Top 5 Items to Bring on Any "Trail-Trip" While Keeping the Price Down

When your out in the sticks, you never know what can happen. Flat tire? Stuck? Drained battery? Warm Drinks? Of course, any of these could happen, and its essential to be prepared for these problems before any adventure. Here is my top five essential items while keeping costs low.

1. Winch

Eventually, you will get stuck. If you prefer to wheel solo, you will definitely want a winch. Attach this to any land anchor (tree, boulders, etc.) and wind your way out.








2. Jumper Cables

Dead battery out in the woods? Guaranteed AAA won't try to find you out on the trail. Get another truck and pump life back into your truck. Unfortunately, for these to work, you need another vehicle.





3. HI-Lift Jack

These can be used for multiple purposes, anywhere from changing a tire to giving your winch that extra assist. These are somewhat cheap, and come in very handy on trail.











4. Tool Kit

Toolkits can range in size and tool variation, but anything is better than nothing. Simple allen wrenches, screw drivers, ratchets, can all get you out of very sticky situations. A simple toolkit is easily stored and can most likely fit under the seat.









5. Cooler

This may seem odd, but who doesn't love a cold drink while on the trail exploring? Not only do they keep drinks cold, they also keep food edible. Maybe this isn't a "must-have" but more for comfort.

08 Ranger Headlight Mod Complete!

After some struggle, I finally got my headlight mod complete. Personally, I think I could have done a better job, such as taping, painting, and re-sealing. It does make the front of the truck look better in my opinion. There is an excellent How-To here (click me!). User STL does a good job explaining the process; however, I found that the headlights need to be in the oven at 265F for 7 minutes, not the 170 degrees for 5 minutes.

Here are some before and after pictures. Enjoy and happy modding!

Before (stock)

After

After

New 2" Lift Shackles

Recently, I've installed some 3" lift spindles to give me more ground clearance and improve on wheel travel. More recently, however, I have purchased some brand new Chevy/Ford/Dodge drop shackles. These would drop a truck 1" or 2" if inverted. For Rangers, the shackles always face down, suddenly turning normal drop shackles into lift shackles. I decided to put the new hardware on the 2" setting since, after all, I was looking forward to using my review-mirror again. After the installation (which only took roughly 45 minutes) I am very pleased with wheel travel and ground rear clearance.

 (Above)  Here they are, freshly installed. Its easiest and less time consuming to remove the old shackles with the top bolt first, then the bottom bolt. When putting the new shackles in make sure you do the opposite. Tighten the bottom bolt down, then the top. If you don't, the leaf springs will do there job and not let you remove the bolts. What should have been an hour project slowly turns into several.

(Above) After testing them on the trails and the street, it seemed as if they moved smoother and weren't so stiff

(Left) Post lifting, I measured the front wheel well at just under 36".

(Left) Just like the front fender, I measured the rear. This wheel well turned out to be almost exactly 36".

(Above) As you can see, the truck is lifted, and almost completely level. I think new rims and bigger rubber may be in my truck's future.

Just a quick video of me being an idiot and getting stuck...enjoy.

Ford Ranger 2wd Spindles

Remember way back when I did a clearance/suspension flex test and complained about the stock height of my Ranger? Several weeks ago I was able to install some 3" fit spindles I picked up on the cheap side. Click Here For the Spindles!
It took 5 hours, grinding LCAs, several cans (or what seemed like) of WD40, and multiple test runs.
The installation went smooth with little hiccups and I was able to run it through some mud and test the clearance with my buddy Sal, who decided to take his Toyota Sequoia out just for giggles. I was able to take some awesome pictures:

Easy installation, but if you'll look closely at the ball joint connecting the tie rod to the spindle you'll see one of those "hiccups" I was talking about...

Really painful and even nerve-racking, but it had to be done. Without grinding down the 1/4" of the LCA, your turning radius is basically shot. In fact, I felt like I improved on Ford's engineering; now I can make a sharper U-Turn than just about any truck on the road!

One of the best mountain-top pictures I've ever gotten. It couldn't have been better timing.

Happy truck, happy...life? Close enough.

Engine Cleaning I0I

Recently I've been detailing my truck by washing, quick-waxing, trim restorer, and vacuuming. But I soon realized that I had overlooked my engine. I popped the hood and and was surprised that it was actually in good shape, mind a few cob webs. I soon logged on to my favorite website, Ranger-Forums, and began browsing to see how I should go about cleaning my engine. Obviously I could just hose it down with water, but I was soon cautioned by a thread I found warning that I definitely needed to cover up some things, but thats for later. 

First, let your car run for 3-5 minutes, just to let it warm up like I did above.

Taking the advice from a friend on Ranger-Forums, I put plastic bags over the battery and over the fuse box once the truck was completely shut off. Is this necessary? Maybe not, but I'd rather be on the safe-side.

From there, I grabbed a magical substance called Purple Power, a degreaser that removes a mixture of  earth and water,  what some call gunk. 

After drenching my engine in as much degreaser as possible, I let it sit for a few minutes letting it do its work. It is a very strong substance and you don't want to get it on your skin and definitely not in any orifice of your body.

If you don't own a power washer, your best bet is a garden hose with a nozzle at the end. Spray the entire engine down with water after the degreaser has soaked for a few minutes. Make sure to wash away all of it and that none dries on the paint.

I decided to use the blower effect since I didn't feel like getting the air compressor out. As soon as I wised-up and realized it wasn't doing any good, I switched over to drying the engine with a towel. ( which actually worked out better because I was able to scrub with the towel)

After the engine was all dry, I realized that my engine was still not completely clean. So I got my second favorite car-cleaner: Turtle Trim Restorer. I usually use it for my bumper and mirrors but I figured I'd give it a shot. (Turtle also makes an excellent wax for detailing your car)

Although I wasn't able to get every nook and cranny, I was surprised at how well the Trim Restorer worked. It exceeded my expectations to say the least.

Before

After

                                                                                  

Suspension Travel and Flex Test

Yesterday I decided that, since my suspension is completely stock with no lift and about 29" tires, I should see what the suspension travel is like...basically I was really bored. Here are just some quick pictures I took at a dirt lot behind a park.

This was actually taken on my way out. I figured I'd sport my Ranger-Forums sticker at least once.

These two on the right and bottom were taken when I first got there. I found a little hill/bump and decided to go up it, surprisingly, the little truck made it up no problem despite the back wheels spinning in the dusty dirt.

 These last three pictures on the left and bottom are the best examples of the suspension travel and flex. In all honesty, I'm pretty surprised at what this little Ranger could do for being stock. I think a spindle lift and a rear block is in my future.