Epic (and not so epic) moments with your Ranger

[Saddle Tramp]

I thought I'd start a thread where we could talk about what we've done with our Rangers sperate from what we've done to them. I appreciate the stories of the builds, fixes, and maintenance done to our rigs, but I want to be able to show off all the places you've been and the projects you've done using your Ranger.

I want to show all the epic thing you can do with a Ranger!

Tell me your stories.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The first time I took my fresh built ranger on the track i found out how easy it can be to clean off the underside...
Check my avatar pic!

 

[Saddle Tramp]

After spending the day helping my stepson move his family into their new house, I had a Porsche, Vipers, and a Maserati cross my path and tag along as I drove home. In that moment I knew my Ranger was every bit as valuable at their exotic cars. Just as their cars brought them confidence, joy, and satisfaction; so does my Ranger.

Having that perfect moment was priceless.

 

[Dirtman]

All my epic moments involve clam chowdah...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Once upon a time my parents bought me a standard cab Ranger. Their thinking was it wouldn't make it far from town and it was only a two seater so I couldn't pack it full of kids and get into trouble.

In fact it was nearly 10 years of ownership before it left the county.

I tinkered on it, did a V8 swap and got some semblance of reliability out of it.

So then I got a wild hair, did a MASSIVE power train overhaul replacing the trans, tcase and front axle. During the shakedown testing following that after 19 years of ownership it left the state for the first time. A month after the refit I struck off and drove it from an hour east of Omaha Nebraska to an hour west of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

Oh yeah, navigator was pregnant.

So it had more people than seat belts and I basically drove across four states.

And those TRS roundups I followed from afar In high school and college thinking there was no way I would ever get to one... I actually went to one.

Truck wasn't perfect. I didn't have time to get the parking brakes working, or get the carb dialed in, rear suspension was not quite right but the truck didn't miss a beat.

That is the most epic thing I have done with it.

Either that intentionally staging a false breakdown for a roadside proposal...

 

[bobbywalter]

This one time in band camp......

 

[broncc]

Well I'm in a mood tonight thinking about my old ranger so might as well dump all the memories.

Here I am at the half way point of a 2,000 mile road trip through Canada. My college roommates at the time voted my car most unreliable in the driveway!


This was me pulling our school's race car trailer full of tools around. Who says the duratec can't do work.


This was certainly the lowlight of my time with the truck. Spun out in the rain going to work and crashed. Bought the guy new grass and paint and he was chill fortunately. I was up to 4am that night hammering the truck back into shape. Went to work the next day like nothing happened.


Lots of pulling cars with more driven wheels than me.


Spent new years with a friend down in Virginia. Borrowed the mud tires from his (broken lol) Jeep and sent the mud hole. I almost made it out too!


Sad to have said goodbye, but my Ranger and me had a good time together.

 

[dvdswan]

No adventures as of yet in the Ranger, but other vehicles I've had are plenty.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Ahh yes... epic...

Most of that was done with my first Ranger, 2000 extended cab, 3.0, 2wd, manual. I had over a ton in the bed multiple times, it was airborne a couple times, off-road a few, stuck a few, drifted.... and wrecked unfortunately. Still have it just haven’t had the time or money to give it attention.

My choptop I have shattered the front axle three times now (two with the D-28 and once with the 35), and got it buried to the frame in a swamp right after getting a running motor swapped in (consequence of breaking an axle). It also likes eating motors apparently. Expensive habit.

 

[2drxploder]

20 gallon gas tank? i need more info. fit under bed or in bed??????

 

[racsan]

there was a option of a 20 gallon tank in a longbed. Ihad bought a 97 3.0 auto 2wd longbed that happened to have that tank, I ended up using that truck for parts and one of the items that went into my ‘94 was its 20 gallon fuel tank, replacing the original 14.5 that was held in by nylon ratchet straps. The rear frame of the 97 became my ranger trailer, the engine went to a good home in s.c. The front frame/suspension and rear axle went to toledo. I still need to swap the drivers door out, getting bad on the ‘94 I will just have to paint it to match, already took off the door tags. Maybe thats why they are on the cab doorjamb now instead of the door.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Anything newer than '89 should be a 16 gallon tank from the factory, that's what my '90 base model has, I have the manual it says that's the smallest tank in the owners manual I have around somewhere... but yes, the 21 gallon tank is most common on extended cabs, that's what my '97 has, it's nice going 400 miles per tank!

This is in reverse order, but bite me . This first picture is when I proposed in 2016, somehow it was a complete surprise... had the ring in the center console, she wanted some jerky she knew was in there on the way to the coast, I told her I'd get it... no clue... went to screw around on the dunes for a bit, weather was coming in fast and getting dark so I asked... Before anyone asks, the dangly bit by the rear diff is my vent hose... it's zip tied up better now.

This one was a bit worse for wear... Early along in the turbo swap days so I think 2010 or 2011 I remote mounted the DIS module, and I didn't ground the plate I mounted it to and it would randomly stall out... out camping about 250 miles from home (I drove it there...) I finally got up the nerve to side hill around a bowl in the sand and it decided the apex of the curve was the right time to stall, had a friend in the passenger seat too... it rolled I think 1 1/4 times landing on the drivers side, the jeep behind me winched me back upright within a couple minutes... I had some 10 year old BFG MT's on it at the time so they blew beads when you looked at them wrong, so 3 of them did that... had to cut the drivers seat belt (buckle was full of sand), my buddy broke his collar bone on the seat belt and I lost one of the slider panes and dented almost everything (missed the hood and tailgate). I think that was the last dunes ride of that weekend for the ol Ranger, I think it was Friday morning... I drove the thing home with a broken windshield and no drivers seat belt just fine. I can be very determined so I did all the work myself, pulled the front fenders and pounded them out, pulled door panels and pushed them out the best I could, took a porta power to the A pillar to straighten it out, pulled the roof skin to straighten it (couldn't find a replacement and no headliner as you can see so had to...) and took measurements from a junkyard to get a windshield to fit again and it's been going for like a decade .

That's about it for the epic Ranger journeys for me, there's other stories but these top the list

 

[Dirtman]

Not my ranger but my brother in law bought a ranger someone grafted to an F-250 chassis on 44" tires. The ranger frame was literally welded on top of the f250 frame so the thing was massively tall. We had been arguing over the depth of one of the ponds on his property. I said it was well over 10 feet deep, he insisted 4 feet max. See where this is going?

So he drives the truck straight into the pond. Welp it was way deeper than the truck was tall... The truck floated for almost 5 minutes while we scrambled to get his tractor to pull it out. By the time we got the tractor it was on its side completely submerged. I had to swim down to hook the chain around the axle. The tractor revved up and the front end came off the ground so we had to hook up the weight blocks to the front. Took us over 2 hours to flip it right side up and then pull it out.

It was pretty epicly hilarious. We never even attempted to get it running again he traded it a few weeks later for a 66 ford falcon.

 

[Roert42]

Sunk it up to the frame in mud today. Brother was driving around in a fire break and hit a really wet spot. Took us two hours to winch it out with a come along.

 

[2drxploder]

24xxlb of flooring in stock 4cyl 5spd. Good thing I was 1 mile from house