Help me not buy a Ranger Tremor

[Papa Jawa]

Max tow was because it's arguably the most capable non Rubi. Better brakes, cooling, wide axels, 4.10s, and other goodies the other trims just can't get until you get to Rubi. I didn't get mine for the towing because I don't tow.

Yep. This.

Has nothing to do with “towing.” It’s the most kickass JT you can buy without lockers.

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[DankjeeP]

NFL (no front locker) is always a little bit shameful at times to say the least. For $500 you get to not be shamed AND make it over. Win win

 

[QuickOne]

I own both. A built 2019 Ranger Lariat (2.5” icon lift, 33s, Ford Performance Tune). Basically a Tremor with a tune. Also own a 2021 JTRD. My son now drives the ranger daily.

It boils down to the Jeep is a niche vehicle that has a bit more soul - poor steering, bouncy, cramped interior (at 6’1”, it’s crowded in there), solid axle capability, worse towing capacity. DIESEL!!!

The Ranger is a far far more livable vehicle every day. Quick with the tune on it, drives like a mix between a car ano nice truck (thank you independent front suspension). Quiet interior. It’s definitely nicer than the JTRD from a creature comfort perspective.

There are benefits to it being near the end of it’s model life - such as it’s extremely well sorted and mostly bug free. I love it.

If I had to have 1, it would be the Ranger. Mostly because while the JTRD is “cool”, the Ranger is more livable. For the 5% of off-roading I do, the Ranger would be just fine.

Luckily the JTRD is not my daily, so I can play with both.

 

[QuickOne]

And for good measure, they both look great when built correctly.

 

[RacerX00]

I own both. A built 2019 Ranger Lariat (2.5” icon lift, 33s, Ford Performance Tune). Basically a Tremor with a tune. Also own a 2021 JTRD. My son now drives the ranger daily.

It boils down to the Jeep is a niche vehicle that has a bit more soul - poor steering, bouncy, cramped interior (at 6’1”, it’s crowded in there), solid axle capability, worse towing capacity. DIESEL!!!

The Ranger is a far far more livable vehicle every day. Quick with the tune on it, drives like a mix between a car ano nice truck (thank you independent front suspension). Quiet interior. It’s definitely nicer than the JTRD from a creature comfort perspective.

There are benefits to it being near the end of it’s model life - such as it’s extremely well sorted and mostly bug free. I love it.

If I had to have 1, it would be the Ranger. Mostly because while the JTRD is “cool”, the Ranger is more livable. For the 5% of off-roading I do, the Ranger would be just fine.

Luckily the JTRD is not my daily, so I can play with both.

Sweet, another gem. Yeah I'm kind of feeling just like you're feeling right now. Essentially when I went into young children mode my cars became more practical and at 40 I'm kind of like, "Do I need my daily to also be my project?"

I almost want a 4x2 XT 6' cab, almost like fleet spec and then save up for a "real" 2 door Wrangler.

It's like the best of all worlds, I get the cheap, practical, new, fuel efficient truck I need with still plenty of ground clearance for "regular" off-roads and a better rock crawler for when I want to pretend I'm still in my 20s and on the verge of going somewhere cool.

This thread solved nothing and just reinforced options are hard!

 

[PyrPatriot]

But boy is it ugly.

My wife likes how they look! But then again, she married me

 

[QuickOne]

Sweet, another gem. Yeah I'm kind of feeling just like you're feeling right now. Essentially when I went into young children mode my cars became more practical and at 40 I'm kind of like, "Do I need my daily to also be my project?"

I almost want a 4x2 XT 6' cab, almost like fleet spec and then save up for a "real" 2 door Wrangler.

It's like the best of all worlds, I get the cheap, practical, new, fuel efficient truck I need with still plenty of ground clearance for "regular" off-roads and a better rock crawler for when I want to pretend I'm still in my 20s and on the verge of going somewhere cool.

This thread solved nothing and just reinforced options are hard!

I will say that in factory form, the Ranger suspension is terrible. Absolutely horrible. Too much nose dive, back end walks when you hit small bumps in the road (like expansion joints in concrete) and is just not confidence inspiring.

However, if you add the Fox coilovers, or the Icon's as I did (I prefer the digressive valving of the Icon), it's a completely different and *much* better truck. I set it up as my daily at the time, so went with very conservative mods. Haven't touched it in two years. Took it to VT skiing in the middle of a snow/ice storm and drove it all over before my son started driving it.

The Tremor should be similar to my setup, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to buy it for your use case.

 

[RacerX00]

My wife likes how they look! But then again, she married me

The "ugly" thing is hilarious to me. It looks like a sleeker F150 and is bigger than said F150s sold 20 years ago. It's like everyone wants to compare every single truck to the looks of a Raptor, ZR2 or TRD Pro. "Grownup" isn't "ugly."

I feel like the biggest problem with the Ranger is peoples perceptions.

If it were like $2-4k cheaper with similar incentives to start it'd would heavily eat into the F150 sales.

The Ranger platform is a damn solid one that people here are giving too much shit because we all know there's a new platform and Ranger Raptor around the corner. Meanwhile those same people give mad props to the Tacoma TRD Pro which was first launched 74 years ago.

 

[BamaJeepTruck]

And for good measure, they both look great when built correctly.

