Trucks are sketchy

[quangdog]

My wife didn’t speak to me all evening after our first Ranger run together, I’d just traded our 20 GT for it and I was constantly arriving at corners to fast to the noise of squeezing tires and excessive body roll.

I kinda knew what to expect, but it still got me. I still drive it on it’s door handles and I love being cheeky with it, but yeah expectations need to be reeled in.

Just come back from a trip to NM and I throughly enjoyed drifting it on the dirt roads .

Since arriving back I’ve been looking at upgrades.

I love it

Livernois.

You'll thank me later. ?

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[Shadowdraxx]

Livernois.

You'll thank me later. ?

Sir you read my Mind!

 

[Frenchy]

Sir you read my Mind!

I myself have their tow tune and I love it!!! Power is more focused on low and mid range and that itself it great for daily, towing and off road!!

 

[RANGER_MARC]

Excuse the clickbait title, but just got our Ranger and not having driven a truck in a long time, it's been "interesting" to get used to driving a 4WD pickup. For reference we traded in our Flex on the Ranger and our other car is a FWD EV. The Flex has the Haldex AWD system (same as Volvo XC70 and many others) and it is completely unflappable in dirt and gravel. I could pitch it around without any worries about stability. It would even oversteer enough or at least not plow so I could really hussle it. My old Subaru Outback XT AWD was even better, phenomenal in fact, it felt totally confidence inspiring and at same time I could juice the throttle and get it to kick the tail out in a totally controllable way.

The Ranger otoh is a lot more ...errr... demanding. At any speed on loose uneven surface above say 60km/h -- I'm talking decently maintained graded road with washboarding dips and potholes etc..not forest service roads -- I find I really need to stay on top of it. It wants to yaw unpredictably, sometimes to the extent it feels like the rear end wants to switch places with the front, which you know wouldn't be good, lol.

To be totally clear, this is not a complaint/criticism. I knew exactly what I was getting into going from AWD to 4WD with no center differential. And I also know that trucks, carrying so little weight in back along with stiffer (FX4 in my case) suspension will cause the rear end to not be planted. I've gotten behind enough slow pickups in rough conditions and watched them jounce around.

It does provide more of a driving challenge! For now I'm reigning myself in until I get more confident with the handling limits, don't want to end up in a ditch or worse in my new truck.

For folks that have been driving their Rangers in these conditions, curious about your experience/technique. Do you tend to just let it run a bit loose, confident you can recover from transient behavior? Or do you god forbid just slow down? Is it actually better in 2WD for this? Have you seen any improvements with aftermarket shocks? Do you run weight in the bed even in non-winter conditions?

A lot of members have experienced the ride issues you describe, and many of those who found it problematic have installed aftermarket suspension systems. I did not like the stock suspension and replaced it with the Ford Performance Leveling Kit, which, to avoid the technical issues, levels the front two inches and stabilizes the ride all around. I am now very happy with the ride, as well as the higher posture of the cabin and increased clearance. There are lots of threads and posts on the forum about suspension issues if it bothers you enough to do something about it. Happy trails!

 

[Obijack]

I was driving an Altima, but would also drive my ex's Jeep quite a bit. I gotta say, I love the ride of the Ranger. I think it drives pretty damn smoothly, but still has a trucky feel to it that's not overly refined.

Everyone who rides in my fx4 lariat complements how smooth it rides and doesn’t feel like a “truck”.

 

[njdriver19]

It’s a body on frame truck with a much higher ride height, traditional suspension and conventional part-time 4x4 drivetrain. It also has more suspension travel, a lighter rear end and is narrower then the Flex. The vehicle dynamics are completely different then your Flex or previous Subaru. What did you expect? The only “truck” that would handle somewhat like your Flex would be the Ridgeline. What makes the Ranger a bit more demanding to drive in those on-road and unloaded situations also gives it capability those other vehicles don’t have when it comes to hauling, pulling, going off road and getting through deep snow or mud. You don’t really need to modify it, but just slow down a bit in those situations. If you want to go flying around corners in something that feels low and very stable in all situations then a tall 4x4 truck is the wrong choice. For most handling situations the Ranger feels plenty safe and secure to me. Just slow down a bit.

