiences with how you handle equipment.

As we have been planning this Ranger for about a year, we thought we were pretty sure of what we would be getting. Definitely, a crew-cab, 4x4 with 501A package. As for options and packages, we were probably going to get the FX4 package with some other individual options (push-button entry, step rails, etc.) I like the idea of a metal, roll-up bed cover like the BAK Revolver X4 but that is not a definite at this point.

Now, Ford has muddied the waters greatly with this Tremor package. We are not off-roaders in any way, but I absolutely love the way this truck looks and if you add up the options we were looking at, it's within $1000 of the Tremor and the Tremor has a lot more things of value in there.

This will be our first pickup truck that we've ever had. We've test-driven a couple of different Rangers so we're comfortable with the handling, acceleration, ride, etc. We would just love to hear from you current owners if you have feedback for things that we may not know or have not considered. Thanks for any feedback.

Hi Timothy,

I have a 2019 Ranger that I tow behind my Diesel pusher Alfa Motorhome. I am not a full timer. I have 2000 miles of towing on it with no problems. I did the install on the base plates and all the wiring to the taillights, Breakaway etc. Not too hard. There are several threads on this forum that outline what you will face to get your new Ranger Tow ready. Good Luck!

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[VoodooRanger]

I do not tow a trailer or have towed anything as of yet. Saying that, this little truck has some power. I hauled a bunch of stuff from home depot the other day in the bed, on top of the three adults in the truck, and the steel rack a/ CVT tent mounted on top. She did not skip a beat.

 

[TimmyB]

Hi Timothy,

I have a 2019 Ranger that I tow behind my Diesel pusher Alfa Motorhome. I am not a full timer. I have 2000 miles of towing on it with no problems. I did the install on the base plates and all the wiring to the taillights, Breakaway etc. Not too hard. There are several threads on this forum that outline what you will face to get your new Ranger Tow ready. Good Luck!

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Hi, Phil. That's good to hear. I saw the install for the baseplate and that looked easy enough but I haven't looked at the wiring install. I had it professionally done on my Explorer but that was mostly because the baseplate was not an easy install. I will search for those toad threads. Thanks!

 

[TimmyB]

I do not tow a trailer or have towed anything as of yet. Saying that, this little truck has some power. I hauled a bunch of stuff from home depot the other day in the bed, on top of the three adults in the truck, and the steel rack a/ CVT tent mounted on top. She did not skip a beat.

Thanks! One disappointing thing that I discovered too late was how heavy the U-haul auto haulers were. They are 2200 pounds which meant that towing my 3300 pound SLK320 to Florida and back was out of the question. I had to buy a small auto hauler, which caused other issues, like storage and theft. I'm definitely glad this Ranger has the 7500 tow rating.

 

[Rangerguy]

Test drive and look carefully for vibration or shudder on takeoff from stop, or at any speed or on decelerating. Some Rangers have it, some don’t. I prefer don’t.

 

[Metalmagic]

You guys live the life I want to live once I retire. Congratulations! Good luck with it. I find my Ranger can do anything the average full size 1/2 ton truck can do, with the added benefit of fitting in my garage

 

[wanted33]

Life's short Timothy. If you want the Tremor, get the Tremor. In the end we can't take it with us.

 

[TimmyB]

well, the crew cab is the way to go.
but the backseat is definitely not big enough to act like teenagers again. This is where the F150 shines, even though the sales brochures don't specifically mention it. There's a reason why so many young families are started when there's an F150 in the home.
I'm open to suggestions on anyone with experience in this regard so we don't hurt ourselves, or require the fire department to come unsort the mess we got ourselves into.

Well, I'm 63. The ONLY thing that's going in that back seat is kayaking gear and grandkids!!! Unfortunately, I'm driving an F53 gasser for my RV, which means a 5K limit on towing. Sadly, the F150 is not going to make that cutoff!

 

[TimmyB]

The Ranger will handle all of the things you'd like to do without issue. But so will plenty of other vehicles. Also, if you're not into off-roading then I'm not sure the Tremor package, or even the FX4 for that matter, would be necessary. For me, if I'm not going to use it, then I'm not going to get it. Heck, I have an FX4 and go off-roading plenty, and find myself not using the features to the point where I almost wish I had just gotten a standard 4x4 and saved some money. So it's up to you whether you want to spend thousands more for things you likely will never use. Just my thoughts.

I probably should have mentioned, my nephew is an engineer with Ford, so I get a ridiculously good deal with the A/Z Plan. I only lease my vehicles, usually for three years at a time. The difference in monthly payment from a fully loaded Lariat to a much more spartan XLT is not enough to make me consider going backwards. I discovered that when we got our Explorer in 2018. We thought we were going with an XLT model of that and for fun, we priced out the Limited which was sitting right next to it. It was a no-brainer for us.

Add to that, if we like this truck as much as we think we might, we could always decide to purchase it at the end of the lease. I've only done that with a couple of cars in my life, but it could happen. For that to happen, it has to be THE truck of my dreams.

 

[TimmyB]

Life's short Timothy. If you want the Tremor, get the Tremor. In the end we can't take it with us.

Could not agree with you more! I retired at 60 with 31 years in the classroom plus seven in the private sector. I'm going to enjoy life while my body says I can!

 

[TimmyB]

You guys live the life I want to live once I retire. Congratulations! Good luck with it. I find my Ranger can do anything the average full size 1/2 ton truck can do, with the added benefit of fitting in my garage

Thank you! We're both on the smaller side (5'6" and 5'2") so the Ranger will be ideal for us. Heck, the Maverick would probably be a better fit, but I'm pretty sure that won't be towable!

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