figured i may as well toss up the **** ive done to my truck.

Stock Specs:
2006 Ford Ranger FX4 Level II
Polished alcoa's
31x10.50 tires
4.0 SOHC

Mods done:
Fog light Mod. Allows fog lights to be on with high beams.
K&N drop in air filter
LED tail lights/reverse lights
32x11.50x15 Falken Wildpeak AT's
15x8 pro comp series 52 wheels
MBRP turndown exhaust
Superchips flashpaq tuner
3" Body Lift (in progress as i post this)
Various other little things

Planned mods:
33x12.50x15 Hankook Dynapro MT


Pictures:

Day after picked up from dealer.















Removed the steps





Decided to flex it out and see what she's got stock.






New tires on

 

plasti-dipped the grille and hood bulge. Looks really good in person. just did it to see if i liked the look, which i did. planned on getting it painted at some point. that point has come. hail damage from a storm destroyed my hood, so when they fix it and repaint, rather than white they will just mask it and do black. win for me since insurance will pay for it lol. black grill is ordered.



Decided to re-do my dome light. When I changed it out for the LED panel I tinted it with nightshades, but now that I'm in it more at night I realized its a touch to dark tinted. So I cleaned the tint off, and am doing something custom to it. Painted the edge to match the gray on the exterior.

Few pictures.

Before.


Tinted:
Apparently I don't have a picture. But it was black lol.

Starting over:






Clear coat is drying now.

Nice custom touch IMO, had the paint laying around, had the free time, something to do.



slapped some lights on the back behind the cab facing backwards.

will provide light for loading/unloading trailers in the dark, especially in the winter with my snowmobile. actually came in quite handy last winter. switching them out this winter for something else though.

will also be good for those ******** who dont turn their high beams off when they come up behind ya.


pictures.













small update, bought some hood light mounts from a member on another forum, those are all painted up ready to go on. just waiting for my visionx 4500 HID spot lights in the mail to get those installed. will also be doing a pair of rigid D2 led lights before winter.

Also bedlined my lower rockers. they were pretty beat up from all the gravel roads i travel. so i wanted to address the issues before winter, and rust.
some pics below.


BEFORE:



AFTER:





Little bit of it ran cause i put it on a tad thick. but i dont mind. not bad for doing it in the dark to lol.



installed hood light tabs.

have my lights just have to wire everything. need some washers to raise the light as the bolt is about 1/4 to long and touches the trucks paint. so a trip to the hardware store on monday and im good to go.

 

jumped my truck a few to many times on the stock componnts. little to much air lol. so i bent and totally broke a shock up front. nothing else bent though, shows how tough rangers are.





and the new shiny shock. rides so much better, old ones were original and had about 110K miles on them.





and, body lift progress. cab is lifted, not tightened down yet, but its up there. bed left, tighten everything, and reattatch a bunch of ****. will finish tomorrow. then its waiting for tires time.








will be going with hankook MT. will get the center treads siped for better winter traction.

 

More more!

 

These trucks aren't meant to jump FYI. lol.

Instead of adding spacers, I'd get either a shorter bolt or cutting the existing bolts shorter. In regards to the A-pillar/hood mounted lights.

Good progress! Now remove your flares and send them to me!!!!

 

Nice looking truck!!

 

plenty more planned haha

haha i know they are meant to be jumped, which is why i keep it to a minimum, but im the guy that pushes the boundries because i can lol. this truck has amazed me at the abuse it takes. however ido know the limits (now that i broke a shock LOL) and i dont push those limits. ive had it inspected by a friend who works at a body shop that specializes in frame straightening. everything is A+ in regards to bent items. none.

as for the light, all it needs is a washer to bring it up enough to not hit, so its the easier way to do it. just waiting till i get the lift finished to wire it up. i plan on fiberglass fenders in the future, but by then the flares will be pretty beat up, they are already cracked

thank you sir. looks a lot better than when i got it lol

 

body lift is mostly done. everythings lifted and bolted down/tightened.

fuel filler is done, all thats left is all the little things to bolt back on/extensions. then front/rear bumper. im having a hell of a time getting the rear bumper bolts off. may just throw it back on at stock height for now and build a tube bumper.

shitty pics, got dark, but shes lifted.






im thinking rock sliders with a step would be a good idea to. hide some frame a bit more, and make it a tad easier to get in. not that its overly hard, but sometimes my mother uses my truck

 

Penetrating oil and the correct sized socket/wrench. Those little bits of sheet metal keeping the bolts still are pretty weak....so be careful not to bust 'em.

BTW, bodylift and that hitch is pretty much a two person job but can be done single person if some thought is made. How I do it....hitch on (no nuts), bumper brackets on outside, nuts loose, slide on bumper to brackets, route those twin-bolt things through bumper with the threads facing outward.

