Advocate I
2019 Ford Ranger XLT FX4
- Thread starter GLOCKer
- Start date
Post up a photo of your truck! I love seeing these things overseas!
Enthusiast III
She is less than thrilled. She thinks I have too many hobbies.
We need more Ranger Pictures!!! After deployment, I'll continue the build and post my own.
Enthusiast III
I'd totally invite myself to come and join in on same Ranger fun. Not that far from Indiana. :)
Yay!
Prototype XtrusionOverland rack and Smittybilt tent got installed yesterday. It wasn't bad at all and I'm really liking the rack. I need to clean and re-waterproof the tent and patch up the transit cover.
Prototype XtrusionOverland rack and Smittybilt tent got installed yesterday. It wasn't bad at all and I'm really liking the rack. I need to clean and re-waterproof the tent and patch up the transit cover.
Got some of my gear out of the bed and onto the rack. I think I'm going to leave my HiLift jack in the bed under the cover and out of the weather. I might move the shovel to the rack though.
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Nice build good choice! I really dont want a truck or a SUV but I might have to go that route in order to get the tow rating and cargo capacity I might need; so I am thinking base model Ranger XL with tow & FX4 package myself. It seems to be the best value for the money going. Its actually cheaper than my X-GF BroncoSport BigBend base no options was. But as I said I am resisting a truck or SUV hard.
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I love it. It drives very nicely and is kinda like a car with the windshield rake and with the back seat. :D I bought mine slightly used with 12,000 miles on it for $28,000 and it was beautiful!
Today I took advantage of the nice weather in the area of 65° and decided to do a little maintenance on my purchased-use RTT. I put it up all the way, for the first time today. Once it was all up, I treated the canvas with a mold and mildew neutralizer, and patched two small tears in the PVC travel cover.
I'm a little disappointed in the mold and mildew situation. The cleaner I used seemed to do a really good job of neutralizing the odor, but it only lightened the stains and didn't remove them. The situation with the travel cover went better though. I used Gorilla Glue brand flex-seal tape to patch the two little tears the cover had on the inside. On the outside I masked off the areas around the tears and used Locktite Shoe Glue to seal 'em up. I had a lot of people from the neighborhood stop and ask me about the truck and tent while I was working on it!
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I'm a little disappointed in the mold and mildew situation. The cleaner I used seemed to do a really good job of neutralizing the odor, but it only lightened the stains and didn't remove them. The situation with the travel cover went better though. I used Gorilla Glue brand flex-seal tape to patch the two little tears the cover had on the inside. On the outside I masked off the areas around the tears and used Locktite Shoe Glue to seal 'em up. I had a lot of people from the neighborhood stop and ask me about the truck and tent while I was working on it!
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I don't know if it's still available but Amway Corp LOC or Zoom cleaner works good on Mold. The outdoor stores sell formulas that are intended for outdoor gear and mold/mildue comes in a brown medicine type bottle with an applicator wand cap. cant remember the name I'll look for my bottle.
My traction boards came with a "mounting bracket" setup that I wasn't very happy with. The backing plates were plastic, and I drilled two holes through them to mount them to my bed rack. I didn't have a lot of confidence in them holding up, and I has images in my head of my traction boards going ballistic, off my truck, all over the interstate. So I took them to a buddy's steel business the other days, and his guys cut me new backing plates that I picked up yesterday! Once I got them home, I cleaned them with sandpaper, rust converter, and then denatured alcohol. Once all cleaned up, I painted them, hitting them after each coat of paint with the heat gun. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!
The plastic brackets are on the left with the new, raw metal ones on the right.
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Here is my field expedient paint booth! HAHAHAHA!
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Not bad!
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All painted up and on the truck!
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Here they are with the hardware all assembled. I'll eventually need new threaded rod and bolts as these cheap ones are already surface rusting through the chrome.
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And the traction boards are back on my truck, and they don't need wrapped with a bungee chord anymore! YAY!
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The plastic brackets are on the left with the new, raw metal ones on the right.
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Here is my field expedient paint booth! HAHAHAHA!
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Not bad!
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All painted up and on the truck!
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Here they are with the hardware all assembled. I'll eventually need new threaded rod and bolts as these cheap ones are already surface rusting through the chrome.
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And the traction boards are back on my truck, and they don't need wrapped with a bungee chord anymore! YAY!
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@Osteology posted his camp kitchen countertop, and it was too good of an idea not to do myself. I'm pretty thrilled with how my version came out!
I started with a piece of 2' x 4' birch ply that I trimmed down to the same footprint as my RTT's ladder when collapsed. I used "charred wood accelerator" to stain it and finished it with a matte spray polyurethane.
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I cut 3/4" wide aluminum angle to frame out the wood, drilled it for countersinking the screws, and added rubber bumpers for the side that goes up against the truck bed. I then through-bolted cargo loops to the four corners for it to hang from.
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I attached two more cargo d-rings to my Xtrusion Overland bed rack, and then put together some nylon straps and carabiners to hang my camp kitchen work top.
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I'm really happy with the kitchen work top. It's not the boggest but it has plenty of room.
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And one of the nicest features is that when I'm not using it, it stows out of the way without taking up any useable space on my truck!
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I started with a piece of 2' x 4' birch ply that I trimmed down to the same footprint as my RTT's ladder when collapsed. I used "charred wood accelerator" to stain it and finished it with a matte spray polyurethane.
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I cut 3/4" wide aluminum angle to frame out the wood, drilled it for countersinking the screws, and added rubber bumpers for the side that goes up against the truck bed. I then through-bolted cargo loops to the four corners for it to hang from.
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I attached two more cargo d-rings to my Xtrusion Overland bed rack, and then put together some nylon straps and carabiners to hang my camp kitchen work top.
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I'm really happy with the kitchen work top. It's not the boggest but it has plenty of room.
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And one of the nicest features is that when I'm not using it, it stows out of the way without taking up any useable space on my truck!
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Minor update:
I scored an add-a-leaf kit already installed on a set of leaf springs for my truck. It was a pretty quick process, just having to swap out the complete leaf packs. Doing the work on a 4-post was nice as our backs weren't dead at the end of the installation. I'm very happy to have the slight reverse rake taken out of my setup! Towing my boat should be a little better too!
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These are the "new" leaf pack with the add-a-leaf kit installed on them. I got them from a fellow Ford Ranger guy; the leaf packs were nearly new when he took them off.
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This is a stock leaf pack. Really just one leaf spring.
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And here is the driver side with the add-a-leaf spring pack installed.
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And all done!!!!
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When I got back home I took an "after" shot. The top is the "after" and the bottom is the "before".
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I scored an add-a-leaf kit already installed on a set of leaf springs for my truck. It was a pretty quick process, just having to swap out the complete leaf packs. Doing the work on a 4-post was nice as our backs weren't dead at the end of the installation. I'm very happy to have the slight reverse rake taken out of my setup! Towing my boat should be a little better too!
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These are the "new" leaf pack with the add-a-leaf kit installed on them. I got them from a fellow Ford Ranger guy; the leaf packs were nearly new when he took them off.
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This is a stock leaf pack. Really just one leaf spring.
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And here is the driver side with the add-a-leaf spring pack installed.
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And all done!!!!
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When I got back home I took an "after" shot. The top is the "after" and the bottom is the "before".
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