My week with a killer mid-size off-roader Tested: 2021 Ford Ranger Lariat Tremor

By William Jinkins

What’s New:

Pros:

Cons:

Until now, the only thing the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro, Nissan Frontier 4XPro, Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Bison and GMC Canyon AT4 had to fear from the Ford Ranger were brand equity and Ford's dominance in truck sales. When it came to the execution, I felt that the Ranger couldn’t compete on the same level as these awesome off-roaders, even in off-road FX4 form.

Getting down to it, Ford has launched its Tremor package for the Ranger, F-150, Explorer and Expedition. For the Ranger it adds a $4,290 upgrade, making either the Ranger XLT or Lariat crew cabs the best they’ve even been. The combination of the fatter 32-inch Continental Grabber A/TX all-terrain tires, improved Fox shock absorbers with remote reservoirs in the rear, and new rear springs have come a long way toward fixing the Ranger's ride and handling shortcomings, which until now had overshadowed its strengths. Only the Ranger Raptor, which isn’t sold in North America, can best it.

My tester sported a Cactus Gray exterior with a stunning bold graphics package. Naturally, with the Lariat package came an abundance of black leather, with “Tremor” stitching embedded on only the front seatbacks.

Having the Ranger Lariat Tremor for the week came in especially handy since I had an off-road event at the Sam Houston Recreational Park near Huntsville, Texas. All the major domestic manufacturers decided to do a no-show, so I sparked some major attention with the Tremor.

Poor body control and ride quality have been my issues with the Ranger from the get-go. Standard iterations of the truck feel wildly underdamped even with the FX4 package, throwing occupants side to side when engaging in something as simple as bumps in the road or entering a driveway approach at an angle rather than head-on.

The stiff springs, necessary to give the Ranger top-of-the-class payload and tow ratings, meant you were always being jostled around even when driving straight down the road. It felt like driving a pickup truck from last century. However, the Tremor package fixes all that.

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The Ranger Tremor still drives like a truck because Ford refuses to sacrifice more towing and hauling capability in order to [than is necessary to] accommodate the off-road hardware. Softer springs and shocks that increase articulation and impact absorption off-road also reduce payload capacity, which in turn reduces trailer tongue-weight capacity. Ford's marketing department will not abide the thought of its trucks being anything less than class leaders (or close to it) when it comes to doing work, so the F-Series Tremor packages to date have walked a narrow line between off-road capability and job site capability.

The Ranger Tremor's 1,430 pounds of payload capacity is the least of any Ranger model. It's also slightly lower than some direct competitors, until you consider those competitors' off-road models. The Ranger Tremor hauls 340 pounds more in the bed than its competitors. As Ford officials point out, and accurately so, this makes the Ranger a better platform on which to build an overlander, as you have more capacity to carry people and gear.

It's a much wider gulf when you look at towing. All Rangers, Tremor included, already out-tow the Colorado by 500 pounds, at 7,500 pounds max. Unlike competitors' off-road trucks, though, the Ranger Tremor doesn't lose a pound of towing capacity. That gives it a 2,500-pound towing advantage over the Colorado ZR2, which is huge.

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That's all fine for doing work, but when it comes to play the Tremor package gives the Ranger an eighth of an inch more ground clearance compared to the FX4 off-road package, for a total of 9.7 inches. The lift improves approach, breakover, and departure angles to 30.9 degrees, 24.2 degrees, and 25.5 degrees, better by 2 to 3 degrees across the board. Pro tip for the serious off-roader: Adding the tow package removes the Tremor package's rear recovery hooks and improves the departure angle by 1.7 degrees. A receiver hitch shackle bracket and a D-ring regains your recovery point.

What really matters here is those specs whop the Colorado ZR2 up and down the trail. The Colorado ZR2 Bison has 8.9 inches of ground clearance and approach, breakover, and departure angles of 25.3 degrees, 23.5 degrees, and 23.5 degrees. On the other hand, the ZR2 comes with front and rear axle lockers - the Ranger Tremor only gets a rear locker and incredible Multimatic DSSV shocks.

Regardless of how that eventually shakes out, the Ranger Tremor is damn good off-road. The Grabber A/TX is a fantastic all-terrain tire, and it lets the truck skip right up a muddy trail with almost zero-wheel spin. Even playing in a muddy terrain after an overnight rainstorm was no issue, with the Tremor scrambling up steep, muddy slopes with little fuss.

I commend Ford for allowing the rear axle locker to be engaged at any time rather than restricting it to four-wheel drive or even four-low only like some competitors (the Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, for instance) do. The cushier suspension made bounding up the trail quick and easy, as the big hits didn't throw me around nearly as much as it used to.

The only off-roading bummer is the steel side steps that come with the Tremor package. Don't get me wrong, I love a good set of rock sliders and appreciate the protection these steel tubes add under the rocker panels, but we hate steps on small trucks. I appreciate that they don't inhibit ground clearance, however steel steps like this have a tendency to hang up on obstacles on the trail. Ford doesn't offer rock sliders without these factory steps, so you'll need to substitute those in lieu of aftermarket ones.

