Top 5 Items to Bring on Any "Trail-Trip" While Keeping the Price Down

When your out in the sticks, you never know what can happen. Flat tire? Stuck? Drained battery? Warm Drinks? Of course, any of these could happen, and its essential to be prepared for these problems before any adventure. Here is my top five essential items while keeping costs low.

1. Winch

Eventually, you will get stuck. If you prefer to wheel solo, you will definitely want a winch. Attach this to any land anchor (tree, boulders, etc.) and wind your way out.








2. Jumper Cables

Dead battery out in the woods? Guaranteed AAA won't try to find you out on the trail. Get another truck and pump life back into your truck. Unfortunately, for these to work, you need another vehicle.





3. HI-Lift Jack

These can be used for multiple purposes, anywhere from changing a tire to giving your winch that extra assist. These are somewhat cheap, and come in very handy on trail.











4. Tool Kit

Toolkits can range in size and tool variation, but anything is better than nothing. Simple allen wrenches, screw drivers, ratchets, can all get you out of very sticky situations. A simple toolkit is easily stored and can most likely fit under the seat.









5. Cooler

This may seem odd, but who doesn't love a cold drink while on the trail exploring? Not only do they keep drinks cold, they also keep food edible. Maybe this isn't a "must-have" but more for comfort.

08 Ranger Headlight Mod Complete!

After some struggle, I finally got my headlight mod complete. Personally, I think I could have done a better job, such as taping, painting, and re-sealing. It does make the front of the truck look better in my opinion. There is an excellent How-To here (click me!). User STL does a good job explaining the process; however, I found that the headlights need to be in the oven at 265F for 7 minutes, not the 170 degrees for 5 minutes.

Here are some before and after pictures. Enjoy and happy modding!

Before (stock)

After

After

New 2" Lift Shackles

Recently, I've installed some 3" lift spindles to give me more ground clearance and improve on wheel travel. More recently, however, I have purchased some brand new Chevy/Ford/Dodge drop shackles. These would drop a truck 1" or 2" if inverted. For Rangers, the shackles always face down, suddenly turning normal drop shackles into lift shackles. I decided to put the new hardware on the 2" setting since, after all, I was looking forward to using my review-mirror again. After the installation (which only took roughly 45 minutes) I am very pleased with wheel travel and ground rear clearance.

 (Above)  Here they are, freshly installed. Its easiest and less time consuming to remove the old shackles with the top bolt first, then the bottom bolt. When putting the new shackles in make sure you do the opposite. Tighten the bottom bolt down, then the top. If you don't, the leaf springs will do there job and not let you remove the bolts. What should have been an hour project slowly turns into several.

(Above) After testing them on the trails and the street, it seemed as if they moved smoother and weren't so stiff

(Left) Post lifting, I measured the front wheel well at just under 36".

(Left) Just like the front fender, I measured the rear. This wheel well turned out to be almost exactly 36".

(Above) As you can see, the truck is lifted, and almost completely level. I think new rims and bigger rubber may be in my truck's future.

Just a quick video of me being an idiot and getting stuck...enjoy.

Ford Ranger 2wd Spindles

Remember way back when I did a clearance/suspension flex test and complained about the stock height of my Ranger? Several weeks ago I was able to install some 3" fit spindles I picked up on the cheap side. Click Here For the Spindles!
It took 5 hours, grinding LCAs, several cans (or what seemed like) of WD40, and multiple test runs.
The installation went smooth with little hiccups and I was able to run it through some mud and test the clearance with my buddy Sal, who decided to take his Toyota Sequoia out just for giggles. I was able to take some awesome pictures:

Easy installation, but if you'll look closely at the ball joint connecting the tie rod to the spindle you'll see one of those "hiccups" I was talking about...

Really painful and even nerve-racking, but it had to be done. Without grinding down the 1/4" of the LCA, your turning radius is basically shot. In fact, I felt like I improved on Ford's engineering; now I can make a sharper U-Turn than just about any truck on the road!

One of the best mountain-top pictures I've ever gotten. It couldn't have been better timing.

Happy truck, happy...life? Close enough.