johanso
Adventurer
With the Ford Ranger being introduced in the US I thought I'd share our European 2017 Ford Ranger Wildtrak. I wouldn't go as far as calling our truck an overlanding vehicle, more of a family camping platform that we use to get to remote places in the Nordics. This model of Ranger has been around since 2011 and was given a facelift in 2016. Ours is fitted with the 200hp 3.2 liter I5 diesel paired with a 6-speed automatic. The Wildtrak edition gives you all the bells and whistles like rear diff lock, 18" wheels, lane assist, rear camera, heated windscreen, electric seats, 18" wheels etc etc. In Sweden they also fit Eberspräscher diesel heater as standard which is really nice in the winter.
Right of the bat we got rid of most of the exterior Wildtrak stickers, the "sports bar" in the bed and the 18 inch wheels.
Mods so far:
- Alucab aluminium canopy
- 17x8 Evo Corse Dakar Zero, ET +20
- 265 70 17 Cooper Discoverer At3
- 4 Lightforce Striker 170 xenon lights
- 2 Lightforce ROK 20 reverse lights mounted in the bumper
- Lightforce Ranger fascia to mount light switches
- Ez Down tailgate damper
- Hella led map light
- Provent oil catch can
- Deleted last muffler and replaced with 3 inch stainless straight pipe (did nothing to the sound but saved some weight).
In the past I've had a couple of Land Cruisers, a Hilux and another Ford Ranger. So heres my take on whats good and bad about this Ranger.
Good:
- This truck comes standard with a lot of the stuff I had to modify and build my self on the previous vehicles. For instance it has a built in inverter with a 230 volt outlet in the cab and a 12 volt outlet in the bed. It comes with a rear locker stock.
- You can fit rather large tyres without a lift
- Compared to the Hilux especially the cab seems a bit more spacious and even an adult can ride in the backseat for longer drives.
- All the electric gizmos like Sync3 carplay and adaptive cruise control is nice.
- The 5-cylinder diesel has nice grunt
Bad:
- Fuel consumption isn't really great. We get 20-23 mpg depending on speed. I believe the automatic transmission is a big part of the reason it doesn't get better mpg. The engine has a lot of torque but the trans doesn't lock up the converter early enough in my opinion.
- The low beam xenon lights are good but the high beams are like candle lights. I've cured this with the Lightforce xenon lights so it's not really a problem anymore.
Future mods:
- Some kind of drawers in the bed. It's a hassle to pack and unpack the bed when things are stacked on top of eachother.
- Looking it to possibilities to have someone program the transmission.
- Perhaps some suspension upgrades.
Last week I drove the new Ranger Raptor that has a 213hp 2-litre I4 engine and 10-speed auto and Fox suspension (coils instead of leafs in back). What a truck! Thanks to the awesome 10-speed auto it felt like the truck had 50 horsepower more than ours. It was flying away. And the suspension was incredibly impressive from what I could experience on the short test drive.
Right of the bat we got rid of most of the exterior Wildtrak stickers, the "sports bar" in the bed and the 18 inch wheels.
Mods so far:
- Alucab aluminium canopy
- 17x8 Evo Corse Dakar Zero, ET +20
- 265 70 17 Cooper Discoverer At3
- 4 Lightforce Striker 170 xenon lights
- 2 Lightforce ROK 20 reverse lights mounted in the bumper
- Lightforce Ranger fascia to mount light switches
- Ez Down tailgate damper
- Hella led map light
- Provent oil catch can
- Deleted last muffler and replaced with 3 inch stainless straight pipe (did nothing to the sound but saved some weight).
In the past I've had a couple of Land Cruisers, a Hilux and another Ford Ranger. So heres my take on whats good and bad about this Ranger.
Good:
- This truck comes standard with a lot of the stuff I had to modify and build my self on the previous vehicles. For instance it has a built in inverter with a 230 volt outlet in the cab and a 12 volt outlet in the bed. It comes with a rear locker stock.
- You can fit rather large tyres without a lift
- Compared to the Hilux especially the cab seems a bit more spacious and even an adult can ride in the backseat for longer drives.
- All the electric gizmos like Sync3 carplay and adaptive cruise control is nice.
- The 5-cylinder diesel has nice grunt
Bad:
- Fuel consumption isn't really great. We get 20-23 mpg depending on speed. I believe the automatic transmission is a big part of the reason it doesn't get better mpg. The engine has a lot of torque but the trans doesn't lock up the converter early enough in my opinion.
- The low beam xenon lights are good but the high beams are like candle lights. I've cured this with the Lightforce xenon lights so it's not really a problem anymore.
Future mods:
- Some kind of drawers in the bed. It's a hassle to pack and unpack the bed when things are stacked on top of eachother.
- Looking it to possibilities to have someone program the transmission.
- Perhaps some suspension upgrades.
Last week I drove the new Ranger Raptor that has a 213hp 2-litre I4 engine and 10-speed auto and Fox suspension (coils instead of leafs in back). What a truck! Thanks to the awesome 10-speed auto it felt like the truck had 50 horsepower more than ours. It was flying away. And the suspension was incredibly impressive from what I could experience on the short test drive.
Last edited:
