You want to know how good a vehicle is? You talk to the owners of the vehicle, or in this case, the Ford Ranger Owners who participated in the recent 4X4 Sarawak Jamboree. This is the largest annual gathering of Ford Ranger owners (and their pickup trucks) in Sarawak and they've fully embraced the 'Ranger Lifestyle' and the 'Built Ford Tough' philosophy as a whole. They're also one of the more heavy-duty owners of the Ranger as they were part of a 175 vehicle convoy which traveled through a totally new off-road track from Sibu to Kapit.
The epic four day trip was also a proving ground for the vehicles and definitely the capabilities of the Ford Ranger truck. The thing about Kapit, Sarawak was that until only a couple of years ago, Kapit was only accessible by river and vehicles had to be shipped in by barge and only then driven in and around Kapit town. These days, it is now connected by a road which has some sections constructed out of tarmac with most still made out of red earth and whatever type of soil that is in the area the trail crosses.
So the drive from Sibu to Kapit is a challenge and this time, the jamboree took participants through an adventure route which included visits to the Iban tribes in Kanowit, Song and Kapit. At the stopovers, the members of the convoy had the chance to immerse in the Iban culture and engage with the indigenous community including contributing back to society through a ‘gotong-royong’ clean-up of Kanowit town.
Participants experienced serious challenges throughout the journey. They faced rugged untarred timber tracks, where some of which had even been abandoned for two years. They also crossied several small river tributaries, which could only be traversed on flimsy log frontier bridges which definitely upped the challenged a fair bit, most likely causing white knuckles gripping the steering wheel and close to pee-in-your-pants moments too.
Of course, what doesn't kill you builds stronger bonds. Participating Ford Ranger Club owners also got to engage in the camaraderie other like-minded adventure seekers through these various adventurous activities as well as fishing and hunting and the barbecues coupled with campfires at night. Ford Malaysia, under authorised dealers Sime Darby Auto Connexion, states that THIS, is the ‘Ranger Lifestyle’. Which is actually interesting if you like going back to nature with a bunch of like-minded people. Of course, such an event also proves that the Ford Ranger is robust and can handle proper off-roading.
SDAC-Ford continues to be committed in maintaining close relations with car club members by supporting the network of various Ford owners’ clubs through close collaboration and sponsorship that provide opportunities to foster deeper mutual understanding and camaraderie.
If you'd like to know more about the Ford Ranger visit SDAC’s multilingual website at https://www.sdacford.com.my/ford-stories/new-ford-ranger-stories. Here you can see what Malaysian automotive journalists think of the Ford Ranger. Do visit as you can click on the articles, and video we did on the new Ford Ranger. Yes! We are featured by Ford over on that website!!!
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