Impressed by my little pickup

EastSide

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Took my truck to a really remote lot with no roads. Created everything with my hands (moving boulders, tearing out brush), chainsaw (cutting down beefier bushes), and shovel (wedging out big rocks).

Ended up getting augered in a few times. Backed out of it, tossed rocks in the holes, kept rolling. My other truck is a fully locked 90's land cruiser with a lift, sliders, ko2s, winch, etc. So while I'm probably exceeding the recommended capacity of the ranger it definitely impressed me.

noroads.jpg
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Jon Olivier

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Off-roading opportunities out here are endless. And, yes, the Ranger has been handling it all like a champ.
 

cb4017

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Good to see. I'm thinking about replacing my JLU Wrangler with a Ranger and I'm wondering about it's off road capabilities. It will be seeing a fair amount of use out here in the Nevada desert.
 
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EastSide

EastSide

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Good to see. I'm thinking about replacing my JLU Wrangler with a Ranger and I'm wondering about it's off road capabilities. It will be seeing a fair amount of use out here in the Nevada desert.
That's where this shot was taken, Esmeralda County. As barren a place as I've been able to find.

I've never owned a pickup before so I'm not sure if the handling is the same for all of them. It's definitely not the lifted crawler sort of vibe I get from my land cruiser, and it's harder to just glance out the window and see what your tire is doing. Maybe I'll get better with the truck but for now it feels a bit like driving a box around rather than a set of tires, if that makes sense.

That being said, I was really impressed, especially with just the factory tires. I think one thing that helped me was having a background in offroading so when things started to get dicey I just went back to the other five dozen times I've gotten stuck or helped someone else get unstuck.

I think with rock sliders under the rocker panels, places for a hi-lift to grab, and a winch up front this could do a lot.

My only other knock, and it's part of what makes it great on the highway for the long drives, is that a front bumper change out (that accepts a winch, has a lower take off angle, and is frame mounted) would screw with the front sensors.

That might be the ultimate restrictive factor honestly. Not sure if anyone has (successfully) messed with those front sensors.

But it's a pickup with great gas mileage, not a crawler. So if I keep looking at it as a pickup with really-not-bad offroading performance I'm happy.
 

cb4017

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That's where this shot was taken, Esmeralda County. As barren a place as I've been able to find.

I've never owned a pickup before so I'm not sure if the handling is the same for all of them. It's definitely not the lifted crawler sort of vibe I get from my land cruiser, and it's harder to just glance out the window and see what your tire is doing. Maybe I'll get better with the truck but for now it feels a bit like driving a box around rather than a set of tires, if that makes sense.

That being said, I was really impressed, especially with just the factory tires. I think one thing that helped me was having a background in offroading so when things started to get dicey I just went back to the other five dozen times I've gotten stuck or helped someone else get unstuck.

I think with rock sliders under the rocker panels, places for a hi-lift to grab, and a winch up front this could do a lot.

My only other knock, and it's part of what makes it great on the highway for the long drives, is that a front bumper change out (that accepts a winch, has a lower take off angle, and is frame mounted) would screw with the front sensors.

That might be the ultimate restrictive factor honestly. Not sure if anyone has (successfully) messed with those front sensors.

But it's a pickup with great gas mileage, not a crawler. So if I keep looking at it as a pickup with really-not-bad offroading performance I'm happy.
Thanks for your input. I greatly appreciate it. I live in Churchill County and I spend a lot of time ranging out to the north, east and south. One of my favorite pastimes is exploring old mine sites and mining towns. I don't crawl over rocks/obstacles on purpose and that kind of off-roading does not interest me.

I like my Jeep but I'm an old guy now and starting to think about something a little more comfortable on the road. Something where I can take off for a road trip to see the Grand-kids one weekend and hit the desert for some exploring or camping the next.

Thanks again for your thoughts. It was helpful. Not a Ranger but this is the kind of thing I like to do.

20200403_111329 (Small).jpg
 


Big Blue

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My only other knock, and it's part of what makes it great on the highway for the long drives, is that a front bumper change out (that accepts a winch, has a lower take off angle, and is frame mounted) would screw with the front sensors.

That might be the ultimate restrictive factor honestly. Not sure if anyone has (successfully) messed with those front sensors.
Check out the shrockworks stock front bumper winch mount thread here:
https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/shrockworks-stock-bumper-winch-mount.8189/post-153004
There are a couple that keep the stock front bumper or most of it along with all the sensors. I'm sure there are a other complete bumpers that do also.
 
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EastSide

EastSide

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Thanks for your input. I greatly appreciate it. I live in Churchill County and I spend a lot of time ranging out to the north, east and south. One of my favorite pastimes is exploring old mine sites and mining towns. I don't crawl over rocks/obstacles on purpose and that kind of off-roading does not interest me.

I like my Jeep but I'm an old guy now and starting to think about something a little more comfortable on the road. Something where I can take off for a road trip to see the Grand-kids one weekend and hit the desert for some exploring or camping the next.

Thanks again for your thoughts. It was helpful. Not a Ranger but this is the kind of thing I like to do.

20200403_111329 (Small).jpg
Looking good! I think if you're on anything a stock 4x4 can handle the ranger will work. It's the "jeep trail" stuff that would challenge it, but there's a YouTube of a stock ranger doing the broken arrow trail which is a bit technical.

It would probably work great for you. Maybe the only other consideration is just the open truck bed vs your ultimate now. Way easier to load gear, but way easier for it to get stolen at grocery store parking lot, etc.

But yeah, you'd dig the ranger I bet. I got 28mpg from mammoth to reno as well, really babying it.
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