• Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Register for our forum. Even if you don't want to post, you can still 'Like' and react to posts.

The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob


bobbywalter

TRS Technical Staff
TRS Event Staff
V8 Engine Swap
TRS Technical Advisor
TRS Banner 2012-2015
TRS 20th Anniversary
Ugly Truck of Month
TRS Event Participant
Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Messages
23,470
Reaction score
4,667
Points
113
Location
woodhaven mi
Vehicle Year
1988
Make / Model
FORD mostly
Engine Type
V8
Engine Size
BIGGER
Transmission
Automatic
2WD / 4WD
4WD
Total Lift
sawzall?
Tire Size
33-44
My credo
it is easier to fix and understand than "her"
well, that is what i expected. happy to hear it. the rbv platform is by far my favorite...though the xj is superior stock to stock imo. i mean dollar for dollar i would put it up against anything. in stockish capacities.


so you think the new style car seat is too big to forward face mount it like lil bobs was? you dont have a slider window anyway so it can stick out like i was doing.... it worked slick....you cant have them sideways back there wheelin....my oldest kids wore helmets....they are almost 25 and 23 now and were riding around back there at 3 and 5.....but back then shit wasnt near as crazy as it can be now....33's verse 42's makes for a whole different kind of trail adventure.


i like the b2 we got from 351 ranger....and i have been considering the explorer sport. but an old early 70's blazer or bronco is what the wife wants...even a scout.

if i get a tight b2 for the right price that would be ideal at this point, but the explorer sports are hard to beat.

i am at 6k cruise weight with no cage and military tires...and thats why i thought you were crazy when you started out with the d 44 to begin with. but my ttb 35 held up fairly well in the work environment save for bearings which are ridiculously cheap and easy to deal with. so ya never know for sure till you try sometimes.

thanks for keeping us all in the loop with the efforts for pictures and videos.



on edit...

if kicking out my cab works, i wont be interested in an explorer sport...i will build a big e350 with a cummins for a driver and run the ranger as a backup and start wheeling it harder again. have you thought of making the cab bigger?


and my rear d 60....while not as strong as a 14 bolt....it dont hang up like a 14 bolt....not even close.
 
Last edited:


RangerSVT

Oct 09 OTOTM
Article Contributor
V8 Engine Swap
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
RBV's on Boost
ASE Certified Tech
TRS Banner 2010-2011
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
7,883
Reaction score
53
Points
48
Location
TRS since 2002 - NW KY
Vehicle Year
19962002
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
GT-40 5.0L EFI W/AC
Transmission
Automatic
Ben, I've got a 2000 sport 4x4 I'll be selling soon, text me if your interested...

SVT
 

Kage

March 2012 OTOTM Winner
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
781
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Near St. Louis MO on the IL side
Vehicle Year
1994
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
well, that is what i expected. happy to hear it. the rbv platform is by far my favorite...though the xj is superior stock to stock imo. i mean dollar for dollar i would put it up against anything. in stockish capacities.
I tend to agree. We've now taken two more or less stock XJ's out west (riding on 30's) and have been quite impressed with where they would go. Heck my last wheeler was an XJ on 32's and it went way more places than it should have! The green XJ that's showed up several times in this thread is running 33's and a mild lift and has no problem going where guys with 37-40's go. So they're pretty dang capable, but the lack of a frame definitely limits their lifespan when used off road for any length of time.

...so you think the new style car seat is too big to forward face mount it like lil bobs was? you dont have a slider window anyway so it can stick out like i was doing.... it worked slick....you cant have them sideways back there wheelin....my oldest kids wore helmets....they are almost 25 and 23 now and were riding around back there at 3 and 5.....but back then shit wasnt near as crazy as it can be now....33's verse 42's makes for a whole different kind of trail adventure.
Yup. Take a look at new car seats next time you get a chance, they're HUGE! To the point of being absurd as some of them really don't fit that well in a full sized car! Never mind the back of a Ranger! There are also several laws that nearly make your kid to stay in a car seat until they're 16 (at least in my area) which doesn't help things.

