“Then I saw her face now I’m a believer…” sang the Monkees way back in 1966.

In this case it wasn’t so much her face but the Trail Control system in our long term Ford Ranger Tremor.

I’ve often been of the opinion that many of the extra features that manufacturers load vehicles with are sometimes unnecessary and often takes the joy of driving away.

Assist systems like adaptive cruise control and some of the lesser intrusive lane assist control systems, ABS, EBD and the like that make driving easier and safer are welcome and necessary additions.

Once you get off the beaten track though they fall by the wayside and for someone who learnt my offroad driving skills from series Land Rovers, Nissan Sanis, SFA Toyota Hiluxes and even a Russian made Lada, we had low range and if you were lucky, rear differential lock.

That’s also all changed and like our Tremor many modern 4x4s are fitted with Normal, Eco, Tow/Haul, Slippery, Mud/Ruts and Rock Crawl Modes all designed to make driving safer and indeed make the vehicles a lot more capable.

Ford’s Trail Control System is also fitted. Picture: Supplied.

The Tremor is even equipped with the Off-road SYNC system on its 12-inch touchscreen that uses the 360 degree camera system to show you exactly what lies ahead, behind and next to you when you’re crawling up or down a rocky obstacle.

Which brings me back to the Trail Control system I was so sceptical about.

I’m on a number of different 4x4 whatsapp groups which lead to four vehicles and friends meeting at a 4x4 trail just outside Brits on a cold winter morning.

To give the Tremor context to what we were driving with; there was a massively modified Jeep Rubicon with 37-inch tyres, a 4x4 competition V8 Range Rover with 37-inch tyres and a competition modified Defender bakkie with a V8 and 35-inch tyres.

Our stock standard Tremor is based on the Ford’s XLT Ranger double cab.

Under the bonnet sits the 2.0-litre Bi-Turbo diesel engine with 154kW and 500Nm and rubber courtesy of 265/70 R17 all terrain General Grabber AT3 tyres, slightly larger than 31-inches.

The standard fitment of a steel bash plate, steel underbody protection for the engine, transfer case and fuel tank and rock-ready cast aluminium side steps would also prove their worth on the day.

Setting it apart from the XLT are specially developed Bilstein Position-Sensitive Dampers also found on the Wildtrak X, giving it fantastic road manners on tar and gravel roads as well as when you’re crawling over rocky trails. This set-up increases ground clearance by 24mm and also gives it a 30mm wider track.

There were two trail options, a grade 4-5 and a less challenging one with no guesses as to which one we chose to some consternation from my partner.

Switching to Rock Crawl automatically engages the rear diff-lock and it’s easily switched off and on by touching the icon on the screen. Ford could have made it a bit bigger though to make it easier when you’re focusing on your driving line and avoiding obstacles or perhaps an old fashioned button could also have done the trick.

Having tackled some tough rocky steps I decided to give the Trail Control a whirl, “just to see if it actually works.”

It’s engaged from the touchscreen and from there the cruise control buttons are used to set the speed at 0.5km/h increments or cancel It at any speed below 32km/h.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much but ‘jinne mense’ this thing works.

It was really rocky and without the Trail Control I was doing a maximum of 3km/h which is what I then set it on.

Somehow the clever people at Ford that designed the system have made it almost intuitive.

Once it picks up the obstacle it slows down, comes to a stop inches forward and then sends a message to the ECU to slowly start accelerating before it manoeuvres over the obstacle, slows down again and repeats the process.

It does make it a whole lot easier not to mention the reduced strain on the drivetrain.

And that’s how we got to the top of the mountain with magnificent views of the Magaliesberg before descending down a narrow boulder strewn path with no alternative bypass route.

My partner was having none of it after she had seen the three other cars going down, suggesting we rather backtrack and meet up at the braai spot.

I was keen to do the shortest possible route, so she resigned herself to filming me from the outside as I very slowly and cautiously climbed my way down.

Guess what? The Tremor made it with a bit of help from the steel underbody protection and no panel damage.

There were two more serious ascents that required some deft driving that had my mates in their big rigs truly impressed as we did the boerie roll thing and quenched parched and dusty throats with a cold drink, proving again that size doesn’t always matter.

The Ford Ranger Tremor is priced at R978,600 (August 2024)