Looking to get an F250/350 for my occasional towing/hauling needs, and to tinker with as an off-road rig. The trouble is, NYS DMV won't give you passenger plates for any pickup truck over 5500 curb weight. With commercial plates, you can't use the parkways, or park on the street overnight in some areas. The most common solution is to get a cap permanently installed on the bed, affix seats with seatbelts, and "camping equipment" and register it as a suburban class vehicle. Many people go that route because they don't really check to see if you've done all that nonsense. This gets you registered, but if you get pulled over somewhere where a commercial vehicle isn't allowed to go, you get a ticket for improper registration and a ticket for having a commercial vehicle in a prohibited area. On to my crazy idea..

In NYS, if you want to swap cabs on a pickup because yours is rotted, you get into this legal mess because you're driving a vehicle with a different vin than is on your registration. If we assume (pretend, dream, take your pick) that the dmv only cares about the vin of the cab, one could register a ford ranger, then swap the complete cab onto the chassis and drivetrain from a super duty. I'll start making phone calls about making such a monstrosity road legal and registrable once I hear more about how realistic the swap may or may not be.

I've always had a thing for smaller pickups and monumental projects so if anyone with relevant experience could weigh in on the feasibility of sticking a Ranger body on a SD frame that would be great.

I know anything is possible with enough time, money, and skill. There's no timeframe or budget in mind. This is more of a barstool imagination conversation than the beginnings of a legitimate project.

 

The first obstacle I see is I don't think a 5.4 will physically fit in the Ranger's engine compartment. Since that's the smallest engine available on a Super Duty, I don't think it would be a practical swap. I did a quick search on Google and found ZERO pics of a Ranger on a 99+ Super Duty frame. I would suspect there is a reason for that...

 

Seems like it would be cheaper to move to a less communist state and drive what you want...

 

I agree

I appreciate the barstool imagination conversation premise though.

 

Yeah moving is one option, but the idea of seeing that lifted compact truck from a distance is actually sitting on a serious frame with d60 axles and has that diesel chooch.. http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2011/Billy_Diesel.htm
If this guy can shoehorn the 7.3 into a ranger, I don't see why it would be overly unreasonable to drop a ranger shell over the already complete package. Smash in the firewall a ton, fab new cab mounts, and call er a day
Right?

 

You'll probably end up cutting the firewall out rather than bashing it, then constructing a new one. You'll also have to deal with the extra height of the radiator/intercooler. Like a massive off-road bumper or something.

Oh, and don't panic-stop! You might flip over!

 

It's going to look like a Race truck when your down with it. Considering it needs to be wider and longer.

I think your better option is the cap and seats. There is actually a company making seats and harnesses to bolt in a bed. Less than 2k for the whole setup I believe. So you take it, and a cap for say another 2k. And your out a whole lot less and the work can be completed in a weekend.

 

I've seen a few swaps onto full size frames. It looks like it's possible but like it would take a pretty serious amount of custom fabrication. I'm not sure what you mean about cap and seats. Can you explain further or post a link to an example?

 

I meant a Bed Cap, like something from Leer or similar. Allowing anyone on the back to stay dry.

The seats I was referring to is the Bed Ryder system.
www.bedryder.Com
They are suppose to be 50 state legal. Not sure if that would be enough to get you what you need in NY. You could remove the seats after passing inspection I'm sure, and just use them when you wanted. Kids would love them I figure.

 

Oh I'm sure I could get registered. My boss has his 09 sierra 2500hd 4x4 registered with passenger plates so getting the plates shouldn't be an issue. The issue is using the parkways and residential parking without getting ticketed. It doesn't help that the Super Duty line looks so different from the F150s and all 4x4 SDs are >5500lbs. Putting a bed cap on permanently with seats in the bed is just an expensive way to turn my truck into an Excursion, which is not what I want. The franken-ranger-duty is just one solution I was toying around with to permanently solve my issue. Bonus points would be putting a pre-96 ranger body on and getting rid of emissions as well .

The hazy game-plan would be 1) Buy a Super Duty, drive her for a few months and work out the bugs from the PO. 2) Buy a donor Ranger that has a valid inspection sticker, transfer registration and insurance from the SD to get the Ranger titled 3) Gut the ranger cab, yank her off the chassis, remove firewall entirely. 4) Carefully disassemble SD cab, label all wires, remove brake lines and other nonsense attached to cab and make note of where they were. 5-?) Test fit ranger cab on SD chassis, try to find a sweet spot where there is minimal intrusion into the cabin, and the front clip can still be attached with minimal fabrication. Rebuild Firewall. Move cab mounting points to appropriate location, possibly adding body lift to help with clearances. 6) Mount ranger cab, Bolt up engine accessories to new cab. Attach brake lines etc to new cab.
Using dash/HVAC from the SD would let you use the wiring harness and computers from the SD. Mounting the front clip might take some doing, but that seems like a feasible way to get a cab on there. It's a little bit of work but it seems possible. I've read several threads on guys who put ranger cabs on older bronco and f150 chassis and this is pretty much what they did. Once the cab is on, you just have to decide whether you want to shorten the frame to get a stock bed on there, or just roll with a super long custom tube or flat bed

This may be out of my budget and skill-level right now, but man, what an idea!

 

Mikey likes it.