Ford Adds Tremor Trim to Explorer for 2026

Seeking to grab a piece of pie enjoyed by rigs with suffixes such as Z71 and TRD Pro, the crew in Dearborn have applied its Tremor trim to the popular Explorer for the 2026 model year.

Ford has dabbled in this with the Explorer before, though the Timberline trim was arguably more of a paint and wallpaper package than anything with an actual dose of off-road chops. This time around, the Tremor has been beefed up with meaningful changes to items like suspension tuning and underbody protection. Specially tuned springs and sway bars take care of the former whist adding an inch of ride height though we’ll wait until seeing one in person to pass judgement on stoutness of the latter.

A knobby set of Bridgestone Dueler A/T tires wrap around 18-inch wheels which are specific to the Tremor and share the oddball-but-distinctive single orange (‘spice’, in marketing speak) spoke that appears on machines such as the Maverick Tremor. That spice-colored accent is sprinkled around the rig’s exterior including tow hooks, auxiliary lighting appears in the grille bar, and fog lamps are tucked into the fascia jowls.

All-wheel drive is standard of course, equipped with Torsen-brand limited slip rear differential. There will be a choice of engines under the hood, starting with a base 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-banger making 300 horsepower but the one you really want is the available 3.0L twin-turbo V6 which can muster some 400 ponies.

There is no word yet on pricing though it is not unreasonable to speculate the Tremor will appear in the top half of the 2026 Explorer trim walk. The present model year starts at $40,050 plus fees for a base rear-drive Active and runs up to $54,770 for an ST with power only going to two wheels. It’s not impossible to get into the mid-60s pre-tax on that trim once options like all-wheel drive are added and sundry fees are tallied. We'd expect a fully loaded Tremor to be in the same ballpark.

[Images: Ford]

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