I had honestly thought I could fab up some sort of platform to raise the seat up and squeeze it between the front seat, but there's just no room there. If I could have done that, I wouldn't have any heartburn running around on some of the more mild trails with the family and save the more extreme stuff for when I'm flying solo.

...i like the b2 we got from 351 ranger....and i have been considering the explorer sport. but an old early 70's blazer or bronco is what the wife wants...even a scout.

if i get a tight b2 for the right price that would be ideal at this point, but the explorer sports are hard to beat.
I am kind of partial to the bII's but they've mostly melted around here, and they're a bit too small for us since the wife doesn't really pack light :) And you're right, for the price the ex's are cheap. I can find them on CL all day long for under $1500 with less than 150k miles and working A/C!

.....i am at 6k cruise weight with no cage and military tires...and thats why i thought you were crazy when you started out with the d 44 to begin with. but my ttb 35 held up fairly well in the work environment save for bearings which are ridiculously cheap and easy to deal with. so ya never know for sure till you try sometimes.
Loaded up, the truck runs around 5800-6k lbs 'trail/travel ready'. I was orginially shooting for 5-5200 lbs :oops: And the "lets give it a try" was the mentality with the D44. Thankfully I managed to sell it for what I paid for it so no real loss there. And it did kind of work, I just couldn't keep ball joints in the thing. Shafts, bearings, etc all held up just fine even with the doubler pushing that much torque through it. the failed high steer incident was more of a fluke and was fixed, but I was just done with it at that point, so in came the 60.

........thanks for keeping us all in the loop with the efforts for pictures and videos.
No problem! I hate it when threads don't get closed/wrapped up. So I'll keep this one going until the truck is sold or re-purposed.

......on edit...if kicking out my cab works, i wont be interested in an explorer sport...i will build a big e350 with a cummins for a driver and run the ranger as a backup and start wheeling it harder again. have you thought of making the cab bigger?

and my rear d 60....while not as strong as a 14 bolt....it dont hang up like a 14 bolt....not even close.
I've kicked the thought of bumping the cab out more than once, but I can't really kick it out too much before I run into the rear wheel well since I bobbed the frame and moved the rear axle forward. I would nearly have to extend the wheelbase to make it work, and getting it to seal up might be a bit of a pain.

I feel that the amount of effort that would go into kicking it I think would would be better served just moving things over to an ex. The goal being getting another rig up and running as quickly as possible to get back on the trail. I feel that I'll likely have quite a bit of time wrapped up in trying to extend the extended cab enough to make it worthwhile.

They say the rear 60s aren't that strong, but I've never seen anyone break one down here. I guess we're just easy on stuff :) I do miss the clearance of it though which has given me bad thoughts. More than once I've kicked the idea around of doing a smaller build (44/8.8 and 35's max) but I don't think I can make it light enough to work to my satisfaction. Since the Ex Sports start out around 4k lbs curb weight, I've got a feeling it would still wind up being 5-5.5k lbs by the time I was done. If I lived out west where there is more trail riding, I would be more apt go to the smaller route. But around here, most of the parks are getting to be geared a bit more toward the 35+ tire size with 37's being the norm.

Plus, slapping an exo cage on something with 33" tires just looks silly :icon_twisted:

So I'll probably wind up sticking with the big boy axles for peace of mind and economics.

Another random benefit with the big boy stuff is alot of weight down low and wide. One thing I had forgot to mention in the above setup post is I love how well this thing side hills. Many many times I've had it laid over further than I though possible and it just stayed planted.

Ben, I've got a 2000 sport 4x4 I'll be selling soon, text me if your interested...

SVT
Man, what don't you have laying around? :lol: I've kind of got my heart set on a sub $1k 1st gen sport (5 gear 4.0 OHV) as the SOHC motors don't really do anything for me. Plus the VSS is in the right place so I don't have to get creative to make a speedometer work.
 

