Your Ranger doesn’t need to be heavily modified to enjoy off-roading fun.
This week’s Muddy Monday video comes to us from the Off Road and Racing YouTube channel and it features a last generation Ford Ranger playing in the mud. While this action is nowhere near as extreme as most of our muddy videos, this week we wanted to look at a truck that wasn’t purpose-built to play in the mud, paying tribute to those people who go off-roading with relatively stock pickups.
The Stock-Ish Truck
It seems that that vast majority of the off-roading trucks that we feature are massively modified, so while they are F-150, Ranger and Super Duty pickups, they often share few parts with the trucks that many of us drive on the road. We pick those monster machines because they are generally more capable of slinging mud, but this week’s video features a truck that looks to be stock or very near stock.
There are no details on this Ford Ranger, but it appears to be stock, including the wheels and the ride height. The tires might be a bit more aggressive than the stock rubber, but overall, this compact pickup is more or less stock. We call is stock-ish just in case there are some minor modifications, but as off-road trucks go, this one doesn’t differ from the average Ranger that you see on your local roads.
The Muddy Trail
In the video above, the Ranger carefully climbs down an angled path, avoiding the washed-out trench in the middle of that makeshift road. When the truck reaches what appears to be a drying riverbed, the driver has to hammer down and dig through the hard mud a bit in order to get a run at the steep, muddy hill awaiting him.
The small Ford truck hits the hill with some speed, spinning the rear tires hard as it straddles a trench and climbs safely to the top of the hill.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
