Super( Duty) Ranger for SA farmers
Farmers don’ t like driving into town twice. That’ s why payload and towing capacity are so valuable and a key decision point for farmers when buying bakkies.
For most farmers, the ultimate South African bakkie is Toyota’ s Land Cruiser 70 Series single cab. With its rugged all-steel body construction and proven heavy-duty suspension, the 70 Series bakkie can survive for years in severe-duty farm operations.
When farmers need to go collect a lot of agricultural chemicals and feed from the co-op in town, even the 70 Series has load capacity limitations. It can carry a payload of 1,380 kg and tows 3,500 kg if you have one of the V8-engined versions.
But that the Land Cruiser’ s V8 engine has been discontinued by Toyota. And although the legacy V8 70 Series payload is better than most other single-cab bakkies, it is still a bit too low for farmers when going into town to get a week’ s worth of supplies.
That’ s where Ford is positioning its new Ranger Super Duty. A development of the current T6.1 Ranger platform, the Super Duty offers payload and towing numbers well beyond those of any other bakkie on sale in South Africa. Making this Ford bakkie the ideal farm vehicle.
Engineers at Ford’ s global bakkie development centre in Australia, where farming conditions are remarkably similar to South Africa, created the Super Duty. It features significantly upgraded suspension components, chassis strengthening, a 130-litre diesel tank, and heavy-duty 8-stud hubs.
Big numbers matter
The Ranger Super Duty single cab has a payload rating of 1,982 kg, nearly double that of most other single-cab farm bakkies.
It can also tow a 4,500 kg braked trailer, again, a huge increase over the 3,500 kg of other bakkies. That means this Ford bakkie has a gross combined mass rating of 8,000 kg. That means no more return trips to town on the same day for farmers.
But with all that capability, there are questions. Ford’ s 3.0 V6 turbodiesel engine powers the Ranger Super Duty, but it has been downrated from 180 kW to 154 kW for durability. The issue is that power-to-weight ratios are a real thing, and when you do the math, dividing that 154 kW power peak into an 8,000 kg GCM weight means very slow highway performance.
Operating a bakkie with a GCM of 8,000kg does require a C1 driving licence, but most farmers and farm managers already have heavy-duty vehicle licences. And that is Ford’ s target market with the Ranger Super Duty, when it enters the South African market next year.
WORDS IN ACTION 40 MAY 2026