Project: Mr. Bad Motor Scooter - 92 Ranger

[99RangerKrazy]

I haven't ruled out Chevy leaves yet. I was just thinking for what I need, it'd just be easier to do Explorer leaves so I don't have to move the front spring hangers. But I still might go that route. That won't be for a while.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Finally got around to putting on these bars from the front corner of the bed to the frame:

Then went and did a little more wheeling:

The playground:

Buddy's Jeep:

The Ranger:

Head to head:

And of course...

 

[Pete D]

are the lights LED?

if so you need a specal box thingy for LED lights, my mom wanted LED blinkers on her harley and it took us a while to figure it out

it go with regular bulbs anyway


if not its your flasher, its the round(usually blue) part in your under dash fuse panel, in a corner, cant miss it

LED lights draw a lot less current that regular incandescent bulbs do, so a stock flasher doesn't get loaded enough to function, depending on how many bulbs are converted.

 

[lil red]

lookin great, atleast a whole lot better than mine is

i really want to go snow wheelin today, we have around 8 inches right now
but the motor is in the other ranger and im not allowed to wheel the jeep

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Got dual batteries set up last night. I'll throw a pic up later

 

[97BlackBetty]

Definately want to see the dual battery set up, would you also mind showing your charging system if you did anything special with it.

 

[jobar]

This is an awsome build 99ranger, you've got some skills.

 

[KENWIL138]

Hey man. Any chance you could post up some measurements of the bed? Looks great. Awesome work.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Ok, for the battery set up (I still don't have pictures, it's dark again) but I bought an Isolator off of eBay, this one in particular:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/140-...itemZ370169557387QQptZOtherQ5fVehicleQ5fParts

Holy hell that's a long link. Anyways, the instructions are connect the positive terminal of your main battery to the Battery 1 terminal on the isolator, and the positive terminal of your second/auxillary battery to the Battery 2 on the isolator. Then it said connect the ALT port on the isolator to the "alternator output wire" of your rig. So starting at the alternator, I traced the wire to see where it went and it goes to the relay, which then goes to the main battery to charge it up. So I just connected the ALT port on the isolator to the place where the alternator makes contact at the relay.

So it SHOULD be all wired up. I put a multimeter on it, and tested both batteries while the truck wasn't running and they tested about the same, the main battery had a little bit more charge than the second battery as the second one has been sitting for a bit. Then I started the truck, let it sit idle for a few minutes, then took two more readings and both batteries have risen. Now this is assuming I had the multimeter on the right settings (I'm pretty sure I did) as it has been a while since I've used one haha. But they both did rise, so I think it's working. We'll find out when I get seven 150W lights hooked up to it.

I bought this isolator before I did a lot of research. If I didn't buy the isolator, I would just hook up two batteries in parallel, which a lot of people have done with great success. It just doubles your capacity while having the having the same output voltage. Anyways, this seems to be working, I'll keep y'all updated on it, and get pictures later if anyone needs any clarification.

As for the charging system, I didn't do anything special, it still has the stock alternator (95 Amps I think). When that craps out, I'm going to put a 130 Amp alternator in it, just to get a little more juice flowing.

And thanks for the compliments, I greatly appreciate it. It's far from done but I like where it's at for now. I'm going to be starting a front bumper soon, still not sure what to do...(any suggestions please feel free to let me know!)

As for getting some measurements..I'll have to get some tomorrow, it's too dark to do much. But I know the bed part is 30 inches wide, the fenders are 13 at the rear (by the taillights) and end up 15 wide when they reach the other end, so they're not perfectly square. The bed is also about 10 inches deep and 72 inches long. I can take some more measurements tomorrow for you.

EDIT: I just went out and retested the dual battery set up, and it is working. I was curious as to if where I connected the alternator to the isolator would be good enough, and apparently it is.

I also wanted to add, just in case others didn't know, what the isolator does. It allows you to use a second battery as an auxillary battery, for your lights, winch, etc. So the isolator will recharge the second battery as well as your main battery. The good thing about it is, just in case you run yours lights, winch, and other stuff while your truck is not running, it will only drain your auxillary battery and not the main battery, allowing you to still start your rig.

 

[jobar]

Got another question, why green for the cab? I think it looked pretty good when it was red.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Yeah, that picture is the picture from the craigslist ad that I responded too. It looks great from that angle, however, the other side was all faded, it had the classic Ford clearcoat peeling on the hood, and overall was in pretty rough shape, paint wise (it's straight, just a lot of scratches and whatnot). I always like OD green, so I figured, what the hell, might as well just paint it since it was in bad shape anyways.

 

[97BlackBetty]

Thanks for the write up on the battery installation, I was just curious on how you went about it.

I am going to be running a dual battery set up but my charging system is going to have to change since I plan on running both a starting battery and an AGM battery (they charge at different rates). I want the Starting battery to be isolated to only the starting system, but still be able to parallel the AGM to use as an auxilliary starting battery just in case. I like electrical.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Yeah that would be a good way to go..hmm..I'm not too familiar with all the electrical stuff..maybe run a similar set up to mine, but then also have another set of wires to connect both the batteries in parallel, but have some sort of quick disconnect to the auxillary battery so you can just plug it in when you need that extra flow? I don't know, just throwing that out there, you probably already have it all wired up in your head haha.



Anyone have any suggestions for rear bumpers? I'm having a tough time deciding on what to do.

Option 1 - I already have a brush guard up front that also has the winch mount on it, it mounts over the stock bumper directly to the frame(it's not just a bolt on to the stock bumper). It is also 1/4 inch throughout with 1/2 inch mounting plates at the frame. I was thinking of just getting 5x2 square tubing and essentially just replacing the stock bumper with it, so it has just a little more beef. It would wrap all the way around, just like the stock bumper. That would be the cheap and easy way to go.

Option 2 - I was thinking of doing something like this, all from scratch:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/frontbumper/frontbumper.htm

This would be the more "badass" way, since it's all homemade and such. It also looks good, maybe better (depending on people's opinions). But this would be the more expensive and time consuming way.

I don't know, anyone have any suggestions?

The only requirements are it has to have a winch mount and be strong enough to be able to take out someone if they decide to run a red light, pull in front of me, etc., and not cause much damage to my rig.

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Got started on the bumper today. I pulled the front bumper off just to see how much space I would have behind it, and there's not much space there because of the front crossmember. If there was a lot of room I was going to make the whole thing custom with the winch behind the bumper up in that space. So now I decided I'm going to make a simple box steel bumper and the brush guard that is on it will just go over the top of it. Here's a picture of the brush guard/winch carrier:

Here's my progress for today, only worked on it for about a half hour:

So right now I'm thinking that I will chop off the rounded ends of the brush guards that cover the headlights and weld on new pipe that bends around the headlight and ties into the bumper I'm making. Probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it will when I make it. I might get a little progress done tomorrow, but not a whole lot as I have some studying to do. Any other opinions on what I should do?

 

[99RangerKrazy]

Here's what I got done today.

Angled the front corners so it doesn't look as boxy:

The work station:

Angled the part of the bumper that wraps around the front end, I thought it would like better than just being square:

How it's going to mount, 4X4 .25 wall angle iron:

Should get a bunch of work done tomorrow as I only have one class and will have all afternoon.