The Road Ranger. 1997 SEMI

[Rick W]

Soooo, the dead pull-a-part battery that I bought several years ago, when I pulled it out, was a one-year warranty battery. More on this later.

Like a lot of things, it was a last minute thing to go to the Truck Nationals last year. I completely forgot that I bought a marine battery for the #2 battery. So I pulled it out of the garage to swap it with the dead one.

That’s when I remembered I also bought an “on/off“ switch to connect it with the main battery. The concept was that both would charge when driving, but I could run my strobes and traffic advisor off the toolbox #2 battery without killing the main battery so I could still start the truck. And the marine battery was the ideal choice. BTW, it was also a $29.99 pull-a-part battery.

The marine battery was taller, so I had to redo my hold downs, no biggie, 5 minutes with some scrap aluminum. And I figured while I was at it, I would wire it the way I had originally planned with the on/off switch on the outside of the box. Concept being, if I had to stop and use the strobes, you have to do that very quickly in an emergency situation.

Finally, I forgot that I had totally temped the battery cables, simply pinching them between flat washers.

I put the new, old used, marine battery in with solid hold downs. I went into my battery cable box in the shed of miracles, and torched/stripped off three of the eyelets for my wiring. The twisted wire is a double 10 gauge stranded wire, plenty enough for what I’m doing. I mounted the on/off switch on the side of the box, E6000 to keep it steady with the flimsy back washer/nut, so I can flip it as I step out of the truck. I put the negative lead on with a couple flat washers and a regular nut, and I put the positive on with a wing nut (with my wiring ability, you never know when you’re going to have to disconnect something quickly!). There is also an “always hot” wire to all the strobes and such. I put an eyelet on that that goes straight to the #2 battery, but I also put in a male-female blade connector so I can pull it quickly as well. I’ll add a 30 amp fuse in there before I button it up.

It looks like spaghetti, but everything is well done, some wires left long for a reason. I snugged them all up with zip ties before I was done.

The on/off switch, which can also disconnect completely. Less than $10 on eBay.

This is all in the front top corner of the driver side of the Aluminum weather guard toolbox. I went into the shed of miracles, and got some high density shipping foam pieces, and fabricated a hat/cap for the battery, and a cap for the on/off switch, so nothing will ground them out if stuff shifts in the toolbox.

I hated that I was cheated on my one year warranty, three year old $25.99 pull-a-part battery, and I wanted to squeeze every penny out of it. So I used it as a weight when I glued the high density foam together. The two boxes of self drilling, self tapping screws worked for the smaller on/off switch insulator, just a target of opportunity within reach on the workbench.

A little trim work on the foam tomorrow, and a couple of zip ties, and you’ll be able to drop an anvil on the battery or the switch, and not ground anything out

Finally, I put my smart charger on that battery, which has been sitting on one of the cheap Chinese trickle chargers for a while, and it started out at 95%, and went to trickle in less than an hour. I flipped the connect switch, and it’s all sitting on a Battery Charger Jr now.

“Accomplish in hours, sometimes days, what used to take minutes…”

EDIT: Battery Tender Jr

 

[Rick W]

That’s done! Well, for now, never really finished…

I also temp mounted my Diamond plate storage box under the step trailer. I don’t like it. I spaced it down about 4 inches so I could reach underneath to put the key in the lock (which is now on top under the deck), but I think that makes the box too low to the ground. The bottom of the box runs about the center of the wheels.

So I’m thinking my choices are to mount it flush with the bottom of the frame, which raises it up about 6-7 inches, with just enough space for the lid to flip out, and make an access panel in the deck to access the lock (like the access panel in the upper deck to access the terminal strip for the wiring).

Option two, abandon that mechanism completely, and just put a hasp and padlock or something like that on the side of the box. Don’t like that.

Option three is to remove the handle/lock and move the whole locking mechanism from the original side of the box to the original top of the box, which would put it on the outside in this view. I like that idea best, but it’s also a tremendous amount of work.

