What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Bill]

I replaced the power steering hose. I really hate working around transmission fluid. It gets everywhere and all over everything regardless of how careful I am, and its so damn slippery that the tools kept slipping out of my hands. After I finished I backed it up and degreased the mess in the engine compartment and poured litter on the driveway to absorb the transmission fluid on the driveway.

After I was done with all that, I drove it to Best Buy and purchased a new cable modem because Comcast finally upgraded the speeds in the neighborhood. I can now download at around 1Gbps. Time to upgrade my router.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

After exemplary daily driver duty this past week I drove it to work today and then put it back in the garage.

Pretty cold this week, it didn't miss a beat. Actually broke my ice scraper this morning.

 

[Lefty]

After exemplary daily driver duty this past week I drove it to work today and then put it back in the garage.

Pretty cold this week, it didn't miss a beat. Actually broke my ice scraper this morning.

I've been out every day too. We've had our share of snow and ice. At least other drivers have stayed off the roads in this weather. As much as I hate winter driving, I can't avoid it.

I have my own charity so I have to go out and deliver meals, blankets, hats, gloves, and hygiene supplies to the homeless. This is my busy season. Want and need are keenly felt and abundance rejoices by sharing basic creature kindness. I just dropped off 300 meals at this church. That little reg cab Ranger gets filled up and emptied out twice each day.

It's a perfect short errand delivery vehicle even in the worst weather. No wonder why so many companies used them. They were true sherpas, the truck of choice back in the day. That 3.0 gets good mileage. It handles well too. Oversize tires offer good traction. It always starts.

I don't mind. I just hate all that road salt. I want to drive mine for another 20 years.

 

[Blmpkn]

I've been out every day too. We've had our share of snow and ice. At least other drivers have stayed off the roads in this weather. As much as I hate winter driving, I can't avoid it.

I have my own charity so I have to go out and deliver meals, blankets, hats, gloves, and hygiene supplies to the homeless. This is my busy season. Want and need are keenly felt and abundance rejoices by sharing basic creature kindness. I just dropped off 300 meals at this church. That little reg cab Ranger gets filled up and emptied out twice each day.

It's a perfect short errand delivery vehicle even in the worst weather. No wonder why so many companies used them. They were true sherpas, the truck of choice back in the day. That 3.0 gets good mileage. It handles well too. Oversize tires offer good traction. It always starts.

I don't mind. I just hate all that road salt. I want to drive mine for another 20 years.

Lots of good karma there. I love it.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Picked up a new lazyboy recliner with it

 

[Lefty]

I've been out every day too. We've had our share of snow and ice. At least other drivers have stayed off the roads in this weather. As much as I hate winter driving, I can't avoid it.

I have my own charity so I have to go out and deliver meals, blankets, hats, gloves, and hygiene supplies to the homeless. This is my busy season. Want and need are keenly felt and abundance rejoices by sharing basic creature kindness. I just dropped off 300 meals at this church. That little reg cab Ranger gets filled up and emptied out twice each day.

It's a perfect short errand delivery vehicle even in the worst weather. No wonder why so many companies used them. They were true sherpas, the truck of choice back in the day. That 3.0 gets good mileage. It handles well too. Oversize tires offer good traction. It always starts.

I don't mind. I just hate all that road salt. I want to drive mine for another 20 years.

I just returned from delivering a bunch of backpacks loaded with food, dry socks, hats, and gloves. People see that little black Ranger coming and smile. That's why I do it really. It's actually fun.

Mine is an Edge. Maybe any Ranger is up to the task, but that factory body lift seems to make it easier to jump curbs and get to homeless encampments. That's also one of the reasons why I installed a light weight hidden winch and got oversize tires. I'm not always on flat dry pavement. I'm still hoping to get a locker or a limited slip. Maybe next summer.

 

[Uncle Gump]

There is no factory body lift on a Ranger Edge that I'm aware of.

 

[Lefty]

There is no factory body lift on a Ranger Edge that I'm aware of.

Maybe the word "lift" is wrong. The Edge comes with 2" lift blocks in the back and a raised front end, making it ride higher than a standard reg cab Ranger.

 

[scotts90ranger]

a 4x2 Edge comes with 4x4 suspension, IE 2" blocks in the rear and the full 4x4 front suspension minus the actual front axle so it is roughly 2" taller than a standard 4x2 Ranger... a 4x4 is more of a trim package with a different hood and the bed rails...

