06 Ranger 4x4 Clown Truck

[BajaKyle]

So I guess this is the new DR? Is there a club18? Remi? ..... Well anyways I bought Eddie's old yellow ranger after the guy he sold it to turned it into a clown truck but took very good care of it.... I can literally take zero credit for this very well thought out truck.

Long story short I sold the turbo'd 4wd linked caged bronco blah blah cause divorce is awesome and free time is almost zero, ended up buying a linked caged 2wd Supercrew (more blah blah blah)....after getting frustrated with where I live and getting stuck in my driveway or dealing with snow or worrying about getting in a tight spot on the hilly hilly dirtbike trails by my house I was over it and wanted to get back to camping, have a fun DD when I am not in the fleet truck, enjoy the dirt,not constantly wrenching etc...basically back to simpler times. Long travel 4wd,AC heat, caged, 3 seats, all the amenities and room for camping gear was the only requirement.

Eddie's truck fit the bill well and was still in perfect shape besides the ugly colors. I only need to add a junior seat and it's got plenty of room.

So here it is, 06 Ranger, Dixon brothers front kit, Coilovers and a bump, functional 4wd with RCV's. Rear is deaver F23's, bypasses, Currie 9" strange 3rd, I believe Detroit locker. 4.88 front rear if I remember correctly.
The cage is pure sex by Armada, tig'd 4130 laser cut and tucked real tight with lots of cab plating/attachments. Interior has reclining sliding corbeau's with factory seatbelts. Sound system/Nav kicks ass and is super clean, has a race radio, more exterior lights than I could ever out drive, and a rad built in toolbox as well as cooler. Power locks windows cold ac hot heater smog legal and actually comfy to drive... There are so many trick little details on the truck I can't even remember all of them.

Anyways, the plan is to just enjoy it, I have my first real desert trip to black rock after a 2 year dry spell planned next month.

Here's the pics from the day I brought it home, I might actually keep the blue, it's growing on me.

 

[BajaKyle]

The next day, I removed most of the red vinyl but it was date night... we did manage to do about 10 miles of trails after dinner behind my house, I didn't think I was gunna be impressed after owning 3 linked trucks in a row and being away from leaves for so long but dayum!!!! this sucker hauls the mail, steering is tight, 4wd completely changes the game averaging 40-60 on these trails when I used to have to steer and plan where the 2wd could go and adjust driving habits I can now just point and shoot this thing. Literally zero stress, we even did a few gnar gnar climbs and descents with zero worry about making it back out. The only thing I think it needs is a bypass upfront, the rear shocks were luke warm when we got back and the fronts were like 5000 degrees.

 

[BajaKyle]

Multiple replys because dgaf and my thoughts are compartmentalized in a weird way, big words!

Two days later I took the day off work because we had a 3mph crosswind so pg&e killed the power in my area, I was supposed to be getting the generators running but dgaf again, play with new truck. I got it Smogged, took 10 minutes she passed with flying colors, went to dmv, put it in my name, took literally 15 minutes, THIS WAS MY DAY, I should of bought a lottery ticket. I then proceeded to come home and put the sick gnar intake,spacer, and tune on it, I tweaked the tune just a bit with what this programmer can do, yes I know the spacer doesn't do shit but I had it, it's blingin' so it went in. Simple greened everything, washed the truck, then took a neighbor for a test drive on the trails and ruined the detail job. The old boy was all smiles and had never gone that quick on dirt. I tried to explain to him this thing is still slow, dude wasn't hearing me, he was happier than hell. I will say there was a big difference in response, power, and trans tuning with the upgrades, pretty sure I went from 180hp to 180.05....


.

 

[FarmerMike]

I saw that thing for sale and thought about buying it just to return it to how it was color wise! Glad your doing it. Can’t wait to see more of it

 

[BajaKyle]

I'm a firm believer in keeping the OG trucks alive...for my next trick I wanna find Webster and return it to glory

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

Rad dude. I've got the same cage design going into my rebuild. Stoked that the truck is back in good hands. That paint job was always hard to look at.

 

[michael_gonzalez]

I'm a firm believer in keeping the OG trucks alive...for my next trick I wanna find Webster and return it to glory

Thank you for your service!

Glad to see this truck live on in good hands. It was a big inspiration for my 4x4 ranger build (RIP).

 

[GahnRacing]

Shaweet!

 

[badlinesgoodtimes]

Stoked to see this thing back in action

A few solid missions team banana has been on.

https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/threads/dmc-gorman-to-dove-springs.15/https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/threads/dmc-lucerne-to-big-bear.21/https://forum.badlinesgoodtimes.com/threads/dmc-grand-canyon-2013.20/

 

[BajaKyle]

I'm pretty excited about it, was curious to see the articulation so I gave it a go when I got home...didnt expect much and she lifted a tire but kept crawling, then I tested the rear line lock in neutral, it held the truck in place so that's exciting and emotional ...pic is with all 4 on the ground. Plan is to change fluids today, finish ripping the red off, then wash and hit it with the orbital hoping to bring back the factory yellow. I think the F-23's are tired, I need to figure out if I want to get them "serviced" or start thinking about link killers.

FWIW I drove it to do errands today, another kid called it a hot wheels truck (second time), then the girl at the hardware store called it a "trophy truck"...so basically, red, yellow, blue, and carbon fiber makes kids smile and minimum wage chicks super wet. Winning? I dunno.

 

[BajaKyle]

More de-clowning, got this rad neighbor kid that likes helping and learning, he did most of it with a huge smile until he had to get home for dinner, but we fixed his rc car too as trade. Winning!

 

[BajaKyle]

Got it as good as I could with the orbital and walked away from it, i know when to stop lol, it's gunna need actual paint correction but she's not bad. Changed the oil and moved it out of the garage....then another truck fell apart, and is gunna get worse before it gets better. Dude decided to step up to 37's.....which is gunna take a shitload of cutting, can't even get it to full bump with the wheel straight, we have less than a week to finish it, the thing is getting regeared early june then we got black rock the week after.

 

[theycallmeWALLY]

Looks 10 x better already!

 

[badlinesgoodtimes]

Looks so much better. You gunna leave the blue ? Just let the 37s self clearance

 

[BajaKyle]

Not sure about the blue yet, but it's in decent shape, part of me likes the contrast but I am thinking it needs to be returned to one solid color and go through paint correction.

 

[GahnRacing]

Yeah the blue looks faggy

 

[SaltyMethods]

Go one color.

 

[BajaKyle]

So...I have a 4wd 7.3 dually, nope that would make sense. Use the superlight ranger to move the utility trailer, it's raining here, downhill and slick, I was going .010 mph sliding...soooo, this didn't work. I'm hella smart.

 

[the bodj]

Serves you right for keeping the blue on there

 

[BajaKyle]

I accept that.