I have to also say that I like the handle and lock out of sight on top, reduces the low life’s desire for theft or vandalism.

Too many rabbit holes. If I run down every one, I’ll never get it done.

Edit: if you look in the upper toolbox picture, you can see my ramps folded up. My plan is to run a couple rails from the back of the box to the other side of the deck, so I can place the ramps on those rails, and chain them down.

 

[Rick W]

Much better. I like the clearance.

I ran two Craigslist angle Unistrut pieces between the frame rails. I did it so the inside corner wraps the top corners of the toolbox. Unistrut goes from the outside edge of the two frame rails, and the toolbox extends out another three or 4 inches, so you don’t see the strut at all, just a diamond plate.

Unfortunately, I ended up poking a half dozen holes in the toolbox that weren’t there before, and there were probably at least 10 before that from the handles I removed, etc. I also have to drill four drain holes in the corners of the bottom. I’m thinking I’ll get some gray silicone, put it in thick from the back, and smooth it on the surface. I’ll do that after I polish that old box a little bit. You don’t really see anything but the fold down cover anyway, and the cover is in great shape. I’m also considering painting it gloss black so it disappears a little more on the profile. I’ll stew over that for a few days.

The only remaining issue is with the handle facing up, water can drain right into the box. But the handle is underneath the aluminum deck of the trailer, so I don’t think it will be an issue. All I’m going to have in there is a cheap jack, tire chocks, a lug wrench, etc., nothing too valuable. Even without the key lock, now you have to know exactly where to reach in under the deck to pull the handle with your finger.

BTW, under the trailer between the front of the toolbox and where the trailer steps up, I have two spare bullet hole wheels/tires, one on each side, hanging in the flip down tire carriers that come on the back of the Ranger.

Tomorrow, I’ll make some kind of hanger under those two unistrut rails to hold the folding ramps.

Baby steps…

 

[Rick W]

Using the same angle Unistrut, I made a hanger frame for my folding Ramps.

Theoretically, the ramps can’t bounce out in the rear because of the cross bracing I have on the frame and the trailer dolly.

On the front, I made a little hold down/security bar.

I took a short piece of the unistrut, and put two long bolts through it that can go through the holes in the ramps, and then through the holes in the unistrut cradle. The bolts are only tightened to that bar, and just hang through the ramps and the unistrut cradle.

In the middle, I bolted a short piece of Unistrut that hangs down, that I can put a padlock through. It holds the front in place, and it also provide security for the ramps.

I added making a flap down door out of diamond plate, just for cosmetic reasons. Not very highly of the to do list…..

 

[Rick W]

I’ve had a persistent tiny leak in the truck over the driver seat, runs down the window A column, and I get water on the floor

I punched 20 holes in the roof when I was putting the lights and light bars up there. I already took the light bars and their frame off, gooped everything, and put it back. Still dripped.

Today I pulled the five cab over lights, put silicone seal underneath them, then put silicone seal around the edge of the Amber lens, and then put silicone seal where the hold down screw holes them down.

We’ll see when it rains…

A lot of little chores like that today

 

[SenorNoob]

That sounds like my experience with the cab corner. See this:
1st/2nd gen Roof leak/rust prevention PSA

Edit: Just realized I was looking at thread for the 97. I don't think that still applies.

 

[Rick W]

Thanks anyway. Never any bad information or suggestions.

Mine is a southern truck with virtually no rust. I’m sure I poked a hole that is leaking the leak, I just have to backtrace it.

 

[sgtsandman]

Thanks anyway. Never any bad information or suggestions.

Mine is a southern truck with virtually no rust. I’m sure I poked a hole that is leaking the leak, I just have to backtrace it.

Anyway you can talk sweet pea into hosing down the truck while you look for the leak with the head liner removed?

 

[Rick W]

Anyway you can talk sweet pea into hosing down the truck while you look for the leak with the head liner removed?

Yeah, like that would ever happen!

