What did you do to your Ranger today?

[Dr. Zaius]

North Ga Outlet? Next time I’m heading to Blood Mountain or Dicks Creek I’ll let ya know. ??

Yep, that's the one in the wilds of Dawsonville.

Thanks!

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[Kvvllerr]

First time posting on this thread but have used you guys for a lot of info thank you so much! Here’s what we’ve made so far
-afe Catless downpipe
-afe charge pipes
-mishimoto intercooler
-roush intake
-bdx 5 star tune, then put on a dyno to fix there tune a bit and make it backfire and all that cool stuff.
- Raceline wheels 33x12.5 bfg ko2

installed before end of July hopefully!
-fiberglass fenders/bedsides
-Bajakits Long travel kit and deavers

 

[Doc]

I changed out the oil in both my front and rear diffs. Also changed out the Mercon LV in the transfer case. There's 2250 miles on this truck... the rear diff fluid was really dark (essentially black) with a ton of metal collected on the drain plug. I don't drive this truck very hard, but have put probably 100 miles of 4x4 off road on it. The front diff was much cleaner, but still had a fair bit of metal collected on the plug magnet. I was also pretty surprised at how dark the transfer case fluid was. Also quite a bit of metal on it's drain magnet as well.

Here's the rear diff magnet and then glob of metal wiped on a shop towel:

Here's the front diff magnet and what came off on a shop towel:

And here's a close-up of the metal shavings that came out of the transfer case:

I collected the fluids into gallon milk jugs to take to the local auto parts store for recycling. I shook them up then held them up in the sunlight so I could see the color of the fluids better. Both are pretty dark for only 2250 miles, imho.

I put genuine Motocraft Mercon LV into the transfer case, and Amsoil Severe Gear 80w90 synthetic into both diffs. I consider this to be the "break in" fluid change, and will leave them all alone now until I hit 30K miles or so, then change them again and every 30K miles thereafter.

Interesting !

 

[FoD]

Added red grill letters and red/black tail gate letters. Also red/black Ford logo to emblems.em decals. Ran out of time. but ecoboost emblem will change to red/black sooooon!!!

 

[quangdog]

Installed some paint protection film in my door sills. This was my first time installing PPF of any kind, and it was WAY easier than I expected. Results look great, too... you can't even see the film at all unless you get REALLY close and feel the edge and know where to look. Here are a few photos - the flash helps pick out the edge, but in person this stuff is completely invisible:

I installed this PPF in my door sills a while ago, but today I published this How-To video all about how to install it yourself. It's REALLY easy, and if you don't have *something* protecting your door sills yet, this is an inexpensive option:

 

[Dr. Zaius]

First time posting on this thread but have used you guys for a lot of info thank you so much! Here’s what we’ve made so far
-afe Catless downpipe
-afe charge pipes
-mishimoto intercooler
-roush intake
-bdx 5 star tune, then put on a dyno to fix there tune a bit and make it backfire and all that cool stuff.
- Raceline wheels 33x12.5 bfg ko2

installed before end of July hopefully!
-fiberglass fenders/bedsides
-Bajakits Long travel kit and deavers

What dyno numbers did you get?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I installed this PPF in my door sills a while ago, but today I published this How-To video all about how to install it yourself. It's REALLY easy, and if you don't have *something* protecting your door sills yet, this is an inexpensive option:

Hi Kimball,

Well done! Good info for many of the forum members that are DIY. I was a real green horn on decals when I got handed the task of managing Ford Light Trucks Off Raoad and SCCA RaceTruck series. Thank goodness as doing decal work on our test mule etc I could never get the stickers straight until I was shown the "Wet Method".... Handling a 5 ft long General Tire decal was impossible without using the wet method. Been using this for some 40 years now!

Excellent video and presentation! Kudos!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co.

 

[Kvvllerr]

What dyno numbers did you get?

325whp 390ftlbs ?? I’ll post the graph in the am?

 

[Doc]

325whp 390ftlbs ?? I’ll post the graph in the am?

