Last week I finally got my first 4wd vehicle! YEAH! I am not new to offroad by any means, just have been a VW guy since my mid-teens. I did end up selling my sandrail and the 2wd Cherokee I had been using to tow it a while back to fund my wife's Saturn Vue when we were getting to ready to have our first baby last year... I got to drive the Accord... Haha! Well, I bought another VW a couple months back and have it up and running and I think it is ready to hit the dirt too, BUT, you guys don't care too much about no stinking '66 baja right? So...

Last week I used a good part of our tax return and bought my first 4x4. It is a '93 extended cab Ranger with the 4.0 V6 and 5 speed trans. Has a 5 digit odometer and the guy said it had 125k miles. Well, carfax says that in '06 it was reported as having 155k... Hmmm... Oh well. It runs and drives great! It will remain mostly stock as it is going to be my daily driver, but it will see its fair share of dirt too. It has a bunch of mis matched tires on it now. Real weird. It has 3 31/10.50/15 ATs on it in varying condition. Only one of them is really decent to drive on.... What about that one other tire you say? Well, it is a nearly new 225/75/15 that matches the spare. Haha! They both look almost new so I think I will just have the spare mounted on the other alloy for up front and run those up front. As for the rear, I am thinking I will keep the one good AT on there and buy another to match it.





The A/C compressor wouldn't kick on when I got it so I just assumed that it needed a good recharge and I would be set. Well, yesterday I want down and bought two cans of R134A and started putting them in the truck. Sweet, the A/C kicked on and the air started blowing cold. Shut the truck off, and wait.... whats that sound? There is a huge leak in the A/C hose that goes into the back of the compressor... D'OH!!! Autozone wanted 150 bucks for a new one. Checked rockauto.com and it looks like I can get it for just under 100 there. We will see what else I can find first. But, anywasy, I am excited to be apart of your site guys! Thanks for having me.

 

welcome to RF

 

Welcome! truck looks good.

 

Thanks y'all! I am loving it for sure. I do have a question or two though. The radio and dome light were not working when I got it. Checked the fuses the other morning and one was toast. Replaced it and bing bing bing, the dome light is on as well as the door ajar sound. Haha! Cool. But, I can't get the dome light off!!! What position does the switch need to be in? I tried all 3 and nothing. I figyred the 3 positions were off, on, and on when the door was open, but can't seem to find off, or off on a closed door. It just seemed to change the brightness. I didn't get an owner's manual with the truck so I just checked all fuses. That was the only one that was popped. What other reasons can you think of for there to be no power to the radio? It is a stock radio. Right now it looks like I will have to pull the dash and see if it is the actual radio's wiring, but would like to get other thoughts before going to that trouble. What do you guys think?

 

Welcome aboard. I'm liking the truck. Question though, is it a manual or automatic transfer case?

 

Automatic I think? Haha! Seems dumb I know, but how do I tell? I would say automatic as I can switch over to 4x4 from inside the cab. Thats correct right? lol. Sorry. I am new to 4x4, just not offroad. I have been a VW guy for a while. Used to have a sandrail and am rocking a '66 Baja bug now. Sounds like an automatic transfer case though right?

 

Auto transfer case is a switch, manual is a lever/handle deal.

Nice truck, that baja bug rocks though! I want one so bad

 

Nice truck! Welcome to R-F!

 

Gotcha. Mine is a button for 4x4 then a separate button for Low range.
And thanks on the baja! It has been a blast so far. I have finally got it up ad running and ready to hit the dirt! Took me some time to get it reliable enough, but I think she is ready for a mild trail or two now!
Any thoughts on the power to the radio and dome light on the ranger? I don't have the owner's manual for it so I don't even have a schematic of the fuse box or anything. Looks like it is time to jump for a Haynes. Before I can get to that though, does anybody know if there is a fuse box schematic somwehere online or something?

 

welcome to R-F, Solomon!

 

nice looking truck and cooling looking bug

 

Thanks guys!

 

Howdy. Welcome to RF.