Kerthunk: Ranger Skid Plate Question

[Uncle Gump]

The amber lights come on with the factory driving light switch. The three NiLight LEDs are on a piece of 1 inch tube with three tabs I welded in between the bull bar support braces.

I really didn't want a winch mount as part of the bumper... rather a 2 inch receiver. They didn't have one then... but they do now. At some point I will just do a bit of cutting and weld a 2 inch receiver in.

Lol not even sure how I did that to the picture... but it's kinda cool.

Once again... a boomer being out smarted by a smart phone.

 

[James Morse]

That's what I meant, a receiver. You put the winch on a carrier then it goes into the receiver of course, front or rear, as needed, and stays, probably, in the tool box otherwise.
Ah, I think I do not have driving/fog lights switch however the wiring is there in the dash and by the lights (that aren't there) so maybe I need different bezel and the switch?
Can't run those add'l lights off the headlights I think it'd be illegal and blind people so yeah, needs separate switch for them.
Great pic!! I can see now how it's all put together.
I just ordered manual hubs, now over to AOR see what they can do.
What size tires are you running. If I can I want to make sure if/when I go to 33" that bumper will meet inspection requirements, looks like it should.
Does it interfered with working with anything underneath?
Thanks!

 

[James Morse]

Elite Ford Ranger Skid Plate - Affordable Offroad
I don't think I need above because isn't that part of this bumper?
Elite Ford Ranger Modular Front Non-Winch Bumper W/ Bullbar 1993-2011 - Affordable Offroad
About $1000 by the time you add stuff. If it's bolt-on that'd be great.
Have to ask them about can they incorporate a receiver into it.
Receiver has to be really sturdily mounted you might be putting a lot of force on it.

What is plus/minuses about Baja wings vs what you have (solid wings)? Is it purely cosmetic preference or is there a functional difference?

Not sure if I'd get lights from them but might want the tabs for them on the bull bar.
Some places say bull bar bad because it transmits crash force to the frame instead of crumple zones taking it and might interfere with air bag.
This place, history of them. History and Uses of the Bull Bar - Dee Zee
I think they could save damage if you hit a deer. I dunno. Could help you if you drive through brush I suppose.

 

[Lefty]

skid = (of a vehicle) slide, typically sideways or obliquely
They are not intended to protect against every type of slamming down on something

bash = strike hard and violently
so you want bash plates if you intend to really fall/crunch on something. those you probably have to make yourself

factory skid plates, on '97 they came stock, not even mention of them in the brochures, later, they were either options or you had to get an FX model.
They are on the xfr case and the fuel tank. some apparently came with a third skid in front but I never seen one (if you have one, post it?)
they are intended for situations where you have misjudged clearance a bit and you are "skidding", or sliding, over something sticking up and they help to keep that object from catching on the xfr case or puncturing the fuel tank. if you think you are going to be in a situation where you will fall down violently onto, say, the gas tank, then you need something else. skids will protect against skidding across something but not against almost 2 tons of metal pushing down on one spot in a fall, for that you need something that can support all that weight.
and of course when you add thickness you are reducing clearance but that is perhaps a non issue.

Don't forget your diff's are much lower than anything so is it possible you clear them but don't clear stuff higher up, it's possible, but all that other stuff is substantially higher. I'm not saying it can't happen, of course you can have situations where you clear something then the front wheels go into a depression, I imagine anything -can- happen. Along those lines I'd like to hear if anyone actually had catastrophic damage in places where plates (skid or bash) would have helped. And I don't mean rock crawlers, just a well set-up trail rig type of truck.

So you might want to look at guards for the diff's, they make them, again putting them makes them lower so you are more likely to have the thing happen you didn't want (diff catches on something).

Just like auto hubs, Ford doesn't claim these are the be-all for offroad. They can help in some situations where you will mess up the skid plates and not something else. Again, for sliding over something where you didn't quite clear it, not for a hard fall onto something. I think, unless you find something 3rd party, you would want to find a good experienced metalworker/welder and have them construct something out of 1/4" steel or something like that. To me, a lot of it is avoiding it happening, so maybe larger tires, lift as necessary, and be careful to note potential danger situations. Other guys will know a lot more about the potential risks/solutions.

And of course even if you go to larger tires, from 31" to 33" you are only adding 1" of clearance to the diffs. The lift would help on getting the other stuff up a little more. Nothing will protect against every possible situation. Obviously the ideal is you have a completely smooth and protected underside but I don't think these trucks lend themselves well to doing that.

I'm interested, because I'd like to know more about front bash plates/guards but then you look at the front of the truck, rad and other stuff is up way high compared to bumpers let alone the front diff and the beam that goes across there so I don't get exactly how that would work. And I'm not against having something made that's ruggeder, if it's warranted.

Pics of the 2 oem skids on mine below.

Thanks, Josh...very helpful.

