In 2024, In the United States, the Ford Ranger is the newest member of the Raptor family. It needs to meet specific requirements to be called a Raptor, and it looks like it does on paper. It has a 3.0-liter Eco Boost V6 engine gives it 405 ph. and 430 lo-fi of torque. It also looks like it belongs, with 33-inch BF Goodrich KO3 tires and very wide bumpers. But the ban is more important than all of this. Carl Widman, the head engineer at Ford Performance, tells me I should also go. He and his team took a plane to Borrego Springs, California, to test the Ranger Raptor at high speeds on rough terrain. This new performance setup for midsize groups works well in this kind of setting. Widman told me at a Ford media event on Monday, “The 3.0-liter just has so much power, and you can get into things faster.” Ford returned to Fox for the Live Valve springs on the Ranger Raptor. These units differ from the MultiMate DSSVs on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 in how they handle braking. I’ll let the man in charge of designing the truck explain it: “A Live Valve will reduce authority in a way that builds up, giving you more time to predict roll.” You’ll need it to cut a line in the sand without losing control of the truck. The damping management mainly holds it up. Many changes to the Ranger Raptor’s suspension are made to stabilize it. Looking at the front, you can see that the upper and lower control arms are more significant and made of metal. It’s not like a Bronco Raptor, which has metal on the bottom and steel on the top. The Ranger Raptor is already a lot lighter than the Bronco, and it only needs 33-inch tires instead of 37-inch tires, so it can use only metal, which is better for saving weight. “We go another 3.5 inches,” Widman said. “Over the last model, the base Ranger got two inches wider tracks.” “This means a new upper and lower control arm is added immediately. After raising the shock tower to its highest point, we put the shocks in between those two points. Because the damper is responsive to its position or has vertically punched holes called “riding zones,” we need this feature to get as much travel as possible. When the piston goes over these spots, they act like they are bleeding. A system of feed-back tubes is used. Widman said that the wider track not only gives you more safety off-road but also gives you more room to move. It ends up being its suspension up front because it affects how the rest is made. All Raptors are the same in this way. The rear frame of the truck also got extra care. As expected, the Watts link arrangement is more stable than the usual five-link arrangement. Widman said that the Watts link is a way to make a truck’s suspension work without a leaf spring, and he went on to explain why they picked this method for the Ranger Raptor. The Watts differs from a five-link in that it can work with a coil over system. Thus, the spring and shock are now in the same plane. When you have a Coil over, changing the motion ratio or how well the wonders work is easy. “For this truck, where you want a quick response from the suspension because it has a coil over up front and a coil over in the back, it’s very similar to what you would do in a race truck,” Widman said. It has become more stable and is ready to go in any way. This is important when buyers are willing to pay at least $56,960 for a car that will be impressive off-road. Even though the Ranger Raptor is excellent at high speeds, its front and back lockers also make it great at low rates. Widman told me that this was one time when Ford’s international team worked well together to get the best result possible. This form of the Ranger Raptor has been sold in other places, like Australia, for about a year. The one we’re getting has been slightly changed and now has 13 more horsepower, but most of the essential support of the truck has been kept. “A Watts link controls the position of the rear axle better,” said Widman. “A five-link has a little more compliance, but this stuff below has almost no compliance.” Instead of two links coming back, only one is in the middle. Because of this, a Watts can sometimes be found in a car, where it works very well. With much knowledge, you’ve shown that you’re tough, which is very important to us. The Gen 1 Ranger Raptor and the [Australian-market] Everest both have this kind of suspension, so the crew is used to it. A method with less compliance works very well for quick and dynamic driving. We won’t be able to tell how nice this truck is to drive for a while. At first glance, it is the main competitor to the Colorado ZR2. Off-roading is in a great spot right now, and you can look at how they differ here to see for yourself.
