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The 2019 'Loan Ranger', and 2019 Ranger Adventure


85_Ranger4x4

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wow... I really want to do the TAT now in my Ranger... the country looks beautiful.

Keep the pics and narrative coming

AJ
I want to do it too... wish I had something worthy of doing it in though.
 


Jim Oaks

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Day #6 - Friday June 7th, 2019:

My goal today was to make it out of Colorado, and in to Utah. I want to heath towards Silverton though to see what kind of photo opportunities I could get.

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28060

I headed towards Yankee Girl Mine. It's a great spot for photos, but the roads back to it were buried in feet of snow. I went a little further and stopped at the turn off for Black Bear Pass.

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I love the sign sticking out of the snow recommending high clearance four wheel drive. LOL ;missingteeth;

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Here I'm actually parked in front of the road to Black Bear Pass. Safe to say, it's going to be closed for a while.

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If you've never seen US 550 south of Ouray Colorado, here's (2) videos:

I decided that I should just continue along the Trans America Trail (TAT), which would cross Ophir Pass from US 550 to SR 145 south of Telluride. I knew that it was closed due to snow as well, so I took the highway around the mountain and came south on SR 145 to intersect with the other end of Ophir Pass. I was dissapointed that I didn't get any photos of the truck in the snow.

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After connecting with the TAT, I finally came to the the first off-pavement section for the day. The road goes up the side of the mountain without guardrails, but eventually trees become your guardrail.

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The road started out dry, but then turned to mud, and then snow. The snow was wet and very heavy, and there was mud under it. As I was going up the hill, the truck started sliding to the left towards the trees and the drop off. I tried powering out of it, but stopped before I got in to bad of shape.

This my friends is why the FX4 should have a good front limited slip, or better yet, an electric locker. My FX4 Super Duty had a front limited slip, but the Ranger does not. The Chevy Colorado has a front locker option, and the Jeep Gladiator has a front locker. Their engineers understand the trend in adventure vehicles. They see the vehicle as the adventure, not just as a vehicle to haul things. I think Ford still sees the Ranger just as a truck that hauls things, and doesn't really understand it's potential.

But let me get off of that rant, and to the point...

A 2WD truck will fishtail and go up a muddy hill sideways because it's pushing against resistance.

A 4WD truck with only one wheel digging in the front can start doing the same thing if the wheel that's not digging is encountering a lot of resistance.

In this case, I got myself unstuck by digging some of the snow out from in front of the right front tire. You can see the snow building up in front of it because it's not digging. It's just hitting a wall, so the truck is starting to pivot around that point. Once I dug some snow out, I was able to get enough forward momentum to power through it.

This isn't an off-road park. This is a public road. their are roads like this all over the country that people have to drive on. And I can't tell you how many signs I've seen out west that indicate that there's no winter maintenance, or no plowing after certain hours and on the weekends. If you're going to call it off-road, make it off-road capable.

If I would have had the factory all terrains, I would have been in trouble, and stuck for a while. Their tread would have been packed full of mud and snow and offered no traction whatsoever.

Damn I'm bitchy today. What the hell, I might as well get it all out of my system. If manufactures didn't install traction control, then we we wouldn't need terrain management to override it!

28066

In all fairness to the Ranger, I actually blasted through this snow (below) with the Terrain Management in the snow setting, and the rear axle locked. The Cooper Discover STT PRO's helped a whole lot as well. The Terrain Management wasn't a factor in me getting stuck sideways.

I got a little further down the road and ran in to a whole lot of snow, so I decided it was time to turn around.
 
Last edited:

Jim Oaks

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Day #6 - Friday June 7th, 2019 (Continued):

Having gotten the truck unstuck and back underway, the day started going much smoother. I came across this Galloping Goose in a small town when I stopped for fuel.

trans_america_trail_2019_ford_ranger_galloping_goose-1.JPG



trans_america_trail_2019_ford_ranger_galloping_goose-2.JPG


trans_america_trail_2019_ford_ranger_galloping_goose-3.JPG


trans_america_trail_2019_ford_ranger_galloping_goose-4.JPG


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28073

Right before I crossed from Colorado to Utah, I wasn't sure if I was on a road, or a ranchers drive, and at one point, I was thinking that I was going to run out of road. I'm pretty sure it will be in the video I put together when I get home.

The Trans America Trail takes you around Mt Peale and then in to Moab. I was hoping that I wouldn't get detoured any more, and didn't see snow being an issue, Especially here.

