Picked up another Ranger a few weeks ago with the idea using it as an "adventure" rig. This truck is going to be built with the intent of being a comfortable driver while still having enough off road prowess to conquer mild trails and extended back country trips. It needs to be as reliable as possible, so I'll be going through the entire truck from front to rear and upgrading some parts as I go. I'll be on a budget for this build since I already have too many projects, going to try to do it as cheap as possible without cutting corners. I'll be using parts I already have laying around and scrounging for good deals on parts I do not have. I'm going to try to keep the total cost at or under $5k including the price of the truck.
Some basic info about the truck. It's a 95, 168k, 4.0/5spd, 3.27's, manual hubs/tcase, power everything, A/C, cruise/tilt, keyless entry (had no idea that was even available on a 95) and everything works. It runs awesome, and has pulled down the best fuel mileage I've ever personally experienced out of a 4.0, which was 21.1 mpg on 170 miles of twisty two lane highway. The body is in good shape other than a dent in the driver side quarter panel. The only real issues it has is the clutch slave is leaking, and the windshield is cracked. Because of those two issues I was able to get the guy down to a $1600 purchase price. I sold the canopy right away for $150 so net cost was $1450. Here's some pics of the day I brought it home.
These are the plans for the truck at this point in time:
3" James Duff Stage III lift (already have laying around from my V8 truck)
4.56 gears
Some sort of traction aids front and rear
Possibly an Explorer 8.8
33X10.50's
Ditch stock front and rear bumpers for high clearance tubular ones
For now that is it, other than general maintenance stuff. I'm sure other things/ideas will pop up along the way. Stay tuned...
Some basic info about the truck. It's a 95, 168k, 4.0/5spd, 3.27's, manual hubs/tcase, power everything, A/C, cruise/tilt, keyless entry (had no idea that was even available on a 95) and everything works. It runs awesome, and has pulled down the best fuel mileage I've ever personally experienced out of a 4.0, which was 21.1 mpg on 170 miles of twisty two lane highway. The body is in good shape other than a dent in the driver side quarter panel. The only real issues it has is the clutch slave is leaking, and the windshield is cracked. Because of those two issues I was able to get the guy down to a $1600 purchase price. I sold the canopy right away for $150 so net cost was $1450. Here's some pics of the day I brought it home.
These are the plans for the truck at this point in time:
3" James Duff Stage III lift (already have laying around from my V8 truck)
4.56 gears
Some sort of traction aids front and rear
Possibly an Explorer 8.8
33X10.50's
Ditch stock front and rear bumpers for high clearance tubular ones
For now that is it, other than general maintenance stuff. I'm sure other things/ideas will pop up along the way. Stay tuned...