SHED: 2018 PXII FORD RANGER XLS
THE RANGER GETS LOADED UP TO SERVE AS SUPPORT VEHICLE FOR A TRIP TO THE VICTORIAN HIGH COUNTRY.
WITH ITS new Rola Titan roof racks, X-bar and Provent catch can recently fitted, it was time to load up the Ranger and head bush again. Just a local trip this time, up into the Victorian High Country as the support vehicle for our 4X4OTY testing, but it was the first time out with the AMVE body loaded up.
GT was using the Ranger for camp catering, so it was carrying all the food, drinks, water and cooking kit to keep 11 blokes fed and watered for a week. This included 30-odd litres of water in the AMVE water tanks and a MYCOOLMAN fridge full of beers. It also had all the recovery gear onboard in case any of the new cars got stuck in the hills.
When we originally fitted the Ironman 4x4 suspension to the Ranger, the guys used relatively soft rear springs commensurate with the types of load we’d be carrying. We knew then that the
AMVE body would be a few months off and didn’t want the Ranger to ride too hard, and we planned to fit stiffer springs once the body was fitted.
When the body went on and we drove the car to Coffs Harbour we liked the supple ride. The weight of the canopy didn’t seem to affect the suspension adversely, either, but now with the canopy loaded, the rear leafs were almost flat and it wallowed a bit when up in the mountains … time for those stiffer rear leafs in the New Year.
The Ranger chugged along at the back of the new-car convoy for a week without any dramas. We did bust off the power plug for the fridge when sliding it out on the MSA Drop Slide and this shorted out the Redarc unit, but nothing that can’t be fixed. We want to wire the fridge power directly into the Redvision unit anyway, along with a few other new accessories to be fitted before the next jaunt.
THE RANGER WAS CARRYING ALL THE FOOD, DRINKS AND COOKING KIT TO KEEP 11 BLOKES FED AND WATERED FOR A WEEK