ranger trucks

[arnold helgerson]

does any body use a ford ranger to tow with ? I am thinking of buying a new ranger supercab with the 4.0 v6 motor. i own a 896 19.5 foot nitro. and am wondering if this truck will pull it, i nomally don't travel over 50 miles with my boat and am tired of my gas gussling dodge ram.

 

[Rich D]

I have an 04 Ranger, same motor. I tow my ProAngler with it, no problem, but that is considerably lighter than your 896. Speaking on the truck alone, I love it. Easy on gas, big enough bed if I need to pick up a little lumber or building supplies, small enough I don't get many calls to help people move!



Rich D

 

[Michael Snow]

I had a Silverado 4.3L v-6. It pulled my 18' Xpress (tin) rig fine. I got a 911CDC, tandem axle and it was NOT happy with that rig at all.



You might ask your dealer if they have a v-6 Ranger with a tow hitch you could "try".



One thing I noticed though... you really won't get any better gas mileage towing with the v-6 than towing with a v-8, at least I didn't. Unloaded, obviously the mileage is better.

 

[Michael Lyons]

I had a ranger to tow my 160TF, After some slipping trying to get out of some boat launches, I installed a positraction rear end in it. NO more troubles. Seems that the ranger is extremely light in the rear and had trouble with the wet slimy drive ways at the launches prior to retrofit. It had more than enough power for the 16Ft boat.

 

[Brian Bell2]

Just a thought.. You could prob. get into a 2004 F150 for about the same money, the F150's have some HUGE rebates right now.

You can into a 2004 STX for under 20K with all the rebaits now.. and you'll be getting a V8 and much larger and better truck than the ranger..I had a ranger with the 4.0 good strong motor, but the truck felt like it was working too hard to pull my TX 186, ( 18 1/2 foot Triton ) also on slippery ramps it was tough since the truck is so light in the rear end.

 

[Bryan McDonough]

I think you will find with a single axle trailer the ranger will get pulled by the trailer. Never towed a boat with one but i did tow a empty 16ft flatbed down to Houston with one. Make sure you got trailer brakes and a tandem would greatly help the situation. you'll probably need to take extra good care of that truck if you do tow with it.

 

[Jim B]

You may find that the 4.0 isnt going to get it done towing that boat. A guy in my club owns an old 18' ranger boat that up until last year he towed with a Ranger 4x4 with the 4.0l 210hp overhead cam motor. He ended up having to trade the truck because it struggled badly on hills and on ramps. On most ramps low range 4wd had to be used because it couldnt pull the boat up it without it. It wasnt a traction issue it was a power/gearing issue, the truck wasnt spinning the tires it just didnt want to move. I think the combo of weak low end torque and a very tall first gear was the issue. The truck had 4.10 gears in it so it should be able to pull down a house but first gear in the 5 speed automatic is very, very tall at 2.47:1.



For comparison my old gmc sonoma had 3.73 gears a 3.06:1 first gear in the tanny, the same tires as is that ranger and it pulled my 882 out of the same ramps he struggled on without problem every time and my 882 is heavier then his ranger 360vs. The extra bottom end torque that the 4.3l motor i had hepled a bunch too.



What kind of milage does your Ram get? i curentl ytow with a Dakota quad cab v8 and it actuall gets better milage them my sonoma did or my buddies ranger did but does the job so much better because of the extra power. my sonoma never got better then 12 towing my 882 and my dakota gets 13-14 towing the same boat. It is a little less unloaded but its a worthy trade off in my opinion.