Tradie Advice

The Ranger Platinum highlights Ford's ambitions, pushing its best seller upmarket with lots of chrome, Matrix LED headlights, classy wheels and a fancier interior, giving it unique showroom appeal. Yet the ute's leading engineering, packaging and dynamic virtues, as per every other Ranger today, remain the true highlight. Few rivals could carry off a convincing luxury ute, but the Ford succeeds.

Mahindra's evergreen Pik-Up dual cab ute is a tough, budget-friendly workhorse, particularly popular in rural areas. And now for the first time since its arrival back in 2007 it's available with an auto transmission. Is it a better bet than a Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux?

Getting people from A to B is one thing. Shifting heavy, long or awkward loads (along with the passengers) is another. You need a ute and the size of the tray or tub is critical.

Any discussion of car performance is usually phrased in terms of horsepower and torque. Fundamentally, these are the two main ways an engine’s output is measured and, therefore, compared with other cars. But what is torque in a car and what does torque do?

Based on our experience, the best towing vehicle is either a full-size 4x4 ute or wagon with a turbo-diesel engine and automatic transmission.

The Ford Ranger utility comes in seven grades: the XL, XLS, XLT, Sport, Wildtrak, Platinum and Raptor. The different Ranger body styles include Single Cab Chassis, Super Cab Chassis, Double Cab Chassis, Super Cab Pick-Up and Double Cab Pick-Up.The Ford Ranger specifications have changed for this new generation vehicle which arrived in 2022.Four engines are available in the Ranger line-up:  a 125kW/405Nm 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, single turbo-diesel; a 154kW/500Nm 2.0-litre, twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel, a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel motor and a 292kW/583Nm 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol engine. The twin-turbo petrol is found exclusively in the Ranger Raptor which has a braked towing capacity of 2500kg. All other Rangers have a braked towing capacity of 3500kg.A six-speed automatic transmission comes with the single-turbo four cylinder diesel engine, while 10-speed automatic transmissions are mated to the other engines. The Ranger comes in two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive.Combined average fuel economy for the dual cab Ranger starts at 7.2L/100km with the 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel 4x4, then increases to 7.6L/100km for the 2.0-litre single-turbo diesel 4x2 then steps up to to 8.4L/100km for the 3.0-litre turbo diesel 4x4.For the Ranger Raptor’s twin-turbo V6 Ford says you should see 11.5L/100km of diesel used after combination of open and urban roads.The fuel tank size is 80L for all Rangers, including the Raptor.The Raptor is the largest vehicle in the Ranger line-up and measures 1955mm tall, 1922 mm wide and 5381mm long.The rest of the dual cab Rangers are 5370mm long, 1918mm wide and 1884mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3270mm. All dual cab Ranger utes have a ground clearance of 234mm, while the Raptor has 272mm of ground clearance.Kerb weight ranges from 1789kg for the single cab chassis XL to 2431kg for the Raptor.Gross vehicle mass (GVM) for the Ranger extends from 3060kg for the single cab chassis in the XL grade to 3350kg for the dual cab Wildtrak. The GVM for the Raptor is 3130kg.The payload capacity ranges from 985kg in the Wildtrak to 1327kg in the single cab chassis XL with the 2.0-litre 'bi-turbo' engine.The Raptor has a 753kg payload capacity due to its off-road focused suspension set-up.The Raptor's suspension features performance Fox Racing 2.5-inch live valve shock absorbers and a Watts link and coil spring rear arrangement.The Raptor has a wading depth of 850mm.Wheel sizes range from 16-inch steel wheels on the XL grade, stepping up to 16-inch alloy wheels on the XLS, 17-inch alloys on the XLT and 18-inch alloy rims on the Sport and Wildtrak, while the Platinum has 20-inch wheels.The Raptor has 17-inch wheels with T285/70 R17 BF GoodrichK02 High Performance All Terrain tyres.The XL has front disc brakes and rear drum brakes, while the rest of the Ranger line-up has disc brakes front and back.Standard on the XL are halogen headlights, a 10.1-inch media display, digital instrument cluster, manual air conditioning and cloth seats.Stepping up to the XLS adds side steps, carpet floor and fog lights.The XLT grade has LED headlights, a proximity key, dual-zone climate control, sat nav and adaptive cruise control.The Sport adds leather upholstery, a powered driver's seat and wireless device charging. A 12-inch portrait multimedia screen is added on the Wildtrak and Platinum.The Raptor has the 12-inch portrait media display too, plus a 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster, and Ford Performance seats (with Raptor logo).All Rangers come with AEB with pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle detection. Lane keeping assistance with blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert are standard, too. There are six body colours available for the Ranger - 'Arctic White', 'Luxe Yellow', 'Sedona Orange', 'Absolute Black', 'Meteor Grey' and 'Aluminium Metallic'.   

