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

[CamTheHedgehog]

We were just talking about using a stick, I’ll pry bar, or a big screwdriver, white end against your ear, and then move the other ran touching different places find where the rattles coming from. This sounds like exactly the situation where you want to do that.

I actually have the “official” version of that, a mechanic’s stethoscope. I’m just not sure where it is at the moment.
You know, it is a Sunday, I have the time to go look for it. I might do that.

 

[Rick W]

View attachment 119547View attachment 119549
View attachment 119550



gets more ranger every time i see this damn thing.

Off to the steel pile next to the shed of miracles with that

 

[superj]

i wired in the electric fan kit and small pusher fan to help the ac stay cool in the hot summer months, yesterday. everythign was good and i used the power wire to the coil to kick the fan on/off so i don;t have to think about flipping a switch in the cab. no issues yesterday but today, i get a check engine light as soon as i start the truck saying o2 sensor lean and something similar.

i am probably going to move that wire but since its just powering the relay, i would think its not causing any issues.

i used my obd2 scanner and forscan to reset the light when i get to work and than restarted it with no issues so maybe it was just a one off deal.

my plan is to also order the fan form the tech section, like i ordered the wiring relay set up.

we shall see what happens after work though

 

[superj]

No problems anymore with a check light. Who knows what caused it? Oh well.


And the dang ac went hot again.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Snagged a free treehouse thing a while back. Then a huge tree limb fell on it last winter before we got it put up. Having a guy pick my corn tomorrow and I needed to move said tree so his big tractor could get into my field. So I tested out my winch.



I prefer the steel tree savers. They seem to get more bite to hang onto the tree.



It was a very surgical way to move the branches.



I think @Curious Hound thought I was goofy when I said not to hook to the hooks on my grille guard. The factory version of what I have had them but the mounting is different. I only have them because they are cheap and it is nice to be able to have something to wind things around be it straps/rope or winch line. Then once I am done with the winch and out of the weeds I can spool it in right.

 

[sgtsandman]

@Maritime Drag Racing

I don’t know anything about this stuff, but what I’m reading is that downforce is much more important than aerodynamic drag going through the wind. Generate the most horsepower, and push it to the ground as hard as possible.

Then, the theoretical side of my engineering brain knows that wind resistance becomes a real factor above 50 or 55 miles an hour and goes up exponentially, not linearly. With that in mind, and the speed you’re reaching, considering you’re trying to gain tenths or even hundredths of a second, looking into aerodynamics may make some sense for those extreme limits.

When I jumble that up in my common sense (which has been occasionally faulty in the past) and my shade tree fabrication and mechanical abilities (which have been occasionally faulty in the past), and my tendency to pinch pennies (which has occasionally led to faulty results in the past), what about this?

Could you put wings or ailerons on that truck to push it down in the wind? Wings on top, or wings on the bottom, or even stubby wings out the side? I know that sounds ridiculous, and I’m not exactly sure how to do it, But in my limited exposure to Indy cars, there are 100 places on the body that are curved or shaped to push it down.

Something underneath or along the open sides between the tires to pull it down?

My other thought regarding airflow. Is the tailgate on the truck and is it solid? I vaguely remember that the tailgate acts like a parachute when the wind comes over the cab. If it’s there, could you perforate it or could you louver it so it passes air?

And I’m not proposing doing major modifications to your truck on the chance it works out. If you can figure out what combination of these things might help, you could pick up a scrapyard tailgate and try, And maybe temporarily clamp on some fiberglass or aluminum sheet metal wingy contraptions to see if it works.

My two cents, hope it helps.

Don’t laugh at me, I’m at the age where I drive like a little old lady. If I don’t want to be bothered by other drivers at any given point, I just have to drive one of my town cars with a rain hat on, and everybody stays a mile away from me.

The tailgate does to a point. With enough speed, the air flow trapped by the tailgate causes an air bubble in the bed that acts like a fairing smoothing the flow so that the air only "sees" the height of the tailgate as far as drag effect goes.

Removing the tailgate eliminates that bubble and you get drag from the full height of the cab. So, he needs to keep the tailgate.

As far as the rest, if he has the factory rake, lifting from air going under the truck may not be an issue of concern. Adding wings for down force or valences under the truck may cause too much negatives due to drag, effecting performance as a result. Anything you stick into the air stream is going to cause drag and slow the vehicle down. So the benefits have to out weigh the negatives, as long as it is safe. Maritime Racing would know better on that than I and may have already looked in to it.

 

[Rick W]

The tailgate does to a point. With enough speed, the air flow trapped by the tailgate causes an air bubble in the bed that acts like a fairing smoothing the flow so that the air only "sees" the height of the tailgate as far as drag effect goes.

Removing the tailgate eliminates that bubble and you get drag from the full height of the cab. So, he needs to keep the tailgate.

As far as the rest, if he has the factory rake, lifting from air going under the truck may not be an issue of concern. Adding wings for down force or valences under the truck may cause too much negatives due to drag, effecting performance as a result. Anything you stick into the air stream is going to cause drag and slow the vehicle down. So the benefits have to out weigh the negatives, as long as it is safe. Maritime Racing would know better on that than I and may have already looked in to it.

