ranger on the beach

[Josh40601]

as it is being rebuilt,and while i've been saying for some time that a build thread thread will be coming,i'm in a position now to actually do it.so,stay tuned.

my ass!! You are working on the little mini rocket ship not this beautiful piece of amazingness.

 

[gwaii]

my ass!! You are working on the little mini rocket ship not this beautiful piece of amazingness.

i'm working on my insanity....not that it needs too much work.

the little rocket ship is mostly evenings,still fiddling with the little explorer during the day...plus work,when i have to

this beast needs too much attention all at once-i'm in 'developing plan' stage right now.but i think you've seen from my other projects,once i start,things happen fast

 

[Josh40601]

Im just ball bustin', what all are you redoing on this one?

 

[gwaii]

just about everything...ten years of building and abuse have taken their toll,so it's a new frame,cab,engine,trans,diffs......it'll be damn near a whole new truck by the time it's done.

 

[Josh40601]

wow. I thought you were just swapping the new body over and rebuilding the cage.

 

[gwaii]

no,unfortunately it needs way more than that.if it were a mall crawler it would probably be ok,but it's been beaten pretty good.there won't be one component on it that i won't be going through.

 

[Maverick]

Not trying to hate... serious questions. What's with all the gear boxes and t-cases? I just figured your crawl ratio to be around 1734:1. I did read you said you wanted a ratio that "would kill anybody elses" but in reality anything over 250:1 even for rock crawling is about useless. Is it just for the wow factor? Doesn't the extra u-joints and all the extra intermediate shafts that are seeing insane torque loads kind of cut down on peace of mind and true reliability? Or do you actually not even use all those gears so its not as much of a concern?

 

[gwaii]

most of the gears are not used,most of the time.reliability was an issue for a good period,it took some time to sort it all out to eliminate the weak spots.
once i got to the point that i could do full throttle launches on dry pavement with the nitrous button pushed and not break anything,i felt i had succeded.
but i also had a more sinister foe to defeat-that of reliability in regular street use,long distance driveing.this was my only vehicle for quite some time,so constant breakdowns were not an option.i managed to pick out and redesign problem areas one by one,until i could drive with confidence anywhere i wanted.

as for why-think of it as an engineering exercise.why do people have 2000 hp pro street cars they can't use to advantage on the street.why do people build 10' high trucks with chromed undercarraiges that will never go off road.why does anyone need a ferrari,or a rolls-royce for that matter.

because in some way,some people think it's cool.

why did i climb this mountain?because i could.
but like climbing everest,it wasn't easy.but it made me happy.

 

[bigblockford79]

Have you considered in your next build getting away from the flimsy ranger frame? The frames are barely apt to handle the 4.0 and with your shot of NOS producing more power than an entire 4.0L you must see a whole lot of frame flex. I honestly can't believe after 10 years of off road abuse, the torque of a BBF, and all the extra drive train weight that the frame you have under it now hasn't busted in two pieces (or more for that matter) I would think a custom rect. tube frame would be much better suited for your application. Or at least a boxed and plated 1 ton frame.

Awesome truck BTW. Could we get some underhood and interior pics (especially the shift levers) before you disassemble it? Thanks

 

[gwaii]

the frame was actually not too much of an issue-most of the problems in that area come from the many changes over the years that left holes drilled for brackets,weld stubs left after things had been cut off,etc.the frame i'm using now will be reinforced using the knowledge gained from the previous one,but while i thought of fabbing up a new frame from box tube,i have an insane need to keep at least some of the frame of the original vehicle intact(for another example of this see my thread 'gt12'-that would also be easier to start from scratch)
only the rails were kept,all crossmembers were fabbed and the cage added the needed stiffness-there was no flex in the frame at all.
you will note that i am speaking in past tense,the truck as seen in this thread has already been torn down,and the new one is a rolling chassis with most components fitted.as stated before,a build thread will be put up that starts from the day i bought the original truck-a 4cyl 2wd that was purchased specifically to build up,though i never thought it would end up like this.

and as josh has stated,i'm spending too much time on the 'little rocket ship' to do this one justice right now.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

The car is sweet but hurry up and get back on the truck and post some pics.........I need more ideas to swipe from ya!

 

[gwaii]

if my summer didn't get so messed up,you'd have plenty of ideas to swipe by now.

it sucks when life get's in the way of fun stuff.

 

[Boggin]

i want to see all those shifters so badly i cant even express it

 

[gwaii]

this one isn't a very good pic,but if you look close you can see the shifters(3 rows,front to back)

 

[Bennybooster]

All I gotta say is wow