 

[Lefty]

a 4x2 Edge comes with 4x4 suspension, IE 2" blocks in the rear and the full 4x4 front suspension minus the actual front axle so it is roughly 2" taller than a standard 4x2 Ranger... a 4x4 is more of a trim package with a different hood and the bed rails...

Thanks for the clarification. BTW I modified mine, swapping out that heavy fiberglass hood for aluminum, adding tow loops in the front, lowering the back 1" and the front by 3/4"It still stands taller than other Rangers, just not as much.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I've been out every day too. We've had our share of snow and ice. At least other drivers have stayed off the roads in this weather. As much as I hate winter driving, I can't avoid it.

I have my own charity so I have to go out and deliver meals, blankets, hats, gloves, and hygiene supplies to the homeless. This is my busy season. Want and need are keenly felt and abundance rejoices by sharing basic creature kindness. I just dropped off 300 meals at this church. That little reg cab Ranger gets filled up and emptied out twice each day.

It's a perfect short errand delivery vehicle even in the worst weather. No wonder why so many companies used them. They were true sherpas, the truck of choice back in the day. That 3.0 gets good mileage. It handles well too. Oversize tires offer good traction. It always starts.

I don't mind. I just hate all that road salt. I want to drive mine for another 20 years.

If they were doing salt I probably would have went thru the hassle of transferring fuel from the Ranger to the F-150.

It flurried all day one day but it never really amounted to anything.

Generally my Ranger sits all winter, I have enough rust to fix as it is.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Yesterday I installed lights on the headache rack. If anyone didn’t know, Harbor freight has pretty decent lights and wiring kits for reasonable prices. I even used their wiring kit to run lights I bought at Napa.

This morning I left at 3:10 and headed to work. I’m getting 13.77mpg with 4.56’s and 33’s. They’re load rang E mud tires so they’re heavy and not so aerodynamic. 185 miles took me right at 3 hours. 100 miles were mountain driving.

 

[JoshT]

...but that factory body lift...

FIY a body lift is spacers that go between the cab and frame, usually underneath the original body mounts.


Not really today, but over the weekend...

I started out with something that wasn't really to the ranger, but the Ranger was involved. I've got a 5K harbor freight winch mounted to a 2" hitch to use where ever I need it and have a 2" reciever available, but primarily for pulling unpowered vehicles onto my flat bed trailer. Had the trailer and winch for years, never really used either. Never even got all of the control pack setup and just used a set of jumper cables to the positive and negative posts on the winch the one or two times I used it prior. I've got a parts truck that I need to strip and haul off soon so getting it all ready to use. In interest of making the winch easier to move around, shortly after buying it (5+ years ago) I bought a synthetic winch rope to swap in palce of the cable. So saturday I used the Ranger to pull off the steel cable and wind on the new synthetic rope.

Also got a reminder that I didn't need, keep your fingers clear of the winch hook and fairlead. Had used my ATV to keep tension on the rope up till the last several feet. Held hook to keep tension for the last few. As the hook was getting close its like my mind couldn't decide whether to let go of the hook or stop the winch. Luckily only pinched my pinky, smashed my thumb, and scraped a little skin off the side of my right ring finger. No major damage and it should heal quickly. Could have been much worse and I won't make that mistake again. Next step on that project is to get a winch control box built so I'm not juggling jumper cables (why I couldn't stop it quick enough), a stop block on the rope (would have kept my fingers out of the way), and pull lanyard on the hook (my fingers never would have been near the fairlead).

Followed that up with pulling the front door panels off and installing a new set of Pioneer 6x8 4 ways (Walmart specials) because I was getting a buzzing from the passenger side front. Got a set for rear too since its still stock speakers, but that'll happen later in the week after I get the new rear door handle in to replace the busted one.

This morning my Radio became possessed and only got worse as the day went. Not the first time, it was acting up when I put the truck back on the road a few weeks ago. Radio plays fine. Tape deck doesn't seem to work, atleast not with a tape aux adapter I tried in it. It was working fine with the adapter before and I don't want to risk an actual tape to try it out (yes, I still own a few). The CD player no longer plays, or atleast it didn't the other day, and it wouldn't eject the disc that was in it. I'll be ripping it apart when I get a replacement to retrieve my CD. Today the display went haywire. I pulled over and took a short video of it tonight, but I'm not where I can post it right now. Looks like my plans for a new headunit are going to be acellerated by a little bit.