All understood. Like I said, when I started this, I don’t know much about it. I understand a lot of the engineering concepts, but there is also a common thing in engineering, that one test is worth 1 million assumptions. That’s what happened to the Challenger: if the foam comes off, it’s just foam, it won’t hurt anything.

I’m not being defensive here, as always I just try to be helpful. I do understand that these kinds of races are one by hundredths or thousandths of a second, so i’m just trying to provide some things that might be worth looking at.

I know @Maritime Drag Racing and all kinds of people have “done this” for years, but then there’s that one little thing you didn’t think of or look at that throws you to that next hundredth of a second, and you come with the blue ribbon.

I can think of a myriad things in life, serious stuff at work, that we had totally under control, and then somebody came up and said did you ever think of doing this? And history was made

 

[Bgunner]

All understood. Like I said, when I started this, I don’t know much about it. I understand a lot of the engineering concepts, but there is also a common thing in engineering, that one test is worth 1 million assumptions. That’s what happened to the Challenger: if the foam comes off, it’s just foam, it won’t hurt anything.

I’m not being defensive here, as always I just try to be helpful. I do understand that these kinds of races are one by hundredths or thousandths of a second, so i’m just trying to provide some things that might be worth looking at.

I know @Maritime Drag Racing and all kinds of people have “done this” for years, but then there’s that one little thing you didn’t think of or look at that throws you to that next hundredth of a second, and you come with the blue ribbon.

I can think of a myriad things in life, serious stuff at work, that we had totally under control, and then somebody came up and said did you ever think of doing this? And history was made

At this point lets look at it in the money vs. time slip point of view.

Yes lowering a vehicle is worth it on the time slip, in general, BUT is it worth the same amount on the time slip vs. lets say a power adder? Which one can improve the time slip more for the same amount of money? This is racing, go as fast as you can, cheap as you can, at least for those on an out of pocket expense race team.

Until traction becomes an issue it is better to add horse power and torque till you can no longer put that power to the ground. This is when suspension and lowering come into play. Then you are right back at it again, more power till you can no longer get it to the ground... damn vicious circle it is but fun to play it.

Aero dynamics come in at the big end for the most part. This is where adding a bed cover and front and rear downforce wings come in. At speed these force the vehicle downward adding traction but at the cost of aero dynamics and drag. This to can help but also hurt. This is where more horse power needs to added to compensate for the loss of speed due to drag. Again a circle.

 

[Rick W]

Afterthought, again on aerodynamics, it might be worth trying the ribbon and wind trick. Get a five dollar roll of bright ribbon, a little duct tape, and do a pattern all over the truck with 6 inch ribbons. Then run it up to 60 or 70 miles an hour and get a video of it from the side.

If memory serves me correctly, ribbons running backward are good, ribbons running upward indicate an area where the truck is being lifted. Any ribbons pointing downward, etc. Limp ribbons aren’t problems, ribbons that are whipping are intense effects, etc.

I’m not trying to force my opinion on anybody, I don’t have an opinion because I don’t know much about this stuff. I come back to again, some inexpensive things that might be done.

I understand what @sgtsandman was saying about a pressure dome in the bed. could that be perfected? If you could measure the high and low spots of that? Would a few perforations high in the tailgate or low in the tailgate affect that? You could see what the effects are with just a sheet of plywood, put it in, drill a bunch of holes in it, and then selectively cover them with duct tape and see which outlets make a difference in the wind coming over the truck. Or maybe cover them from the outside with just masking tape, and see which holes blow out, blow the tape off. What about things like putting a little rounded filler between the cab and the bed? What about putting a bigger rounded panel in the front of the bed or in the back of the bed (to eliminate gaps and or square edges, perpendicular to the travel). You might be able to get away with some cardboard and duct tape and the ribbon test would just cost you a few gallons of gas.

All the ship builders in the world thought a pointed bow was the most streamlined. Then they did the underwater version of a ribbon test. Now all the ships have a hard on in the front that pushes through better.

Again, from the depths of my ignorance, just trying to tickle something that might make a difference, Or some things that might be cheap to try. It takes a lot of time and effort to save a half a second.

 

[Bgunner]

I started a separate thread so this conversation wont clog up this one.

Maritime Drag Racing has us all talking

@Maritime Drag Racing posted in What did you do to your Ranger today's thread that garnered a lot of attention and has has many of us thinking and posting. I am making this thread to continue the conversation without plugging up this thread. Here is his post that has us all gossiping over...

www.therangerstation.com

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Took the Ranger out for a spin. It also brought back new-to-me rims and tires for itself…

 

[Rick W]

Took the Ranger out for a spin. It also brought back new-to-me rims and tires for itself…

View attachment 119655

Is there a truck somewhere sitting on the rotors and brake hubs?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Is there a truck somewhere sitting on the rotors and brake hubs?

Who knows, I had to go down to the city in one of the rougher areas for them. Met a guy with a white van in a shopping center. Not my problem at this point. In dudes defense though, they were listed for sale for 16 weeks before I thought to go looking and found them.

Oh, and it would be an Explorer sitting on rotors all the way around. Supposedly off a 2006 Explorer, 18” rims

 

[SenorNoob]

Supposedly off a 2006 Explorer, 18” rims

I thought those were a different bolt pattern? Adapters?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I thought those were a different bolt pattern? Adapters?

According to the tech archives it’s supposed to fit?