Ford Ranger vs Ford Transit Custom

What's the difference?

The Ford Ranger Super Duty is an impressive ute. It has almost everything you could want in a ute straight out of the showroom - seamless driver-assist tech, reliably effective mechanicals, top-level comfort, confidence-inspiring off-road capability and an ability to tow real heavy loads.

Positives, including its equipment and comfort levels, as well as its capability and all-round driveability, far outweigh anything negative about it, which is mainly limited to its hefty price-tag.

If you’re cross-shopping the Super Duty against the 79 Series, its closest rival overall, then the Ford comes out on top in pretty much every way. And you do get a lot more for your money with the Super Duty.

The Ford Transit Custom Trail has plenty of appeal as a work van or a camper fit-out candidate. It’s a well-packaged, comfortable and contemporary van that’s nice to drive and as a bonus, with all-wheel drive it’s given the scope of capability to be able to tackle mild off-roading situations with confidence.

It’s built for work and play and though it’s limited to two-up for travels, the Trail offers so much potential as a camper conversion for adventure seekers its few niggles are easily forgotten when you’re busy making memories.

The Super Duty is a regular Ranger but bulked up to the maximum.

At 5470mm long (with a 3270mm wheelbase), 2197mm wide (with mirrors), 1985mm high and a listed kerb weight of 2675kg (that’s without a tray), the Super Duty is a bigger-than-usual ute, if you’re used to seeing mainstream utes, rather than US-style pick-ups on the road and tracks.

It has a sealed Super Duty-branded snorkel, substantial front and rear recovery points (two at each end), a wider-than-regular wheel track at 1710mm (150mm wider than the regular Ranger’s), big side steps, 18-inch eight-stud steel wheels (from bigger ‘F Series’ utes), chunky General Grabber All-Terrain LT (275/70 R18) tyres and an 18-inch steel spare wheel.

This ute has plenty of presence on- and off-road. In fact, it can easily compete with the likes of the 79 Series on looks alone.

It looks like a van but with some striking yet low-key flourishes that all kind of work as a whole. Those include a Trail grille and the matt black alloy wheels. The yellow sticker-pack is a neat touch.

The Trail has more presence than a regular Trend with its 30mm-taller raised suspension and overall adventure-ready look with strong front end and chunky wheel arches.

The striking but low-key theme continues inside with a neatly laid-out yet spartan cabin. The two synthetic leather seats are topped with Trail embossing and lined with yellow stitching.

The cabin is separated from the rear cargo area by a bulkhead, which incorporates a small wired window.

If you’ve spent any time in a Ranger cabin recently, you know what to expect. It’s a high achiever in terms of practicality and comfort.

The 12-inch touchscreen multimedia system (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto) is easy to operate while the screen is big enough and on-screen colours crisp enough that even my decrepit eyes could cope with it.

The driver and front passenger are afforded easy access to numerous storage options, including a centre console, cupholders, door pockets, a shelf for all of your pocket stuff and charging points, with a wireless charge pad upfront, as well as USB-A and USB-C sockets.

There’s ample space inside for the driver and the passengers, front and back. The seats – cloth to cope with real life dirt and grime – are supportive and comfortable up front and only slightly less so in the back row. There’s also more-than-adequate room back there. At 172cm I'm a modest amount below average height and sitting behind my driving position have plenty of space.

The driver’s seat is eight-way manually adjustable, while the front passenger seat is four-way manually adjustable.

Second-row passengers have air-con vents and controls, as well as a fold-down centre armrest, door pockets and map pockets.

The tray on the test vehicle measures 1790mm long, 1890mm wide, and 270mm deep. It has a load height (from ground to the tray floor) is 1065mm. It also has metal window-protection and a chequer-plate base. The full-size steel spare is mounted under the tray.

In terms of practicality, the Super Duty bests the likes of Toyota’s 79 Series LandCruiser.

