Rock Crawling Ranger

[FULLSCALE]

Wow - consider yourself lucky - the forest service roads around here almost never get graded.

And I guess I'm one of the weird ones - I have the FX4, but I have no complaints about the highway ride.

I bought the FX4 more for the skid plates, but the terrain management stuff is kind of cool as well. I've already used my skid plates too.

I’m with you on that one. I have no complaints on ride quality with my FX4. I’ve driven a non-FX4 as well and I couldn’t feel a noticeable difference even while looking for it. My truck is way smoother and more comfortable than my father-in-law’s Taco, he even admitted it last week!

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[AzScorpion]

I’m with you on that one. I have no complaints on ride quality with my FX4. I’ve driven a non-FX4 as well and I couldn’t feel a noticeable difference even while looking for it. My truck is way smoother and more comfortable than my father-in-law’s Taco, he even admitted it last week!

I agree with him on this 100%. My girlfriend couldn't believe how much more comfortable and smooth the ride is compared to my Tacoma. On our trip up north she remembered how bad the Tacoma was (shifting) on all the hills and how the ranger was so much smoother. I never understood the whole "bounce" thing as the ride quality is excellent IMO.

I l



I looked closely at the FX4 package and decided against it for a couple of reasons. First of all, I do a lot of off-roading but it is almost all on dirt roads and forest roads which have usually been graded in the last 5-10 years. We have a lot of steep climbs here in the mountains, but plain old 4wd with the rear traction-lock is more than enough for my requirements. And the downside of the FX4 package is the highway ride that everyone complains about.

Lastly, I think most guys are just paying for the FX4 fender-sticker for vanity purposes, because we all know that about 90% of these little trucks will never ever leave the pavement.

Probably true for some as there are a lot of "Mall Crawlers" here...lol I off road quite a bit so the Fx4 was a must for me.

 

[AzScorpion]

Geeze, were you behind a RED CORVETTE just as you got into town on 89A? If so, that was me also taking a not-so-quick (traffic) trip to Sedona!

We were there from the 7-10th so it's possible that was me.

 

[Michael Bailey]

Wow - consider yourself lucky - the forest service roads around here almost never get graded.

And I guess I'm one of the weird ones - I have the FX4, but I have no complaints about the highway ride.

I bought the FX4 more for the skid plates, but the terrain management stuff is kind of cool as well. I've already used my skid plates too.

In the entire Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, my home, there is only one road I would not attempt with my Ranger on decent tires, but I would advise against attempting this road for anyone without a tracked vehicle. Our problem around here is not so much suspension as traction-related. The standard set-up with 4x4 and locking axle are good for all of these authorized paths around here where I travel with my fly-rod.

 

[SandBaja]

Just came back from a quick trip up to Sedona. I was finally able to check out the 4 wheel drive controls. I aired down to 24 lbs,was going to go lower but found it wasn’t necessary, it was very smooth over the washboard fire roads. We hit a few good stair steppers and I set the terrain management control to gravel and then the trail control to 3-4 mph for some of the steep/deeper steps. The Ranger climbed these effortlessly and at times where I wanted more speed you just give it some gas and take over and let off and it goes right back to your set mph setting. I’m also extremely happy with the Nitto Ridge Grapplers as the highway ride was very smooth and quite and they never slipped one bit off road. I would not have felt comfortable doing any of these steps or going over sharp rock beds with the stock Hankook tires!

This truck has exceeded my expectations and the technology just blows me away and I’m glad I splurged and went with the Lariat and all the options. An even better surprise was after washing it there was no desert pin striping which was amazing as there was a few very tight brush areas. All in all it was a really fun day and it was the first time I actually got to put some miles on since taking delivery back in July.

One last observation. I’ve made this trip many times in my Tacoma and hated every minute of it. You leave the valley at around 970 ft and Sedona is at 4800 ft so it’s a constant uphill climb. The Tacoma would always be reving very high (3500 rpm’s+ and sometimes up to 5000) and constantly shifting in/out of gears where as the ranger was so smooth, it was a consistent 2200 rpm’s for the most part,the highest I saw was 2500 but I was doing 85 up a steep incline. I really like the lane assist and all the other sensors but didn’t use the adaptive cruise control.

Jealous.

 

[Art S]

Wow - consider yourself lucky - the forest service roads around here almost never get graded.

And I guess I'm one of the weird ones - I have the FX4, but I have no complaints about the highway ride.

I bought the FX4 more for the skid plates, but the terrain management stuff is kind of cool as well. I've already used my skid plates too.

Hi Michael, I also have the FX4 package. I cruise down Daytona Beach a lot since I'm right near there and go to Ocala National Forest too. I use the terrain management system all the time at these places and it works great. And I also have no complaints about the ride with the FX4 package. As a matter of fact, everyone that rides with me either off road on on the highway tells me they can't believe how smooth and comfortable the ride is.