RangerSVT

Oct 09 OTOTM
Article Contributor
V8 Engine Swap
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
RBV's on Boost
ASE Certified Tech
TRS Banner 2010-2011
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
7,883
Reaction score
53
Points
48
Location
TRS since 2002 - NW KY
Vehicle Year
19962002
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
GT-40 5.0L EFI W/AC
Transmission
Automatic
Mine ain't manual, but I do have the OHV 4.0. Its Brandi's DD right now, she wants a 4 door. The first gen ex would be easier to put your drivetrain under. I'll keep a look out...

SVT
 

Kage

March 2012 OTOTM Winner
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
781
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Near St. Louis MO on the IL side
Vehicle Year
1994
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
Mine ain't manual, but I do have the OHV 4.0. Its Brandi's DD right now, she wants a 4 door. The first gen ex would be easier to put your drivetrain under. I'll keep a look out...

SVT

There is a decent chance that I'll still wind up with a 2nd gen given how many of them there are floating around, but we'll see. I'm in zero hurry right now so don't strain your eyes looking too hard :icon_twisted:
 

RangerSVT

Oct 09 OTOTM
Article Contributor
V8 Engine Swap
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
RBV's on Boost
ASE Certified Tech
TRS Banner 2010-2011
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
7,883
Reaction score
53
Points
48
Location
TRS since 2002 - NW KY
Vehicle Year
19962002
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
GT-40 5.0L EFI W/AC
Transmission
Automatic
Ok, I've got brandi a mounty, body & interior in great shape, just gotta get a motor & trans for it...

SVT
 

Kage

March 2012 OTOTM Winner
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
781
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Near St. Louis MO on the IL side
Vehicle Year
1994
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
27th Off-Road Tip – SMORR 10-11-14

Still beating this thing around... this was one very wet weekend! While I was looking forward to camping this weekend, I wasn’t too upset that we wussed out and hotel camped. We met up with the usual group + Bray at the part and covered about 8 miles worth of trails:



Even with the light rain throughout the day, it was still a good time, and there was decent traction throughout the park:







The YJ just wanted to nap:




All the tree’s were starting to turn:













Only a few surprises as far as carnage goes. Bray found a surprise water hole and hydro locked his motor. We managed to get it rolling again, and he made it home okay. I had a bit of a surprise on the way home when a Tie Rod loosened up a bit making for a quick white knuckle lane change. Tightened it up and rocked out all the way home.

Link to all the photos:
http://saral.zenfolio.com/p608840002/slideshow

Videos!

Highlight Reel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keBubFFQKlc

Bray’s Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSn5gs0CLUI

Rob’s video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCGnGwx1mn4

Full Group up Wagoneer Hill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9uIZ-gPf20

Bray playing around on Double Whammy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEZctAWS3Go
 

Bray D

2012 UA Ranger
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Aug 8, 2007
Messages
2,144
Reaction score
8
Points
38
Age
37
Location
Manito, IL
Vehicle Year
1996
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
Nice pics and vids man! Looks like you guys had a blast!!

Everyone was thinking it. I just said it. :D

On another note, a buddy just stopped by last night and dropped off his HERO3 for me to check out. I'm pondering ditching the Contour for a later model and I'm not sure if I want to go Contour again or GoPro. We'll see how I like it.
 

Kage

March 2012 OTOTM Winner
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
781
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Near St. Louis MO on the IL side
Vehicle Year
1994
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
Nice pics and vids man! Looks like you guys had a blast!!

Everyone was thinking it. I just said it. :D

On another note, a buddy just stopped by last night and dropped off his HERO3 for me to check out. I'm pondering ditching the Contour for a later model and I'm not sure if I want to go Contour again or GoPro. We'll see how I like it.
Yeah, wee bit dead around these parts. Kind of sad how badly Facebook has gutted forums. Even the other big forums (like P4x4) are pretty dead compared to what they used to be :sad:

I'm still happy with my Hero 3 (not the 3+), and I'm considering picking up another one once the price on the old ones drop a bit more. I for sure like the go-pro app on the smart phone. Makes setting up up to get good shots easy.

