Ford Ranger Towing Melt Dowd

[bigmac146]

January 2010, we bought a Ford Ranger Double Cab with the sole purpose of being a towing vehicle, we have a piece of equipment thet istowedon a trailer,this equipment is heavy but we tow within the law and within the capabilities of the vehicle specification

On a job in Tiverton Devon after driving from Hertfordshire,no problems encountered on the way down there, the next morning the clutch completly failed. the vehicle had traveled 10000 miles since january and was within a year old and withing its first service schedule

we ended up in Taunton Ford, where they have had a look and said the clutch, flywheel, starter motor and some crank sensors have been destroyed.

Ford will not fix under warranty as they assume that the clutch has been abused, the totalcost is £2500 to fix and was wonderig where i stand with ford asi have araised a case number against them to try and resolve this.

Any help would be appreciated.

regards,

Mark

[bigmac146]

ps, I dont know how to change the topic title, should say down!

[Jem0911]

Hi Sorry to hear of your problems.
What were you towing?

[tvrolet]

Absolutely no consolation whatsoever...but I bought a Ford Ranger double cab new in 2005 as a towing vehicle [car on trailer], ski-trip hack and daily driver. 70,000 miles on with loads of towing under its belt it's never missed a beat [oops, I;ve gone and done it now ] and it's still on it's original clutch.

[bigmac146]

hi,wewere towing a small drilling rig in a trailer, the trailer is rated to 2750kg, and the towing capacity is 3000kg with a braked trailer.

[richyb]

One of my colleagues with an identical hilux had the clutch and associated go around 12k after a years worth of heavy towing and the dealer wouldn't pay out. It was a lease vehicle and I don't think the lease company really pushed it. Don't know whether it was the driver, vehicle or load that was the issue. Our trailer and load was about 1500kg but I think towing in an offroad environment certainly didn't do it any favours.

What weight were you towing?

[HellDiver]

bigmac146 said:

bought a Ford Ranger Double Cab with the sole purpose of being a towing vehicle

Doh! There's your first mistake.

http://www.landrover.com/gb/en/lr/defender/ - hope that helps.

[ExPat2B]

Its an interesting question, because I have looked at the max towing weight of a Ford ranger before and wondered, why is it so high compared to the competion, when the mecahnics seem very similar ?

I have suspected Ford over rate these trucks, or that they are not capable of towing their max tow weight reliably.

[richyb]

HellDiver said:

bigmac146 said:

bought a Ford Ranger Double Cab with the sole purpose of being a towing vehicle

Doh! There's your first mistake.

http://www.landrover.com/gb/en/lr/defender/ - hope that helps.

I had a defender as a work vehicle previously and its not somewhere you'd want to regularly sit on long journeys. Noisey and uncomfortable. Crossing the sahara I'd have a defender, crossing the M25 I'd have a discovery.

[The Wookie]

I believe I'm right in saying the Ranger has a low range box, it's possible that the maximum towing weight is rated using the low range, which would put considerably less load on the clutch.

I'd have a look in the manual to see if there are any specifics, but I think you've got a job on your hands proving it wasn't abuse.

On another note, if it IS rated to tow that weight in high range, or it doesn't have a low range box, then I'd consider looking into the driving technique of whoever is using it.

[bigmac146]

We did look at the defender but the cost compared to the other options was a deciding factor. we were towing around 2300kg, which is well under what is stated to be its maximum and we never offroad tow, mainly motorway-town, ihave to now argue with ford directly, not sure how thats going to end!