Q: How to work out fuel consumption?A: When you look at the official government website, fuel consumption is usually expressed as a number of litres of fuel per 100km travelled. But it is also better understood by some (often older folk who remember miles per gallon) when it’s expressed as a number of kilometres covered per litre of fuel. Either way, it’s pretty simple mathematics.In an age when even budget new cars have trip computers to offer up an average fuel consumption number on the run, it’s tempting to assume that that’s all you need to check.Which is fine if you’re not too concerned about pin-point accuracy, because on-board trip computers aren’t as accurate as many people think.These computers typically measure the amount of air that enters the engine (via an engine sensor) and then refer to a set of tables that gives it the corresponding amount of fuel.Unfortunately, this isn’t always a totally accurate method and while it’s convenient and close enough for most, it’s not the way a scientist would measure fuel consumption.That same scientist would resort to basic mathematics, and regardless of whether it’s to calculate how many litres petrol per kilometre, how many litres per 100km or even kilometres per litre, it’s all the same fundamental but specific fuel consumption formula.So, here’s how it works: We have two known factors here. The first is the number of kilometres travelled (assuming you reset your trip meter when you last fuelled up) and the number of litres you’ve just added to the tank to bring the car back to full.To keep the mathematics simple, let’s say you’ve travelled 500km from the last fill and added 40 litres to bring the tank back to full.If you want to know the litres per 100km, you divide the number of litres by the number of 100km chunks of travel (in this case, five - 500 divided by 100). When you divide 40 by five, you get eight which means you’ve used eight litres per 100km travelled.You’ll probably find your chunks of 100km aren’t a nice, round number, but it works with decimal places, too. So, if you covered 560km for those same 40 litres, the equation would be 40 divided by 5.6 (for a figure of 7.14 litres per 100km).But what if you want to know the kilometres per litre you’ve achieved on the same trip? Now the equation becomes the distance travelled divided by the litres consumed.That is: 500 divided by 40, which means you’ve covered 12.5 kilometres for every litre used.While this is often a more accurate method that relying on the trip computer, there are still variables.Odometers are not always spot-on accurate, and while fuel pumps are regularly checked for accuracy, some will still fill a car more completely than others before 'clicking off'.Perhaps the forecourt where you’re filling isn’t perfectly flat. Heck, even ambient temperature can have an effect on how much physical space petrol occupies.The next step, of course, is how to work out fuel cost as opposed to the bald numbers. Again, this is pretty simple and based on our previous figures and a per-litre fuel price of $1.80, our car that achieves 8.0 litres per 100km costs $14.40 to cover that distance. Per kilometre, that works out to 14.4 cents.In any case, the biggest factor determining fuel economy is your driving style. It doesn’t matter whether you drive a car, ute, SUV or truck, or whether it’s powered by petrol, diesel, gas (LPG) or it’s a hybrid, the best way to save fuel is to drive smoothly and use as little throttle as possible.The other number that can be a bit misleading in fuel consumption terms is the official government-test figure that is on the windscreen of brand-new cars in the showroom. These figures equate to a highway cycle test, an urban cycle test and a combination of those two tests.The tests are exactly the same for each and every vehicle sold in Australia, but while they can therefore be compared against each other, in terms of real-world fuel consumption results, they are a long way off.Broadly speaking, in normal use, you’ll never match those numbers, let alone beat them. Why? Because car makes understand the testing procedure intimately and actually design their cars to do well in the test, often at the expense of real-world driveability and fuel economy thanks to super-tall gearing and other measures.You can also thank these tests for the often-annoying stop-start function on new cars which saves precious drops on the test, but is something many owners switch off every time they drive the car.That’s why the car that suggests (on the test sticker) that it can cover 100km on a highway on just eight litres of fuel, will probably require more like 10 litres to actually do so outside the test lab.Use these figures only as an apples versus apples measurement yardstick against competing makes and models where they’re relevant, and not as a real-world guide to consumption.