Ford has a class-leading powertrain in the turbocharged 2.3-liter I-4 and 10-speed automatic (except [save] for when it does its clunky 2-1 downshift coming to a stop), but the off-road hardware adds a little more than 100 pounds to the curb weight compared to a standard Ranger Lariat with four-wheel drive. No surprise, then, that the Ranger Lariat Tremor was 0.3 seconds slower to 60 mph.

Seven seconds flat still puts it on the quicker end of the segment, and the immediate punch of the turbocharged engine's 270-hp and 310-lb-ft of torque is a lot more satisfying on the road than winding out the Colorado's V-6, which makes more horsepower yet less torque.

The deterioration in emergency braking distance was no surprise, either. Off-road tires don't have the same traction on the street as highway tires, and this extended the Ranger Tremor's 60-0 stopping distance by 18 feet to 140. That's also seven feet longer than the heavier Colorado ZR2 on its Goodyear Wrangler all-terrains. The Ranger had a squishy brake pedal, but I didn't have much of an issue with it in real-world driving.

So it goes, with the Ranger Lariat Tremor and its off-road tires posting lower lateral grip on the skid pad and a slower figure-eight lap, which incorporates acceleration, braking, and skid pad handling in one test. Still, we're only talking about marginally less grip on the pad and a somewhat slower lap, not a night and day difference. All as to be expected.

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The Tremor package doesn't do a whole lot for the Ranger's middling interior. The gussied-up seats with “Tremor” embroidery on the seatbacks are nice, and I appreciated the six auxiliary switches on the top of the dashboard for hooking up aftermarket parts. (Ford has no plans to sell the auxiliary switches on any non-Tremor Ranger.) Otherwise, it's the same six-year-old interior with its grab bag of decade-old parts. Other than its outdated interior I was not enamor with the abundance of plastic pieces, nor the hollow tone of the doors closing in place.

The Tremor parts also aren't great for fuel economy. A heavier truck which rides higher on knobby off-road tires isn't going to sip gas. It takes a huge hit, dropping to 19 mpg across the board, city/highway/combined, from 20/24/22 for a regular four-wheel-drive Ranger. That's still better than the gas-powered Colorado ZR2 across the board (the Chevy's available diesel engine only bests Tremor on the highway) and basically even with a Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro and a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon with the 3.6-liter V-6.

Where the Tremor package really stands out is in choice. While every competitor makes its most capable off-road model its most expensive model, Ford allows the Tremor parts on the midlevel XLT trim or the top-spec Lariat. On the other hand, you can only get it on the four-door Super Crew body style, which drives up the base price. It also requires you to upgrade your equipment level, further raising the price. Because of that, the $4,290 Tremor package becomes even more expensive than advertised - a true price difference of $5,960 on an XLT and $6,295 on a Lariat.

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Still, the value quotient is high, and the Tremor still comes in under the competition. At $41,900 to start on an XLT, it undercuts the mono-spec Colorado ZR2, Tacoma TRD Pro, and Gladiator Rubicon by more than $2,000 each. The $46,275 base price on the Lariat is about two grand more expensive than the starting prices on those competitors, but it does come with more standard equipment. Our truck, with minimal options, rang in at $46,865, a steal compared to the $60,000 Gladiator Rubicon I recently tested. One really has to try hard to push a Ranger Tremor over the $50k mark.

Fact is, you're into a four-door, four-wheel-drive Ranger XLT for $35,940, minimum. The extra six grand for the Tremor package and the mandatory equipment upgrade isn't cheap, but there is value. It’s more than just off-road capability while allowing the best riding and driving version of the Ranger, with no effect on [towards] towing capability and losing just a little payload capacity. It’s hard to match that kind of wow factor within the competition.

What’s new for 2022

The 2022 Ranger Tremor is a package deal that boosts the truck’s off-road ability. Due to that, Light blue Oblong, a new color, will add a variety of enhancements. For a start off, Tremor package will give you a distinctive oxygen dam which should offer more significant technique aspects. Furthermore, higher-clearance tubular jogging panels are offered. Rumors of a Ranger Raptor still are floating around. However, that’s more for import, such as the “Land Down Under”.

The Splash trim returns to the Ranger lineup and will be available as a $1,495 package on XLT and Lariat models. It shows off its Nineties flair with orange- and-black body-side graphics, unique 18-inch matte-black wheels, orange grille trim, and gloss-black exterior accents. Inside, the Splash wears orange contrast stitching on the seats and special pin-striped trim. A Splash Limited Edition will also be available and will come in a variety of colors, but Ford will roll these out one-by-one and only offer a few hundred at a time before moving onto a new theme. A new Splash Limited Edition truck will launch every few months with a different color, with the Splash Snow Edition kicking off the series.

It's just a matter of time when the next-generation Ranger makes its appearance.