i know alot of ranger owners pull off the mudflaps, but i went one better and improved mine, the old stock ones just werent very heavy duty so i made a whole new set for mine and added some width and length to mine. the material i used was a new semi trailer mud flap. the local napa has a pallet of 'em just inside the front door, there are the short tractor ones and what i picked up, a 36" long one ment for the trailer, dont know how wide, id assume about 24" what ever it takes to span the duals on a rig. anyhow for $6. yes six bucks! i was able to trace out my 'flaps, added about 2" in length to the fronts, 3" to the rears, a inch in width to the rears and about 2" in width to the fronts. i did need to use new fasteners, the stock ones werent quite long enough. i happend to have some, so no cost was incurred. also used some fender washers i had on hand to both sides of the 'flaps for more clamping area. all in all i thought it wasnt bad getting 4 'flaps out of such heavy material for only $6.00, i traced them out with a paint pen and used my sabre saw to cut them out. will probly outlast the truck!

 

hey man function over form i guess lol..

whats goin on with your bed in the last pic?

 

i needed to replace the front spring hanger brackets. i took out all the bed bolts but the last 2 (and they were very loose) tilted the bed, and i was able to get between the frame and the fuel tank on the left side to put bolts in. also made it easier to cheisel off the rivits holding both brackets to the frame. i know it looks like im only using the jack and 1 jack stand, but there is 2 heavier-duty jack stands under the receiver hitch. the light duty stand and the flor jack are merly holding the axle.

 

They work i guess, that bed had me worried for a second lol

 

what`s with the coil springs

 

I also dont' get the removal of the mudflaps...I added larger ones also. Looks good.

 

as long as your happy, thats all that matters

 

9" brakes on ext cab. very very interesting

 

the coils are overloads, they dont even touch the frame until i have about 200 pounds in the bed. and those are 10" brakes. with areostar drums (nearly twice as heavy and with heat dissapation fins) heres another angle of the rear suspention,

 

I was just thinking the same thing lol.

Cool idea with the mudflaps. Adds a subtle touch to your LWG

 

Your ranger is a whole 'lotta hillbilly scary if you ask me lol.

2x4s, rear coil springs, and minivan parts. wow.

 

minivan parts? oh, the areostar drums? they are nearly twice as heavy and have heat-dissapating cooling fins, less likely to get brake fade and crack/warp. the 2x4's were just holding the bed up at a angle so i could change the front spring hanger brackets. i do have a dixie air horn set on it though......

 

racsan

what year of aerostar drums and do they just slip right on

i am curious now

 

heres a pic of both drums, obviously the bigger drum is the "areostar" drum i did have 10" drums stock, and all in all i dont know that you would notice a difference going from 10" stock drums to the areostar spec drums in normal driving. i did tighten up my adjusters some when i put my new drums on, so i do have a better pedal now, but that would be the case with any drum setup be it 9", 10" stock or upgraded. the benefit is when your stopping the larger drums will take more heat and not develop brake fade as soon and there is alot less chance of drum warpage or cracking. the fins around the drum also help it cool back down when your rolling again. sure, a disc brake setup would be a better upgrade and give more noticeable improvement as far as stopping, but im not about to bother with all that on a 16+ y/o truck. the areostar drum upgrade will do for me. i'll know more once i take the trailer somewhere, lately its just been back and forth to work, 4 miles each way with only a mile and a half outside of town at highway speeds. one odd thing, when i first got my truck and i needed to do rear brake service, i had to bust the drums to get them off, they were rust-seized to the axle flange. those drums did have some fins around them similar to what the areostar drums have. thay werent the same drums i have now, but they were better than what i replaced them with. im not sure if there are 2 different specs of areostar drums or if certian rangers may have came with finned drums factory. (mine is a 5040 gvwr) i always use a bit of anti-seize between the drum and where it mates to the axle flange now. i dont think i could bust these new ones apart. the autozone part # for the areostar drum i got is 8994. i asked for "areostar drums, '93 2wd 4.0" and yes, they did just slide right on, ive heard that the newer axles like the 31 spline in the fx/4 wont work due to the hub being a bit larger where the inner flange slips over, but on the older 28 spline 8.8 with the stock 10" drum is a direct fit.