Q: One of the hot-button topics right now with rising fuel prices is how to improve fuel economy?A: Believe it or not, there are plenty of things you can do or change that can have a noticeable effect on your car’s fuel economy. Most of them are simple, most of them cost nothing, and they can all stretch each precious litre of fuel a little farther.1. Probably the most effective way to save fuel is to modify the way you drive. How fast you accelerate and how suddenly you brake are doubtless the biggest factors in how much fuel you’ll use.Drive smoothly, anticipate red lights and traffic snarls and you’ll not only save fuel, you’ll also have happier, more comfortable passengers, not to mention less wear and tear on your vehicle.2. Where and when you drive can also have a huge effect. Conventional cars (hybrids and EVs are a different matter) are at their least fuel efficient in stop-start traffic.So, by avoiding peak-hour traffic, you can make a difference at the pump over time. Cars also use more fuel when their engines are cold, so making one longer journey with just one cold start rather than two or three short trips, each one with a cold start, will also save you fuel.3. If you do get stuck in traffic and it looks like you’ll be there a while, think about switching the engine off. An idling engine can easily use a litre per hour without moving you a single metre, and that’s terrible for fuel economy.This is also the reason there’s no gain to be had in letting a modern car warm up for five minutes in the driveway before you set off. You’re far better off driving away as soon as the engine is idling smoothly and getting some distance out of the fuel you’re burning.Just remember to take it easy until the engine has reached operating temperature. And then continue to take it easy in the name of fuel conservation.4. How your car is maintained can also make a big difference to fuel use. An engine that is tuned correctly will burn cleaner and use less fuel, and even details like a dirty air-filter can make the engine run less efficiently and will be picked up during a regular service.Don’t forget to have the whole car serviced, too, because dragging brakes or a poorly adjusted transmission can also add to fuel use.5. A lot of people never bother to check their tyre pressures, but these can make a bigger difference than you might think. Keep tyres inflated (for most cars) to around the 34psi mark (235 kPa) for a decent combination of ride quality and fuel economy.As well as saving fuel, your car will steer and brake better with 34psi in the tyres and the tyres themselves will last longer. Tyres can lose about 1psi per month just sitting around, so it’s a crucial regular check.6. Do you drive around with your air-conditioning running all the time? The air-con compressor causes drag on the engine which uses more fuel. In traffic and at urban speeds, you’re probably better off with the window open if it’s not too hot outside.That will flip at a certain road speed (depending on the aerodynamics of your car) and at higher speed, you might be better off running with the air-con on and the windows up to reduce aerodynamic drag (through the open window) that will cause the engine to work harder and burn more fuel.7. The same goes for roof-racks you’re not actually using at the moment. These contribute an enormous amount of aero drag and that means the engine works harder to pull it all through the air, especially at 110km/h.8. What’s in the boot of your car? If there’s a whole bunch of stuff you don’t need on a day-to-day basis (spare tyre, jack and tools aside) then leave it at home and reduce the weight you’re lugging around. A lighter car uses less fuel.There are no real trade secrets on how to get better fuel economy, neither does it matter if your car is powered by petrol, gas (LPG) or is a diesel engine.Nor does engine efficiency make any of these grass-roots measures redundant; even high-efficiency engines can be made to use less fuel.Clearly, buying a modern, high-tech car is the quick but expensive path on how to increase fuel efficiency, but stick with these tips and any car can go farther on less.

