“If you use your Ranger for work, family or play, then you’ll know the hard life lived by the door of your vehicle,” said Tim Griffiths, test engineer, Ford Australia. That’s why Ford slams the front and rear doors on Ranger more than 100,000 times to simulate a decade of hard use in the hands of customers.
“The door slam test is as demanding as anything the rest of the vehicle experiences during development; we open and close the front and rear doors in temperatures ranging from a colder than cold minus 40-degrees C to a piping hot 80-degrees C,” said Griffiths.
Using two internal and two external automated hydraulic arms, Ford simulates 10 years of use and abuse over the course of a month with testing running day and night. To ensure all closure techniques are covered, from soft to hard, the speed of the door closure is varied.
As if that doesn’t sound rigorous enough, Ford applies a special ‘gritty’ spray to vehicle parts to simulate outback and coastal conditions. “Rest assured, if it opens and shuts, we’ve tested it to Built Ford Tough standards,” concluded Griffiths.
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