Rear Ride height a Design defect caught tooo late?

[Cabose-1]

Look, i leveled my truck again! Wood has been in the back of my ranger for 2 years now. I am 5,8, and the box is just too tall for me to reach in. So there it sits.

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[WingShot]

I'm new here, wtf is going on?

So I'm clear - OP says his old truck (that he no longer owns) was too tall for him, so this must be a design flaw? huh?

Yeah, you got it! And 12 pages now discussing it (sorta).

 

[burnkill]

Please tell me most members aren’t like this ?

 

[Highlander]

Please tell me most members aren’t like this ?

As rare as the design defect which started this thread... I think... I'm still pretty new here.

Frank

 

[burnkill]

Fair enough! Cheers!

 

[WV_Ranger]

Please tell me most members aren’t like this ?

No. No we're not. There a lot of good guys and gals here. Just a few negative Nancy's and a couple Ken's and Karen's. Lol

 

[Frenchy]

No. No we're not. There a lot of good guys and gals here. Just a few negative Nancy's and a couple Ken's and Karen's. Lol

You have officially offended all damper people with that post!!

LOL

 

[Friday yet?]

As a Nissan guy myself I can say that the first few years of the D40 Frontier(2005-2021) had a bunch of issues. By 2012 I believe they had all the problems sorted out. I had a 2016 and i loved it. Only down side was it was a 2wd and I moved to the High Rockies of Colorado so it was only good for 5 months at best.

Sad part.... I absolutely loved that truck. But it was insane how much s*** broke on it. Both before and after warranty. The "after" is when it really got painful. Real painful. But, call me a dumb@$$, I loved that truck. Black. Man clean, that thing rocked!

 

[Friday yet?]

like you azz up in the air?

Dude, you need to move on. Go to a frontier forum. I know they have them. I used to be a regular hunting REPAIR TIPS!

 

[myothercarizahearse]

OMG! Every new vehicle I have bought in my life has been a Ford or Mercury. Except 1... a freaking '06 Frontier NISMO. (Don't hate.. I wanted a mid-size. At that time had we had 2 options, Tacos or Frontiers. ) What a POS. Spent more money on repairs, not maintenance, REPAIRS on that truck than on all of the rest of my vehicles combined. Wow. Your post brought back memories of a nightmare.

I have a long list of things that were fixed before I gave up and scrapped it at 93,000 miles. the bed falling off was the final straw. I probably spent as much on repairs as the truck itself

 

[Cmar]

Sad part.... I absolutely loved that truck. But it was insane how much s*** broke on it. Both before and after warranty. The "after" is when it really got painful. Real painful. But, call me a dumb@$$, I loved that truck. Black. Man clean, that thing rocked!

The Nissan D40 was the Australian version of that vehicle. They had so many problems, timing chains in the diesels, rod bearings, rust, poor paintwork, front diffs that collapsed, mis aligned chassis from new, common rail faults on the diesels, and last but not least the same model that was built in Spain and Thailand which looked the same, but was ever so slightly different so that parts and accessories bought for one you could never guarantee would fit the other. What a CF, it burned Nissan so badly in this country that they have never really ever recovered sales. And in one of the most pickup buying countries outside of the US that's not a good thing. Ford and Mitsubishi were happy to fill the market gap which opened. Toyota of course, kept on going with the Hilux and the prehistoric 70 series utes.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

So, in interest of full disclosure, I've sold my Ranger 6 mos ago for financial reasons, not because of this, though the rear bed height was a real PITA when loading and tying down.

