Dumb idea

[Riguy3274]

I have a 95 Ford ranger XLT “500$” and it’s strictly off road/ beater and been flopped on its side multiple times how hard would it be to put a 7ft box on it. I haven’t seen anyone talk about this and I’m tempted to try it out I have a grinder and a welder to make it work

 

[Riguy3274]

Wondering how hard it would be to throw a 7ft box on my extended cab ranger i know how to weld and grind but will the fuel filler neck work?

 

[Rick W]

Is it a short cab or a long cab?Does it have a 6 foot box on it now?

A short cab 6 foot, short cab 7 foot, and extended cab 6 foot all have different wheel bases:

I would think you would want the wheel well centered on the axle. But if the truck is really rough, are you just looking for a box to carry stuff? Or are you looking for it to look like it’s correct?

you could cut section or add section in front of the wheel housing, and you could rough in what you cut out on the other end. Maybe extend the frame back a little bit, but it wouldn’t have to be out of something as large as the existing frame, if you’re not going to carry tons of stuff in the bed. If you cut the bed and section it back with decent welding, the bed is pretty strong all by itself. It would just be a matter of adding a little support under the very far tail.

That’s a lot of work, and my thinking is if you just wanted to be able to carry stuff, wouldn’t you do better to just get some metal and just fabricate a bed and a half from scratch, kind of like a dump truck bed?

Again, what cab do you have now and what bed do you have now?

 

[Riguy3274]

Extended cab 6ft box with a slight dent in the back haha no the box is completely garbage and I thought it would be cool idea to put a 7ft box on it because I’m gonna have to cut the fenders either way since it’s going on 37s with a SAS Dana 44 I haven’t seen any extended cab with a 7ft box yet so I wanna build one

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

No, the fuel filler door is almost a foot farther back.

But after lengthening the frame both before and after the axle moving the fuel filler door should be pretty straightforward.

 

[Rick W]

Extended cab 6ft box with a slight dent in the back haha no the box is completely garbage and I thought it would be cool idea to put a 7ft box on it because I’m gonna have to cut the fenders either way since it’s going on 37s with a SAS Dana 44 I haven’t seen any extended cab with a 7ft box yet so I wanna build one

Good bones. If you’re going to cut the wheel arches anyway, then I would think it would be as simple as extending the frame back a little bit. And you’d probably have to relocate the bolt holes. It would be easy to shim it where the new bed doesn’t exactly match the curve of the frame. A little more thought.

if you’re going to want a bumper that will actually take some force or carry a trailer/tow hitch, you’d have to extend it back kind of the way it is. You could go to the scrapyard and cut off some frame and add it, or you could just start with some flat stock and make it into a C shape. Never underestimate the strength of adding a few angle struts made out of 3/8 inch rod or such.

The other thing I didn’t think of, will the gas door line up? That fill next assembly is a hard tube inside a big rubber tube, it has several curves, and it’s not so easy to relocate it. The harder tube in the middle drops all the way down to the bottom of the gas tank, so you don’t get static electricity as the gasoline drops through the air in the tank, possibly creating a spark.

When I did the Road Ranger, I had to move the location of the door inward towards the center of the truck since I had removed the bed, and I was mounting it in the side of my toolbox. I started by cutting the inside tube short, and then extending it with a piece of flexible fuel hose about an inch and diameter. The thought was good, but that rubber hose would kink which would make filling the tank almost impossible. I had to restart with a scrap yard full length hard tube, kind of a lightning bolt shape, grease it up really well, and then force it down into the tank at the new angle. I’d say it was hard because I’m a feeble old man, but honestly, it was just hard period, feeble or not. But I got it.

Hard to see in this picture, but the gas door is right next to the fire extinguisher

I cut the whole gas door assembly out of the side of the bed, trimmed it about an inch wider than the cavity, and use that as a flange when I cut the hole in the side of the truck box, and mounted it. If you’re not dramatically worried about the cosmetics, you could simply relocate it that way on your truck and then fill the remaining hole in the side of the bed.

or maybe you could go the full Road Ranger route…

I just have a low deck because I pull the step trailer like a fifth wheel. But I’ve been thinking of making a slide in box, a little bit like a dump truck bed, for when I just want to carry whatever. The thing looks cool and gets a lot of attention, but it’s not very utilitarian when I don’t have the big trailer on it, and the big trailer is too much to ride around with all the time.

Hope it helps

 

[Riguy3274]

Hell yeah man that thing is sweet thank you so much for your thoughts and ideas I’m picking up a box probably next week and the stress and math start kicking in haha I’ll probably just end up relocating the whole fuel door assembly out of my old box and cutting the tacking it into the new box and cutting the original out and sheet metal over the other door

 

[Rick W]

One last thought. There’s a little tiny drain in the bottom of that gas door assembly so if you splash any gas, it drains out the bottom and knock down the side of the truck. The drip hose has to be fuel rated. If you move it, make sure that little hose is extended down to the bottom of the fender, so you’re not splashing gas and accumulating it somewhere under the truck.

That was an oversight on mine, and I ended up just sealing up the hole as I sealed the gas door assembly to the side of the toolbox. Someday I’ll restore that little drain.

 

[sgtsandman]

The 7 foot bed added 6 inches before and after the wheel well. So, to properly fit s 7 foot bed to a Ranger not made for it, you will need to do the same to the frame.

Then figure out what to do with the filler neck since the fuel door will have moved as well.

The wiring harness(s) will need to modified as well since they will no longer reach what they are supposed to connect to. Assuming you still care about lights and such.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Another member who hasn't posted in a while added a 7–foot bed to a SuperCab Ranger. He got the rear frame components and changed the rear frame where it attaches to the front frame behind the cab, so that the wheelbase and gas tank location would be correct. He did everything so well it looked like a factory job.

The 6' beds are interchangeable between the regular-cab and SuperCab versions. The wheels and gas filler are in the same location in relation to the rear wheels. That's what made the swap to a 7' bed easier.

If my calculations are correct, a '95 SuperCab with a 7' bed will have a wheelbase of 131.2 inches.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yup, you have to lengthen everything to make a 7’ bed fit on a 6’ bed truck. There was a guy years ago that did it.

I‘ve put some thought into it and I’ve wondered if you could use a 98-11 Ranger since they have a 2-piece frame factory and just splice the 7’ bed rear section in place of the 6’ bed piece, but then electric wiring, brake lines, fuel lines, e-brake cables, and rear driveshaft all need lengthening.

My 6’ bed Ranger got to be too small of a bed for the stuff I was doing. I considered making the bed a foot longer and adding an extra fuel tank, but it was easier to buy an F-150 with an 8’ bed that’s also wider and comes stock with dual tanks. Fuel economy was about the same as the Ranger. It also handles heavier work better than the Ranger. The right tool for the job.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Merged your multiple threads for simplicity