What did you do to your Ranger today?

[P. A. Schilke]

Next Project:

Out with old, in with the new. Now I am fabbing up a dual mount that will have an arm that attaches to my dedicated tablet mount and the dual Feniex Mini's will be right above the tablet.

The mount is basically made from an old license plate bracket I never used and some cabinet gas shock mounts that I never used. The arm will probably just be a piece of steel I cut to needed shape. Fresh coat of paint, and bam, I'm making art over here.

Hi Jack,

I think you are approaching GVW with all the wiring for all the electronics...

Best,
Phil

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[TVRangerSTX]

it's just a piece of aluminum tape. like this: Buy Foil Tape (zoro.com).
any tape should work - i just liked this one out of the stuff i had in the garage.

WILL....C'mon man! Just kidding, I know it's tape! The thing is everyone on here wants a link to something....get it?
BTW, do you think Gorilla tape will work better than duct tape?

 

[RRTruuck]

Got Line-X done today!

 

[Grumpaw]

Hi Jack,

I think you are approaching GVW with all the wiring for all the electronics...

Best,
Phil

I also think his Ranger is an emergency wire supply for the area he lives in.
In case of the electrical grid going down, he has a ready supply of wire, fuses, diodes, blocks, ect...

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

My Ranger had to perform some relative high speed evasive maneuvers today on the trip home on I 19. Three times we were attacked by huge, aggressive tumbleweeds trying to tag the front bumper and grill on the Ranger..... We had high cross winds and have never seen so many tumbleweeds being blown across the Interstate. Ranger handled well and we dodged all of the tumbleweed attacks. Can't say that for the semi trucks on the road....

Best,
Phil

 

[WesternFlyer]

Aha, you may be on to something...I'm 6'0", and hit, you're 6'4" and don't...we need a survey, my theory is there is a limit to the knee hitting the headlight sw, and if you are over it, your knee will graze the fresh air vent or turn signal, and not the light switch. height, seat retraction in inches, XL spreadsheet, algorithm, 3 equations, 2 unknowns, e to the x, log base 10, stuff like that.

5’11” never hit in the Ranger. Used to hit it frequently in my Focus. Long legs though.

 

[TVRangerSTX]

Hi Folks,

My Ranger had to perform some relative high speed evasive maneuvers today on the trip home on I 19. Three times we were attacked by huge, aggressive tumbleweeds trying to tag the front bumper and grill on the Ranger..... We had high cross winds and have never seen so many tumbleweeds being blown across the Interstate. Ranger handled well and we dodged all of the tumbleweed attacks. Can't say that for the semi trucks on the road....

Best,
Phil

Bet you were glad you had that fat wheel, gloves & helmet! Warmed up the tires, eh? Dash cam video would be cool...Ford should make a Bullitt Ranger model just for you Phil!

 

[Zeroedin]

This is another project that is finally coming to a close and I am proud to have fabbed together. A stupid amount of man hours, getting things where they felt right and a whole metric shit ton of snipping, crimping, and heat shrinking. I am still debating if the raised panel that will go over the electronics will be a see-through lexan or if I will do another piece of plywood and carpet it to hide it all away. Most of the various pouches hold spare bits and pieces for field repairs and I need to order some extra tools that can stay in here (crimper, stripper, butane torch, etc etc).

The large backpack I converted to a pouch on the far left will have rain gear and some spare cloths in it, along with some other misc non-truck items.

Everything single channel is (besides the low voltage circuit portion) are behind 15 amp one way diodes, meaning no other channel can back-feed and interact with another channel period. The "e-lock" channel is not for the truck (maybe one day), its for uh... something else.

I still have some fine details to do (like order black screws, washers, and stuff) because I used a lot of what I had on hand already in the garage to construct it.

The entire thing, excluding the Streamlight flash light probably cost me the same, give or take a few bucks, as what some people might pay for one single large rigid metal molle panel....

Jack, I’m not gonna pretend to understand exactly what you’re doing with your truck, but I will say that every time I come across one of your posts I’m in absolute awe of the work you’re doing. I don’t really know what I’m looking at, but I’ve been around long enough to know when someone takes pride in a job well done. I’ve always preached to my kids that there are only two ways to approach any job; you can strive to achieve the closest thing to “perfection” you’re capable of…….or you can do it the wrong way.

Anyway, I suspect you tend toward the former. Hate to get all mushy, but I just wanted to take a moment to let ya’ know I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for the quality of your work. Color me extremely impressed….post after post.

 

[Grumpaw]

Hi Folks,

My Ranger had to perform some relative high speed evasive maneuvers today on the trip home on I 19. Three times we were attacked by huge, aggressive tumbleweeds trying to tag the front bumper and grill on the Ranger..... We had high cross winds and have never seen so many tumbleweeds being blown across the Interstate. Ranger handled well and we dodged all of the tumbleweed attacks. Can't say that for the semi trucks on the road....

