2023 Ford Ranger build: 19,000km update

It’s been a few months between updates on our Ranger, as it’s been sitting around doing not much for a while.

We had a few highway trips with it up to Sydney and back for the two 4x4 shows up there in 2023, as well as getting our Tough Dog suspension fitted at its headquarters.

We did have a small problem with it prior to one of those runs when the guys from Street Machine magazine were using it to tow one of their race cars and dropped it back, reporting an oil leak. There had been stories of similar leaks from owners on Ranger forums, and checking under the turbocharger confirmed it was indeed that known problem: a leak from the oil return line on the turbocharger.

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With the drive up the Hume locked in we wanted it sorted out, and the team at Chadstone Ford did a great job for us, replacing the offending oil line, gaskets and associated hardware, in quick time to get us on the highway. Of course, this was all done under warranty, no questions asked.

The Ranger cruises nice on the highway, but it does like a drink. With the added weight of accessories, raised ride height, bigger and heavier mud terrain tyres, gear on the roof rack and the canopy poking into the wind, the Ford returns 15.5L/100km on the highway run, resulting in less than 500km from an 80-litre tank of diesel. I haven’t kept full fuel figures on the car as the highway usage scared me enough!

We had a photo shoot with Offroad Images planned and decided to head up to the mountains a couple of days early to make the most of the preceding weekend.

It was great to use the Ranger as it was intended; that is for travelling and camping out of, even if the weather turned bad and killed our hopes of getting the shoot done.

I really appreciated the awesome Boss Aluminium, 270° awning to cover the ‘camping side’ of the Trig Point canopy, and my swag protecting them from the rain.

Living out of the canopy also gave me a great appreciation of how functional it is for this kind of use, with the Dometic fridge easy to access on the MSA Powerslide, 12-volt power supplied by the Projecta Intelli-Grid system, and the convenience and functionality of the Trig Point kitchen/pantry. It makes carrying all that extra weight around worthwhile.