Not to be disrespectful but we differ on "look great" lol. I have owned plenty of Ford's but these new rangers just look off to me. They remind me of the Chevy luv Iraqi police trucks during my time in. Just too many curves, too feminine. Like a fusion on stilts. You definitely made it look meaner that's for sure, but you cant make Richard Simmons look like Mr. T

 

[QuickOne]

Not to be disrespectful but we differ on "look great" lol. I have owned plenty of Ford's but these new rangers just look off to me. They remind me of the Chevy luv Iraqi police trucks during my time in. Just too many curves, too feminine. Like a fusion on stilts. You definitely made it look meaner that's for sure, but you cant make Richard Simmons look like Mr. T

I don’t disagree about it having feminine lines, especially in stock form and with the chrome accents. But I think it looks good lifted with bigger tires.

My wife said the Gladiator was “ugly as s**t” when I bought it. Said it looked malformed with the bed just added on. Honestly, I agreed with her. But I didn’t buy it for looks. Bought it as a toy to build before I move on to my next project.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[BamaJeepTruck]

I don’t disagree about it having feminine lines, especially in stock form and with the chrome accents. But I think it looks good lifted with bigger tires.

My wife said the Gladiator was “ugly as s**t” when I bought it. Said it looked malformed with the bed just added on. Honestly, I agreed with her. But I didn’t buy it for looks. Bought it as a toy to build before I move on to my next project.

Different strokes for different folks.

Oh the Gladiator is butt ugly, but that's endearing to me in a way. I know for sure my opinion isn't the only one cause obviously if they are selling them then people like it.

 

[XJADDICTION]

Sweet, another gem. Yeah I'm kind of feeling just like you're feeling right now. Essentially when I went into young children mode my cars became more practical and at 40 I'm kind of like, "Do I need my daily to also be my project?"

I almost want a 4x2 XT 6' cab, almost like fleet spec and then save up for a "real" 2 door Wrangler.

It's like the best of all worlds, I get the cheap, practical, new, fuel efficient truck I need with still plenty of ground clearance for "regular" off-roads and a better rock crawler for when I want to pretend I'm still in my 20s and on the verge of going somewhere cool.

This thread solved nothing and just reinforced options are hard!

The best kid car if you aren’t swinging small in that department, is a Toyota Sienna! 100% the best vehicle we ever owned for long trips with younger kids.

The best all around family do everything well, towing and carrying half of my daughters 15y/o + volleyball team on a long trip was my expedition EL.

The most fun you can have driving a pickup , IMOP, is a convertible pickup truck that you remove the doors from! Yes there is only ONE of these, the JT.

The ford Ranger is just another near midsize truck, small inside with no personality. Hell even the ones someone has spent thousands of dollars to lift and add 33”tires, I don’t even notice because the blend in with all of the other regular pickup trucks (which without a lot of expensive upgrades will break that IFS to pieces, axles and all “rock crawling” as you said to feel like you are in your 20’s”). Have you ever tried repairing a broken IFS (non KOH Buggy of course) off road? A broken axle or u-joint in a solid axle is easy and a quick repair)

I think the drive is crappy, avg at best and prefer the JT ride over the Ford Ranger... and I love Ford.

So.... enough... if you aren’t into a convertible pickup truck, the only new production pickup on the market... Go Buy The Ford!

Very simple choice and the JT is the only convertible option you have.

Convertible pickup truck vs not a convertible pickup truck.

 

[Green_Gladiator]

Test drove the ranger .. felt like a sedan, not interested ..

 

[NachoRuby]

Why does the JTR have to be thought of as an unfinished project? It already does a great job on the trails. It already looks (subjectively) good, and it's plenty capable without modification. Sure you can make it a project, but that's just because you want to. It doesn't have to be. Just get in and drive. Since you don't need the front locker, have you considered a Willys trim? Costs less than a rubicon, has a limited slip in the back, and comes from the factory with off road capable tires, and a bit of Rubicon personality and looks. No locking rear diff, but since you said you don't do hardcore off-roading, do you really need one? The limited slip is still very good, and that truck is still capable. I have a JT Rubicon now, but I had a TJ Wrangler before, and never needed a locking diff on any trails. But an LSD would have been nice for the snow. If you get a Willys with an LSD, you're golden. The gladiator doesn't have to cost more than the Ford, if you don't want it to.

 

[RacerX00]

I don’t disagree about it having feminine lines, especially in stock form and with the chrome accents. But I think it looks good lifted with bigger tires.

My wife said the Gladiator was “ugly as s**t” when I bought it. Said it looked malformed with the bed just added on. Honestly, I agreed with her. But I didn’t buy it for looks. Bought it as a toy to build before I move on to my next project.

Different strokes for different folks.

I think it's less "feminine lines" and more "American truck front ends are wildly offensive in person to anyone living outside of North America." I've seen a lot of Europeans come off the plane for the first time and almost universally the first thing out of their mouth is "oh my god I can't believe how big your cars are."

Once Ford killed the Ranger/Mazda in the US they were free to focus on what kind of pickup Europe wanted, which is a massive market for them. Turns out they wanted something very similar to an F150 that just didn't look like the kind of thing someone wanted to attach diesel chimney stacks to.

For me, on Long Island (closer to NYC than not), the slightly smaller dimensions while maintaining standard bed sizes in a pretty damn respectable powertrain just works. I'd wager 95% of F150 buyers on Long Island would be overall just as satisfied in a Ranger.

If I lived in a place with more space, I'd probably be looking at full size pickups and actually lusting over 2-door Wranglers.

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