Just recently, the Ford Motor Company dropped a bombshell for pickup truck enthusiasts when its latest teaser campaign kicked off somewhere in a distant corner of the Earth to reveal that a mighty fourth-gen (fifth-gen when thinking about the Americas, not the international version) Ford Ranger is preparing to adopt the ultra-tough Super Duty moniker!
Naturally, the part of the automotive world dealing with both commercial heavy-duty and regular pickup trucks was on fire after the announcement, and the rumor mill went berserk trying to answer all the ardent questions: will it sport a regular or dually setup like some full-size Super Duty F-Series models, will it come or not to the Americas since Ford announced an international launch, and so on.
The question about North America is quite interesting – mostly because the teased 2026 Ford Ranger Super Duty has some pretty impressive specifications already. According to Ford, the model that will be "manufactured in Thailand for sale in markets around the world" and will arrive in Australia starting in 2026 has a max towing rating of 4,500 kg or 9,920 pounds – significantly more than the 7,500 lbs. of the US-specification Ford Ranger.
The same goes for the gross vehicle mass, which is also 4,500 kg or 9,920 lbs. whereas the regular Ford Ranger in America has a gross vehicle weight rating of 6,170 pounds; plus the gross combined mass is 8,000 kg or 17,637 pounds as opposed to 12,590 pounds for the gross combined weight rating in the United States.
Of course, given that the wait is long before the model is officially introduced, Ford isn't sharing mountains of additional data regarding the new Ranger Super Duty other than the fact that it was created by the IMG Product Development team in Australia. However, the parallel universes of vehicular CGI can't leave it at that. So, with help from members of the imaginative guild of digital car content creators, here's an unofficial, hypothetical look at the 2026 Ford Ranger Super Duty.
These renderings come courtesy of the good folks over at the AutoYa info channel on YouTube, by the way. The host discusses the potential design and engineering changes set to accommodate the new ratings, and there are two major directions – dually rear wheels or a significantly expanded track width with widebody fender flares to accommodate much bigger wheels and tires that can carry the additional loads.
Meanwhile, the resident pixel master was also hard at work envisioning the potential looks of the Ranger Super Duty based on the current iteration and the dark teaser image provided by the Ford Motor Company. So, the front POV depicts the model with dual rear wheels plus various shades, while the traditional front-three-quarters point of view shows it with normal rear wheels but a beefier widebody attitude and massive track width plus huge rear tires.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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