crbunit 1994 Ford Ranger 4x4

Engine & Transmissions

1994 Ford Ranger short bed with a 3.0L. THE 4.0 IS IN! Major improvement. The 4.0 makes much better power down low where you need it off road and, believe it or not, gets better gas milage than the 3.0! Wasn't crazy about installing the A4LD but so far it works well. The snorkel is an ARB for a 1980 Toyota Land cruiser and fits fairly well. It attaches to the stock airbox via dryer vent tubing. I installed an e-fan when my stock fan clutch died. Nice to be able to turn it off when doing deep water. I installed a 130 amp Explorer alternator and made up some of the charge deficit while running all the lights. I also installed a second battery tray for a dual battery setup.

Suspension, Axles & Tires

It has a bastardized James Duff 3" lift with the dual shock front coil buckets (modified for longer shocks) and heim jointed radius arms. Using Skyjacker 6" coils with one coil cut. Much softer ride and taller lift than Duff springs. 2" body lift to make it a bit easier to work on underneath. She now sits on 36" Swamper TSL's but some of the pictures have QR78x15 Buckshot MT's (35's) and ProComp 33x12.5". All are mounted on 15x8" Micky Thompson's. D35 TTB front axle with Warn hubs, 4.56 gears and ARB air locker. Rear axle is an 8.8 with 4.56 gears, PowerTrax locker and TRS diff cover. Onboard air (electric). I have a York compressor waiting to go in but I recently picked up a Powertank cheap so I'm not sure I'll use the York.

Recovery

Duff winch bumper with Warn XD9000i winch and 125' of 7/16" synthetic plasma rope (BARELY fits). Two sets of Hella FF 75's and a set of Hela 500's in front and one set of FF 75's in back (NEED MORE LIGHT!!). Duff rear bumper with receiver hitch and shackle. Just mounted a Harbor Freight 9000# winch (slow but strong) in the back so I can pull from both ends. Now has fender cutouts! Future goodies include a taller lift with with coilovers up front (I have some King 14" travel shocks waiting to go on), possible GM leafs on the back to eliminate the stock lift block/add-a-leafs.

Other Stuff

Rock sliders are fabed and mounted to better protect the rockers from impacts. They still have a little paint on them. Not sure how I got along without these for so long! I have a Pioneer single disc head unit with Polk Audio speakers, a Rat Shack CB mounted with a 4' Firestik antenna on the back bumper and an ICOM IC-8000 VHF radio. The VHF has a much longer range than CB or FRS. MUCH longer! Like any wheeler, it is a work in progress! The focus is on function rather than style but hopefully I can manage to keep it looking good as well!

Mission statement: This is a trail truck. It is being built specifically to get me places I would otherwise not be able to go. There is a lot of mud and water here in Alaska. We practice "Tread Lightly" religiously. We still get stuck but we are as low impact as possible. We do not make "mud runs" for the sake of getting dirty but encounter mud often in our travels. We do not uselessly attack mud pits. We stop and pull cable when it becomes obvious, we are stuck. No uselessly spinning wheels doing damage!!!