I’ve joked about her washing the cars with me, wearing just a T-shirt, soon to be a wet T-shirt. Yeah, we’re pretty much waiting on that one too.

But it’s not a total lost cause. I could get the neighbor’s kid to spray the truck, and she could sit in a lawn recliner with a nice summer drink and supervise…

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Isn't the neighbor kid supposed to do the work, and you sit and stuper... Supervise?

 

[Rick W]

Started to get it ready for the Carlisle Nationals. Starting where I left off, pull and place and seal on the cab over lights fixed the roof leak, apparently. Carpets are dry.

I keep taking long breaks in the middle of what I’m doing, and I’m old and feeble, so then I don’t remember exactly where I was doing last time. I know I got the interior 90% done after doing a lot of the wiring for the panel overhead into the toolbox. So for Nationals, I decided to just start at the nose and work backwards.

I put four raptor lights inside the grill on top, back on the core support. They were dual element, bright white, and bright yellow. The yellow always on with the ignition, and when I flip on the high beams, the white would come on. I don’t know what I did right or wrong, they worked, but after the engine warmed up, they would flicker, and sometimes only three of the four were lit.

Not that my old wiring was that bad, but these LEDs have wires that are like a couple human hairs, and I learned a while ago, on things like this, that I could rewire the whole thing (four lights) faster than I could ever trace down the problem. I had used a couple of those lights on the Missing Linc and had similar problems, so I swapped them for four amber mini spot LEDs. Success.

I had modified the Ford emblem in the middle of the grill with two blue LEDs on the left and right (drilled through the blue field in the emblem). When I had the grill out, one of those angel hair wires pulled loose, so I pulled that out and soldered a new wire on. Success.

I originally put on high intensity, alternating strobes, two in the grill, and two on the corners. When I wired the overhead console (which is where the push button is), I added two more at the rear of the cab. When I checked that while I had the grill out, they all worked fine, except the right front on the side. It just stayed solid, and I couldn’t change the pattern. The front ones are amber/white, and the ones on the sides were amber/amber. I didn’t have a spare, so I switched the two corner lights to Amber/white. Success.

That takes care of everything to the back of the cab. Next step is to pull the trailer off, and there’s work to be done on the headache rack, and all those lights, and wiring back to the trailer.

Couldn’t get the 2 second strobe movie to
Load…,

Edit: before you think that’s fancy photography, the lens was a little damp
from my sweat in my shirt pocket.

 

[Rick W]

The smart battery separator came in. I put it in the tool box right next to the manual switch. Little light came on when I started it up, so that’s done. If it acts up, I only have to move one lug to put it back the way it was.

 

[Rick W]

After most of the interior and the overhead control panel, and wiring everything in the toolbox, I came up with a list of 32 things to do before Carlisle.

The first thing I did was do a really good cleaning of the windows with easy off glass cleaner, then denatured alcohol, then the razor blade to remove the driblets of paint from when I painted it 2 years ago, more alcohol, and then Rainex. Of course, that wasn’t even on the list. & BTW, I think that’s the first time I cleaned the windows since I bought it in 2020.

Do you know what the result was from that? I could see very clearly that I also need to clean the inside of the windows. I didn’t add that to the list, I’ll just do it.

I did a couple other things on the list, and got it down to 38 things I need to do or would like to do….

Had to mow the hay out front, so I didn’t make much more progress today.

Also, I need a little help. The corner of the new flag is covering the top right item on the list, which was “hood pin.“. If anybody knows what I meant when I wrote down “hood pin,” I’d like to know so I can address that as well.

 

[RobbieD]

If anybody knows what I meant when I wrote down “hood pin,” I’d like to know so I can address that as well.

Did you add an underhood light, that doesn't have a mercury switch, and needs a pin switch?

 

[Rick W]

Did you add an underhood light, that doesn't have a mercury switch, and needs a pin switch?

I started working from the nose towards the tail, and I already did everything. I thought I wanted to do up to the back of the cab and I just wrote the list a couple days ago. What’s that drug you can take for a better memory, when you get old?