Hi, Ive always been a street guy but recently got in a bad accident and lost my street car. I picked up a ranger hoping to learn something about offroading. I have a 2007 ford ranger sport, Torsion bar suspension cranked for +1 inch, 32 inch tires and a disconnected sway bar. Besides that its a stock 2wd 3.0. I was wondering if any off you could help guide me in my first build and provide guidance on what to do and what parts are good. Im fairly handy and am not afraid to learn more and possible make mistakes. Im open to any ideas and am looking to do some good offroading as i am moving to AZ next year and would like to get down in the sand! Thanks for any help you can provide and please forgive me for any mistakes i make, im new to this whole forum thing.

 

Welcome to the forum

You will need to fix up the 2WD Ranger and then sell it to get a 4WD Ranger.

Converting to 4WD is not practical since you can just go out and buy a 4WD.
4WD starts off with a different frame up front, so even Ford doesn't convert them, lol.

2WD in the desert is OK, but in sand the Ranger being rear wheel drive with ALL the weight on the front axle will tend to nose dive, especially on corners, unless you stay on the power full time, but even then cornering can get dicey.
You run very low pressure in the tires on sand, 10-12psi, so if you dig in on a corner you can lose the bead, so flat tire and full of sand

Look at the drivers door label, and see what rear axle you have now: Ford 7.5 & 8.8 Inch Axle Tag & Door Codes : The Ranger Station

Limited slip(L/S) would, of course, be best but off-roading can be done with OPEN just be careful.
A winch and sand ladders are good to carry, 2WD or 4WD

There are no power upgrades for the 3.0l that are worth much, unless you are racing in a 3.0l class save your money.

Swapping out the mechanical cooling fan for an electric fan will give you better MPG and a few extra horse power, and not an expensive conversion, especially with wrecking yard parts.
Mechanical fan pulls engine power all the time, but is only needed when driving under 20MPH or stopped, above 20MPH air flow thru rad is done by the speed of the vehicle, but fan is still sucking power.
Electric fan only comes on at lower speeds or when stopped, at higher speeds when you need the power fan is off so not even drawing alternator power.
And as a bonus for off-roading, you can install an off switch for it, when doing a water crossing you can turn the fan off, and trust me having a mechanical fan in the engine bay throwing around water is not a good thing, it can even stall the engine, mid-stream so to speak, lol, but it just generally makes a mess under the hood.

The larger tires are good, also carry a portable air compressor so you can lower tire pressure for off-road and then re-inflate a bit for the highway until you can get to a proper compressor

 

Yea ive thought about that. How does the ford ranger 4x4 work? is it live axle or IFS? Also in regards to differentials my truck has an 8.8 axle with 4.10 gears what do the 4x4s come with? If I were to sell my ranger would it be worthwile to go for a ranger 4x4 or should i try to pick something else up like a jeep or something similar? I dont know very much at all about the 4.0 engine or the 4x4 platform's capabilitys and aftermarket. Thanks for the reply though the information is appreciated greatly. The electric fan is a great idea i havent know which parts to use however i hear the taurus electrick fans work for out application though.

 

Live axle just means the front hubs are locked all the time on 4x4s

IFS(independent front suspension) is what all Rangers ever had 2WD or 4WD, it just means either front wheel can go up or down without effecting opposite wheel

Rear axle is not Independent, solid axle tube connects both rear wheels
The axles L/S or OPEN identification is more important than 8.8" or ratio(4.10), so look that up

2005 and up Rangers with 4.0l SOHC engine are OK, 2001 to 2004 4.0ls could have timing chain issue if not replaced.

What you choose to go off-roading in really depends on YOU.
If you have a nice looking vehicle and take if off-road the paint can get all scratched up from brush, and rocks if your in a group, i.e. following some one
And it will get dirty, outside AND INSIDE

I don't think one 4x4 is better than another if equipped the same, but theres the key, equipped the same.
Rangers after 2003 all have electric 4x4 shifting, which can fail, many other makers offered Manual shifting 4x4, also manual transmissions.
When you are off-roading there will be more bumps than street driving, so vehicle will be shaken quite a bit more, electrical parts don't really care for this.
Also automatic transmissions are less reliable than manual transmissions.

So you need to decide what kind of off-roading you want to do, just trail driving, backroads, no big rocks or narrow spots, 2WD with the larger tires for ground clearance would probably be OK.
Or hard to get to places.

 

Okay that makes total sense. ide preferably like to get into crawling so it would be more difficult terain. My one concern is with my current ranger i have some trouble finding parts for it, is it the same for the 4x4's? also how are the 1998 4.0's do they have the same timing chain issue as the 2001 - 04. Manual would be my trans of choice aswell my current ranger is manual and i love it. Im not concerned with messing up my car, chipping paint or getting it dirty ive never been one for road princesses. My goal would be something that fun to drive and works for offroad and on. The vehicle would be a daily driver. Also cost of parts comes to mind as im on a fairly restrictive budget. Thanks so much for the help this is helping me narrow down my decicions so much i greatly appreciate it.

 

No, 1990 to 2000 Rangers used the 4.0l OHV engines, very reliable, if overheated(red line) they would tend to get a cracked head but just don't overheat them, lol.

I would look for a vehicle that is nice but not overly "polished".

1998 to 2000 Ranger 4x4s used Automatic PVH(pulse vacuum hubs) on the front, these were a bad design and Ford started switching Rangers to Live Axle by late 1999, lol, but full swap wasn't until 2001 model year.
But most owners that had PVH would have already swapped them out for Rugged Ridge/AVM Manual hubs, and if you get one that still has PVH you can do the same.

Ranger Drivetrain parts are not hard to find

Body and other parts can be found at LMC Truck: Truck Parts & Truck Accessories for Chevy, GMC, Ford & Dodge Trucks
Select Ford and then Ranger then 1983 to 11

Rangers had 3 generations
1983 to 1992(1989-1992 is often called Gen 1.5 because there were small changes)
1993 to 1997
1998 to 2011

1983-1992 were smaller vehicles over all than later generations
1993 to 2011 parts are often interchangeable but "often" is the key word there, it isn't ALL

 

Okay good to know. So Ive read that the front diff on the 4x4 rangers are a dana 35. is that correct and do they accept normal dana35 parts or do i need special stuff. also the stock rear axle on the 4x4's are those the 8.8's and do they have 31 spline axles? the 4.0 ohv seems like the engine to go with what kind of power adders are there of that platform?

 

1998 and up used the Dana 35
1997 and earlier could have Dana 28 or Dana 35 or a Hybrid, Dana 35 case with Dana 28 guts.

All Rangers were 28-spline, they are not that heavy and never got the V8 engines so not need, Explorers did get 31-spline because of weight and V8 option.
If you break a 28-spline axle then you most likely would have twisted, bent, or broke the 31-spline under the same conditions

No, neither 4.0l OHV or SOHC has power upgrade options, you can do rebuilds to add power but IMO you would only do that if racing in a 4 liter limited class

Ranger power increase is done by swapping in a 5.0l V8 engine, common swap
Buy an older Explorer with V8 and swap it over to the Ranger.
The 5.0l(302) ford engines have lots of power upgrade options.