Well, its coming up on two years since I bought the truck, so I thought it was about time that I started on of these. I've never really been a proponent of build threads that consist of nothing more then stickers and CAIs. I'm also not the kinda of guy to go way over the top and change every aspect of a truck. So hopefully this kinda falls somewhere in the middle. (probably more one the uneventful side... but oh well haha) I guess I'll start by recapping what's been done so far and dumping a bunch of pictures.

So, here's what she looked like when I picked her up back in Dec. 2012.







First 'mod' was a CB (radio shack brand) and a wilson 4ft antenna. I mounted the cb below and to the left of the column, and used parts of a mirror mount to mount the antenna on the bed rail.








Next came tires. 265/75/16 Hankook Dynapro ATMs from discount tire ( cant say enough about them, great business to deal with, and their warranty program is great.)








Shortly after that, I put a set harbor freight lights behind behind the grill







Then the tail pipe rotting off of the muffler kind of forced my hand, so I had a local shop put on a knock-off flowmaster with new piping from the cats back, and them dump it out the side right before the rear tire. (don't have any pictures of this)

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The next thing I did was replace the transfer case this past spring. Actually, I broke the tcase at the beginning of last winter, but winter makes it hard to work in the driveway. And, any of you from the mid-west will know, I picked a great winter to go without 4x4. Any way, don't have any pics of the actual install, but here's one of the new-to-me tcase before it went in.



A few weeks later, I had my tires mounted on a set of 16x7 cragar D-windows. I chose to keep the stock center caps (mainly because I'm cheap, but I really like the color contrast)



Here's some other random pictures of her. The blue ranger is a '98 5spd. 4.0 and the jeep is a '99 bodylifted wrangler on 35s.




Somewhere in there I painted the front valance, rear bumper step and hitch. I also bed-lined the front tow hooks. And that brings things up to date. I'm sure I've missed some things, but those are the main things. Currently, my immediate plans revolve around fixing the many small things I neglected all summer. (broken shackle, broken grill, broken dome light, fix the rust that's starting at the bottom of the doors and on the rockers, etc.) Down the road (wayyy down the road) I'd like to body lift it and put it on 33s. I'd also like to fab up a front hitch for the winch I've got sitting in the garage, put some kind of sub setup in her, and put an lsd in the front end. But, we'll see how things go; college = broke as hell haha Feel free to comment as you see fit, whether good, bad, or indifferent.

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Put on a set of 06+ mirrors today. I wasn't sure how the wiring was gonna play out, but thankfully the mirrors had a common color wire (ground). I also started painting the new grill.

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Looks clean.

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Thanks!


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Put the new grill in today

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Unfortunately, today seemed like it was one step forward and two steps back.

I started the day off by changing the fluid in the rear diff. I have no clue how long it's been since it had been changed, but judging by how the fluid looked, it was way past due.




Then I pulled the bumper off to paint/reattach the valance and put the new fog lights in it. Having the bumper off also got me motivated to start on the front hitch. I mocked up a few ideas with a hitch I've had laying around.









Now, on to the bad:

While laying under the truck waiting for the oil to drain, I noticed a crack in the drivers side frame rail. It's on the bottom leg of the C channel, right over the rear axle. Looks like I'm gonna be making a trip to the local fab shop to see if he can do anything with it. I spose I shouldn't be surprised, the truck does get used and abused on a regular basis, I just never thought the frame was going to be the weak link haha

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If you look online they make frame patches for the ranger, if you don't want to go that route it's a lot of work but the frame is actually two sections. You can replace the whole back section of the frame from just behind the front hanger of the leaf spring, back. Also available on line or a junkyard

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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)

Thankfully I think I'll be able to avoid replacing the rear section of frame. The frame itself is still solid (for now, damn rock salt), its just got the one crack. I went this morning and got an estimate from a local fab shop. He only wants $150 to weld the crack and the bridge it with a piece of strap, so I'm dropping it off Friday morning. But, we'll se how it holds from there I guess. haha

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Not a bad price, good luck.

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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! Haha

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Spent the day workin on the truck. Got the bed off (only broke one bolt!) and finally got around to replacing the broken shackle and rotten hangers. What a joyful experience that was... haha Also got the spare tire down (winch has been seized since I bought the truck.)





Drivers side:








Passengers side:









The old, after being "gently" removed... lol





Great to see her sittin level again.





And here's the crack in the frame. Hopefully after tomorrow it wont be an issue anymore.

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Got the truck back from the welders today. Guy did a great job! He even cut me a break on the price because I had the bed off.


(It's bridged on the backside with a piece of plate as well.)

I also took care of the cancerous rear cross member. The back half was still viable so I left that in place and just cut out the front 2/3 of it. Replaced it with 2 pieces of heavy angle iron. Had to relocate the plastic box thing (pretty sure its emissions related? haha)







(This was before I tried to put the bed back on and realized that there wasn't enough clearance for that box. It now hangs off of the front of the new cross member and is well clear of the bed and the differential.)

I also pressure washed the frame and got the bed back on. It was dark by the time the bed was back on, so no pics of that. haha

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Got my ultra gauge installed! And damn is this cool. Haha. Great quality and fairly user friendly at that. I couldn't get it to work at first though, then I remembered that I had blow the fuse for the cigarette lighter circuit a few months back. Apparently that powers the OBD II port as well, because the ultra gauge worked great after changing the burnt fuse.

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Been working on the front hitch the last few days. Finally finished her up today and got it on the truck, so I thought I'd post some pics.

Started with a class III receiver off of a mid 90s econoline van (it was free haha). Cut it down to fit between the frame rails, and left the bottom of the tube long to give a little more to weld to. I cleaned up the old drop brackets, flipped them over, and used them to bolt the hitch to the frame. I lucked out in that there were already holes in the frame and two of them lined up with the holes in the brackets. So, I only had to drill 2 new holes.






Those brackets were then welded to the receiver. I ended up paying for my earlier good fortune though, as the receiver tube had to be notched to make room for the horizontal bolts. After that, it got painted and bolted up. Between the radiator, front cross member, and tranny cooler lines, there's not a lot of room up under there. But, the hitch squeezed in without a whole lot of clearance issues.






While the bumper was off, I painted the valance and put a new set of fogs in it.




A few more pics.





Still gotta wire the winch and the quick connects... and find the controller for it (its lost in the garage... lol)

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Few more pics

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