Why isn't the Ford Ranger a popular expedition vehicle?
- Thread starter winkosmosis
- Start date
HillbillyfromAL
Explorer
If we could get the Diesel version here I bet it would see lots more use. I know that Ford was supplying them to the Iraqi Police along with F250's. I remember seeing one of their holding lots with like 500 Diesel powered Rangers setup as police vehicles. EPA =💩
Mike.rider
Observer
My ranger has done everything I have wanted it to and more. not quite to full expedition status yet but getting close, I use it for Search and Rescue here and am out in the woods in some fashion weekly with it and its my DD.
Mike.rider
Observer
Thanks its a great rig, I just had my gears done and I am eager to get it out in the woods and test the added traction.
Containerized
Adventurer
Very hard to find Ford parts in many destination environments, like Africa. Honestly, where I live, you'd have to air freight parts in from South Africa for a Ranger.
Meanwhile, there are four big Toyota dealerships in Uganda alone.
It's no wonder every fourth or fifth vehicle I see is a Landcruiser 70 Series or a Hilux: They're reliable and, if something fails, you can get the parts very quickly.
Meanwhile, there are four big Toyota dealerships in Uganda alone.
It's no wonder every fourth or fifth vehicle I see is a Landcruiser 70 Series or a Hilux: They're reliable and, if something fails, you can get the parts very quickly.
I have a 99 2wd ranger with the 3.0. 180,000 so far and no big issues. I installed the RCD 5.5" lift and 31" BFGs strictly for ground clearance. I was never looking to make it a full on expedition rig as it is my daily driver.
Over the years I have done a number of upgrades.......Wrangler alternator, Mass air flow sensor, and the usual tech mods such as air filters and whatnot.
I can't say that I do much in the way of exploring as some of you guys do with your dessert adventures and Moab runs as I live in the southeast region of Texas. I do a lot of lake and beach camping. Lots of miles through forest roads, long stretches of rough sandy beache, and through my property. For my use the truck has been GREAT.
I am slowly doing the mods I have always wanted on the truck. I have a collection of parts sitting in the shop ready for installation once I get the time to tear the entire truck down. I have an 8.8 axle with disc brakes that came out of a same year explorer. Hoping to slap and ARE air locker in it before the install. I have a full Dixon Brothers rear cantilever suspension setup sitting on the shelf of my shop. Blitzkreig long travel from suspension kit next to it minus shocks, because by the time I get ready to do the full upgrade shock technology will be far more advanced for my application and the expensive equipment right now will be much cheaper if still available. I have been searching the ads daily looking for 99 or newer 5.0 with the GT 40 heads as a v8 conversion has been my all time greatest want ( outside of my scrapped Cummings 4bt conversion)
The greatest thing I like about the Ranger is parts are relatively cheap and the mechanical side of the vehicle can pretty much be covered by any shade tree mechanic with a chilton and a good set of tools. Not to mention that the ranger has been around forever and they made a LOT of them. Junkyards and Craigslist constantly have Rangers available for CHEAP. I Can get an entire truck that has been wrecked for less than $1000 most of the time. I can get cabs, doors, hoods, and drive train parts for hundreds, take them home and do upgrades for reasonable amounts of money and plenty of spare parts for abuse related maintenance.
I have a camper shell on mine with a custom roof rack I built for my kayak and camp gear. My lady and I camp at least once a month and it serves us well. I am a modification nut, so its good when I can spend a few thousand dollars and have enough spare parts left over to almost build and entirely new (different) truck. Go to any parts dealer and ranger parts are available and in stock. No waiting around because the "factory" is the only place to find the part.
As far as 2wd goes, I have yet to get in a place I can get stuck in other than the swamps on my property, but why drive through them when you have the option to go around? I would never be able to do some of the rock crawling type trails I see some of the members doing, but I have no rocks in my part of the country so its not an issue. I think a rig should be built for drivers purpose most often and upgrades are always available.
Over the years I have done a number of upgrades.......Wrangler alternator, Mass air flow sensor, and the usual tech mods such as air filters and whatnot.
I can't say that I do much in the way of exploring as some of you guys do with your dessert adventures and Moab runs as I live in the southeast region of Texas. I do a lot of lake and beach camping. Lots of miles through forest roads, long stretches of rough sandy beache, and through my property. For my use the truck has been GREAT.
I am slowly doing the mods I have always wanted on the truck. I have a collection of parts sitting in the shop ready for installation once I get the time to tear the entire truck down. I have an 8.8 axle with disc brakes that came out of a same year explorer. Hoping to slap and ARE air locker in it before the install. I have a full Dixon Brothers rear cantilever suspension setup sitting on the shelf of my shop. Blitzkreig long travel from suspension kit next to it minus shocks, because by the time I get ready to do the full upgrade shock technology will be far more advanced for my application and the expensive equipment right now will be much cheaper if still available. I have been searching the ads daily looking for 99 or newer 5.0 with the GT 40 heads as a v8 conversion has been my all time greatest want ( outside of my scrapped Cummings 4bt conversion)
The greatest thing I like about the Ranger is parts are relatively cheap and the mechanical side of the vehicle can pretty much be covered by any shade tree mechanic with a chilton and a good set of tools. Not to mention that the ranger has been around forever and they made a LOT of them. Junkyards and Craigslist constantly have Rangers available for CHEAP. I Can get an entire truck that has been wrecked for less than $1000 most of the time. I can get cabs, doors, hoods, and drive train parts for hundreds, take them home and do upgrades for reasonable amounts of money and plenty of spare parts for abuse related maintenance.
