Nice pics makes me miss off roading


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2011 Ranger XLT 4x4 3.73 8.8" Trac-lok #1 T-bars, K -springs, LineX bedliner, General Grabber AT2's, Tonnopro tri-fold, CoverKing Realtree AP seat covers, OEM pre-keys, axle spacers, Bilstein 4600's, Hellwig AAL. Ziebart Undercoat
'98 Ranger XLT 2WD (sold)

Thanks. It was a blast! Place had some great trails.


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Thanks! It’s always a good time.


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You’re welcome


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2011 Ranger XLT 4x4 3.73 8.8" Trac-lok #1 T-bars, K -springs, LineX bedliner, General Grabber AT2's, Tonnopro tri-fold, CoverKing Realtree AP seat covers, OEM pre-keys, axle spacers, Bilstein 4600's, Hellwig AAL. Ziebart Undercoat
'98 Ranger XLT 2WD (sold)

So I was on spring break this past week and got to spend a little time doing truck stuff. I made some decent progress on the bumper project.

Don’t know if I ever posted pictures in here, but I started building a rear bumper last fall. This is where I left off back in November/December



Got the pieces of 2x6 tube welded together and the top plate tacked on






Got the frame brackets figure out. Ended up copying the stock bumper/hitch brackets and combing them into a single piece.
















First look at it sorta kinda on the truck




Got the holes cut for the clevis mounts, lights, and the other half of the mounting brackets and then welded in the clevis mounts and brackets.










Aaaannnd that’s about as far as I got. Things are taking a little longer than I thought they would, but that’s pretty much par for course. Haha. Still need to finish welding in the mounting brackets, box in the holes for the lights, weld on the 2” receiver, and build the tire carrier.



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Time for a much over due update. In the past couple months, I finished up the rear bumper, replaced the power steering pump/rack, and went on another four wheeling trip to Wellsville OH.


First things first: the bumper.

Looks like I left off just after getting the shackle tabs and mounts welded in. Here it is with the light holes boxed.






Next came the receiver tube and the safety chain holes.








The flat plate meeting the rolled edge of the 2x6 tube posed a bit of a challenge. Ended up laying several heavy beads in the “valley” and ground them smooth. Was super time consuming, but I like the way it turned out.



The final piece of the puzzle was the tire carrier itself. This part actually went the fastest/smoothest. I just kind of winged it, and it came out pretty much like I wanted. I got a little bit of warp in the main piece of tube (got it too hot), but it’s not that noticeable, and doesn’t effect the function.










For paint, I went with rustoleum spray on bedliner as a base coat and VHT chassis and roll bar paint as a top coat.







A couple weekends after finishing the bumper, I tackled replacing the power steering rack and pump. If you’ve never had the pleasure of replacing the power steering rack in a torsion bar ranger, I wouldn’t recommend it. The rack is encased in the front crossmember, and is really fun to wrestle loose when you’re laying on your back covered in power steering fluid. Lol.













Also replaced an outer tie rod end, passenger wheel bearing, both rear shocks, and the rear diff cover. No pictures of the other stuff, but here’s the Solid diff cover and the Bilstein shocks.





On to the fun stuff! Went to Wellsville Ohio two weeks ago with the Glass City Crawlers. As usual, I was driving the only non-jeep. This probably the most technical wheeling I’ve done with the ranger, but she did very well. Even surprised many of the jeeple. Haha

Group photo



Looking down a large hill we had to descend




Some of the other rigs in the group














Ranger and water falls






Ranger in creek beds












Ranger getting flexy












Another group photo in front of the giant PBR can







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AWESOME pics!

Thanks! I’m awful at stopping and taking pictures, but there were a few jeeple that are into photography, so there were plenty of pauses for photo ops. Haha.


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Great looking pics, looks like your rear bumper turned out really well!

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Thanks! I’m pretty happy with the bumper. Took way more time than I expected, but it’s exactly what I wanted.


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Semi-annual update time.

Haven’t done a whole lot to the truck “upgrade wise”. I did paint the new to me passenger side extended cab door and got it on the truck. The old one was rotted out and I caved it in pretty good at wellsville back in June. I also ran a new coax cable for the cb, which seems to have fixed my feedback issues (ran it down the other side of the truck, away from the audio stuff).

Speaking of wellsville, I went back this past weekend with my local 4wd club (Glass City Crawlers). They had a lot of rain the week prior, and the clay was pretty greasy, but thankfully the creek beds weren’t too flooded.
We had 15 rigs (14 jeeps and some dude in a ranger), so we broke into 2 trail groups. The smaller groups work well, and we were able to cover a lot of ground. Unfortunately, it also meant that there weren’t as many cameras around to take pictures (something I’m awful at. Haha).

Here’s the ranger playing on a little trail next to the haul road into the forbidden zone camp ground.








After that we headed up to the power lines to take the obligatory group photo





Ranger getting flexy



After the group pics, we split up and my group headed down the power lines a bit before dropping into a creek bed in search of a waterfall/damn thingy.



About 50 yards from the end of the trail, and the afore mentioned waterfall damn thingy, the ranger ran into a bit of bad luck. A log decided to take a bite out of the side wall of my passenger front tire. So I got to play around in the mud for 30 min changing a tire. The bottle jack that I carry was too tall to fit under the A-arm but didn’t have the stroke to pick the truck up by the frame. So, I ended up driving up on a log (the same one that gave me the flat) and then putting the jack under the A-arm. I think I need to re-evaluate the jack situation.



After getting the ranger back on all 4s, we headed back down the creek bed. At the other end of the creek was another waterfall that is a fun obstacle for the more built rigs. It’s a long rock climb with 3 or 4 large under cut steps. A few guys in our group climbed it, but they were lock front and rear on 35”+ tires. The ranger did not attempt. Haha





After playing around at the waterfall for awhile and eating lunch, we climbed up and out of the creek bed on an old County “road”, and headed towards the south east corner of the area to play around on upper and lower twister. These are two long washouts that really require a lot of articulation. I ran lower twister in the summer (ended up need to be winched out. Damn open diffs).

Here’s one of our group coming out of lower twister


And this is upper twister. That rock on the passenger side likes to reach out and grab sheet metal.




At this point, it was getting late in the day, so we headed back to the forbidden zone. The most direct route back was a pretty washed out trail with several badly rutted up hill climbs. Tuts are a major PITA for the IFS ranger, but with enough momentum and skinny pedal, everybody made it back without any issues.






A few people went back out on Sunday. I bailed, as I had a lot of driving to do (kicking myself for it now, as they had a great day of wheeling). But, the found the giant PBR can again and tagged it with a GCC banner.




And, of course, we can’t have a wheeling trip with out a causality. Other than the tire, it looks like I’m going to have to replace a rear axel seal here pretty soon.




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Bought a thing






Painted said thing




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Nice! Love my affordable offroad bumper!

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In this picture it appears your lift has a cracked weld on the passenger side:





GB

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2001 Edge Regular cab, auto 4.0L 4x4 4.10LS 8.8

1987 standard cab w/92 5.0/T5Z 31 spline 8.8 w/Torsen

1989 Regular cab longbed, manual 2.9 4x4 - Parts BroncoII's x 3

Seeing it on your truck is actually what made me pull the trigger!


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Good eye! That was actually a weld that missed its target (says something about super lifts quality control. Haha). It has since been ground down and welded properly.


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Got the bumper mounted










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Glad I was a good influence for once! I'd say you should get the bar hoop though, sets it off perfectly!

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