 

[Ryan...]

Not a Ranger, but I compared my FX4 '16 F150 to about 4 other non-FX4 F150s and couldn't tell any difference, so either people have much more sensitive butts than I do, or it's all in people's heads from reading too many reviews...

OP, the trails out there look fantastic! Do you air down for trails like that? Ever need to lock the rear diff on those?

I have some friends that have relocated out to Arizona, would love to see the trails down there vs the mud pits we have up here in Wisconsin...

 

[AzScorpion]

Not a Ranger, but I compared my FX4 '16 F150 to about 4 other non-FX4 F150s and couldn't tell any difference, so either people have much more sensitive butts than I do, or it's all in people's heads from reading too many reviews...

OP, the trails out there look fantastic! Do you air down for trails like that? Ever need to lock the rear diff on those?

I have some friends that have relocated out to Arizona, would love to see the trails down there vs the mud pits we have up here in Wisconsin...

I aired down to 24 lbs which worked out fine. I never used the rear locker but tried all the others like terrain management and trail control. The trail control worked very well and was cool how you set your desired speed and the truck will take over (gas & brake) while all you need to do is steer. I set it to 3-4 mph but if you want to go faster you just step on the gas. Once you let off it goes back to your setting.

I'm originally from back east and we didn't have anything like this back there. Mostly fire roads and power lines but everything is usually posted No Trespassing there. There are quite a few trails in Sedona to go off roading and the nice thing is that Sedona is only 128 miles away so it's an easy day trip. Check out the video below,done in a stock Ranger. Broken Arrow Trail is next on my list.

 

[RedlandRanger]

Check out the video below,done in a stock Ranger. Broken Arrow Trail is next on my list.

Very interesting video. I would be interested to see how the Trail Control would have done down that staircase, though. It did amazingly well for a completely stock vehicle, though!

 

[AzScorpion]

Very interesting video. I would be interested to see how the Trail Control would have done down that staircase, though. It did amazingly well for a completely stock vehicle, though!

I think he said he was at 30% at one point. I know I was at 27% and using the trail control it was very stable and smooth. He was going way to fast through some of those areas lol. But I guess when it's not your truck you don't care as much.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I think he said he was at 30% at one point. I know I was at 27% and using the trail control it was very stable and smooth. He was going way to fast through some of those areas lol. But I guess when it's not your truck you don't care as much.

I don't do stuff like that with my truck, but I've heard/read others state that the Trail Control actually can do a better job than even an experienced off road driver can do since it can control each wheel individually. That is why it would be really interesting to see how it performed down something like that. I noticed there were several comments on the video that said the same thing.

 

[AzScorpion]

I don't do stuff like that with my truck, but I've heard/read others state that the Trail Control actually can do a better job than even an experienced off road driver can do since it can control each wheel individually. That is why it would be really interesting to see how it performed down something like that. I noticed there were several comments on the video that said the same thing.

I normally don't either but I was really anxious to try it out. I'm not experienced by any means but the TC can make you look like you are. I had watched the video below before hand which explained how it all works and I'm glad I did. You can hear kind of a grinding/vibrating noise but it's only the ABS pump but if I hadn't watched this I would've thought something was wrong. The one steep decent I did it worked well controlling your speed so you don't slip your foot into the gas and get out of control or bottom out the suspension. Slower is better (3-4 mph) so you're not rocking all over the place and it's a nice consistent speed going with up or down hill.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I've played with it a bit but nothing on anything steep like that hill in the video. It is interesting but I probably won't use it much if at all - but it is nice to know it is there if needed.

 

[AzScorpion]

I've played with it a bit but nothing on anything steep like that hill in the video. It is interesting but I probably won't use it much if at all - but it is nice to know it is there if needed.

I had the crawl control in my Tacoma and never used it once. I like this truck so much more and it has so much more technology in it that I find myself wanting to try out everything lol. In my area it's mostly sandy stuff/washes out in the desert but just a little north there's some good rocky terrane and it's not to far a drive. I won't do anything to extreme,I'd be upset if I mashed up a rear qtr or scratched the sides up really bad.

 

[Walkeraviator]

I’ll be honest... I paid for the sticker. I’m very likely to never go further off-road than a 2WD will get me.

I agree with him on this 100%. My girlfriend couldn't believe how much more comfortable and smooth the ride is compared to my Tacoma. On our trip up north she remembered how bad the Tacoma was (shifting) on all the hills and how the ranger was so much smoother. I never understood the whole "bounce" thing as the ride quality is excellent IMO.



Probably true for some as there are a lot of "Mall Crawlers" here...lol I off road quite a bit so the Fx4 was a must for me.

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