I have a camper shell on mine with a custom roof rack I built for my kayak and camp gear. My lady and I camp at least once a month and it serves us well. I am a modification nut, so its good when I can spend a few thousand dollars and have enough spare parts left over to almost build and entirely new (different) truck. Go to any parts dealer and ranger parts are available and in stock. No waiting around because the "factory" is the only place to find the part.
As far as 2wd goes, I have yet to get in a place I can get stuck in other than the swamps on my property, but why drive through them when you have the option to go around? I would never be able to do some of the rock crawling type trails I see some of the members doing, but I have no rocks in my part of the country so its not an issue. I think a rig should be built for drivers purpose most often and upgrades are always available.
This is my rig on a trip to Lake Conroe. I do primitive camping on some of the forest roads and along the access roads to the lake. It is no Moab, but the ground clearance is a must sometimes for clearing fallen trees since the drought killed a lot of good sized trees last summer and deadfall is littering the roads. The trailer is another project I am slowly building into an expedition type trailer. Rack and roof top tent on the trailer will be completed by next summer.
A guy on http://www.ranger-forums.com/ makes the Bolt on brackets, comes with weld in gusets and hardware. You will have to piece in the shocks and coils.
You don't really gain much from it but the ride quality and losing the torsion bars.
It will help me out when I start gaining more weight in the front too.
Mikerider page back will be helping me with the install!
You don't really gain much from it but the ride quality and losing the torsion bars.
It will help me out when I start gaining more weight in the front too.
Mikerider page back will be helping me with the install!
4x4junkie
Explorer
How come there are so many threads about the U.S. Ford Ranger and it's brethren in this section? Shouldn't these be in the Domestics section? What am I missing here? 
I have both a 1994 Ranger 4.0L and a 1990 Bronco II. The BII is my current wheeling/expo rig, however the Ranger also served as such before I got the BII (wanted a shorter wheelbase for certain trails).
I've also wondered myself why these rigs haven't caught on more (the earlier Explorers too). All of the great parts are there with the right year... Both axles sharing many significant parts with their fullsize ½-ton counterparts (virtually any locking diff and gear ratio you could ever want are available for them), engines that are good for 300K+ miles when given maintenance due, sturdy transmissions (certainly the M5OD 5-speed anyway... the A4LD auto needs additional cooling, but seems good otherwise), and transfer cases good for 300HP (which there are also dual-case kits available for those into crawling).
Sure, Ford had somewhat of a rocky start in the '80s with these trucks... However issues with puny front axles, problematic carburetor/ignition systems, and marginal transmissions had largely been vanquished after the 4.0L V6 trucks came about (excepting for the A4LD's cooling). Parts interchangeability is very good across the entire spectrum of it's existence. Many (most?) of the later (better) engines & drivetrain components are bolt-in swappable into earlier trucks.
My '94 has 6" of lift and 33" tires, my BII 6" and 35" tires. I typically get around 21-22 MPG with both trucks, maybe a hair better in the BII because of the smaller 2.9L engine (freeway driving). I think it's mostly trucks with the automatic that guzzle gas, but I do see this mentioned a lot (especially of the later 4.0L SOHC V6 trucks).
There were some comments earlier about seating comfort... I'm another one who finds the seating far more comfortable than, say, a Toyota. The Toyota feels to me like your sitting in a bathtub or something, the seats are too low (or the floor too high, whatever it is their problem is).
Also not true.
You can build an extremely capable rig for very little $$$ with drop brackets (more capable infact for slow-speed crawling and trail/ExPo use, being that stock-geometry beams don't have the same lateral jacking forces as modified beams which have their pivots higher up in the chassis). Quirks primarily come about because most mass-market suspension lifts are poorly engineered (typically from improper steering corrections). It's entirely possible to side-step these issues for little cost (often just a matter of using a different drop pitman arm instead of the one a kit includes). Unfortunately it is up to the end user to know this though... The suspension industry seems inclined to just let such issues fester with their kits.
Someone posted it several pages back, but I'll put it here again...
The Ranger Station has nearly endless info in both their Technical Library and forum about building and working on these rigs. Lot of good TTB suspension tips available there as well (especially for those who don't need or want bling-bling $$$ race-grade parts just to go exploring 4WD jeep trails).
:safari-rig:
I have both a 1994 Ranger 4.0L and a 1990 Bronco II. The BII is my current wheeling/expo rig, however the Ranger also served as such before I got the BII (wanted a shorter wheelbase for certain trails).
