Ranger Vs. Tacoma? Tacoma
First off, I am biased. I love my Tacoma to death! I was stoked to see JD’s nasty prerunner on the cover of the June 2011 issue. I hope to get my rig up to his spec in the future.
I have respect for the Ford Ranger. That truck has been haulin’ since the ’80s, but the new ’05-and-up Taco has established a level of dominance that is hard to refute. Tacomas come out of the box with more power, better suspension, and that legendary Toyota toughness.
The demand for desert rat Tacos has grown to support a myriad of aftermarket companies. Camburg, Total Chaos, All pro, DMZ—four fab shops putting out long-travel kits.
It is much easier to build a high-performance Taco than a Ranger. The Taco will still be street legal too! OFF-ROAD needs to find a street-legal Ranger to crank against JD’s truck. We need a showdown!
I have seen some pics of a Ford Ranger that has some Raptor SVT attributes. If this does come to market the Taco could be challenged again!
Thanks,
RJ Wright
My Tacoma:
2007 TRD 4x4
- Total Chaos upper uniball on stock lower arm
- Fox 2.5s with 3-inch lift
- Fox 2.0s out back with Deaver + 2 spring
- 33-inch BFG KM2s on Pro-Comp rims
- TRD blower with underdog stage one kit
- Magnaflow off-road pro turndown exhaust
- estimated 315 hp
- Hella HID bulbs
- Locked rear diff
Ranger Vs. Tacoma? Ranger!
A Ranger is the preferred truck to go blasting across the desert in — a TTB Ranger is even better than an IFS Ranger. The Ranger is a great size for a truck. The Tacoma used to be a good size, but the newer ones have gotten larger and less maneuverable. Rangers have been around in essentially the same form since 1983, which means there are plenty of spare parts to be had. Also, pretty much any year truck can be customized with parts from any other year truck—you can easily build a completely custom truck with factory parts!
The aftermarket has all kinds of parts for Rangers—significantly more than for the Tacoma. Suspension, body, engine, interior—anything you could ever want or need. A long-travel I-beam or twin-traction beam suspension soaks up the bumps and woops, allowing you to fly across the desert floor. Ivan “Ironman” Stewart even used a similar front suspension design on his Toyota.
The biggest reason a Ranger is the preferred truck is because of ones like my ’93 Ranger. It has 320,000 miles on the original 4.0L engine and A4LD transmission. How many Toyotas have run that far? Of course, I’m about to pull the engine and transmission, and drop in a 5.0L and AOD transmission, but that’s another story.
As you can see, it’s no contest. The Ranger wins, hands down.
Scott Bosso
Via off-roadweb.com
We Are Online, Too!
My name is Santiago, and I’m from Argentina and I’m 24. Since I was little I’ve been buying 4WD magazines. I’ve just finished my mechanical engineer degree with an orientation in automotive industries, and a great part of my motivation was due to those magazines I used to buy (now I can’t due to our current coin value), but thanks to www.off-roadweb.com I’m back on the road (or off-road, again?).
Thanks for the great work you do issue after issue!
Santiago Fornieles
Buenos Aires, Argentina