In other news, I've got a run at Moonlight coming up 11/1/14 that should be a nice casual ride. That run will probably end my wheeling this year due to the holidays coming upon us. After that run, I think I'll throw the truck up for sale to see if I get any takers as it's kind of a drag not being able to take the whole family along on these runs.
 
Last edited:

RangerSVT

Oct 09 OTOTM
Article Contributor
V8 Engine Swap
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
RBV's on Boost
ASE Certified Tech
TRS Banner 2010-2011
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
7,883
Reaction score
53
Points
48
Location
TRS since 2002 - NW KY
Vehicle Year
19962002
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
GT-40 5.0L EFI W/AC
Transmission
Automatic
Anyone have hands on with the Ion camera compared to the gopro or contour? I've been thinking about getting one of those. I like how small they are...

SVT
 

kris97ranger

New Member
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
3,088
Reaction score
36
Points
0
Age
33
Location
lisle ontario
Vehicle Year
19961991
Make / Model
ford
Engine Size
4 litre and 7.3 litre
Transmission
Automatic
I just have nothing of value to add so i dont lol. Do love seeing the wheelin trip pics. Almost more then the builds
 

escort_gts

02/2012 04/2013 04/2014 OTOTM Winner
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Oct 27, 2007
Messages
3,387
Reaction score
16
Points
38
Location
Fort Wayne, IN
Vehicle Year
1993, 2001
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0, 5.0
Transmission
Manual
I just have nothing of value to add so i dont lol. Do love seeing the wheelin trip pics. Almost more then the builds
Same here, love seeing your wheeling posts.
I'm on here just mainly to look. Don't have much to say so I dont. I haven't even updated my build thread either.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 

RangerSVT

Oct 09 OTOTM
Article Contributor
V8 Engine Swap
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
RBV's on Boost
ASE Certified Tech
TRS Banner 2010-2011
TRS Banner 2012-2015
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
7,883
Reaction score
53
Points
48
Location
TRS since 2002 - NW KY
Vehicle Year
19962002
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
GT-40 5.0L EFI W/AC
Transmission
Automatic
I've been too busy updating everybody else's, i need to update my $ h1t...

SVT
 

Bray D

2012 UA Ranger
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Aug 8, 2007
Messages
2,144
Reaction score
8
Points
38
Age
37
Location
Manito, IL
Vehicle Year
1996
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
Yep, it seems the forums are pretty slow these days.

Being able to control the camera wirelessly is the main driver for me considering a new camera. I haven't fired up the Hero3 yet, but we'll see if I like the interface. The shape and rotating lens of the Contour is great. Unfortunately, I struggle to work with the .MOV files on my Windows PC. I'll ponder over the winter and probably upgrade this spring.

I hadn't even heard of the Ion until you brought it up, SVT. For what it's worth, the GoPros are pretty small (without the case), and my Contour is pretty small as well. I haven't found size to be an issue anyways.
 

Kage

March 2012 OTOTM Winner
OTOTM Winner
Solid Axle Swap
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
781
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Near St. Louis MO on the IL side
Vehicle Year
1994
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
28th Off-Road trip – Moonlight Racing 11-1-14

We took several Noob’s out for their first time to run around a local park. Managed to run about 10.3 miles of trails on the mostly easy stuff:


Youtube form the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxe0-4u6W68

And photos (I didn't really take any)...















This is likely the last trip off-road for this rig, as I’m a bit tired of not being able to take the wife and kid along on these adventures. I need to get some house projects done, and there might be a New Years Day run, but it’ll likely start getting parted out/sold in the next 2-3 months.
 

Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

Members online

Today's birthdays

Member & Vendor Upgrades

For a small yearly donation, you can support this forum and receive a 'Supporting Member' banner, or become a 'Supporting Vendor' and promote your products here. Click the banner to find out how.

Latest posts

Truck of The Month


Kirby N.
March Truck of The Month

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Events

25th Anniversary Sponsors

Check Out The TRS Store


Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

Sponsored Ad


Amazon Deals

Top