I am new here, so I will introduce myself. I am 18 in my last semester of high school. I play football, which we ended as semi-finalists, and wrestle. I am 6'5" 270 pounds, love to fish, hunt, dirt bike. I would like to become a mechanical engineer, which surprises a lot of people when they find out I don't really like math at all. I don't hate math, I just use it, and I am way better at math/science than English.

I have a Love-Hate relationship with my 1994 4x4 Explorer which I saved from the junk yard. It was running bad, and my dad had a 1993 s10 blazer at the time, and it is better than the explorer in every way anyway, so he was just going to scrap it (which is ironic, because it was used to haul scrap all its life, and still is, but by me now). I was 15 and decided it would cool to raise it from the dead; I needed a truck to haul scrap, and a boat. I also just like it for being as old as I am, I remember riding in it when I was very young. My dad didn't want to help, he figured it would be hard considering it sat for 3 years in the yard and had 2 trees fall on it. After I checked for mice in the air box it wasn't that tough, I slapped a new battery in it and turned the key. Although it had a million problems, which are now narrowed down to what seems like 500,000, it fired up and drove. As expected a brake line burst, but we bypassed it and drove it around the yard. I am not a brand fan (ford vs Chevy) but this thing is tough. IMO Fords thing is always running, but never running right vs Chevy which run great, but when they don't, your stuck. I am not biased one way or another, but my next vehicle will be a Chevy pickup. If you don't want to read, skip to the blah emoticon Off the top of my head I'll list things I replaced or added since then other than maintenance items like spark plugs, oil, filters, etc...

New brake line (just the one)
one tires brake pads
all four new Wrangler Radial tires (2nd set on this, last less than 30,000 mi. but are cheap and good off road)
new windsheild (shot by bb gun from neighbor 12 years ago, finally got pulled over)
I hit stuff underneath lightly with a hammer until the 4x4 worked again (funny but true)
front wheel bearings
added a real tow hitch (bumper is bent from towing)
all four new shocks (blue, the cheapest I could get)
one fuel injector (why my dad parked it, I went through all the trouble of replacing it myself, and only replace the bad one; still runs decent)
and finally the right blinker (its taken down 8 deer now, 2 from me and one finally caused damage)

things that are wrong (kind of)...

steering has TONS of play in it (hard to go straight at over 60mph)
rear diff has lots of play (bangs into gear, and when shifting under low power)
body is rusting very bad
idles rough
sometimes kills if you are on ice and lock breaks, or tires or slipping and suddenly catch (low speed only)
average 14 mpg (towing about 1/2 the time), IMO if this matters, you don't need a truck
ABS quit long, long ago BTW
all ball joints are WAY gone, and they rattle at nearly any bump in the road, but its somehow in decent alignment?
front knuckles have been bad for god knows how long, but it does not really matter with manual locking hubs
Side note: it has 225,000 miles and it has the original motor and original auto tranny, no rebuilds
tranny is kind of slow to engage when in corners in the cold
speakers crackly big time
possible valve clatter
on ice can only get 2 wheels spinning?
I could go on for ever

Anyway I just wanted to share my truck, which to people that don't know it I describe it as a 6' tall, white, tank. Its at a point where I really couldn't care less if it went up in flames in the yard, its worth $500 now in great running/driving condition, or $400 for scrap. One thing I never under stood is the axles. They act just like an open, although at least my rear is the 3.73 limited slip. As soon as it breaks traction, only one wheel gets any power. I don't know anything about the front, I assume it is the 35 TTB. It is truly a love-hate with this thing. I love it for all the crap I put it though, like towing 9,000 pounds 30 miles, or driving to get my deer, where my dad thought was too rough for his 4 wheeler (almost rolled it that time), baja-ing at 40mph across a frozen lake. But what I hate is that although I MAKE it do these things, nearly any truck would do it better, although many would break. Explorers seem to be good at nothing. Terrible on gas, not-so-good off road, lackluster horsepower, overall a very average performance. But the one thing they do, is unreasonable durability.

 

As a follow up, I just wanted to post a picture, not of my truck, but my dad's. I have pulled things even heavier than this with my 94, but never more than a few miles. This 2000 did just fine the 20 miles or so to get home. I had to work that day otherwise I would have done it myself, as his tranny is already going bad at 150,000 miles. Dodge weighs about 6000 pounds and trailer about 1000 pounds. The heavies I have ever seen towed with an explorer was a load of dirt that was about 9000 pounds, that was with my explorer towed off the hitch. The strange thing is it was fine with that weight, what bend my bumper was a fish house, which cant be more than 1/2 a ton fully loaded, and hitting the brakes fairly heavy bent it forward.