Test drive Ford Ranger 1992 - 2010 compartment
Cowboy's dream
Ford Ranger American workhorse
Yes, for a long time I did not ride trucks! This, of course, is not about those that create traffic jams on Moscow streets and mercilessly spoil the air, but about cars that the Americans respectfully call Truck or Pickup. That is, about large SUVs, which are not created at all for flange along the city streets, but for heavy, sometimes murderous for work equipment. Their bright representative is Ford Ranger, who recently appeared in the salons of Russian dealers. So, in front of me is not a banal passenger car, on which I have not stopped traveling for a dozen years, but a condo, in a good sense of the word, pickup, long and tall. And you need to climb into it without getting into a chair, but, on the contrary, starting with a foot from the footboard and rising up. Inside, too, everything is special. Instead of the usual luxury of modern SUVs, the poor and laconic front panel, a simple combination of devices, an uncomplicated central console. In the usual place, there is no handle in the usual place, for which it is necessary to take as a knob and pull on itself and up, sticking out from somewhere from under the steering wheel. Buttons that turn on additional equipment, large, strict rectangular shapes and put it when pressed, like an old domestic switch ...
If I were a farmer
Stop, why did I start to find fault? Mentally, I again make myself distract from habits and remember who is actually a buyer of such cars. Obviously not a city resident who occasionally chosen to nature for relaxation. He would have chosen a car for himself, that's for sure. But those who are closer to the image of a cowboy in a hat and boots, who spends most of his time outside the metropolis and loves to work on Earth, considering the main goal of life to build an ideal personal economy or farm, they are probably the main customers of the model. Then everything falls into place and the Spartan style and decoration materials, not particularly sensitive to mechanical influences, and everything else that distinguishes this car from a passenger car. So that I quickly jump home, change the office outfit for sneakers and shabby jeans, I take just in case the GPS receiver, a couple of mittens, simple a first-aid kit and go out of the city. Preferably, I am repeating to myself on the road, to the places where a person’s leg rarely steps. And such places in the civilized suburbs, be sure as much as you like. Especially in the spring, when the snow comes down and any soil path turns into a complex Off-Road highway. Here, for example, the construction of some new highway. What we managed to do over last autumn, today it surfaced from under the snow: a mound from the ground interspersed with stones, lifted by the wide wheels of dump trucks.
I wonder how far Ranger can climb on ordinary road tires? It turned out, far and, most importantly, deeply. It is important to always remember that where the SUV or pickup is stuck in my case, only a tractor will be able to drive, which I definitely can’t find in the evening. So carefully climb the embankment higher and higher. Ranger did the first half of the journey, completely not straining, on a row of transmission and rear -wheel drive. But the coating has become softer, and until I sucked into it on the very bottom, I stop, I hand over a little back, where the veil, I stop again and turn on the all -wheel drive regime. Immediately on the dashboard, a transmission chart lights up with two pairs of wheels connected to the motor and another orange bulb with the inscription RFW. I’m moving, and, feelings, the car continues to behave in the old way. Well, again back, let's look at the instructions. It turns out that the RFW system is deciphered as Remote Free Wheel and allows you to turn off the front bridge in all -wheel drive mode so as not to wear its differential and shafts in vain. As soon as you need to overcome serious off -road, the bridge turns on the same key, and begins to help the movement. 
Well, well, then I turn off the electronic system and in 4x4 mode I torment the route again. Ranger began to move forward much more confidently, only on bumps it was not very convenient to control the engine’s traction, the leg twitched with the body, and the car rode with jerks. The pickups can also be riddled of such an misfortune by only transferring the lever of the transfer box to the position of the lower row of the gears. Now, the clicks of the Gas Ford began to react more smoothly. The rise, meanwhile, became cooler, and quite large stones began to come across it. This is already worse for the bottom, I was not afraid of the bottom, since it is raised above the ground by as much as 20.8 cm and covered with protection, but the tires, I remind you, can not stand the touches with the sharp edges of the cobblestones. Okay, I think it's time to turn around. And here the RFW system came in handy again. The fact is that in all -wheel drive mode, inter -normal differentials are blocked, that is, the speed of rotation of all wheels becomes the same. And, accordingly, at the slightest turn of the steering wheel, one of them, internal in relation to the center of maneuver, will begin to slip. Moreover, the process is accompanied by a frantic effort on the steering wheel, which the transmission seeks to straighten.
