Ford Ranger Super Duty Is So Hardcore Ford Has To Use A Robot As A Test Driver

The need for durability is so high that when Ford was working on the first Ford Ranger Super Duty, it couldn't find a human driver up to the task. So with Paul Hogan unavailable, Ford had to try something different. It used a robotic test driver to make sure that the Ranger Super Duty was ready for anything.

Toughest Test Too Much For Human Drivers

Ford Australia's toughest test track is called Silver Creek. The durability course, located at the company's You Yangs Proving Ground in Victoria, is described as "a dry creek bed, but instead of smooth pebbles, it’s packed with 300 randomly placed, bone-rattling bumps of different shapes and sizes."

"Silver Creek is our toughest man-made durability track," said Justin Capicchiano, program manager, Ranger Super Duty. "It stressed the Ranger Super Duty from the wheels to the roof; simulating the wear and tear you’d typically experience across a decade of driving on the world’s harshest road conditions."

Each run on the track creates 2,000 suspension movements. But it's really meant as a test of the durability of body mounts and joints, engine mounts, and connectors.

Adding a robot behind the wheel let Ford test the truck 24/7. The automaker has done robot testing like this before when it's too much for people. This way, the test could run for days with relentless consistency, stopping only for inspections and fuel. The truck wasn't run empty, either. Instead, Ford loaded it up to the truck's max Gross Vehicle Mass of 9,921 pounds for the testing.

“The forces punching through the truck when it's unladen are immense, but when it’s loaded to maximum GVM and tested on Silver Creek, they become even more brutal. This is an incredibly important test for a truck that must do the toughest jobs or most extreme adventures in the harshest conditions,” Capicchiano said.

And, of course, there is video. So you can watch the Ranger Super Duty getting absolutely hammered down the "bone rattling bumps." The Super Duty Ranger looks impressive as it rocks down the bumps. What's really impressive is how stable the truck seems to be, even fully loaded.

If you've ever seen the clip of a last-generation Toyota Tundra twerking its way down a similar test track, you already know what trucks can look like in these conditions. If you haven't seen that Tundra video, well, enjoy.

The Ford Ranger Super Duty is a beefed-up version of the Ranger mid-sized truck sold in Australia and some other parts of the world. It delivers a smaller truck with full-sized capability. It can tow a full tonne more than the standard Ranger, and its max Gross Vehicle Mass is 2,756 pounds higher. Extra skid plates, a standard long-range fuel tank, and eight-lug hubs are just some of the changes Ford Australia made to create the first non-F-Series Super Duty model.