After looking at the rear suspension design, while trying yo figure out a way to lower the rear suspension, I've come to suspect that the high rear ride height was a design flaw caught too late to correct. My reasoning follows from the fact that you can't really get any lowering height in any reasonable way. The frame points are too high, and the Truck is already slammed at the rear, but the rear is still too high. Ford even lowers the rear of the Truck on the "Build it" 'Net site to a normal level, like every other small truck on the market. Like the Tacoma i sold to buy it, and like the Nissan frontier i just picked up today, I can actual put both arms (I'm 6' with longish arms) in to the Bed from the side rear to tie something down. I could not without a uncomfortable strain with the Ranger. couldn't imagine trying if i was , say 5'8? So, looking at the fact that- -

1. It can't be corrected with the current Frame design

2. It's a flaw IMHO, wayyy too high. No reason for it

3. Even ford tries to hide the issue while selling the Truck

I believe that it was a design flaw that was caught too late to fix without a major rear frame redesigned, so Ford just put it into production.

And yes the Frontier is Awesome, but so was the Ranger, except for this major PITA flaw.

What to you think, agree or disagree and why?

Hi RDS,

Okay...I have remained silent on this post to let members "vent" etc... Did not read the entire thread due to a waste of time. So here is my take.

This IS NOT a design defect. If Ford produced a vehicle where something like this occurred, it would have not seen production without many design reviews. Since the 5G was produced off shore since 2016, there were redesigns of the Ranger for the North American market for power train and interior trim etc. The ride height was deemed acceptable for the frame design...tweaked for the 2.3l ten speed trans etc., but it was a decision to accept the tail up design was made. So throw the lemons you wish at the Ranger, but the design was not a mistake...

A bit of a back story....I had built 4 race trucks for racing at Livernois ( yep...the now tuners) Vehicle. The 4th truck was my test mule....the three race trucks were mulitlieaf rear springs.
I was looking to reduce weight and we developed a reduced weight monoleaf spring for the race trucks. The weight savings came at a cost so to speak as we had to retune the shocks, which we did many times during developments of the Test Mule and supplied to the team, Saleen Autosports. Multileafe design provides friction damping, but a monoleaf had no damping (like a tailgate damper, which is SO contentious). The weigh reduction was enough to merit bookshelfing the race truck technology for future productes....thus the 5g benefits from my work/development of racetrucks...

So lambast away... It was not considered a Defect...

Enough said...170 posts of mixed bag...

I saw the 5g in New Zealand in 2016...it was the No 1 selling vehicle in NZ and Australia.

When it hit the USA and being head of Ranger Vehicle Engineering, I just had to have one...trading my 2007 Ranger for a 2019...

5G is a worthy product and I am proud to be part of the heritage that delivered the Ranger back to market even though I had no direct input to this happening...

So I retreat to my flameproof bunker for my statements... Take them with a grain of salt or the whole saltshaker as you wish..

Best,
Phil

 

[Frenchy]

The Nissan D40 was the Australian version of that vehicle. They had so many problems, timing chains in the diesels, rod bearings, rust, poor paintwork, front diffs that collapsed, mis aligned chassis from new, common rail faults on the diesels, and last but not least the same model that was built in Spain and Thailand which looked the same, but was ever so slightly different so that parts and accessories bought for one you could never guarantee would fit the other. What a CF, it burned Nissan so badly in this country that they have never really ever recovered sales. And in one of the most pickup buying countries outside of the US that's not a good thing. Ford and Mitsubishi were happy to fill the market gap which opened. Toyota of course, kept on going with the Hilux and the prehistoric 70 series utes.

The D40 is the Designated Body/Chassis code for that vehicle. If not mistake it was called the Navara in every other part of the World with the exception of the US. Not sure why but it is what it is.

 

[GitRDone]

I have been an engineer for 46 years and my biggest failings are spelling and grammer.

You mean grammar? ?

 

[Cmar]

The D40 is the Designated Body/Chassis code for that vehicle. If not mistake it was called the Navara in every other part of the World with the exception of the US. Not sure why but it is what it is.

No mistake, it was indeed called the Navara here. It was still a sh*t bucket. Such a shame it did have the makings of a great vehicle, good size, good looks, made by a company with (until then a good reputation for pickups and 4x4) but it's like they just threw QC and customer support out the window. Late in it's model life Nissan put the Renault A9x V6 diesel in it with the Z car 7 speed auto, that was actually quite a weapon, but sadly too little, to late, and too expensive at the time.

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