In general, when there is no strength to restrain the reverse effect on the steering wheel, I press the button, turning off the front bridge, and, carefully dosing the craving, turn around. The help of this was an unexpectedly great angle of rotation of the picap wheels, a productive power steering and a large gear ratio in the mechanism. When turning in a flat section, Ranger does not require so much space of 12.6 meters. I go to asphalt to take a breath. Well, Ranger fully justifies its name, which translates from English as a tramp or wanderer. If normal toothy tires stood on the car, I am sure that I would have become the king of the mountain without unnecessary effort.
Another check that I was eager to arrange was a water. According to the instructions, the depth of Brod for Ranger is limited to 40 cm. First of all, due to the danger, scoop up the water intake and receive a hydrodynamic blow with subsequent expensive repairs or even replacing the motor. In fact, I admit honestly, Ford took the weight of one and a half times larger, that is, about 60 cm of water. I don’t know how dangerous it was for the car, but on even gas it, rubbing a diesel engine, crawled over the puddle and then the motor was never indignant at the forced soul, still at ease and worked. I hope that I was not just lucky, and the pickup showed a margin of safety. Better off -road
Probably, it is worth completing off -road research and go home. Still, the Casual style is personally closer, that is, cities than the rural Cowboy. While leaving on the highway, on narrow tracks I checked the brakes. Let's just say that it seemed to me not enough, I have to stop the pickup only with them. But going down the gear, using the motor you can get a very good slowdown coefficient. The main thing is not to scare the clutch forward, which occurs due to long-term and American soft suspension. However, there is nothing amazing: disk mechanisms are installed in front of the Ranger, but drums behind. 
Another flaw appeared on the highway. The fact that the off -road was the large angle of rotation of the wheels and the productive hydraulic wrap is almost completely separated by the driver with a car at a speed of 100 km/h. That is, the rotation of the steering wheel to the angle familiar to the brain does not mean at all that the machine will react also habitually. In a speedy turn, you have to constantly work as a steering wheel to the right and left, trying to understand what angle the front wheels are turned. Plus a vertical buildup, which at first simply frightened me. On the gentle waves of the asphalt, the hood in front of the eyes every now and then walks up and down. So that you are afraid to get into resonance and tear off the tires from the road. Although it is quickly quite possible to drive a 2.5 -liter diesel engine that issues 109 hp. and 266 Nm of the maximum torque. In pairs with a mechanical gearbox, he does not allow to feel damage in the city stream and provides a very disputed start from traffic lights, while showing a rather moderate fuel consumption. 
What else is worthy of a car? This, of course, is a cargo compartment covered with protective sheets of plastic, into which you can load more than a tons of cargo without harm to the suspension. The weight is evenly distributed on the sheets of springs installed from the back, and at the same time add comfort in motion. For such a large and well -equipped car, it is not bad and the price of 22,840 euros for the XLT equipment (electric drives of windows and glasses, a roof over a cargo compartment, a radio, heating a driver’s seat, air conditioning, a chrome decoration of the body) and 19,270 euros for less pathos XL. Warranty 1 year. The main competitor Mitsubishi L200. Sergey Ilyinsky
Photo by the author
Brief technical characteristics of Ford Ranger
Engine volume, cubic meter. See: 2500
The number of valves for the cylinder: 4
Power, l. With. at about./min.: 109/3500
Max. Torque, Nm/at about. min.: 266/2000
Acceleration to 100 km/h, p.: 14*
Maximum speed, km/h: 145*
Average fuel consumption l./100 km: no data
Fuel tank volume, l.: 70
Dimensions, mm.: 5012 x 1810 x 1760
* Editorial measurements
