Ford Ranger Tremor Goes for Cliffhanger Surprise When Tacoma and Gladiator Fail

Ford has been very active these past few months as far as off-roading goes, presenting the 2021 Ranger Tremor, its larger sibling the 2021 F-150 Tremor, and the dune-traveling F-150 Raptor.

And it seems that beefing up the 2021 Ranger above the FX4 Off-Road Package with the Tremor offering is starting to pay off. Just recently, the TFLoffroad guys decided to see if the new version is up for an adventure in the company of two of the most popular and dirt-trail tested representatives of the midsize pickup segment.

We’re referring to the 2021 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro, seen here in that alien new color, and the popular Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, which is actually TFL’s own long-term partner. About the latter, it arrived for the comparison a bit more prepared than its fellow adversaries. With about 10k of modifications already built into it, the Gladiator is certainly an orange to the Ranger and Tacoma apples, so it’s only there to set the off-road benchmark.

Actually, there’s one tiny detail shared by all three of the pickups present here (the TFL team said they wanted a Colorado ZR2 in the mix, but one can’t have all the wishes granted every time) that gets revealed at the end of the presentation segment (which kicks off at the 7:05 mark). Although only the Tacoma TRD Pro and Ranger Tremor are easy to compare directly, it turns out even the Gladiator has Fox shocks all around, just like the other two!

And that’s not even the biggest surprise because the trio of adventurer pickups went up a snowy Colorado trail for the “Cliffhanger Challenge 1.0,” where the Tremor, TRD Pro, and Rubicon had to go up and down a steep incline riddled with a mix of snow, moist sand, and tree roots.

As such, we’d rather call this episode a “root-hanger,” but that’s probably beside the point because the Gladiator is first to go for the “dare” (the more difficult portion); it failed its first attempt, as you can see from the 2-minute mark. No worries, because a little momentum is always helpful, or a big momentum, in the case of the Tacoma TRD Pro, which came equipped with manual transmission for the encounter (check out its ordeal from the 9:05 mark).

Last up the hill (from 12:55) was the Ford Ranger Tremor after another Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with large tires chose the easy way, much to the dismay of the two off-road enthusiasts from TFL. Basically, they’re in for a shocking surprise when they decide to check out the Tremor’s crawl control, and the driver doesn’t even touch the pedals – arriving up top with just two words on his mind: “very impressive.”

Their surprise conclusion is understandable after the Ranger also uses its computing power to go down the same way without any perceived effort: “it’s an eye-opening brand-new world of off-road electronic crawl control.”