WxNerd2015's Hot Pepper Red FX4

[WxNerd2015]

Why did you add the side bars? I thought I had seen some just using the front and back racks with the cross bars. I’m thinking of the same set up if Thule doesn’t get their quality control issues fixed on their rack.

Brian

I ended up choosing the Yakima for a few reasons, but one of them was that their rack was already an approved Ford Accessory, so I was certain it would work great on this truck! As for the side bars, you do not have to run them, and there are many who are not running them. Personally though, the side bars give me a few benefits, first one being that it boxes in the whole rack system and makes it even more stable and ridged. The towers themselves were fine, but when I was installing, they did have just a slight bit of play in them just on their own, with the side bars, they are completely ridged to the bed with zero movement. Additionally, I knew I would haul kayaks/SUPs on there and wanted to mount the paddles down lower to the sides of the rack, plus I could use the side mounts for other accessories too as needed. And lastly, I liked the complete boxes look of the rack this way as opposed to just the towers.

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[WxNerd2015]

Great shots and really nice set up. Just got my truck this week and I’m looking for a soft tonneau cover for it that won’t prevent me from using a rack system similar to Yakima. Do you (or anyone for that matter) know of a soft tonneau system that still allows for rack installation?

I think Extang and Truxedo both have covers that are compatible with some rack systems, but if you want to use the Yakima system with a tonneau, you need one that supports the T-Track on the Bed Rails. But not sure of others, I just know there are some out there. Check out this spot on the forum for some more bed cover discussions from otehrs who have installed some: https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/forums/racks-carriers-toppers-cargo-bed-mods.75/

 

[WxNerd2015]

Oh, so it's been a long month, but definitely have some updates to post as I just passed 18k on the odometer this last weekend! First up, I will go into further details on the entire drama with it, but my radio setup is finally complete in the truck and working and wanted to share the setup and some pictures of it as well.

But first, just as a warning to anyone else running wires through the grommet in the firewall on the driver's side, but careful when feeding the wiring through as the main engine harness is looped very closely on the other side and I actually managed to cut a couple of wires on accident with my wire insertion tool...as I said, more details to come, but just wanted that warning here. And this is not my first time running wiring, as I have done plenty in my Jeep and never has an issue, but make sure to watch where you are going and through and be careful.

Anyways, on to the final setup! Here it is:

That is a President Bill CB Radio on the driver's side and a Baofeng UV-5RHP on the right. I used a similar Ram Track mounting setup to @WLFPIR8 in this thread: https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/ram-mounts-my-setup.5323/post-84612

I mounted the T-Track through the upper dash panel and that dash panel was super easy to get on and off for me, but just make sure you start to pry from the rear, and when you put the tray back, make sure to start with the front lip.

As for the rest of the mounts, it is all Ram mounts arms, balls, and diamond mount, and for the Baofeng, I went with a company that I use in my Jeep actually called JeepUniq. They mostly make mounts for Jeeps as the name would imply, but they also make their mounts to attach to a 1" Ram ball which worked perfect for my setup!

Running the wiring then was the next tricky part, and I used a few different types of wires and connections to get everything where I wanted it. In the picks above, you can see that I ran the wiring through the rear corners of the dash tray. For the Baofeng, it only needed an antenna wire run, so that side was pretty simple, but the power wire for the CB was a bit more tricky. Additionally, I installed all the wiring through the dash tray with it off the truck, as I actually ran the antenna cables and power cable all with disconnects above the dash so if needed, I can remove all my equipment off the dash and you would barely even see it was there.

This included running converters from standard coax cable which has quite large ends into an SMA connector which allowed me to drill smaller holes and actually prevent the wiring from falling back through the holes when not connected. Additionally, I cut the power cable for the CB and installed a plug which allows for quick power disconnect at the dash. I then ran the SMA to the Coax on the passenger side of the center dash behind the glove box and ran the power and ground around the vent on the driver's side of the center dash and grounded to one of the bolts in the footwell and ran my power wire into the engine bay to the battery.

Lastly, for the CB mic, I had an extra magnetic vent clip that most people use with their phones laying around and thought that it might work well to hand the CB mic, just had to make the back of the mike magnetic. And I did that by getting an adapter from Magnetic Mic and the mic is not super secure as the magnetic force is more than strong enough for the light mic!

And right now, I am running my long antenna setup:

However I have mostly been running the short setup, and even got the chance to check it in some parking garages and no issues so far with clearance!

As mentioned at the beginning of the post though, more details to come later on my issues, but I will save that for another post a bit later!

 

[WxNerd2015]

I also have had a chance to just get some great picture of the Ranger out and about and all around!

Here she is chilling in a parking garage:

And at the lake in with my father-in-law's Ranger:

And at Lake Michigan in Ludington:

And just messing around with one of the tire from my Jeep (295/70/R17s, so ~33") seeing how it looked with the Ranger:

 

[Bsenecal]

I ended up choosing the Yakima for a few reasons, but one of them was that their rack was already an approved Ford Accessory, so I was certain it would work great on this truck! As for the side bars, you do not have to run them, and there are many who are not running them. Personally though, the side bars give me a few benefits, first one being that it boxes in the whole rack system and makes it even more stable and ridged. The towers themselves were fine, but when I was installing, they did have just a slight bit of play in them just on their own, with the side bars, they are completely ridged to the bed with zero movement. Additionally, I knew I would haul kayaks/SUPs on there and wanted to mount the paddles down lower to the sides of the rack, plus I could use the side mounts for other accessories too as needed. And lastly, I liked the complete boxes look of the rack this way as opposed to just the towers.

Thank you for the feedback. I will also be hauling kayaks but and not sure if I will leave the towers installed when not in use. My cover isn’t even here yet so I have some time to decide.
Brian

 

[WxNerd2015]

Well, after the long wait for the official release, and it coming out just a day or two ago, I went ahead and finally got my radio updated to Sync 3.4! Woohoo!

Sync 3.3 Build 19052 --> Sync 3.4 Build 20136

I am definitely liking the new UI and it seems to be performing a little faster! Some of my favorite parts of the new system is the ability to be able to chose from a few different background in both night and day, a few of the tweaks with new buttons and button placement on the nav screen, the cleaner appearance of the UI, and the what the radio station icons are displayed in the Radio page! I like the presets showing the station logo, and especially The Highway channel, I like that they support changing colors of the logo, as it used to always be while and did not look good during the daytime screen. Additionally, I noticed on the Radio screen that the song/album cover now shows on the right side of the screen too and I don't remember seeing that before either!

Overall, I am very happy with the outcome, though looking at both, I might just leave my radio in nighttime mode all the time as the all blue is pretty slick and can still be read easy during the daytime! I will have to try it out!

One issue to note though, I tried updating by WiFi, and didn't appear to be doing anything, so I tried the USB update method, and for some reason, after about 30 minutes the screen went black and would not come back. Additionally, the radio would not play any sound, however the climate still worked, as well as the backup camera. I ended up with a quick stop by the dealer, and basically, something froze up in the installation, and once they plugged their computer in, it re initiated the installation and it finished up and worked fine. So not quite sure, but something hung in the installation, but as you can see now, all is set!