On the right side, those bolts, flip 'em around so the nuts are on the outside. One person operation. Pictured is straight up a two person operation installing bumper and hitch....such a pain in the butt.

 

yeah, those little metal things that go on those two bolts, those were all bent and broken lol. they dont even exist anymore. been spraying all the bolts i needed to take off for three weeks with PB blaster. that rear bumper has so much damn rust on it its ridiculous. i spent a good two hours and only managed to get one off. the bolts are so messed up lol.

im thinking just tube bumper build and not even use the brackets provided. stronger that way. then hitch will get 3" cut out and welded then bolted back on. thinking thats the best plan of attack.

now i just have to find a rear tube bumper.... or build the one i designed.

 

I've busted 'em before on lifts in the past and managed to get the bolts/nuts apart doing the normal trick of socket on one side and wrench on the other. Then making beefier sheet metal things and welding to the old bolts.

 

yeah, like isaid, tried for hours. just not happening anytime soon lol. used a 3' breaker bar on the damn thing and it still wouldnt budge. the one i did manage to get off was insane. barely any threads at all. mostly just a solid piece of rust. tried a ton of heat as well.

will try again in afew days after soaking it some more

 

are you selling those alcoas?

 

those alcoas are long gone lol. only managed $300 for all four. with tires on em.

but they're gone lol.

body lift is done. front bumper is on, rear is on but in stock spot for now so its legal to drive.

gotta go over everything tomorrow in the daylight just to be sure its all good.

few things i noticed though, steering seems tighter, not more precise but harder to turn the wheel. and it doesnt seem to bounce back like it used to when you let it spin on its own after a turn.

will ahve to see if its binding on anything.

other than that, its awesome. wouldnt think 3" would make a huge difference, but even getting in and just sitting in it, feel much higher. love it.

 

looks good!

 

Thanks.

 

Cut my lower valance. Didn't want to remove two hooks. May not look the best but it's just a truck lol. As long as it's functional.

 

Looks good.

Mine was also more difficult to turn after my body lift. Wheel didn't recover as quickly, as you mention. Brought it up when I got done with mine, and some claimed it has to do with the rubber boot thing that the steering shaft goes through. On the firewall.

Not sure if its gotten better or not. I'm used to it now. Would have to drive another stock ranger to see if there is a difference. Doesn't bother me though and hasn't caused any problems.

 

Kinda what I figured. I'll get used to it pretty quick.


One thing I forgot to do was re aim my headlights.

I hooks my forget to do it now though, lots of people are reminding me LOL.

 

Didn’t you have Falklen Tires, why are you changing if you did ?

I was looking at the Wild Peak AT also, and thought they might work for my new driving area but would like your opinion if you changed up ?

thanks/ltr

Oh Ya, truck looks good.

 

yep, still rolling on the falkens, and still loving them.

time for new tires since i killed the front ones after not getting an alignment lol. rears are still good, have almost 50k miles on them, and the rears still have 8/32's left. so, just under half tread left. which is amazing. i abuse them a lot.

only reason i am switching ti hankook MT is because i want an MT for winter. I know, that sounds damn strange, right? I want a less wniter friendly tire for winter? yup! i want an mt so i can do more winter wheeling. that was one spot the falkens didnt do as good. in 2' and deeper snow. just doesnt have the bite needed to cut through the hard packed snow. amazing in powder, not so much in hard pack. so an MT it is.

i may get a second set of 33" falkens to run during summer though, depends what cash is like when that time rolls around.



took some pics this morning on the way home from work.








before lift:



after lift:

 

Questions:

How do they ride both new and now ?

Any noise, they look like there shouldn’t be any ?

Traction… in dirt/sand, what do you think ?

Thanks for the info.

 

New they are dead silent and super smooth. Now not so much because they are cupping and worn on the inside. If the were worn evenly they'd still be silent.

Traction in dirt and sand is awesome. Way better than BFG AT's.

Love playing in the sand with em. Need 4x for the sand we have but they're awesome






I buried it to the axle to make it easier to load the boxes of sand, probably close to 500 lbs of sand, crawled right out in 4x. Was surprised lol.

 

It's IFS. 2 FEET or deeper snow means stuck snow plow regardless of tire! Hell I get stuck in 2' of snow being locked in the back and aired down MT/R's.


Truck looks good!


Wildpeak's are on my list for when I'm ready for tires. Must leaning more towards Duratracs given their "best of both worlds" tread design. I just don't see A/T's looking right on my double lifted truck on 35's.

 

Haha I know ifs isn't the best but if the snow is right I can easily go through the drifts and fields if 3' snow.

Was busting 4' drifts last winter.

Hope to order my hankooks in two weeks.