'85 Ranger Restomod

[Lefty]

One issue I have been dealing with all summer... is transporting a canoe. I have just used my F-150, canoe is 14' long and the truck bed is 6.5', with the tailgage down it worked but the truck could haul or tow nothing else and was more than slightly exceeding 2' past the tailgate which IIRC is the law.

Been watching for a roof rack for the Bronco but nothing has really worked out.

So I snagged a pair of gutter rmount brackets to build something for the Ranger.



Getting it measured



Mark it very thoroughly



Install the tie downs



Install the brackets



Looking good so far



Looks even better now





Rear is tied off to the rear tie downs that are there for the camper



I drove it for around 10 miles, nothing shifted and really the truck didn't even drive any different.

It is also kind of neat I can see the front of the canoe thru the windshield and the rear straps in the rear view mirror to keep an eye on things. And if I want I could reach out the window and grab the front strap.



And I also replaced the blower motor switch and drivers side door position switch. Both were easy fixes and in serious need for replacement.

Now that I am older, I tend to like trailers, even for a canoe. The downside is storing them.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Once these trucks get to the condition ours are in, any further degradation of "performance" is negligible

There is that, but it also didn't pull weird or make a bunch of noise like it was catching a bunch of air.

Now that I am older, I tend to like trailers, even for a canoe. The downside is storing them.

Neat idea but I gotta pull a different trailer at the same time...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Anyway, roof rack worked awesome. Canoe is a bit short for me to portage on my shoulders but once I get it there it is pretty easy to get onto the truck.

It was really slick to have everything with one vehicle in one trip. Truck really didn't care about the canoe and toyed with the camper as per the usual.





I needed to use the truck as a service truck to work on the combine and it is kind of a PITA to deal with the rear straps and the spare tire carrier so I slipped the canoe off. Ran it to town once and it sounded like a I had a door open and a tire separating on the roof... so I went ahead and pulled the roof rack thing off. Apparently a 2x4 isn't very aerodynamic without a canoe on top of it?

While on the combine I noticed that while it rained a whole day last week it didn't wash the sides of the truck at all but did leave an outline of the canoe on the roof.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I set the parking brake so I could let the truck run and do some tinkering on the fuel injection now that it has cooled off a bit and I saw something new...



The warning light for the parking brake decided to start working out of the blue...

Now I haven't used the parking brake much until a few years ago... the light has never worked for the first 12 years before I 8.8 swapped it. I poked at it a little bit back in '19 when I had the parking brake pedal assembly out for the floor pan and it would never do anything. At the time I hadn't cracked the Explorer 8.8 in a Ranger parking brake cable nut so it got put on the "we will circle back to that" level of truck building purgatory. IIRC it was around 2020 I finally got the parking brakes functioning again.

Trying it a couple times it was inconsistant so I crawled under the dash and it seems the terminal the wire clips onto is loose in the switch, if I twist it to the rear of the truck it works great.

Looking into it seems Ford has used the switch forever so I think I am going to try to snag a switch the next time I hit the JY. Newer automatic trucks should have low cycle times and I can snag a bucketful of them for the $30 price of a new switch.

Kinda neat when stuff fixes itself, it may take 26 years so patience is key!