28074

But snow started greeting me once again.

28075

And then it told me to turn around and go back to wherever it was I came from.
I've had a lot of fun in the snow over the years. I've even hosted Snowball Runs' in the winter. I'm not crazy about getting stuck in the snow late in the evening on a narrow road with a steep cliff.

Once again, I would have to turn around and head back.

I eventually entered Moab. It was Friday, which meant all of the campgrounds and hotels were full. I headed north to Interstate 70, and got a hotel room in Green River. I could have camped off the side of the road somewhere, but it was getting dark, and I didn't know anything about the area.

28077

My plan would be to backtrack in the morning, and reconnect with the Trans America Trail in Moab.

Today I started tracking how many miles I actually drove off pavement (dirt and or gravel).

I drove 108 miles on dirt and or gravel, with 63 of those being in Colorado and 45 in Utah.

Update: Here's a video highlight of the days trip:

 
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85_Ranger4x4

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Watch that white stuff...

I was watching one guy's trek on the TAT on youtube and he got his 4Runner hung up in snow in Colorado. He got to spend the night in his car, luckily someone happened to be out on a four wheeler and found him the next morning. No cell signal of course and he hadn't told his wife what is route for the day was and he was 20mi from anywhere so it could have gotten interesting.

The whole trip was kind of a trainwreck, I don't think he really knew what he as doing... but it was so stupid I couldn't look away.

Loose fluffy stuff is one thing, when it gets a crust on it and sits for several months it is a whole different critter
 
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Jim Oaks

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I think Ford should offer a FX4 Level II with a 2-inch lift like they use to do with the hirider, a 33-inch BFG all terrain, front electric locker, rear tow hooks, a revised front bumper with a spot to mount a winch behind the bumper, and upfitter switches to control accessories like offroad lights like they offer on the Super Duty. None of this is that complicated.

I've been told that Ford's engineers think they have it figured out. I disagree. Stop following and making the Ranger a response to what the other manufacturers are doing. Stop seeing it as just a smaller pickup. Lead the adventure. Embrace Henry Ford and the Vagabonds legacy of adventure travel. Start leading, and make other manufacturers follow you!!
 

85_Ranger4x4

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Offroad oriented wheels would be nice too... like ones that don't stick out past the bead of the rim.
 

Jim Oaks

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Jim Oaks

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I've had too many people tell me that they haven't seen any advertisements or commercials for the Ford Ranger. Why isn't Ford promoting this truck more?
 

sgtsandman

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Ford brought back the Ranger begrudgingly. It really chafes them where the sun doesn’t shine that they had to in order to compete.
 

85_Ranger4x4

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I've had too many people tell me that they haven't seen any advertisements or commercials for the Ford Ranger. Why isn't Ford promoting this truck more?
I have seen the strange creatures ad on one of the car tv channels at my in-laws, I think it was Velocity. They only run ads for boring crap usually, when my brother got his new 5.0 Mustang when they first came out in ‘10... the only ad ran was for the V6.
 

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I've had too many people tell me that they haven't seen any advertisements or commercials for the Ford Ranger. Why isn't Ford promoting this truck more?
I've seen a few Ford ads where the Ranger was lumped in, but only ONE Ranger Specific ad. And it is more about getting to the adventure instead of the truck being part of the adventure. It literally says something like, " The Truck that gets you to the Adventure"
 

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I think Ford is so focused on the upcoming Bronco they didn't want to dilute it by having the Ranger be as strong as the ZR2. (A mistake in my opinion.)

When it comes to lack of advertising and bringing excitement, they haven't done anything wild since the original Mustang. Can you remember any big buildup to any Ford from the seventies on? I can't.

Chrysler did a huge program on the lack luster PT Cruiser. (Trinkets, video, monthly updates via mail.. Tangible stuff.

VW gave away little models of the Beetle made from recycled head or tail lights at auto shows as well as constant updates.

Why didn't Ford do this with the Ranger? A simple silver plastic bullet or mask or hat to set the stage. Was that too hard?
 

85_Ranger4x4

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Why didn't Ford do this with the Ranger? A simple silver plastic bullet or mask or hat to set the stage. Was that too hard?
Last January I couldn’t even get a brochure at the big auto show in Omaha...
 

sgtsandman

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85_Ranger4x4

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I have one! Digital and in print! :p
My brother who works at the local dealer snagged me one. They didn’t even have them until a month ago.
 

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