Next-gen Ranger built to the nines

Pretty much everyone agrees the next-gen Ranger is a good thing right out of the box.

A nice torquey turbo-deezy, comfy suspension and enough modcons and buttons to keep any teenaged video-game connoisseur occupied for hours on end. They go hard as work utes too, able to fit a pallet in the tray and with a healthy GVM and tow rating, they’re ideal for getting to the jobsite and back home again in style and comfort.

Oh, and they’re not too shabby off the blacktop either. At least, that’s what Mark Sinfield, the owner of this weapon, reckons. Mark’s a builder, so he needed something to cart his work gear around without fuss, but he’s also one of us, so he needed a rig that’d comfortably take him to far-flung destinations without a hiccup too.

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Having owned a fair few modified 4X4s in the past, he wanted to build something special out of his brand new bus yet didn’t just want to head to his local 4X4 major supply-chain and hand them a blank cheque. He was after something that would stand out in a crowd, something one-off, something to embody the ‘lifted life’.

What he ended up with… well, let’s just say there aren’t too many next-gen Rangers getting around on 37-inch rubber. As you’d expect, however, getting here wasn’t all plain sailing.

Fitting 37-inch tyres

The first big hurdle Mark came up against was the internet experts who told him it couldn’t be done. He even had a few professional shops tell him fitting big rubber on the Ranger was “impossible”.

Luckily, Mark isn’t the type of bloke who listens to the haters and is surrounded by mates who like to party hard off-road, so he set out to find the right companies to help him fulfil his vision.

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First stop was PSR in Yatala, who set him up with a 50mm body lift. It’s been one of the few mods that went in without a hitch, and gave enough clearance, along with a cheapo suspension lift, for 33-inch rubber to be comfortably fitted to aftermarket KMC rims… all within two weeks of buying the rig, no less.

From there Mark decided to skip the whole “let’s put 35s on” phase and go straight for some serious rubber. The 37x12.50R17 Yokohama X-ATs were mounted up to a set of bronze Lenso M79 alloys and bolted in place in the front yard. Of course, it wasn’t quite that easy.

The front bar needed the entire fog-light section removed with a grinder and dremel (and has since been replaced with a prototype PSR Ambush Bar), but the structural sections of the body were all left alone. There you have it folks. You can fit 37s on your next-gen Ranger, no matter what the “experts” say.

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With the tyres in place, the suspension was lacking, so Mark got in touch with Carbon Offroad, who sent him out a set of prototype 2-4-inch raised adjustable coilovers along with a set of twin-tube rear shocks and 600kg leaf springs to handle Mark’s tools and work trailer without sagging like an elderly sumo wrestler.

With the lift, ride and off-road abilities sorted, it was time to turn the attention to the other areas of the Ranger.

Penny Industries canopy

With the standard tub gone, Penny Industries knocked up a one-off chassis-mount canopy that stores the tools or camping gear, depending on what part of the week it is.

On the outside is the spare 37, a jerry can holder, recovery board mounts, a rear trundle drawer, Crashpad Crash Cover 270 awning, and a Drifta Stockton rooftopper that handles accommodation duties when Mark is hundreds of clicks from the nearest Airbnb.

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Inside there’s a 130L Bushman upright that’s protected from inadvertent projectiles by a cage, a twin drawer setup, a second fridge slide over on the driver’s side for tools, and the electrical switch panel that controls the output from the 100A/h Enerdrive slimline lithium that’s topped up at camp by a roof mounted 100W solar panel.

A 60-litre poly water tank is also mounted beneath the canopy, making this pretty much a liveable off-grid set-up for a fair chunk of time.

Final touch

The last 10 per cent takes 90 per cent of the effort, right?

Well, it does for most of us, but given Mark has turned this rig into a hell of a tourer and low-range weapon in under a year, he’s clearly not the type of person who sits on his hands.

The Ranger is protected out front by the aforementioned PSR Ambush steel bar that houses a Carbon Tank 12,000lb electric rope-spooler, which had only been on the market a couple of weeks at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the wider rims and tyres are covered by 45mm wider Utemart flares which have so far kept the road pirates from taking too much notice. The body is kept straight thanks to steel SCF rocksliders, which Mark had further customised with a laser-cut-out of his Instagram handle, LFD_LIFE (lifted life).

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Feeding the 3.0L V6 turbo-diesel (which will be tuned as soon as tunes become available – at last check the boffins at CrdTech were about 95 per cent there) is a Meredith Metalworks 4-inch short-entry snorkel, which compliments the modern styling of the Ranger nicely, while the lighting duties are taken care of thanks to Base6 LEDs that Mark hooked up through OzLED.

All up, Mark is pretty happy with his Next-Gen, but he did stress that modifying a brand-new vehicle is not without its pitfalls, especially given he didn’t want to go for a cookie-cutter off-the-shelf build.

With a little perseverance, some strong words directed at the CANBUS system, and involving companies willing to work towards a common goal, he’s pulled off a rig that’s the holy trifecta of off-road driving: comfortable, capable and camp-out-of-able.

Is it ever really finished?

You didn’t really think Mark was done did you? Don’t be silly, he’s got a lot more up his sleeve for his Ranger. He’s keen on a 450mm chassis extension, some big power mods and is currently having Penny Industries fab him up a custom toy-hauler as we speak… so yeah, we’ll leave it there before our heads start spinning.

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Thanks

Mark had a long list of folks to thank for their help during this build, most of whom we’ve already mentioned, but one bloke who he specifically wanted to shout out is Kyle from Repco in Kawana on the Sunny Coast. On ya mate!