The Ranger bug-out station. (Wall of Text Warning)

OFC Ranger

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So its still a work in progress I started a few months back. It is the result of property lot sizes and and sometimes uncooperative HoA. We plan to to move out onto 5-10 acres in my area once my daughter finishes school and this .25 acre lot (no garage house) was purchased new 10 years ago due to the neighborhood locations. I had to come up with an imaginative way to store my Ranger. No room to build an add-on garage and the HoA does not allow car ports of any size. I have limited space, and up hill slope on the property. Ive been challenged by my HOA before and beat them, so I just had to re-check the covenants and beat them at their own game. Shelter logic style garages won't fly, but It didn't take long as I stared at the 15x12 gazeboo out back that we barely used. Wait a minute, what if I daisy chain two of those together and give myself a 30x24 garage for less than $1000? Nothing says I can't have multiple gazebos on my property. All I need to do is relocate the one I have and buy a second one.

Now the second problem. I could have made a single 10' swing out gate, but my property grades upwards from the house to the road. Too much digging out of earth for my taste. I could have made two swinging doors, but the door closest to the house would limit my movement radius (you can't see it, but there is a fire hydrant about 15 feet in front of the gate. Hmm, come on OFC Ranger think, how can we handle this without spending lots of money?

Well for about $100 in wood, decking screws, patio blocks, and heavy duty caster wheels this is the end result. (keep in mind I am still fine tuning it, in my world the problem is not necessarily money, but time - I work on average 1000 hours of OT a year).

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All in the details (or lack there of still being worked on)

- I had to make sure and dig out proper drainage going towards back of property.

- The side of the property was on a slope and frankly I was too lazy to pay for enough fill dirt to level it and tamper. So I got a ton of fill dirt myself for the furthest most side, then 4 tons of crushed rock and tampered it as best I could. As you can see, I've still got enough slope to make the finicky Ranger "left lean" suspension to make it obvious. I'm going to resolve this shortly by just putting some large 24x24 paver blocks down where it parks to level it out.

- I drive my Ranger rarely. I've never owned a new car, just couldn't bring my Jewish self (Im being serious) to spend money on a bad investment. The COVID hit and dealerships panic'd and threw out the 0% APR @ 72 months. I only have 1200 miles on it and I bought it new in March. I'm supplied a vehicle for my job and the gas for it, so I just wanted a solid new truck for SHTF whatif's. Who doesn't like man-toys? I did not want UV beating away at the paint, lights, and tires while it sat there doing nothing for long periods of time.

- The curtain panels are all rigged to make one solid wall all the way around. They stay closed 99% of the time. I'd say my setup is 95% water resistant. However I also put a fitted truck cover on it when its stored in here. That 5% of water (rain) only comes in between the small gap of the two gazebos placed together. I have not figured out a good method yet to "fuse" the two together.

- The gazebos are secured by concrete as well as the fence side is also deck screwed using steel piping straps to the fence itself. We experience high winds from time to time and these things might give you the impression they want to blast off into space, but they ain't going no where. The Ranger is perfectly safe even in a high wind rain storm. We do not get tornadoes or similar in my area. I usually have a canopy failure (rip) after two years, but I am methodical in ordering a new replacement as soon as I observe it starting to occur. I also treat the canopies with scotch bright UV protection.

- Best of all when my daughter finishes school and my family is ready to move, I can break it all down and take it with me. The new owners of the house will have a decent crushed rock pad to do what they want with. Once I get some land I'll build a proper bug out garage instead of redneck engineering something together.

- My ranger is loaded with a decent amount of bug out essentials, ammo, food, water, gas, tools, etc etc. Lots store in bug out bags and molle seat panels, but I also use 25 gallon Husky tote boxes strapped down in the bed until I can figure out what kind of bed system I want to buy.

- I'm not worried about a theft in my area, plus I have some not-mentioned security systems in place anyhow. If a major natural disaster were to hit, or worse, all we have to do is unlock the gate, roll it out of the way, and take off.

- Most people don't even notice the gate when they pass by as one side is completely blocked from view by christmas trees. I painted the guide posts in front of my house the same color as the house as unless you stop and look for it, you don't even see them. Eventually shrubbery will grow to help conceal them. On a couple of occasion joggers happened to be going by my home when I was taking the Ranger out, then back peddled to ask me about the gate. Said they didn't even realize what it was until they saw it in the open position.
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PalmettoRanger

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Nice. But rather than adding pavers, why not just park the truck in the other direction? The lean will offset the slope and the truck will be perfectly level.
 
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OFC Ranger

OFC Ranger

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Jack
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Nice. But rather than adding pavers, why not just park the truck in the other direction? The lean will offset the slope and the truck will be perfectly level.
Much easier to quick egress nose forward, the paver bocks will cost me less than $15.00 to level it out till I can bring in more crushed rock eventually.
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