Q: What is braked towing capacity, and what does braked towing capacity mean in the real world?A: Braked towing capacity is the upper limit that your vehicle can tow without breaching safety, mechanical, legal or insurance boundaries.As the name suggests, it relies on the towed load (trailer, caravan, boat-trailer) having its own brakes so that the combination is not reliant solely on the tow-vehicle’s brakes to slow or stop.This figure is the absolute upper limit of what a particular make and model can legally tow.Braked vs unbraked towing is an important distinction as the limits for either are very different. Unbraked towing capacity which – again as the name suggests – is how heavy a load you can tow on a trailer without its own brakes (therefore relying on the towing vehicle for all slowing and stopping duties). It’s nearly always a lot lower than the braked limit.It’s important to understand braked towing capacity and not exceed it, for a variety of reasons, starting with staying within the law.If you exceed the towing vehicle’s braked towing limit, you’ll be unroadworthy and you could be fined even if there’s no incident.This also has insurance ramifications, and your insurer might walk away from you in the case of a crash involving a car that was towing too heavy a load.You’ll also void your car’s warranty by exceeding this limit as well as placing stresses and strains on the vehicle it was never designed to cope with. Brakes, clutches, tyres, transmissions and engines can all suffer from too much load on them.The crucial measurement in any assessment of braked towing limit is the mass of the trailer and whatever is loaded on it. This mass is what the police will measure if they think you’re over the limit. You can measure this mass yourself with a public weighbridge.Many councils now have weighbridges at recycling stations and, for a small fee, you can weigh your trailer either empty or loaded. By weighing the trailer empty, you’ll then have a reference number for how much you can load on to it before it exceeds the car’s towing limit.The other option is to use a set of towball scales that measure the amount of weight you’re putting on the car’s towbar, and there are now wireless, Bluetooth trailer scales that are placed under the wheels and the total mass added up for you.There are also plenty of online caravan weight calculator pages where you input all your known data and the website works out if your car is big enough for the job or whether you’re overloaded in any department.Just be sure to search for something like 'vehicle towing capacity calculator Australia' to ensure you find one that’s relevant to our local laws and limits.Terms you’ll find handy to know for this are Aggregate Trailer Mass (ATM) which is the total mass of the trailer when carrying the maximum load that the manufacturer recommends for that trailer or caravan.This is measured with the trailer disconnected from the towing vehicle and resting on its jockey wheel. This figure is determined by the trailer’s manufacturer and should never be exceeded.The other term you need to know is Gross Trailer Mass (GTM) which is the mass of the trailer when it’s hitched to your tow vehicle (and some of the mass is distributed through the tow-ball into the tow-car).Both these numbers are calculated by the trailer maker and are non-negotiable. There’s also a big difference between the allowable gross trailer weight braked and unbraked. That’s true of the tow-car, too, manufacturers have very different limits on towing not braked and with brakes.The empty trailer’s mass is what’s known as its tare mass. The difference between this number and the ATM for your trailer is the trailer’s payload capacity.At the moment in most Australian states and territories, there’s no simple, legal method of increasing a car’s towing capacity or a trailer’s loaded capacity.The trailer manufacturer will have their own method of how to measure capacity, just as carmakers have their own formulas for calculating maximum towing capacity.The towing vehicle’s braked towing limit, then, is not something you need to measure or calculate yourself. The number has already been determined by the vehicle’s manufacturer based on engineering and is not negotiable.You’ll find this info in the owner’s handbook. Neither is there an aftermarket package that can lift your braked towing limit. If you need to tow heavier loads, you need a bigger, heavier car that can do so. What is towing capacity in the handbook is the only number the authorities will be concerned with.Trailer brakes themselves come in two main forms. The simplest is the mechanical brake which uses the weight of the trailer to actuate the brakes via a mechanical or hydraulic link.As the tow-vehicle slows, the trailer tries to maintain its speed (basic physics at work) and the mechanical linkages are brought into play by the resulting force.Electric brakes are more complex but a more refined, sophisticated and efficient solution. The tow car is fitted with a sensor that, when it detects the brake pedal is pushed, sends an electrical signal back to the trailer which then applies the trailer’s brakes. You can fine-tune the amount of braking the trailer contributes on the run, making this a better system.To help put all this into context, here’s a quick run down of the typical braked and unbraked towing limits of popular types of vehicle:Dual-cab ute (Toyota HiLux 4X4): 3500kg braked, 750kg unbraked.4X4 wagon (Nissan Patrol): 3500kg braked, 750kg unbraked.Large SUV (Hyundai Palisade): 2200kg braked, 750kg unbrakedMedium SUV (Mazda CX5): 1800kg braked, 750kg unbrakedBe aware, however, that even within specific model ranges, details such as whether a vehicle is two- or four-wheel drive, and whether it’s petrol or diesel powered can also have an effect on those mandatory limits.Electric and hybrid cars often have much lower towing limits, too. So check each car out individually before making any decisions.

