Ford Everest Super Duty? Don’t bet on it

Ford’s local boss has thrown cold water on the idea of an Everest Super Duty, saying customers aren’t demanding an SUV with the same capabilities as its roided-up ute sibling. Additionally, the company says the structural differences between the Ranger and Everest make the creation of Super Duty SUV a task that’s easier said than done.

At the launch of the Ford Ranger Super Duty, one obvious question was begging to be asked: how much of this massively muscled-up ute could be translated into a family-friendly SUV?

After all, Ford makes no bones about the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series being the archrival of the Super Duty, and that vehicle isn’t just available as a cab-chassis ute, but as a fully-enclosed wagon and Troop Carrier as well.

But Ford is happy for Toyota to continue having the heavy-duty wagon market to itself for now, with local boss Andrew Birkic dismissing the idea of a wagon-bodied Super Duty as “a hobby project”, versus the far more commercially important Ranger Super Duty ute.

“To be honest we’ve been focused on Ranger Super Duty,” he said. “You can be very easily distracted by hobby projects, but at the end of the day, based on the investment we’ve put into this vehicle and based on the volumes, this is not a hobby.”

He also said demand among Everest customers for a Super Duty-level of capability isn’t significant enough to justify the monetary investment needed to make it happen.

“We’re doing really well with Everest, it predominantly is geared towards passenger and family, and that's where it's selling.

“We don’t have endless resources, so you have to make decisions, and we’ve made a very intentional decision to nail this truck (Ranger Super Duty), while we’ll continue to look at the evolution of Everest in where it needs to play.”

“But it’s got to be dictated, really, by customer demand,”

It wouldn’t be an easy operation, either. The Ranger Super Duty’s steel ladder frame only has six per cent commonality with a regular Ranger’s frame, with differences in suspension pickups, steel thickness and other critical hardpoints – the Ranger Super Duty has longer rear leaf springs, bespoke front control arms and the front axle from a Bronco Raptor – making an Everest Super Duty far from being a simple body-swap.

The Everest also features a coil-sprung rear axle, precluding the use of the Ranger Super Duty’s unique rear axle with its leaf springs and massive Transit-derived differential.

If you were hoping that Ford would leverage the extensive engineering that’s underneath the Ranger Super Duty to create an Everest with a 4500kg tow rating, huge payload capacity, and 8000kg gross combination mass, there’s still the slim chance that the company may produce one in the future.

However, it would take a level of investment that would be hard to recoup unless significant demand was present – the kind of demand that just wouldn’t be possible in a market as small as Australia.

“You never say never, but it’s not on the agenda right now, not that I’m aware of,” Birkic said, before asking Ranger Super Duty lead engineer Drew O’Shannassy directly if he was working on an Everest Super Duty.

O’Shannassy politely smiled and shook his head.

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