I've also wondered myself why these rigs haven't caught on more (the earlier Explorers too). All of the great parts are there with the right year... Both axles sharing many significant parts with their fullsize ½-ton counterparts (virtually any locking diff and gear ratio you could ever want are available for them), engines that are good for 300K+ miles when given maintenance due, sturdy transmissions (certainly the M5OD 5-speed anyway... the A4LD auto needs additional cooling, but seems good otherwise), and transfer cases good for 300HP (which there are also dual-case kits available for those into crawling).
Sure, Ford had somewhat of a rocky start in the '80s with these trucks... However issues with puny front axles, problematic carburetor/ignition systems, and marginal transmissions had largely been vanquished after the 4.0L V6 trucks came about (excepting for the A4LD's cooling). Parts interchangeability is very good across the entire spectrum of it's existence. Many (most?) of the later (better) engines & drivetrain components are bolt-in swappable into earlier trucks.
My '94 has 6" of lift and 33" tires, my BII 6" and 35" tires. I typically get around 21-22 MPG with both trucks, maybe a hair better in the BII because of the smaller 2.9L engine (freeway driving). I think it's mostly trucks with the automatic that guzzle gas, but I do see this mentioned a lot (especially of the later 4.0L SOHC V6 trucks).
There were some comments earlier about seating comfort... I'm another one who finds the seating far more comfortable than, say, a Toyota. The Toyota feels to me like your sitting in a bathtub or something, the seats are too low (or the floor too high, whatever it is their problem is).
You might check that info again... The 2.3L 4-cyl was available with 4WD up until the 1998 model (same year they replaced the TTB suspension with that A-arm junk). There were not a lot of them made during the '93-'97 years, but they are out there.
Also not true.
You can build an extremely capable rig for very little $$$ with drop brackets (more capable infact for slow-speed crawling and trail/ExPo use, being that stock-geometry beams don't have the same lateral jacking forces as modified beams which have their pivots higher up in the chassis). Quirks primarily come about because most mass-market suspension lifts are poorly engineered (typically from improper steering corrections). It's entirely possible to side-step these issues for little cost (often just a matter of using a different drop pitman arm instead of the one a kit includes). Unfortunately it is up to the end user to know this though... The suspension industry seems inclined to just let such issues fester with their kits.
Someone posted it several pages back, but I'll put it here again...
The Ranger Station has nearly endless info in both their Technical Library and forum about building and working on these rigs. Lot of good TTB suspension tips available there as well (especially for those who don't need or want bling-bling $$$ race-grade parts just to go exploring 4WD jeep trails).
:safari-rig:
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Scott B.
SE Expedition Society
I agree with Junkie - this should at least be in the Domestic section.
It would be nice if we could our own section - RBV (Ranger based vehicles.) This would include Rangers, Bronco IIs and Explorers.
I realize this isn't a vehicle-specific forum, but there are quite a few vehicle-specific sections. Looking at all the RBV forums out there, these are quite popular vehicles. I think there are quite a few of us on this forum, also - a specific section would be nice.
Just my 0.02...
It would be nice if we could our own section - RBV (Ranger based vehicles.) This would include Rangers, Bronco IIs and Explorers.
I realize this isn't a vehicle-specific forum, but there are quite a few vehicle-specific sections. Looking at all the RBV forums out there, these are quite popular vehicles. I think there are quite a few of us on this forum, also - a specific section would be nice.
Just my 0.02...
MikeMGB
New member
I think this may be my first post in this forum. I bought A 2000 extended cab 3.0 4x4 Ranger in 2003. For the next 10 years it was my daily driver, primitive camping vehicle, hunting truck and tow vehicle for the occasional broken down car and motorcycle. It never let me down and required very little in the way of repairs. My biggest issue was that I had the step-side and so never managed to find a camper shell for it at a price I was willing to pay..
It returned a pretty consistent 17.5mpg which I felt was acceptable. I drove it for 90,000 miles. Unfortunately at the beginning of this year it took a rock to the windshield and during an alignment I found the upper ball joints and motor mounts were shot. I was just about to get them replaced when the auto transmission went out.
I did the math on it and decided to trade it for an 08 Xterra to build into an overlander rather than repair it, I do miss it though, it was a great truck.
It returned a pretty consistent 17.5mpg which I felt was acceptable. I drove it for 90,000 miles. Unfortunately at the beginning of this year it took a rock to the windshield and during an alignment I found the upper ball joints and motor mounts were shot. I was just about to get them replaced when the auto transmission went out.
I did the math on it and decided to trade it for an 08 Xterra to build into an overlander rather than repair it, I do miss it though, it was a great truck.
Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
I think one of the best features of both the Ranger and Explorer is that they are easy to find and inexpensive (especially compared to the likes of Toyota.) There's a lot of great potential out there to build something pretty awesome with not a lot of money.
The electric T-case on some of the Rangers/Explorers has been known to be a problem, I knew a couple of people in Laramie, WY, who had nothing but trouble with theirs in the extreme cold weather (winter nights in Laramie can get down to -20 pretty commonly.) The good news is that there are ways to get around that.
The electric T-case on some of the Rangers/Explorers has been known to be a problem, I knew a couple of people in Laramie, WY, who had nothing but trouble with theirs in the extreme cold weather (winter nights in Laramie can get down to -20 pretty commonly.) The good news is that there are ways to get around that.