Speaking of Rangers on the side of the road, I stopped and helped a guy with a 96 or so Ranger, same body style as mine... he had a broken u-joint, the rear drive shaft was hanging down, lol. It snapped the side 'pegs' off of the center of the u-joint body.

It was covered in mud from top to bottom... and was riding on 33's. I think it had a BL.

So I pulled the tools out of my truck box and let him use them to pull the drive shaft. He got to drive it home rather than leave it on the side of the road or in a parking lot.

It was a cool looking truck. Manual transmission as well. Probably a 3.0 or 4.0, not sure which.

 

I took my truck to get aligned the other day and our family mechanic (who worked on it when it was my grandfathers) said "So when did you buy a-... wait.. Is that the ranger?!" Greatest feeling ever. Rangers!

 

That, and I kind of like being one of the only people in my city with a modded ranger. No ones gunna say I just did it cause other people were!

 

The torsion bar setup in the front has always been considered a major setback for it. And the bad thing is, when you crank them to gain height, you lose down travel putting you in a worse position than you were to begin with. I love the ranger and always have, but as far as off road ability goes, you're going to have to put a lot more work into it than if you owned a Jeep TJ or a Tacoma lets say. I have owned and wheeled a Jeep TJ, a 4runner, and a Montero Sport. All of those vehicles stock could go farther and do things that the Ranger can not do off road. It simply wasn't designed as an off-road vehicle. That certainly isn't going to stop us from getting out there though

 

What???? If we're talking bone stock then of course a stock 4x4 Ranger can go anywhere a stock tacoma or stock jeep can go. Your statement can be very true if we're talking about heavily modified rigs. But bone stock, comon. And by the way, some prominent 4x4 magazine named the Ranger (specifically the 3rd gen i-beam 4x4 Rangers) one of the best trucks of all time for 4-wheeling and modding into an offroad rig.