Ranger bed trailer

snoranger · May 21, 2012

The time has come to put my Ranger out of her misery. She's seen 190K since 1990, when my uncle bought her. I beat the tar out of it for the past 120K and she took it like a champ. So I decided to give her a new life as a trailer.

How it looked as of friday: (Ignore the ugly red cap, thats off our company s-10. We just needed a place to put it for a few days.)

Lets get right into this. Pulled the bed: (The van in the background is mine, so is the Cobra behind it.)

I found a little rust on the frame, nothing too bad. (Oh look, a 1" BII sway bar.)

Forklifts make this kind of work so much easier, everyone should have one.

I cleaned up the surface rust on the underside of the bed and painted it with POR15: (I even found a use for the floor mats

)

While that was drying, I chopped the frame in half. (The 2 green Explorers in the background are mine.)

snoranger · May 21, 2012

Next, we need to do some work on the frame.

I leveled it and welded in a new front crossmember and a support to the factory crossmember. (It may not look straight in some of the pics, but I can assure you its within 1/16" of perfect in every dimension.)

I added another crossmember near the rear. I have a few reasons for this.
1) The rear crossmember seems weak to me.
2) Im not putting a bumper on it, I have a rollpan on the bed already.
3) I may put some stabilizer legs on the back, for loading and unloading my quad when I'm not hooked up to a tow vehicle.

I welded all the factory crossmembers to the frame rails, in an attempt to stiffen the frame a little.

Gratuitous weld shot. Yes everything is stick welded, thats all we have at work.

How she sits as of today.

I have to cut a hole in the front crossmember for the tongue. Its going to extend into the chassis about 8" and be gusseted to the 2nd crossmember. The tongue will extend about 4.5' from the front of the bed and have braces off the frame on either side.

The company next door does hot dip galvanizing. I may strip it down and send it over to them before final paint and assembly. Last time I had something of this size dipped, they charged me less then $50. They cut me a good deal, because I fix their forklifts.

Robert_1967 · May 21, 2012

That sure was a nice looking Ranger to cut up.

Robert

sent from the depths of hell while roasting marshmallows.

shane96ranger · May 21, 2012

I measured mine and it's 54" from the back of the bed to the front of the tongue.

snoranger · May 21, 2012

Robert_1967 said:
That sure was a nice looking Ranger to cut up.

Which part?
The rotted out radiator support.
The rotted out body mount brackets (all of them).
The dry rotted body mount bushings.
The 4.0l OHV thats burning oil.
The slipping 2.9l A4LD.
The cracked windshield.
The completely rusted out doors.
The leaking radiator.
The seized AC compressor.
The leaking steering box.
The rotted out exhaust.
The worn out interior.

You see where I'm going with this? The truck would have cost more to fix then it was worth.

I've got 8 cars (not including my wifes new Fusion), its time to thin the herd. I'll pull the MSD DIS-4, the Borla headers, and the BBK throttle body off this and get rid of it.

Robert_1967 · May 21, 2012

Well, from the pictures it "looked" to be a nice Ranger.

Could you e-mail me the front bumper and spoiler?!?

Robert

posted from the gates of Babylon.

snoranger · May 21, 2012

shane96ranger said:
I measured mine and it's 54" from the back of the bed to the front of the tongue.

Thanks, thats what I was planning for this one.

snoranger said:
I have to cut a hole in the front crossmember for the tongue. Its going to extend into the chassis about 8" and be gusseted to the 2nd crossmember. The tongue will extend about 4.5' from the front of the bed and have braces off the frame on either side.

snoranger · May 21, 2012

Robert_1967 said:
Well, from the pictures it "looked" to be a nice Ranger.

Could you e-mail me the front bumper and spoiler?!?

Robert

posted from the gates of Babylon.

Looks can be deceiving my friend.

I pulled the bumper and tried to send it. I think the attachment is too big. Heres a pic for you though..

AllanD · May 21, 2012

snoranger said:
The company next door does hot dip galvanizing. I may strip it down and send it over to them before final paint and assembly. Last time I had something of this size dipped, they charged me less then $50. They cut me a good deal, because I fix their forklifts.

When you find out how much they want to do a hot dip job on a chunk of frame I'd REALLY like to know...

I've for the front half of a 2001 frame that I'd really like dipped in Zinc
AFTER I get done adding my reinforcements to it.

AD

snoranger · May 21, 2012

AllanD said:
When you find out how much they want to do a hot dip job on a chunk of frame I'd REALLY like to know...

I've for the front half of a 2001 frame that I'd really like dipped in Zinc
AFTER I get done adding my reinforcements to it.

AD

I called them today. They have a min charge of $150 for up to 400 lbs for most customers. I have to talk to the regional manager to see what he can do for me.
The company I'm having it done by is V & S (Voigt & Schweitzer) Galvanizing. The closest locations to you are Perth Amboy, NJ, Jonestown, PA, and New Castle, DE.

kevinsranger · May 22, 2012

did you just say borla headers and throttle body :icon_twisted:

pm me if they are in your way :icon_rofl:

snoranger · May 22, 2012

kevinsranger said:
did you just say borla headers and throttle body pm me if they are in your way

Yes I said Borla stainless steel headers. :icon_thumby:

racsan · May 22, 2012

put on a surge-brake coupler to the tounge & you could plumb it to the "old" stock truck brakes! not sure that youd need trailer braks on a ranger bed trailer, but all you really would need is the surge-brake coupler & some hard line. welds look good, hard to beat a stick welder for penetration!

superds · May 22, 2012

Hmm...how about the Cobra wheels? I've been looking for a deal on an OE set for my 99, apparently the PO misplaced them

snoranger · May 22, 2012

superds said:
Hmm...how about the Cobra wheels? I've been looking for a deal on an OE set for my 99, apparently the PO misplaced them

I've got 6 of them and need to pick up 1 more. 4 for my '95, 2 for the trailer, and 1 for a spare.

I wont be able to do anything on the trailer till the weekend. My wife is away on a business trip and I have to watch the kid after work all week.

Ranger bed trailer

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