What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[85_Ranger4x4]

Drove it to town and met dad for lunch at a burger joint. As per the norm I parked so I could sit and look at my truck.

Teeny bopper girl drove thru in a XJ. If you picture what kind of a XJ a high school girl would drive on 33's... this one is slightly better than what you initially picture. She must have just gotten it, it was mostly still there but was beginning the downward slide.

Anyway she drives in and I am parked on the inside corner against the building right outside the window behind our booth, she is gawking coming and going and rubber necking as she drives away looking at my truck... as she keeps goosing the throttle of her Jeep as if there was anyone in the truck to be intimidated. The exhaust had a nice "blown out XJ exhaust" sound quality to it as she revved her way over to the drive thru.

I don't know of the spare tire on the back was shorting her out or what but it was funny to watch.

Initial thought was something along the lines of "I don't know how big of a V8 it would take to obliterate a 4.0... but I know how big of one I would use" but I kind of settled on just being happy that a younger person out there is into vehicles enough to get that excited by a rival vehicle.

 

[Rick W]

I finally got my new wheel painted up and got the fifth tire (from the set I bought for $200) mounted, so now I now have a very roadworthy matching spare.

The owners of the Missing Linc before me had pulled out the spare tire carrier from underneath and chopped it up and made a mount in the corner of the bed. They used that truck for charging through the woods before they blew the engine. I started by seeing if that 235/75/15 would fit in there just in case. It fit, but it really took up a lot of space for trying to put things in and out of the bed.

I installed one of the mounts that mounts under the bed a while ago. When I did my measurements with a tape measure, I was afraid that 235 wouldn’t fit under there. I had a 215/70/15 under there. I pulled that out, and then I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the 235 actually fit. Just barely!

When I went to swing it up, that little right angle tab that hangs down behind the license plate would not clear the diameter of the tire when I swung it up. When you tried to move it backwards, it only had about a half inch before it hit the back of the receiver. I made sure I had a spare just in case, and then I used a cut off wheel to just take off 90% of the flap that goes under the tire bracket. There’s still enough there to catch the bracket under the tire so I don’t have to hold it when I put the bolt in.

Happy as a clam! More to follow on that spaghetti wiring….