It’s a van so there are two distinct sections to the Trail, the cabin and the load space.

Firstly, the cabin. More a work-friendly than family-friendly interior, this Trail is a two-seater with plenty of durable plastic everywhere – ready for work and life – as well as charging (with USB-A and -C ports) and storage (including a van-favourite dash-top slot for logbooks etc, outboard moulded cupholders and a nifty pop-out cupholder), all amenities enough to cope with most daily van-related duties.

The seats are comfortable, supportive and have a fold-down lock-in-place armrest.

Now for the load space. There are no seats back there and as such it has plenty of potential as a work van or touring vehicle.

Access to the rear load space is via a barn door at the back and this Trail has a sliding door on both sides.

The cargo area is substantial – 3002mm long (to the bulkhead; 3450mm long if load-through hatch is used), 1392mm wide (between wheel arches) and 1425mm high (floor to roof). Easily big enough for work equipment or recreational gear. It can cope with four Euro pallets (each measuring 1200mm x 800mm) and it has a listed maximum load volume (with the bulkhead) of 6.8 cubic metres.

Load height through the rear barn doors is 531-585mm, depending on how much weight is already onboard.

The load space has the aforementioned metal bulkhead (with window and load-through hatch), load area protection kit (full height walls and moulded floor), LED lights and eight tie-down loops.

Otherwise, this is a load area ripe for customisation. Maybe a plethora of shelves for a tradie, or some bedding and extra storage for an adventurous person or couple.

The 2025.75Y Ford Transit Custom Trail has a MSRP of $61,990 (excluding on-road costs).

Standard features onboard include a 13-inch multimedia touchscreen (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), a 12-inch digital instrument display and synthetic leather upholstery with Trail logos on the seats.

Other gear includes an eight-way manually adjustable driver’s seat, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, climate-control air and automatic LED headlights.

It also has all-wheel drive, LED headlights and daytime running lights, a variant-specific grille, black wheel arch moulding and side strip, yellow exterior decals and 16-inch matt black Trail twin-spoke alloy wheels.

The standard no-cost exterior paint is 'Frozen White'. Anything else – 'Agate Black Metallic', 'Grey Matter', 'Magnetic' or 'Moondust Silver' – will cost you $700.

The Ford Ranger Super Duty has a 3.0L V6 turbo-diesel engine producing 154kW at 3250rpm (30kW less than the regular V6 Ranger) and 600Nm at 1750rpm and has a 10-speed automatic transmission, full-time 4WD as well as front and rear diff locks.

For reference, the 2.8L four-cylinder turbo-diesel 79 Series LandCruiser produces 150kW and 500Nm.

Driver-selectable modes in the Super Duty include 'Normal', 'Eco', 'Tow/Haul', 'Slippery', 'Mud/Ruts', 'Sand' and 'Sport'.

This engine and auto makes a smooth and highly effective combination in all driving circumstances.

The Super Duty’s gutsy powertrain eclipses the 79 Series for general driveability.

The Ford Transit Custom Trail has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine producing 125kW at 3500rpm and 390Nm at 1750-2500rpm.

The Trail has a clever eight-speed automatic transmission and an on-demand all-wheel drive system.

It all works rather well, but it’s a van afterall and as such it is less dynamic and more dependably driveable than perhaps a cross-shopped SUV wagon. However, as an AWD van the Trail can be trusted to keep its grip on wet bitumen, soggy grass and loosely-gravelled tracks and that’s a strong part of its appeal over a 2WD van.

The Super Duty does not have an official fuel consumption figure because it is an N2 light commercial vehicle.

An N2 light commercial vehicle is “A goods vehicle with a ‘Gross Vehicle Mass’ exceeding 3.5 tonnes but not exceeding 12.0 tonnes”. The Super Duty is category NB2 - “over 4.5 tonnes, up to 12 tonnes ‘Gross Vehicle Mass’.”

