Well, the title says it all. I went and got myself yet another truck. Picked myself up an '84 Ranger 4x4 on ebay; won it on Saturday morning for $800, then Carl and I drove to Denver overnight Sunday morning and drove it back. Made the 600 or so mile trip without a problem, cruising at about 80 on the way back because I didn't know the Speedometer was off, all on expired Colorado plates. Took care of it's inspection yesterday and got it tagged, so as soon as I get the windshield replaced, it's completely legal to drive. Pretty nice little truck, runs good with almost no real rust on it. Lots of light surface rust, but only a little bit of actual rust on the rear quarters. V6 with a 5 speed. Desperately needs shocks, which I picked up last night. Hopefully, I'll get them installed this comming weekend after I get the '74 out of the garage (still on jackstands working on the brakes). It's also getting a new windshield, which is being installed tomorrow at Lewis Street Glass. I'm going to try to swap out the tires and wheels from our BII that a brother gave us for Christmas so it'll have descent off-road tires. Right now, it needs front tires, has brand new rear tires, but their all just basic street tires and just arn't right for a 4x4.

I'll get some good pics of it today and post them tonight when I get back home (no broadband at Parents' place, take forever to upload quality pics). For now, you can see it in the ebay listing.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190093836976&sspagenam e=ADME:L:RTQ:US:1

 

Congrats on getting that great buy.

 

Looks great. You guys are ready to go and wheel.

 

Well, I got the BII's wheels and tires on it today, and it looks a lot better. Might have a clearance issue with the new tires, since their a tad larger than the old, but I think I'm good. Got a few "before" pictures after I put the right front on it, and I'm about to get some "after" shots to show how the tires look. I'll get those pics up tonight.

Now, I'm off to test the 4WD to make sure it works as advertised and then she's goin in for the new windshield tomorrow morning.

Jack, I don't know if I'll be able to get the time, but if I can, Carl and I may join you on part of your Utah trip. I know he has always wanted to see Monument Valley, and we wanted to go but we didn't have a 4x4 that got good enough milage to make it affordable for us. Well, this little baby seems to average about 18 mpg - 15 on a bad tank, possibly upwards of 20 mpg on a good tank. I'm not 100% sure about driving it that far so soon after I got it, but then again, I've already driven it half that far and it didn't have a single problem. The only problem I see is that I'm starting a new job in the next couple of weeks, and it may interfere with the trip. If we can go, we'll only be there for a weekend, since Carl can't afford to take more than a day off for it.

 

No trouble at all. When you guys get ready just let me know and we'll work something out. Fall and spring are the best times to go out that way. Only trouble with winter is getting over the Rockys. Can really shorten the trip on the way out and make you AWOL from work on the way back.

 

Well, I finally got the new pictures ready to upload. I got kinda swamped the other day and I didn't have time to upload them when I got home, then I forgot about them after that.

Got the new glass installed and it's good, but a piece of the trim fell off today on my way into town. I looked it over and tried to put the trim back on, but it won't stay. It looks like the little metal clips that hold it on are bent out of shape a bit, and one is missing all together. I called Lewis Street Glass and they said just bring it back in tomorrow and they'll take care of it.

Overall, I'm very happy with it. It's a fun little truck to drive, and I can actually afford to drive it, unlike the '74. I got to actually use the 4WD today to get it out of a ditch. When the trim piece came off, it hung up on the mirror while I was heading down a road with no shoulders and somewhat deep ditches, with traffic behind me and comming at me. Well, I pulled off the road a bit and, like an idiot, forgot that the grass was wet. The truck ended up sliding down the embankment a bit, which I did not intend to do. After I had secured the trim piece, I tried to get back out of the ditch, but didn't have the traction. Got out and engaged the hubs and put it in 4HI and it just crawled right up onto the road with no problems at all. Maybe not what you would consider really using the 4WD, but if I had bought a 2WD, I'd been stuck there.

Well, here are the pics, as promised. Photobucket reduces the quality, but I think they are still good. I can post a couple to my domain to give you full quality, which is 1600x1200. The first picture has the old tires on it, the rest have the new BF Goodrichs.

 

Looks good. Did the tires rub on anything in the ditch? If they did I can help you out with some low cost ways to get a little bit of lift.

 

Well, no it didn't rub any in the ditch, but I do plan to lift it a little. Any ideas?

 

You can get large washers at the hardware store and stack them under the front coils. Gives you around an inch. About $15. Bell Tech 6400 shackles can be used in the rear for around 2" of lift. About $65. You can also check the junk yards for leaf and coil springs off other Ranger based vehicles. The Explorer springs is a common swap. The coils are thicker wired and have a shorter free standing height though. So would think you'd loose a bit of wheel travel. The 2wd front coils are the tallest free standing I have found. But they are thinner wire and may compress more than the sploder springs and give a lower ride height. They should flex well though and give good wheel travel for the trail. That's what we put on Tony's (Bargod's Beater). Back is the same. Sploder leafs give you more ride height but they use 2-3 thick leafs to do it. The stock BII spring pack uses more thin leafs and works better off road. I'd look for leafs I could add to the stock spring pack.