MY BEST 4x4 ADVICE - Ronny Dahl

[sgtsandman]

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Good video.

The spare tire thing bugged me a lot when I was coming up with what to do with mine. Pretty much anywhere at the front of the bed blocked all rearward visibility unless it was laying flat and I would have to unpack the most of the bed to get to the spare.

I eventually convinced myself for the footprint of a tire laying flat so I could see over it (killed basically 1/6 of the bed) I could find heavier stuff to move ahead to there and since my truck is actually configured more like a troop carrier (with 0 side access to anything in the back) than a pickup so mounting a tire off the back shouldn't be too bad.

I rebuilt the rear suspension so it is hard to do a direct comparison but it rode 10x better with the heavy gear forward despite having the spare on the back last year going to Indiana than it did the year prior going to Ohio.

And of course the double edged sword is I made more room so I have more room... so I can't add more heavy crap to fill the void thinking it is a free pass.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Not to mention the camper fits better without a spare on the bed floor.

Spare in the bed didn't work for me either.

The swing out is cool and it's part of my camping set up... for road tripping/hunting/camping... it serves it's purpose and I like it.

On my daily driver and part time work truck... it's kind of a PITA. I've had it off since the first of the year. It probably won't go back on until I do any of the above activities... and do a couple updates.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Not to mention the camper fits better without a spare on the bed floor.

If it works that will be a perk too, the swingout was in motion before the camper though.

It might just be a sneak it in to town for the carshow kind of a thing, I don't know how the truck will handle with the camper (especially loaded) with the spare on the back.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If it works that will be a perk too, the swingout was in motion before the camper though.

It might just be a sneak it in to town for the carshow kind of a thing, I don't know how the truck will handle with the camper (especially loaded) with the spare on the back.

Did you add or beef up the sway bar?
Add in air bags?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Did you add or beef up the sway bar?
Add in air bags?

Explorer springs, I have added the smallest/most common swaybar (93+, same as what gump went all over the country with when he had the camper) but I haven't had the camper in the truck yet post sway bar. My truck didn't originally have one in the rear and while sketchy at first it wasn't bad once I got the hang of it with the camper.

First and I think second gen Rangers had a 3/4" rear sway bar, whenever the cutoff was and newer got a 5/8" swaybar. 2wd Bronco II's had a 1".

I thought I would try the 5/8" since the bed was off the donor and see if I could get by with that maybe not totally hose my articulation when playing offroader without the camper.

The truck seemed to carry the base camper ok, I can cheat on the luggage side since a standard cab Ranger playing family camper doesn't have enough seats and will require a support vehicle anyway.