I can see myself starting this thread, so I would like to “defend” , or agree with the original post, Also I think 5g rangers suspension stock leave room for improvement but the great thing is suspensions can be swapped easily, swapping in a turbo motor and a ten speed automatic is a little bit more hairy. It’s great to hear that some people have tried multiple suspension setups on their trucks and can give feedback I would consider the eibach setup now if I had not already done the fox ford suspension. Telling someone to slowdown, while it might be very much a true (flipped my first ranger) sometimes people like to push , condition permitting. Drive it like I stole it, is not just a bumper sticker.
I have a friend who was a former rally car drive who daily drives the a f150 and he has driven the raptor, he thinks the raptor suspension sucks to push onroad , he says a regular f150 suspension is better. Raptor suspension is too soft, truck suspensions are compromise between onroad and off-road setups, I personally don’t go off-road enough to care about off-road performance. Like a summer tire which you get max performance but you compromise snow traction. All season tire compromise max performance for traction in snow.

 

[njdriver19]

Everyone who rides in my fx4 lariat complements how smooth it rides and doesn’t feel like a “truck”.

Were they high? Lol , or driving on the salt flats to burning man.

messing around , my son got motion sickness driving on the Brooklyn queen’s expressway. Fox ford suspension reduced the constant jerky sway motion of the fx4 suspension by being stiffer. Front end link upgrade settled down sway front specially hitting bumps at highway speed. i read in my race suspension book , your suspension is setup to operate best at the geometry in which no force is being exerted besides weight of vehicle. Your suspension works to counter the forces and work to get back to the sweet spot of the geometry. The factory cheesy front end links (by comparison to upgrade links) do not do enough work to counter those forces, upgraded links also make turning feel to be more reactive. Problem is factory links are $15 dollars and already on your truck , upgraded links are $150 I think. Not everyone needs better links. My next buy is sway bar but with winter coming maybe not still not certain if I will run swaybar in the winter maybe keep on lowest adjustment.

 

[BCRanger]

messing around , my son got motion sickness driving on the Brooklyn queen’s expressway.

LOL, who doesn't get motion sickness on the BQE?!

Seems an off-road suspension would be more appropriate in that case.

 

[BCRanger]

LOL, who doesn't get motion sickness on the BQE?!

Seems an off-road suspension would be more appropriate in that case.

And now thinking about the time we bought an airstream in NJ and drove it to LI. We'd never towed a big trailer and ended up on the BQE, which would have been fine except everytime we touched the brakes they locked up. We thought we were doing something wrong, or maybe this is just how trailer brakes worked turned out that the dealer had screwed up the installation. Driving a trailer with hair trigger brakes along a narrow rush hour pothole filled expressway really was one of the more sketchy driving experience I've had, way more hair rasing than any offroad driving.

 

[HenryMac]

..........The Ranger otoh is a lot more ...errr... demanding.

People are "Sketchy". Machines (trucks) are just that... machines.

 

[njdriver19]

People are "Sketchy". Machines (trucks) are just that... machines.

People are shady, machines are sketchy, or if you are a cyborg from Florida you are both sketchy and shady.

 

[njdriver19]

LOL, who doesn't get motion sickness on the BQE?!

Seems an off-road suspension would be more appropriate in that case.

Driving on the Brooklyn queens expressway or any of the five Boros requires a stadium truck suspension which sucks up large yes large potholes , still brakes and corners..

 

[BCRanger]

im interested in how, and who determined that the dealer installed the brake controller incorrectly.
Every brake controller i ever used, was to be adjusted for each trailer by me doing some test stops. my tent trailer needed a different setting than the 15ft dual axle utility trailer etc. if the brakes locked, i set it up wrong.

It wasn’t a calibration issue, it was completely borked. It literally just sent full current or none at all. Like having an on and off switch for your brakes - on a 10k lbs 31’ trailer. I can’t remember exactly what the fault was, but when they fixed it it handled perfectly and it was super easy to balance the brakes. It was a classic with disc brakes, driving that along with an anti sway hitch and the pulling power of the diesel was like driving an accord.

 

[THLONE]

I am constantly amazed at the car people who bought the Ranger as their first truck and then want it to be like a car. ?

 

[navsnipe]

Driving on the Brooklyn queens expressway or any of the five Boros requires a stadium truck suspension which sucks up large yes large potholes , still brakes and corners..

I commute from Nyack area to Sunnyside/Long Island City almost every day. My last two cars, 2013 VW GTI and 2016 Audi Allroad, felt the pain on this drive. My GTI suffered three trashed tires, two bent wheel, and two lower suspension bushing failures. The Allroad did much better but you really have to memorize the potholes. The Ranger is not the same ride but I can see what is coming much better and it can absorb a whole lot more. I guess it is all relative.

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