A few Newbie Questions

[04specsonnn]

Hey Guys! My names Alex and im new to the site, but have been lurking getting excellent help from the tech libray and great ideas from looking at everyones rangers. i just picked up a 95 XL 2.3L 5 Speed 4X4. Im trying to get steered in the right direction. all my friends have jeeps and they go muddin around my area and i was hoping the ranger would be a compatable truck with them. i was looking into the rough country lift kit and some 33's? not to sure on which way to go.

how do the 2.3L handle in the trails? im causious cause i feel like th truck barly has enough power to go downhill on the street hah. i love the gas mileage from the truck (my other car is a 400WHP evo) but im new to all this truck and offraoding game. and i dont wanna always get pulled out by the jeeps.

dont get me wrong, ive been looking on lots of threads about wheels tires, and lifts, and the TTB, but nothing with everything im curious about.

SO!, any body here offraoding there 2.3L? how does it do? Can anybody steer me into the right direction as to where to start. Any help/ feedback is greatly apprciated!

 

[ThatGuy]

Coming from someone that has built many low powered off road rigs........it's all about gearing.

 

[04specsonnn]

so without 4:10s or so its prob not gonna be that great out there?

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Once you get it in 4 low the only real advantage to a bigger engine is weight for traction. It is like dirty harry says a mans got to know his limitations. Any 4X4 will do fairly good up in the stix it all depends more on how you drive and less on what you drive. Start off careful get to know what your truck can do. Pickups are lighter in the rear so adding some weight to the rear axle helps alot jeeps in general have the weight more evenly distributed and you still can have alot of fun wheelin with a slightly modified suspension without affecting the DD capablility. The bigger the tires the more you have to modify the gearing, body lift and suspension. I like jeeps it is just the pricks that drive them that bother me hopefully your friends are not like that.