Today I also started stripping all the good tan interior panels out of the parts truck. I think I might want to try my hand at dying them black for a color change on my truck which has the light gray interior. Figure since I have the parts I might as well experiment on them rather than ruining the panels I have. Got the doors stripped off and about half the dash disassembled. Next up I need to figure out how to actually unmount and removel the dash, and find all my trim tools for pulling the rest of the interior palstics.

 

[Lefty]

FIY a body lift is spacers that go between the cab and frame, usually underneath the original body mounts.


Not really today, but over the weekend...

I started out with something that wasn't really to the ranger, but the Ranger was involved. I've got a 5K harbor freight winch mounted to a 2" hitch to use where ever I need it and have a 2" reciever available, but primarily for pulling unpowered vehicles onto my flat bed trailer. Had the trailer and winch for years, never really used either. Never even got all of the control pack setup and just used a set of jumper cables to the positive and negative posts on the winch the one or two times I used it prior. I've got a parts truck that I need to strip and haul off soon so getting it all ready to use. In interest of making the winch easier to move around, shortly after buying it (5+ years ago) I bought a synthetic winch rope to swap in palce of the cable. So saturday I used the Ranger to pull off the steel cable and wind on the new synthetic rope.

Also got a reminder that I didn't need, keep your fingers clear of the winch hook and fairlead. Had used my ATV to keep tension on the rope up till the last several feet. Held hook to keep tension for the last few. As the hook was getting close its like my mind couldn't decide whether to let go of the hook or stop the winch. Luckily only pinched my pinky, smashed my thumb, and scraped a little skin off the side of my right ring finger. No major damage and it should heal quickly. Could have been much worse and I won't make that mistake again. Next step on that project is to get a winch control box built so I'm not juggling jumper cables (why I couldn't stop it quick enough), a stop block on the rope (would have kept my fingers out of the way), and pull lanyard on the hook (my fingers never would have been near the fairlead).

Followed that up with pulling the front door panels off and installing a new set of Pioneer 6x8 4 ways (Walmart specials) because I was getting a buzzing from the passenger side front. Got a set for rear too since its still stock speakers, but that'll happen later in the week after I get the new rear door handle in to replace the busted one.

This morning my Radio became possessed and only got worse as the day went. Not the first time, it was acting up when I put the truck back on the road a few weeks ago. Radio plays fine. Tape deck doesn't seem to work, atleast not with a tape aux adapter I tried in it. It was working fine with the adapter before and I don't want to risk an actual tape to try it out (yes, I still own a few). The CD player no longer plays, or atleast it didn't the other day, and it wouldn't eject the disc that was in it. I'll be ripping it apart when I get a replacement to retrieve my CD. Today the display went haywire. I pulled over and took a short video of it tonight, but I'm not where I can post it right now. Looks like my plans for a new headunit are going to be acellerated by a little bit.

Today I also started stripping all the good tan interior panels out of the parts truck. I think I might want to try my hand at dying them black for a color change on my truck which has the light gray interior. Figure since I have the parts I might as well experiment on them rather than ruining the panels I have. Got the doors stripped off and about half the dash disassembled. Next up I need to figure out how to actually unmount and removel the dash, and find all my trim tools for pulling the rest of the interior palstics.

Sounds like you have been busy! Sorry to hear about the winch work. I bought that little Vevor winch because it came with remote control. I keep it in my hand at all times whenever I use it, keeping a finger on the stop.

Please show us pictures of that new interior. The Ranger has some of the most boring, especially that light gray. I'm hoping to install a pair of black leather bucket seats, maybe make a few more changes after that.

 

[JoshT]

I bought that little Vevor winch because it came with remote control. I keep it in my hand at all times whenever I use it, keeping a finger on the stop.

I've got a wireless remote to wire into it as well, just got to figure out where I stashed it at. Just getting the wired remote, or any actual control device, done up will be a big improvement over current situation.

Please show us pictures of that new interior. The Ranger has some of the most boring, especially that light gray. I'm hoping to install a pair of black leather bucket seats, maybe make a few more changes after that.

It'll be a few months before I even start working on it. Weather here (well most every where) is too cool to attempt painting panels outside and I don't have a heated indoor area to tackle it. If I have any kind of success I will definitely be posting it.