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While the Ford Ranger is built with durability and reliability in mind, there’s no arguing that there’s room for improvement. There are many Ford Ranger accessories aftermarket manufacturers offer at affordable prices that can make your Ranger an indestructible monster that can conquer Australia’s rough terrains. However, with so many aftermarket accessories available nowadays, it can be difficult to tell which ones will benefit your Ranger, and which ones are going to be a waste of your hard-earned money. That being said, if you’re wondering what are the best Ford Ranger accessories, here’s a comprehensive list.
BullBars
I don’t think you’ll find a Ford Ranger accessories aftermarket list that doesn’t have bull bars as their first essential accessory. While these accessories are absolutely useless for driving around the city, they become a must-have the moment you leave metropolitan areas. Bullbars are designed to protect your Ranger’s front end from objects coming at you, including Kangaroos, debris, and everything in between. If you’ve ever hit a Kangaroo, then you know how much damage it can do to your radiator, headlight and even engine. Depending on where you drive, you might come across overgrown tracks where you’ll need to bulldoze your way through, and this can include knocking down small scrubs and trees. The bullbar is basically your first line of defence, helping you gauge the width of tracks, and lightly bouncing the vehicle off obstacles. Plus, you can use the bullbar for mounting extra accessories like winches, headlights, etc.
Snorkels
Snorkels allow your Ford Ranger to manage water crossings, and they also prevent the ingress of engine-destroying water. Furthermore, the snorkel can ensure you get colder, clean air to the engine, thus improving your fuel to oxygen burning ratio, ultimately giving you better mileage. You can easily fit a snorkel to your Ford Ranger by yourself in a matter of hours on a Sunday afternoon. Here’s a simple guide on how to fit a snorkel to a Ford Ranger.
First and foremost, make sure the snorkel is compatible with your vehicle. Then remove the right-hand front mud flap, mudguard liner, air entry duct to the airbox, front mudguard grill, mudguard stuffer, and side marker indicator. Apply masking tape to the windscreen pillar, then attach the snorkel securing bracket from inside the mud guard with the help of pop rivets that come with the snorkel itself.
Lift and Suspension Kits
Having good suspension while off the beaten track is essential. It’s one of the most underrated but hard-working components of your Ranger. Your vehicle’s springs, regardless of whether leaf or coil, go through a lot of stress and flexing. Similarly, the steering dampers and shock absorbers get very hot when under the rigours of corrugated and badly rutted dirt roads. All shock absorbers and springers have a finite lifespan and they will eventually fail.
Having improved ground clearance when driving through rough terrains can be extremely beneficial. Even a 3-5cm increase can dramatically improve your approach and departure angles, straddle larger obstacles, and reduce the car bottoming out or bellying in deep sand.
If you’re wondering how to lift a Ford Ranger, it’s quite simple – you let an experienced mechanic do it for you. Lifting a vehicle isn’t something that you should do by yourself, even if you are handy with tools and got decent knowledge of your Ranger.
Dual Battery Pack
With so many electrical accessories available nowadays, having the battery to power all of them is essential. While a modern Ranger will have enough reserve to accommodate the usual range of accessories like GPS systems, small power inverters, driving lights, etc. it definitely won’t have enough to power accessories like a winch, or a car fridge. Good batteries can cost up to a few hundred dollars, but they’re totally worth the investment. Most 4×4 leisure batteries are deep-cycle, meaning you’ll get a lot of recharging and discharging cycles before they become obsolete. Furthermore, a leisure battery can give you the peace of mind knowing you won’t be left stranded in the event of your cranking battery dying or discharging.
Electric or Power Winches
Power winches are mounted to the front of the bullbar. And although not considered essential, having a winch on top of recovery tracks can get you out of a lot of sticky situations. Unlike recovering with the help of tracks, which requires manual effort, you can get your vehicle out of a bog with the simple push of a button. However, when shopping for winches, you need to make sure you get a model that has the pulling capacity to pull the weight of your Ranger, plus all the accessories you have on it. Electrical winches, on the other hand, rely on electrical current to work, and they have the added complication of having an electrical system on top of a mechanical one.