 

[James Morse]

A thought about the bumpers. Are they a lot heavier than oem? There are front/rear axle "accessory reserve" limits, now, I don't have a door sticker, but typically they are in the range of 100-200 lbs so if you said 150 you'd probably not be unsafe (in their way of thinking about things).
They are saying, this is the amount of weight you can add at the very front or very back of the vehicle and not affect the way it performs and I think it also would not affect the gross weight/payload all that, but it's kind of moot anyway because if you are loading the truck to w/in 100 lbs of its max you are already aware you are travelling just about at the limit.
It's the kind of thing that comes into play if you ask, can I run a snow plow on front? Basically the answer is no. I'm not saying you absolutely cannot do it nor that it hasn't been done, just, it's not the right truck for it.
So if you assume, maybe the bumpers are 100 lbs heavier, then that's ok for reserve. But if you want a real spare, it has to be somewhere other than under because it doesn't even fit a full size spare for 265/75R15. If you add the tire to the very rear (past the rear, really) that's probably 50 lbs easy for the mount; tire itself pretty much a tradeoff, a few pounds more. There's no other real solution that works if you want to use the bed. I'm not going to dedicate the bed to a spare or spares a la Baja/prerunner, that's out. Today anyway.
I think Gump has a pic of the back bumper, iirc it has a spare plus room for stuff (nice).
Not to mention adding any weight at all is antithetical to offroad use because you want the truck setting as high as it can, not lower.
So I have to ask myself the question what do bumpers do for me. They keep me from messing up my good bumpers, I suppose. But bumpers are up high where I go the chance of hitting something offroad is about nil. They look cool, there's that. You do get the D-rings, you might want them sometime. It doesn't help you with winching unless you dedicate the winch to the front and usually you want to pull -out- (back) from where you're stuck not go further into it, right?
Receivers front/back are much better for winching and you don't need bumpers for them.
So maybe bumpers just doesn't give me the payback right now for what I want to do. It still doesn't answer the question about spare tire, and sure you can run with smaller spare, and hope for the best, then be unhappy if you didn't have the matching spare when you want it.

Not sure about this, but it looks like I could just get the front skid/bash plate so that might make a ton of sense (also way less money).
Elite Ford Ranger Skid Plate - Affordable Offroad
If it fit under the existing bumper/apron that would be pretty nice.

 

[Lefty]

The amber lights come on with the factory driving light switch. The three NiLight LEDs are on a piece of 1 inch tube with three tabs I welded in between the bull bar support braces.

I really didn't want a winch mount as part of the bumper... rather a 2 inch receiver. They didn't have one then... but they do now. At some point I will just do a bit of cutting and weld a 2 inch receiver in.

View attachment 93152

Lol not even sure how I did that to the picture... but it's kinda cool.

Once again... a boomer being out started by a smart phone.

A wonderful set up...and good looking too.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I know I'm too analytical...

But dude... you have it way worse.

I will say... that front bumper wing survived a side swipe by my youngest daughter with a mear scratch. It opened her car up like a can opener. So there is that...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Accessory reserve limit?

 

[James Morse]

About the bumpers. Yes. And they do look awesome.
So let's say somebody backs into you in the parking lot, you'd probably be just fine.
Big plusses.
Post that pic of the rear bumper if you have it handy please (Uncle Gump). I could be wrong about that but thought you had the spare on the back.

Yeah accessory reserve is an odd duck and I'm willing to bet nobody pays attention to it or gives a crap. I only got into it because I don't have a door sticker and I have gathered all the info I could from Ford (not very helpful) and from Oasis report (very helpful) that I got here. But it's missing a few things about the weights. So I'm going to estimate the reserves because again most people don't pay any attention to it, and, it's never big like 500 lbs or something so I see it as rather inconsequential in reconstructing the sticker., I'd just look at enough of similar build stickers and choose a number and go with that.
An interesting side note is gross axle ratings. All rear axles (themselves) rate 2750, but that's not necessarily the sticker rating because you have at least 2 things that can affect it: tires - if they are the smallest available, they aren't rated for the max of the axle itself, and, the springs, they also may lower the rating from the potential max. I think, most Rangers like mine are rated 2570 so, go figure why, I don't know, but I'm just saying the axle ratings are based on more than just the axle itself.
Curb weight is another thing and that's going to vary, depending what you normally carry and the only way to know that is put what you normally carry (could be quite a bit in the tool box) and go weigh it and that'll tell you how much extra you can add. Weigh total and weigh both axles. Ford is saying they base things on four 150-lb passengers, but how often are you running 4 adult people in a Supercab?
So if anyone, like, worked on a Ford line and knows how they come up with reserves it'd be interesting. I have to think they weigh each truck then come up with a number, if it was a standard thing you'd see dups. We can say, well, shouldn't trucks of identical build have identical numbers? I can't find any kind of algorithm that was used. Beat it to death.
Plus if you tow, you are adding tongue weight (maybe not much) at the back. There may be standards for that too.
In the end all these things (aside from making a sticker) come down to not horribly meaningful, except your gross weight and per axle gross. Those you don't want to exceed - you can, probably, but then you are out of the safe range, doesn't mean things will break, no doubt there's some safety margin in there, but it's risky. A lot is common sense, you try to load so weight is distributed. If the truck is riding way low and wallowing in turns and making funny noises from the suspension, that's probably too much. Personally, I think they ride better with a few hundred pounds in them. In normal use / offroad / camping you will not exceed the gross. If you are commonly running up against it, probably you want to go to F series truck.