Has anyone ever said to you...

[mtnrgr]

That your ranger is not enough of a truck to haul or tow or believe you have a smaller engine or automatic transmission?

Sitting here on a cold night by a fire pit, with what memory I still have, began to think about my 94 and 88 rangers. My 88 was a hand me down to from my father in 91, next few years I shined it back up for my pride in joy. It was a 2 3 5spd 2wd, my dad said it was good..but it needed more power. Not sure what he bought. In 94 when I bought my 94 new..I drove it briefly for a daily driver, my dad needed a truck for work, I let him use it and he beat on it 7 days a week for two years. People always told him that ranger is not enough for construction. He had it loaded down in the bed and a 5×10 trailer constantly, that stock 3.0 5spd worked hard every day without one problem. In 96 when I took possession of it..I started to fix the body and maintain it. Over the years when I have my ranger loaded down beyond its limitations even with the skyjacjer shocks, heavey duty leaf springs, 31s..people have still said its not enough truck for this...well have always shown them wrong. My ranger with its 3.0 5spd has always gotten it done. A rebuilt 3.0 definitely helps more than it being stock...as those have seen my ranger thru the years..it looks clean..it has always been used as a truck. For my needs, a higher rpm engine is perfect.

Have you guys pushed your ranger passed it limits from hauling and towing?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Last summer there was a chance of bad storms and I had the Skamper in the truck. Thinking if it did get bad I could sneak it in the warehouse at work I drove it to work since I do not own a building it will fit in. Wife's new Bronco was at home in the barn and she had my old F-150. Sure as heck she locked the keys in the '150 at daycare so I had to drive over there to get her in the truck. On my way back we had a very severe list to starboard from the crosswind, very freaky to drive and I ended up slowing way down. A few hours later on my way home in fifth I was into the secondaries trying to maintain 55mph on level ground bucking a severe headwind. Dropped it down to fourth and let her eat.

Otherwise when it was stock I never did a whole lot of towing. Now... its basically a mini F-150 so it gets along pretty good for the most part.

 

[sgtsandman]

I haven’t done it on a regular basis but I have exceeded the published load capacity. Mostly with retaining wall block and bags of rock. I’ve yet to need “more” truck for anything. If it’s two long, I have the roof racks or the utility trailer to use.

 

[superj]

I use to get told rangers werent big enough yrucks to do anything. It was always from people with full size trucks. I got told the same thing in the old small toyota trucks amd my biddy in his mitsubishi mighty max got told the same thing.

But my dad used ranger and mazda trucks as company trucks for the plumbing company so they always had lots of stuff in the bed and a 3/4 pipe rack on top which normally always had at least an 8 foot folding ladder on top, and usually a 12 foot extension too.

There was always a tool box mounted across the bed up front and the rest of the bed had a shop vac, a rolling tool chest, and tons of pvc fittings ranging from 2 inch up to 6 or 8 inch. We actually had a longbed f250 or 350 with a full pipe rack for pulling the backhoe or bobcat around and carrying full joints of pipe but we would also put pipe on the rangers/mazdas if it wasn't so much that it made the truck lean a bunch.


This is not one of our trucks because i don't have cell pics from back than, i don't remember if our phones had cameras back than, but this was what two of our trucks looked like. The others were extended cabs.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Yes I have, but not intentionally, usually out of emergency.

People will say a lot of things. Try not to mind them.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Man… I worked my first Ranger pretty hard. Had over a ton in the bed sooo many times. The only reason I went full size was I slid the Ranger off an icy road and pretty much totaled it and the 6’ bed was really too small at the time because I had to be very strategic in how I loaded and unloaded the bed. That said, I worked the F-150 that replaced it hard too. I used the Ranger regularly like a 3/4 ton and the 150 like a 450. I’m still not afraid to load down a Ranger, but I use the 150 for heavier work and once I get the 350 back up it will take the heavy work.

 

[Jim Oaks]

A friend of mine is a huge chevy fan. His house sits on a hill on a dead end road. You have to go up the hill when you leave. He was trying to take his boat out one day that was parked in his front yard. He just spun the tires on his fullsize Chevy and couldn't get it going. I hooked the Ranger up to him with a tow strap and pulled him and his boat out of the yard going up hill. It was fun rescuing him with my little Ranger.

 

[racsan]

Ive used all of mine pretty hard when I needed to, Only thing Ive ran into was needing more brakes from time to time.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I was told south of the border, the load rating are based on tires....When the rims are touching road, you are at max capacity. This is not a Ranger specific rating system, just the most commonly used.

 

[Snoranger]

My ‘89 STX 2.9l was not a fan of trying to tow my buddy’s ‘77 Firebird with an Olds 455 in it. Luckily that was only a few miles.

My ‘90 supercab 4.0L didn’t really struggle when I put a pallet of bluestone in the bed. (About 3000 lbs) The suspension on the other hand… the rear bump stops were screaming at me the entire ride home.

 

[Blmpkn]

I was told south of the border, the load rating are based on tires....When the rims are touching road, you are at max capacity. This is not a Ranger specific rating system, just the most commonly used.

If you go far enough north in maine that's the system they use too lol.


I've always maxed out my trucks though.. rangers are tough.

The wheeler on the back of my '10. Between the wheeler, the heavier flatbed, myself and my fiance.. I'm sure we were over payload every time we went riding. Truck would do a whopping 80mph balls-out on a flat road in 5th.. but would do 100 in 4th lol.

This is the most I've put the '21 through. 83 k10 4x4, plow in the bed, extra bumpers in the bed, extra set of wheels & tires in the bed, and an extra plow frame in the bed on what must be a 3k lb trailer. Got the same MPG as my 2010 with the wheeler on the back lol.

 

[Garth Libre]

On three occasions I've loaded the of my 4 cyl Ranger with more than a 1000 pounds of dirt. I've hauled bales of hay strapped as high as the roof, hauled three bicycles including one recumbent, loaded cardboard and recycling up above the truck bed, transported 18 foot kayaks, and transported 2 x 6 on the racks and bags of concrete in the bed. I do more with my mighty little 4 banger than many around here with their F150's, plus I average 29 mpg when I'm not loaded.

 

[Roert42]

All the time.
12 and 16’ lumber.
Fill it up to the bump stops with lumber and scrap metal.

Engine has more power then some older dump trucks.
Brakes have never really seemed lacking either.

I like to bust the guys balls that have giant half tons that never use them for anything.

 

[Blmpkn]

I like to bust the guys balls that have giant half tons that never use them for anything.

Yes lol.

I'd rather overwork a truck occasionally than underutilize one it's entire life.

The extra money you'd spend on clutches/brakes/leafs from over-working is probably less money than the price difference between a Ranger and a full-size, and then there's the extra fuel..

 

[Garth Libre]

Yes lol.

I'd rather overwork a truck occasionally than underutilize one it's entire life.

The extra money you'd spend on clutches/brakes/leafs from over-working is probably less money than the price difference between a Ranger and a full-size, and then there's the extra fuel..

I hope when the time comes to do my clutch, I'll be energetic enough to do it myself. I've actually never done a clutch job even though I've done a ton of everything else including an engine rebuild, body work, suspension change, and a dozen brake jobs.