On this test, I recorded 13.7L/100km. The Super Duty has a 130-litre fuel tank so, going by my on-test fuel consumption figure, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 948km from a full tank of diesel.

The Ford Transit Custom Trail has an official combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel consumption figure of 8.5L/100km. On this test I recorded 8.8L/100km.

The Trail has a 70-litre fuel tank so going by my on-test fuel figure you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 795km from a full tank of diesel. However, as with any vehicle, once you’ve loaded the Trail with real-world burdens (e.g kids, dogs, camping gear, etc) you’ll soon see that fuel consumption increase.

The Super Duty is a smooth-driving ute on road; comfortable and composed. At 1710mm this ute’s wheel track is 150mm wider than the regular Ranger’s and is the same as the Ranger Raptor’s, giving it a supremely settled feel over most road- or track-surface imperfections.

The wheelbase is unchanged (at 3270mm), but the Super Duty is substantially heavier than the ‘normal’ Rangers and thankfully its confidence-inspiring driving feel on the blacktop is retained when you drive off sealed surfaces.

It remains settled and even refined on the dirt. It's quite stiff (level some of the blame at its heavy-duty chassis) and the Super Duty’s ride on bush tracks can be jarring if corrugations and potholes are on the wrong side of deep.

Otherwise, it's a very comfortable driving experience. So even though it is heavier and more robust and it has a stiffer chassis than the regular Ranger, the Super Duty is quite comfortable on- and off-road.

Steering has a nice weight to it and visibility to the front through its big windscreen is generally good, although the big bonnet obscures the driver’s forward view on more severe obstacles such as steep hills and rock-climbs. But the Super Duty’s onboard camera system, which is able to present a 360-degree view around the vehicle, negates that somewhat.

Throttle response is good, low-range gearing is reliable and the Super Duty has a front and rear diff lock for when the terrain becomes particularly challenging.

This ute has grippy Light Truck construction all-terrain tyres, which are more robust than standard all-terrain tyres. The Super Duty also has a comprehensive toolbox of driver-assist tech – including hill descent control and a variety of drive modes (Slippery, Mud/Ruts and Sand), all aimed at improving your off-road ability.

It handles steep, tricky technical hill-climbs with ease as long as you drive with consideration. It is a bigger and heavier vehicle than a regular-sized ute and it has a 13.6m turning circle so it requires extra concentration on tight bush tracks.

In terms of physical dimensions the Super Duty is well suited to off-road duties. I have confidence in the listed 300mm ground clearance and 800mm wading depth having driven this ute on some decent rock steps and through various mud holes. The Super Duty also has some substantial underbody protection as standard.

Approach angle is 36.3 degrees, departure is 29.3 degrees and breakover is 26.9 degrees. For reference, the 79 Series offers off-road-relevant angles of 35 degrees (approach), 25 degrees (departure) and 23 degrees (rampover) with 235mm of ground clearance and a 700mm wading depth.

What’s more, the Super Duty fills a niche between regular-sized utes and US pick-ups by offering much more flexibility for towing and touring than a regular Ranger and most other mid-sized utes.

In double-cab chassis guise, the Super Duty has a listed payload (at minimum kerb weight, which excludes the tray) of 1825kg, as well as the aforementioned 4.5 tonne gross vehicle mass (GVM), 4.5 tonne towing capacity and 8.0-tonne gross combined mass (GCM), which are all impressive figures for a ute that’s not as big as US pick-ups.

For reference, the dual-cab 79 Series LandCruiser has a listed payload of 1310kg, can legally tow 3500kg (braked trailer) and has a listed GCM of 7010kg. So the Super Duty wins out in all of those comparisons.

It’s easy to get in and out of the Trail’s driver seat with a wide-opening door and a big step to help you inside.

The seats are comfortable and it’s simple enough to dial-in your driving position via the tilt-and-reach adjustable steering wheel and manually-adjustable seat.