Impressive !

 

[quangdog]

Hi Kimball,

Well done! Good info for many of the forum members that are DIY. I was a real green horn on decals when I got handed the task of managing Ford Light Trucks Off Raoad and SCCA RaceTruck series. Thank goodness as doing decal work on our test mule etc I could never get the stickers straight until I was shown the "Wet Method".... Handling a 5 ft long General Tire decal was impossible without using the wet method. Been using this for some 40 years now!

Excellent video and presentation! Kudos!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co.

Thanks, Phil! I'm not sure I could manage to get something 5ft long Installed straight, even with the wet method!

 

[ArchitectThom]

Well I came from a 2004 Ranger. Just the idea that it’s a truck, I don’t need a fancy gadget to help me lower my tailgate. But sometimes you grow to like the conveniences.

Yeah, I'm all about the conveniences. I'm not gonna pretend my truck is anything real manly. I just think it looks cool. And I've already gotten tired of having to hold the tailgate all the way down as it opens. I guess we all do what we like.

 

[ArchitectThom]

He said used to...

I also said "did".

I just thought maybe there was something I hadn't thought of yet that might make the tailgate assist an actual pain in the butt. Something I hadn't come across yet.

 

[ArchitectThom]

There are some good sub options out there, just depends what you are looking for.

I'm guessing I'll probably have to add an amp and maybe even a signal processor to actually get really good sound, but I would like a sub that get good low end going, but nothing stupid loud or thumping. I'm also guessing it would need to be in it's own enclosure probably and be sort of thin in order to fit anywhere. A location suggestion would be good. I'm not really sure quite where it would go. I haven't done a whole lot of investigating back there yet, though, either. Having a decent sub that can actually provide all the good bass I need would allow me to get the door speakers replaced to something that may not actually provide a whole lot of bass like the stock speakers do, but DO put out much better mid range sound than the stock speakers.

 

[Brisko_Michigan]

Took time out this weekend to install a Mountain Hatch tailgate board and the Undercover Swing Case. I also added a small fire extinguisher to the set up.

Mountain Hatch: About as easy as it gets. Screws out, screws in, enjoy. The only change I made was to paint the MH-provided screws and washers black. I wasn't a fan of the metal on black look. A minor item, but with the Mountain Hatch board on the tailgate I'm happy we installed a damper. The board isn't heavy, but it isn't light. Without the damper there would be many, many, inadvertent tailgate drop slams. (Admittedly, the damper is already scoring the rubber coating around the tailgate steel chords)

Swing Case: Like others on here I have a dealer-installed spray-in liner which consumed a lot of time. It required cutting away the rubber liner over and around the bolts. Scoring the material around the tie down brackets helped ensure they came off clean and did not peel away a swath of liner.

The only issue I ran into were the M6 bolts; likely user induced. I may not have cleaned out the M6 bolt holes on the vertical rear of the bed well enough. Lower Philips head bolt stripped/rounded (too easily; soft metal) and the upper cross threaded at the deepest point. I was able to replace the bolts with a slightly shorter, hardened, version without issue.

Fire extinguisher: Looking at a member's set up here I decided to add a small kitchen fire-extinguisher to the side of the case; we plan to cook from a two-burner Coleman off the back and have a larger extinguisher in the cab. Install was easy and the box seems to hold a full kit of hazard gear plus the extinguisher without whimpering. To the inside and outside I added a metal plate and small piece of rubber shoe sole cut to match the plate; a Metal-Rubber-Plastic-Rubber-Metal sandwich. The shoe sole I had laying around the house. It should add dampening and weather protection (not that any is needed). The plate was a door plate from home depot. Threw in bolts and locking nuts. Seems to have worked well.

Happy with the set up so far.

I'm appreciative for the sharing of ideas here. It likely saved me time and liner tear. It also provided the idea for adding a fire extinguisher to the glamping set up. Plagiarism being the highest form of flattery.

 

[FoD]

Added the red/black ecoboost badge today

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