Ford Australia’s Silver Creek durability track at its You Yangs proving ground is shaping at the site which could break the Ranger Super Duty, with each pass consisting of more than 2000 suspension movements over odd-sized bumps.
You won’t find a test pilot with a heartbeat behind the wheel though, with Ford employing an autonomous robotic test driver to drive the Ranger Super Duty, not only sparing a human the arduous task of dealing with the bumps, but also allowing the ute to be tested 24/7.
And to make sure the Ranger Super Duty is being put up against particularly difficult conditions, Ford has been testing it at its maximum 4500kg gross vehicle mass.
“Silver Creek is our toughest man-made durability track,” Justin Capicchiano, program Manager of the Ranger Super Duty, said in a media statement.
“It stressed the Ranger Super Duty from the wheels to the roof simulating the wear and tear you’d typically experience across a decade of driving on the world’s harshest road conditions.
“The forces punching through the truck when its unladen are immense, but when it’s loaded to maximum GVM and tested on Silver Creek they become even more brutal.
“This is an incredibly important test for a truck that must do the toughest jobs or most extreme adventures in the harshest conditions.”
As previously reported, the Ranger Super Duty will offer a 4500kg towing capacity, 4500kg gross vehicle mass (GVM) and an 8000kg gross combined mass, while also offering a 130-litre long-range fuel tank and a modified version of the regular Ranger’s 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 with upgraded cooling.
It was also used last weekend to tow the 2025 Finke Desert Race Production 4WD class-winning Ranger Raptor, complete with accessories such as an MITS Alloy canopy with a fridge.
Ford is due to launch the Ranger Super Duty in Australia with single-, Super- and dual-cab chassis variants early in 2026, before a dual-cab pickup is added by mid-year. It will be available in two trim levels, the standard Ranger Super Duty and the Super Duty XLT.
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