As we Australians take our fun more and more seriously, the idea of towing a caravan or boat behind our vehicles is an increasingly common one.This is (partly) what’s been driving the move to dual-cab utes as our big-selling cars of choice, as well as the increasing towing abilities of those cars.In the case of every new car and commercial vehicle for sale in Australia, the government dictates that it is rated for a maximum towing limit.That’s to ensure the vehicle remains safe to drive with a load attached, as well as hopefully ensuring the towed load won’t do any damage to the tow-vehicle.In the real world, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but it remains that towing more than your car is rated for is a sure way to wind up in legal trouble and, if the worst happens, an insurance swamp as well.So what is towing capacity in the first place? Towing ratings generally come in two forms: The unbraked trailer and the braked trailer.In the case of the former (and as the name suggests) the trailer does not have brakes of its own. For that reason, it relies on the brakes of the towing vehicle and, therefore, must be kept as light as possible.The braked-trailer limit, meanwhile, applies to trailers with their own electric or mechanical brakes that can contribute to the combination’s total braking force. With its own brakes, such a trailer can afford to be heavier.Either way, though, it’s illegal to haul a trailer and load of greater mass than the legal limit for a particular make and model.And get used to these terms: GVM, the total mass of the vehicle and everything in it (including the tow ball weight) and; GCM the total mass of the vehicle and trailer combination and everything in it/on it.Clearly, how much can I tow, is a very complex question. And, the info won’t be found on a compliance plate on the vehicle, either, you’ll need to look in the owner’s handbook for the details.But what if you need to tow more than that legal limit?Well, you could simply go out and buy a bigger, heavier vehicle with a higher towing rating. But what if you’ve already tipped plenty of time and money into making your current vehicle otherwise perfect for your tasks and lifestyle? Surely, an upgrade of that vehicle to tow a bigger load makes some sense.And that’s where the aftermarket comes in. As caravans, boats and worksite equipment gets bigger and heavier, more and more owners are turning to a towing upgrade to achieve their ends.The first thing to know is that the increasingly popular GVM upgrade is not the same as a towing limit upgrade. In fact, a GVM upgrade concerns only the payload of the vehicle and, if you then use that extra payload while the GCM remains the same, you might, ironically, have a reduced towing limit.So, does a GVM increase impact towing capacity at all? Not in a legal, upper limit sense, but such an upgrade is a way to increase towing performance and safety, if not actual capacity.Add a GVM upgrade to your, say, Ford Ranger, and it’ll still be legal to tow the same 3500kg, but it will do it more easily and more safely.GVM upgrades vary from vehicle to vehicle but often include components such as stiffer springs, revised bushes, stronger hitches, better dampers and wheel alignment adjustments.But even then, you might find you need bigger brakes, different tyres and even revised axles or wheel bearings to make the jump to a higher GVM.It all depends on the vehicle in question and there’s no one-size-fits-all GVM upgrade, so you need to have a specialist tackle your vehicle on a one-on-one basis with regard to how it’ll be loaded and how you plan to use it. The pros have a range of kits ready to suit popular fitments.The other thing to know is that you won’t be making 1000kg jumps in a GVM upgrade. Between about 300kg and 600kg is the gain you’ll make, but that’s a big enough difference for some to make the investment.But what about GCM upgrades? This is where it all gets a bit murky, because some specialists will tell you that since there’s no standardised test for a GCM upgrade, it can’t be done with any degree of certification.Other mobs will tell you they have GCM kits to upgrade a limited number of vehicles (typically the Toyota Land Cruiser and Prado stablemates) and that these can legally upgrade towing capacity.Because there’s no hard-and-fast government stance on this subject, the best we can do is give you what seems to be the current status quo on the matter:NSW, SA and Victoria will recognise a revised GCM if the vehicle has been independently inspected by a consulting engineer and usually the state’s own authorities.Tasmania allows a revised GCM if the kit has been previously certified by the manufacturer and professionally installed.Queensland no longer recognises a revised GCM above the GCM nominated by the vehicle’s manufacturer. That said, Queensland is said to be looking into this situation.WA, ACT and NT, meanwhile, do not allow a revised GCM above the manufacturer’s GCM if the vehicle is modified anytime after it’s been registered.Having said that, at least one major local suspension manufacturer we contacted insisted that “There is currently no process via a government body that will allow an increase of a vehicle’s GCM in Australia”.If you could legally increase your GCM, you’d theoretically also increase your towing capacity, again, provided you don’t gobble up the extra capacity by loading more into the tow-vehicle.But remember, that’s theoretically, not – as far as the law is concerned – practically.In the case of GVM upgrades, brand-new vehicles that undergo the upgrade prior to registration can be certified as safe and legal by the upgrade supplier.If you’re converting an existing car, you may – depending on state or territory – need to have an independent engineer sign off on the deal. The good conversion companies can usually put you in touch with these engineers.But don’t be put off by that requirement, as suspension upgrades for towing have been carried out for decades, so it’s familiar stuff for the right engineer.Again, a GVM won’t legally increase your towing capacity, but it can make a vehicle much better and safer at towing that same loads as an unmodified one.And GCM upgrades? You might want to make life simple for yourself and simply buy a bigger, heavier vehicle with a higher towing limit as standard. Many dual-cab ute, SUV and car owners are switching to a light truck for this reason.Even if you do just wish to improve your vehicle’s towing ability and safety (without a towing-limit increase) with a GVM upgrade, there can be traps. It’s far better to go to a specialist who has engineered a GVM solution rather than try to mix and match bits and pieces using guesswork.Air-bag helper-springs, for example, can be used quite effectively on some vehicles, but others (typically some dual-cab utes with leaf rear springs) can suffer catastrophic chassis failure through the use of air-bags.The same goes for changing spring rates. By mis-matching the front and rear suspension of a vehicle, you can easily wind up with a vehicle that is less capable and less safe as a tow-vehicle. This is not a project for the DIYer.