Word of warning: the auto transmission is operated via a stalk mounted on the right-hand side of the steering wheel column, which takes some getting used to.

Once underway, the Trail is punchy enough around town and in the suburbs with its 2.0L 'EcoBlue' turbo-diesel engine offering a more-than-adequate amount of power and torque (125kW and 390Nm) and its clever auto helping out with nifty moves through traffic (for a van, anyway).

Visibility is impressive from the cabin and you’re afforded a convenient vantage point with the Trail standing a bit taller than its regular Transit Custom stablemates as it’s on lifted suspension, but feeling composed on most surfaces.

The Trail has a listed kerb weight of 2046kg and a turning circle of 12.1m, pretty standard for a long wheelbase van, so this is not an insubstantial vehicle and it’s a bit tricky to 'flip a u-ee' if the situation demands it.

It has six drive modes – 'Normal', 'Eco', 'Slippery', 'Tow/Haul', 'Sport', 'Trail' – which each adjust engine torque, throttle response and traction control, among other things, to suit the road surface and conditions.

But we’re all here to see how it goes off-road, aren’t we?

Well, obviously this is no rock-crawling machine and it’s not intended to be. It’s best thought of as having an all-wheel drive system that gives this van mild off-road capabilities, as in it can tackle wet bitumen, soggy grass, lightly corrugated bush tracks and very shallow mud puddles with more confidence than the Transit Custom Trend it's based on.

In a nutshell, the AWD Trail will be able to handle most low-level traction-compromised scenarios. But it does not have enough ground clearance, wheel articulation, grip or underbody protection to tackle any terrain beyond modest off-roading.

Speaking of grip, the Trail as standard rides on Bridgestone Duravis R660 (215/65 R16) rubber, a van/light truck commercial tyre and they are not so well suited to dirt tracks and the like. Grippier all-terrain tyres would help this van perform slightly better off-road than on its showroom rubber.

In its favour, the Trail has a front skid plate and underbody protection in case it cops some knock from the ground during its adventures.

Not in its favour, however, especially as a potential touring vehicle, is the fact it has a space-saver spare wheel and tyre.

If you’re thinking of using your Trail as a tourer, it’s worth knowing payload is listed as 1179kg, maximum braked trailer towing capacity is 2500kg, Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) is 3225kg and GCM is 5725kg.

The Ford Transit Custom was tested as part of ANCAP’s Commercial Van Safety Comparison in 2024 and received a Platinum score “achieving a near-perfect score in safety assessments”, according to ANCAP.

The Trail has all of the Custom’s driver-assist tech and safety features, including six airbags (driver, front passenger, front side curtain and front side seat), as well as AEB, adaptive cruise control (with stop and go), traffic sign recognition and lane centering, blind-spot monitoring and assist, rear cross-traffic alert, forward collision warning, hill launch assist, side wind stabilisation, front and rear parking sensors, a rear view camera (with 180-degree split view) and on-board tyre pressure monitoring.

The Ford Ranger Super Duty is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty which is now the average offering in the mainstream market.

Roadside assistance is included free for the first 12 months and continues for seven years if you have your vehicle serviced by Ford.

Service intervals are recommended for 12 months or 15,000km and capped price servicing is available. If you pre-pay that’ll cost you a total of $2100 for five years. It's $2345 if you don’t, which equates to $469 per service.

For comparison, Toyota recommends the 79 Series LandCruiser is serviced every six months or 10,000km, with each of the first 10 workshop visits costing $545 (for a five-year total of $5450).

Ford Australia has about 200 dealers across the country with a decent spread across metro, rural and regional areas. Ford dealers are also service centres.

Ford’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty applies to the Trail.

Servicing is set down for every 12 months or 30,000km and capped-price servicing is offered. Four scheduled services will set you back $2000 (including a brake fluid change at year three) which isn't over the top for a vehicle of this type.

Ford Australia has about 195 independent Ford dealers in Australia, with many located in metropolitan or suburban areas.