My back story, I cut my off highway teeth in the rock crawling world. I had a '91 YJ that went from a street Jeep to beat to hell in a short period of time. I like to think that I got in to the rock crawling game near the birth of the genre. I had some old school mentors that thought 31" tires were huge when they started. It was a steep and expensive learning curve. My wife and I have both challenged and beat the original "Hammer's Trails" when 35 tires were the norm for a built Jeep, 37's were the next big step. I split the difference and ran 36" TSL bias plys. Some of the story on that rig can be found here...
https://americanadventurist.com/forum/threads/it-lives.4020/
Life went along and I had a desire to build a CJ-6, I liked the extra wheel base and the short overhangs when compared to a CJ-8 Scrambler. I had a carcass lined up when Jeep came along with the original TJ long wheel base/LJ model. I worked at a Jeep dealership at the time, held my breath until the Rubicon version came out and BAM...I had my CJ-6 dimensions, with a warranty...of course I did my best to void most of the warranty as quickly as possible...Rubicon Express 4.5" long arm kit, 5.13 gears, welded in roll cage, Brad Kilby engine driven OnBoardAir system (makes ANY electric pump seem silly), Warn 9.5Ti winch, etc...pics of it around here somewhere. That rig was my wife Machelle's daily driver, and our "adventure vehicle". I cut my teeth on the "built not bought" theory with the rock crawler. I was a little older, a little lazier, and couldn't afford a rock buggy to keep up with the rock crawling world when we got the LJ. My interest started shifting towards what I refer to as "adventure travel". I built that vehicle with (aftermarket) off the shelf parts, it was set up to get us out of trouble rather than to go looking for it...not that it didn't get tested against what most would consider a "hardcore obstacle" on at least one occasion. That rig served us well, it took us across the Rubicon trail, the Dusy Ershim trail, Death Valley travels, Baja travels and not once did it leave us stranded. I'm going to miss that rig.
Fast forward to today...well 3 days ago. I'm now a service advisor (the guy EVERYONE loves to hate) at a Ford dealership. I'm 14 years older than I was when we bought the LJ, and it's time to move on again. Our dealership had this Ranger put together and it caught my eye. I sent Machelle a picture of it and she didn't think much of it, I had her come down to the store and see it in person. She like it a little more when she saw it in person. I drove it home that night, let her take it for a spin and she was sold.
Essentially an XLT Ranger with a 3.5" Fab Tech Lift, and Method wheels with metric 31's on it.
Back to the lazy side of me, I started a thread here to give some initial impressions, not going to repeat it on this one...
https://americanadventurist.com/forum/threads/yikes-2019-ranger.6908/
I'm still less than thrilled with the shudder on take off, it feels like I dumped the clutch or started off in the wrong gear with a manual transmission. I talked to one of our sales guys that has 1000 miles or so on his truck...his overall fuel economy number is about where mine is at 15MPG (not a fair assessment with only 250 miles on the clock). I'll get back to you on that one in a couple thousand miles.
https://americanadventurist.com/forum/threads/it-lives.4020/
Life went along and I had a desire to build a CJ-6, I liked the extra wheel base and the short overhangs when compared to a CJ-8 Scrambler. I had a carcass lined up when Jeep came along with the original TJ long wheel base/LJ model. I worked at a Jeep dealership at the time, held my breath until the Rubicon version came out and BAM...I had my CJ-6 dimensions, with a warranty...of course I did my best to void most of the warranty as quickly as possible...Rubicon Express 4.5" long arm kit, 5.13 gears, welded in roll cage, Brad Kilby engine driven OnBoardAir system (makes ANY electric pump seem silly), Warn 9.5Ti winch, etc...pics of it around here somewhere. That rig was my wife Machelle's daily driver, and our "adventure vehicle". I cut my teeth on the "built not bought" theory with the rock crawler. I was a little older, a little lazier, and couldn't afford a rock buggy to keep up with the rock crawling world when we got the LJ. My interest started shifting towards what I refer to as "adventure travel". I built that vehicle with (aftermarket) off the shelf parts, it was set up to get us out of trouble rather than to go looking for it...not that it didn't get tested against what most would consider a "hardcore obstacle" on at least one occasion. That rig served us well, it took us across the Rubicon trail, the Dusy Ershim trail, Death Valley travels, Baja travels and not once did it leave us stranded. I'm going to miss that rig.
Fast forward to today...well 3 days ago. I'm now a service advisor (the guy EVERYONE loves to hate) at a Ford dealership. I'm 14 years older than I was when we bought the LJ, and it's time to move on again. Our dealership had this Ranger put together and it caught my eye. I sent Machelle a picture of it and she didn't think much of it, I had her come down to the store and see it in person. She like it a little more when she saw it in person. I drove it home that night, let her take it for a spin and she was sold.
Essentially an XLT Ranger with a 3.5" Fab Tech Lift, and Method wheels with metric 31's on it.
Back to the lazy side of me, I started a thread here to give some initial impressions, not going to repeat it on this one...
https://americanadventurist.com/forum/threads/yikes-2019-ranger.6908/
I'm still less than thrilled with the shudder on take off, it feels like I dumped the clutch or started off in the wrong gear with a manual transmission. I talked to one of our sales guys that has 1000 miles or so on his truck...his overall fuel economy number is about where mine is at 15MPG (not a fair assessment with only 250 miles on the clock). I'll get back to you on that one in a couple thousand miles.