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BOJAC


85_Ranger4x4

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VAGABOND
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Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
34,679
City
SW Iowa
Vehicle Year
1985
Engine
Transmission
Manual
My wife's grandfather bought this 1991 Ford Ranger used in about 1994. When he passed away my wife's uncle inherited it. I remember my father in law mentioning if his brother in law ever wanted to get rid of it he wouldn't mind getting it. Unfortunately my wife's uncle passed away in 2021, and Ron (my father in law) did manage to get the truck.

This is before they brought it home from Denver (to Omaha)



Ron picked "BOJAC" for the license plates to pay homage to Uncle Bo and Grandpa Jack, the previous to owners of the truck.

Pretty well loaded, 4.0 automatic, push button 4wd, color matched topper, alloy wheels etc. While not really babied, it is pretty clean. Not sure what it has on it right now but had about 67,000 miles on it when Ron brought it home.





The engine is still painted gray!













The two sister ships meet.



That first year (2021) he convoyed with me to Badlands Offroad Park near Attica Indiana for the TRS Roundup. It even got to represent gen 2 Rangers in the in the TRS Ranger generation lineup next to my '85 which I thought was pretty cool.







But the maiden voyage was rough. It of course drove beautifully on the highway and really did quite impressive in 2wd for most of the trailride. We were just kinda putzing around a open play area and he was following me, We went down, around some trees and came back up a hill, I look back and he is gone. I radio how he was and he said he has a problem. Turned out the t-case shift motor did the typical t-case shift motor thing and didn't work. We were in loose sand and couldn't get up the hill so he back back down to get a run for it and slid off the side, it was pretty scary. Oliver was a asleep in the passenger seat at the time.



I didn't get a pic of the recovery, Jim tied TRS2 on the front to anchor it to keep it from turning and falling farther off the edge while Bobby winched it from behind and pulled it out.

Bobby and Rocky checking out the operation (or the lack thereof) of the t-case motor.





Back at camp Ron and Oliver dug into it and made sure it was getting power and was actually the shift motor.



The bumper did kind of get rearranged a little during the recovery. Ron got it a lot straighter there with a jack.



As an aside I snagged my spare wheel from this truck before we left, I mentioned to Ron it had a unaturally perfect bumper which he snagged. I still have no idea how the bumpers and wheels survived so nice compared to the rest of it.







Time to head home:







Two high rollers at the Hampton Inn...





 
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Ron loved tinkering with the thing, right off the bat he put Exporer bucket seats with a center console in it. But that was too easy, he also worked it out to make the power adjustment work for the seats. The original seats ended up in my '85.



The next year our convoy grew when my wife got her Bronco, here we were going to a car show in Omaha.





Somewhere in there he also put the stock tailpipe from his '13 F-150 on the Ranger, chrome tip and all. I need to crawl under it to look at the details but it is a little louder than it was stock.

After the bumper rearrangement he also added front recovery points. He bought a new lower valance that had the cutouts for foglights, took a half inch plate and ran it between the two frame rails and use to tow loops off of a early 201X F-150.

He also added a rear receiver hitch to pull things and for a rear recovery point.



And then the three amigos went back to Badlands for the '22 Roundup... this time with functioning 4wd. Also note he added low mount western break away side mirrors.



















 
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Then the next year we went to Land Between The Lakes in Kentucky.

Ron was always front and center to help out, there was a guy in a panic at our hotel in Hanibal Mo that his truck wouldn't start. Ron got him going.







We got split up on the adventure day, IIRC he was a couple trucks back so he didn't get into many of my pictures.





Then last year I was invited on the Vagabond Adventure. My wife wasn't super keen on me taking my 40yo junkyard dog with our then 4 year old son solo. So Ron tagged along with me going out and then toured the area until the TRS 25th Anniversary

[















And then he later joined us on a little camping trip last fall, complete with the canoe.





 
If you haven't surmised, Ron/@Poppa_R passed away suddenly last Tuesday. We are all still reeling from that. He didn't post on here a whole lot but really loved going to TRS events and was always front and center to help out. It came about like two years ago that the endgame for this Ranger from the begining was for my son, Oliver to end up with it. He has been going to TRS events since his momma was 7mo pregnant for the 20 anniversary and is nuts about everything offroad. I'm not really sure he knows yet.

Anyway, I am not sure how the exact details of that will shake out but I did want to kinda record somewhere the truck's adventures with Ron before more details are lost to time. I thought it deserved its own thread, hopefully we can add to this in the future.

I really need to do a walk around video of it as it is right now for Oliver so later on he can see exactly how Poppa had it set up.
 
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We're going to miss Ron. Such a great and friendly guy. Last year he made a big pot of sausage gravy for the biscuits and gravy and helped with pizzas. He was always willing to help out where he could.

I know we have different pics of him floating around, but the vision I have of him in ny head at this moment is him falling asleep by the campfire with that flashlight strapped to his head.
 
@Uncle Gump made the comment at the time it will turn green when he's done charging...

Screenshot_20250329_011157_Flickr.jpg


He actually bought ground pork and mixed up the sausage. It was a bit of a retirement hobby trying to perfect it.
 
I'm deeply sorry for your loss. He was an awesome person for sure. He will be deeply missed.
 
Great tribute thread. I always enjoy seeing Ron and Jason at the trail rides. That truck is a true gem. It couldn’t have had a better owner in preparation to Oliver getting it.
 
Sitting around the fire at one of our trail rides... @bobbywalter leans in to me and says... "I think it will turn green when he's recharged".

Already miss you Mr Ron...

RIP my friend.

20230909_213046.jpg
 
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If you look real close, you can see that SnoRanger is giving you the side eye.
 
Some great memories here! The man will be missed but memories of him will be fond ones.

I'm sure the head lamp has turned green.
 

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