- Ford built special mud track for Ranger Super Duty development.
- Truck caked with 600kg of mud after days of testing.
- Super Duty launch scheduled for 2026.
It's far from a beauty regime, but part of Ford Australia's development work for the new Ranger Super Duty was to see how it would perform wearing a comprehensive mud pack.
“Mud is one of a truck’s greatest enemies,” explains Rob Hugo, product excellence and human factors supervisor at Ford Australia. “It can add significant weight, prevent airflow, and act as an insulator, causing components to heat up much quicker. It’s highly corrosive and can clog up fans and alternators, preventing them from running correctly.”
To put the ultimate 4x4 Ranger to the test, Ford created a special track at its You Yangs Proving Ground – a purpose-built mud bath featuring a variety of terrain, from deep ruts and bog holes to long, open sections of thick, sticky clay.
The test ran over several days, intentionally letting the mud build up: ultimately, there was 600kg of it all around the truck.
Ranger Super Duty goes on sale in 2026. Ford New Zealand is still silent on pricing and final specification, but a start price of $82,990 has already been announced in Australia; that's for a basic cab-chassis. A double-cab chassis with a top-specification steel tray is knocking on $100k.
The cab-chassis versions are coming first in Australia, with wellside models following in late-2026.
