Ford teamed up with RTR to tag-team the 2020 Ranger and has brought two fine examples to the 2019 SEMA show. One of those concepts was the Ranger RTR, and the other is the Ranger RTR Rambler. While the Ranger RTR is already up for sale, will the Rambler prove that it has what it takes to makes its way to the showroom floor? Let's take a look at what the Ford Ranger Rambler by RTR is all about!

Exterior

Up front, the Ranger Rambler features the trademark RTR grille, albeit without the illumination in the ‘D’ frames on the corners. Instead, the honeycomb mesh grille comes with a vertical slat in the middle that houses three LED strips and the RTR logo next to it. The top-end of the thick border has ‘RANGER’ embossed on it. The headlights are standard affair and RTR has not messed with them on this concept. The hood also does not receive any extra power bulges or muscle creases. It is the stock hood that is seen on the standard Ranger. The bumper, however, is sourced from Ford’s performance division and there are two fog lamps as well. Despite being an off-roader, it comes with front parking sensors. An eight-seat Rigid LED lightbar is placed on the roof that will be quite helpful when you’re camping at night. Finally, there’s the Warn winch underneath it is marked as ‘HELP’ with a downwards arrow. Cheeky!

The Rambler rides on in-house-designed RTR Tech 6 wheels wrapped in 33-inch Nitto Ridge Grappler tires. The wheels look absolutely stunning and raise the truck’s presence enormously. The custom-made RTR fenders are a nice touch, and the wheel arches and side skirts have a black plastic cladding around them that gives the truck a sporty feel and also protects the metal body from minor hits on the trail. Two individual side steps are provided to climb into the truck. The company has installed an air-intake RTR snorkel prototype on the A-pillar. Since the point of the SEMA show is to exhibit the products, we could very well see this snorkel being offered as an official accessory soon.

The rear is customized as per the ‘Overlanding vehicle norms’. This means the Ranger Rambler comes with stuff like the SkyRise tent and snowboard support capsule. These things are placed on the Yakima truck bed frame. Inside the truckbed is a smart storage system with a bed-slide that is sourced from Rockland Custom Products. RTR has also placed an ARB ‘Meet Jack’ on the side of the storage box. There’s also an IndelB refrigerator, which seems to be the TB15 model from the looks of it. Overall, the Ranger Rambler is a complete truck to take care of your camping and adventurous needs.

Interior

Ford and RTR have not provided any details about the cabin or provided any images, so we’re assuming there are no changes made here. In terms of space and comfort, there’s nothing to complain about. However, it’s not exactly the most spacious truck on the market either. The fit and finesse are top-notch for the price but, in terms of features, only the top-end is well-loaded. The lower trim levels suffer from a lack of accessories, although one can buy them as optional. Some features on the standard Ranger Lariat trim include

-* Dual-zone electronic automatic temperature control

-* Ambient lighting

-* Cruise control

-* Leather-wrapped steering wheel

-* SYNC3 entertainment system

-* SiriusXM satellite radio

Drivetrain

The mill is mated to a 10-speed automatic gearbox that makes the engine feel sprightly and eager to be revved. RTR has installed a Fox-tuned Ford Performance off-road suspension leveling kit to the Rambler that raises the truck by two inches. There’s underbody rock protection as well and it’s much needed, considering that an Overlanding vehicle like this will be taken and beaten on paths that don’t even exist.

The Ranger, in the standard avatar is rear-wheel-drive but can be equipped with four-wheel drive, and it's likely that the Ranger Rambler sends its power to all four wheels. While the rear-wheel-drive truck delivers 22 miles per gallon; the four-wheel-drive Ranger delivers one mile per gallon less. You can expect a big hit in this number with all the weight and changes made to the Ranger Rambler, but fuel economy isn't your concern here anyway, now is it. As for the towing and payload capacities, they are rated at 7,500 and 1,860 pounds respectively. There’s no word from Ford or RTR if the specs for the Ramber are different, but we wouldn't hold out hope for any improvement.

Final Thoughts

The Ford Ranger RTR Rambler is quite an all-rounder. Although it is definitely not a daily driver, the truck sure seems to offer a mix of urban drivability along with excellent off-roading prowess. RTR has installed a lot of products from other companies, liked rooftop LED light bar from Rigid, truck bed frame from Yakima, winch from Warn, storage system from Rockland, etc. to create a perfect vehicle for your camping trips. If you are visiting the show in Las Vegas, you can check this truck out at the Ford display stand located in the Central Hall booth #22200.

RTR and Ford - A Loving History

Ford seems like a company with a plan this year at the SEMA. The Blue Oval has teamed up with multiple aftermarket players to design concepts based on the Ranger and its Super Duty trucks. Although there are many names in that list that you may have not heard of, there’s one company that almost everyone is familiar with – RTR. The company has been associated with Ford for a very long time and has been tweaking the Ford Mustang for over a decade now.

RTR stands for Ready-to-rock and it was founded by professional drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. in 2007. What inspired Vaughn to start this company was the fact that despite there being a camaraderie amongst the Mustang owners, they generally favored the 'import' culture and everything was focused on the import scene. So, Vaughn decided to take it on himself to infuse the American muscle with European-inspired styling and the result was the 2009 Mustang RTR. The very next year, RTR and Ford signed an agreement that made RTR a semi-official Ford Performance division and the RTR Mustang being sold through Ford dealerships. RTR brought the Ford F-150 RTR to the SEMA 2017, but it took the company two years to roll out the production version truck. The 2020 Ranger becomes RTR’s third bunny from Ford, but we need to wait and watch if the SEMA-build Ranger Rambler will be made available or not.