off season ranger updates

Well, it's been a long time coming with this truck into making it a fast, so I spent the winter making it look good. So for those that don't remember it looked like this last year:




Well, after a bunch of cutting and removing a little over 200lbs more, I put it all back together and sent if out for paint. Here's from the night I picked it up:



Then I made a new frame from 3/4" galvanized emt conduit to hold the bedsides on:




1 side on:



Then a new aluminum dash:



And aftet it was almost finished (still needed some wiring and driveline tweaks) it went back to get the graphics:



I have added in a new trans brake from Frank Merkl, and let me tell you that thing will snap your neck if you ain't ready!

Then I spent even more money on a new set of cut TSL's from Scott at Racing in the Dirt to run on the front. 38x12.5x15's that weigh 47lbs! I didn't have the correct wheels so I have temporarily stuck them on a set of stock steelies and they still weigh less than 60lbs a tire!

I took it out for the 1st race of the season this past Saturday, finishing some last minute wiring and dropped in the carb and hooked it up. The 1st time the truck was even started this year was when I was at the track, with the same plugs as last year and I forgot my nitrous jets, so I just hooked the hoses up to the plate (no spray that day!). I made 2 passes in their farm boy class and modified farm boy class. Farm boy is basically a 44"and down dot tire size class with no power adder. The Modified farm boy is what I normally call X class where you can run cut tires and power adders. I ended up taking 3rd in farm boy and 2nd in modified farm boy! Not bad considering I was trying to tune by ear at the track and wasn't even sure the thing would run. Also remember I didn't spray in the modified class and still took 2nd.



So wait until i get to tune and tweak on it some this week along with getting the lexan windows put in. I got rediculously dirty with no bed floor, had about 4" or more mud over the entire truck after each pass! My margard lexan was supposed to arrive Friday morning, but the truck got delayed so it's supposed to be here this week and it will be in before the next race!!

Coooooooooooooooool !!!! Go Get'em !!!

Need a couple of X braces to stifen it up since you've got rid of all the sheet metal.

All I gotta say is if it runs like this all year, it's gonna be a good season for me.

I will add that I made some oil changes from what I normally run. Swapped in Torco gear oil into the diffs to see if it will extend gear life. Had to replace the rear ring and pinion as they were pretty worn out with only 1 season. Not good. The other oil change was with the motor, I hear so much about that "green oil" i had to try it and so far I'm liking the results.

Looks good ..can you show a better pic of your rear drive shaft en-closer

Congrats, bad ass truck!!!

Holy crap man!! You've made a world of a difference in the ranger! Looks great! Those are the baddest tires I've ever seen.

Gotta love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks everyone. It's been a long time coming with this truck. I didnt' want to wast time or money in the appearance department until I knew it was a runner. Guess I've reached the point from hearing all the competition crying

Still washing it from this past weekend, so as soon as I get that finished, I'll take some better pics of the driveshaft cages we built. They are designed around what you see on monster trucks, just smaller.

So are you down around 2800lbs now?

mudtrucker wrote:So are you down around 2800lbs now?

Somewhere close to there

It'll even be lighter this weekend.

crittersf1 wrote:It'll even be lighter this weekend.

You gonna come drive it? Not sure if the new wheels will work with my 39's considering the are 18" wide and not 15" like we thought.

This truck is gonna force me to step up to 44" cuts

Looks that way.

Critter, since you are online, don't forget to send me that hyd throttle setup info. Ordering it this week when I get the info! No more cables to screw me up anymore.

kjett wrote:Critter, since you are online, don't forget to send me that hyd throttle setup info. Ordering it this week when I get the info! No more cables to screw me up anymore.

Yes post up a link

kjett wrote:Critter, since you are online, don't forget to send me that hyd throttle setup info. Ordering it this week when I get the info! No more cables to screw me up anymore.

Guess you had issues this weekend?

res0rli9 wrote:Yes post up a link

I called CNC yesterday about it. They said they haven't made it in 3 years and Critter needs to hold on to that one as I'll probably never see one again.

Old blue Racin Team wrote:Guess you had issues this weekend?

Yep. Motor would never turn up and throttle issues would only let me open about half throttle anyways. Found why it was acting like timing was retarded yesterday and fixed that. Raps up nice and quick again. Now to find a better throttle setup. Was thinking of using a hyd clutch setup from CNC, but they only have a 1 1/8" throw, I need over 2" for a throttle throw.

Drill a whole closer to the shaft.

res0rli9 wrote:Drill a whole closer to the shaft.

Hows that going to help? I still will need more than 2" of travel on the arm to open the carb all the way, no matter where the hole is. the hyd slave cylinder on a clutch only moves 1 1/8" and I'd still only get 3/4 throttle like I'm having issue with now.

Karl if you drill the hole closer to the throttle shaft it will take less distance to open the throttle. another option would be to install a pedal with a mechanical linkage like the 73-9 truck had.

lghting94 wrote:Karl if you drill the hole closer to the throttle shaft it will take less distance to open the throttle. another option would be to install a pedal with a mechanical linkage like the 73-9 truck had.

Then it wouldn't be able to come back to idle.

It is simple math. If you have a hole that closer to the throttle shaft, then the arc that is needed to operate the shaft to WOT from idle is decreased in length. Make an arc with a ruler on paper, then do the same with only half the ruler and see which distance is shorter.

crittersf1 wrote:

lghting94 wrote:Karl if you drill the hole closer to the throttle shaft it will take less distance to open the throttle. another option would be to install a pedal with a mechanical linkage like the 73-9 truck had.

Then it wouldn't be able to come back to idle.

Why not???????

I can say that when we tried to move my throttle bulb to the next lower hole (closer to the shaft) the force to apply was much greater. I personally like a nice light, crisp throttle, so moving it lower is not going to happen unless there is a way to keep it light. Since I can't go with the CNC Hydraulic Throttle setup, I'm going super simple. Taking the sluminum foot pedal back out and going to this:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Firewall-Mount-Racing-Throttle-Pedal,7212.html

Connected to this:

http://www.lokar.com/product-pgs/throttlecables-kickdowns/tc-kd-pgs/throttle-cables.html

Mounted to this:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CSI-621R/?rtype=10


I had better throttle control with the stock pedal, too bad it fell off in my hands.