Best,
Phil

We don't have em in Virginia...
Do they jump out in front of vehicles in a kamikaze attack like the first pic...
Or do they gather and try to consume a vehicle like the second pic ???

 

[Zeroedin]

Just wrapped up installing some Rigid SR-L series reverse lights. Used a short harness from the taillight so they function as additional DRL/marker lights with a red halo under normal circumstances….then fire-up to full power upon shifting into reverse. Really diggin’ the added field of light when backing up at night, as my eyes and night vision just ain’t what they used to be.

No pics of the reverse light, but they perform as advertised. Might be a bit obnoxious in the grocery store parking lot, but I’ll dial in the angles over the next day or two :

Was a bit disappointed I wasn’t able to install my smoked LED 3rd brake/bed light that arrived. The install video makes it look like a breeze, but there was absolutely no slack in the wires coming off the factory housing. I couldn’t find any way to get to the wiring harness, which at this point I’m guessing is under the headliner in the cabin. I don’t have the skill set nor the confidence to start tearing apart the headliner, so I’ll be sending this one back….unless I’m just missing something obvious and someone can offer some advice…..

 

[P. A. Schilke]

We don't have em in Virginia...
Do they jump out in front of vehicles in a kamikaze attack like the first pic...
Or do they gather and try to consume a vehicle like the second pic ???

Hi Steve,

Being wind driven....they are mostly like the first pix.... But when the wind swirls they are more agile than a running back in football....I appear to still have excellent reflexes to dodge them...

Best,
Phil

 

[CATX]

WILL....C'mon man! Just kidding, I know it's tape! The thing is everyone on here wants a link to something....get it?
BTW, do you think Gorilla tape will work better than duct tape?

HA! Dang I'm slow.
Tempted to answer your gorilla tape question and send you some more links but I'm
already wising up.

 

[OFC Ranger]

Jack, I’m not gonna pretend to understand exactly what you’re doing with your truck, but I will say that every time I come across one of your posts I’m in absolute awe of the work you’re doing. I don’t really know what I’m looking at, but I’ve been around long enough to know when someone takes pride in a job well done. I’ve always preached to my kids that there are only two ways to approach any job; you can strive to achieve the closest thing to “perfection” you’re capable of…….or you can do it the wrong way.

Anyway, I suspect you tend toward the former. Hate to get all mushy, but I just wanted to take a moment to let ya’ know I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for the quality of your work. Color me extremely impressed….post after post.

Thanks I appreciate it.

My build is more or less what people would refer to as a bug out vehicle. I jokingly refer to it as the battle wagon but more or less when I'm done and all systems are installed like solar and so forth it will basically be self-sustained box on wheels. No not for something stupid like " zombie apocalypse " but more for emergency weather or other type of civil emergency problems. Or just in the event I say screw it all and just up and disappear into the sunset one day with my dogs kind of truck never to return to the city I live in who knows. Off grid?

However with that said most of my enjoyment of this truck actually comes from my fabrication projects.

 

[Danager]

Just wrapped up installing some Rigid SR-L series reverse lights. Used a short harness from the taillight so they function as additional DRL/marker lights with a red halo under normal circumstances….then fire-up to full power upon shifting into reverse. Really diggin’ the added field of light when backing up at night, as my eyes and night vision just ain’t what they used to be.

No pics of the reverse light, but they perform as advertised. Might be a bit obnoxious in the grocery store parking lot, but I’ll dial in the angles over the next day or two :

Was a bit disappointed I wasn’t able to install my smoked LED 3rd brake/bed light that arrived. The install video makes it look like a breeze, but there was absolutely no slack in the wires coming off the factory housing. I couldn’t find any way to get to the wiring harness, which at this point I’m guessing is under the headliner in the cabin. I don’t have the skill set nor the confidence to start tearing apart the headliner, so I’ll be sending this one back….unless I’m just missing something obvious and someone can offer some advice…..

The harness is clipped into the sheet metal just beside where the wire passes through the opening. If you remove the original CHMSL, the wiring passes through a thick piece of tape. Remove that and you can follow the wiring with you hand - inside and to the left. You can pry that retainer clip out with a panel removal tool, screwdriver, pair of needle-nose pliers, something similar. There is some slack there. Once you plug in the new light, wrap the plug with some foam tape to prevent rattling.

 

[OFC Ranger]

Hi Jack,

I think you are approaching GVW with all the wiring for all the electronics...

Best,
Phil

It's true I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on wiring projects but in my defense when I started dabbling in this I had zero experience so a lot of the cost was in a learn as you go type of deal.

Same as all the metal fabrication projects on the truck just sort of trial and error or once I got something done I learned along the way there is a better way to do it so I just redo the whole thing. lol

Honestly I probably should have went to a path like engineering or something. However the old saying goes that in a Carpenter's house all the cabinets are falling apart. More or less if you do something your love for a living and it no longer is a love and it's just a job and you don't feel like doing it in your free time.

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