ThatRaymond.com

Time to put a few hours into the ol’ Ranger again.  I cleaned up the surface rust on the chrome bumpers using a brass wire brush.  The front bumper has a hole from the rust though and I’m not sure how I want to repair that.  I think to keep cost down I will use some JB Stik-Weld and then hit that spot with some “chrome” spray paint or something.

I also need to do an oil change (5,500 miles on it now), replace the serpentine belt (I think it’s original w/140k miles), rotate the tires, clean the rust off the rocker panels and then undercoat them and then have Peter weld up a small hole/crack in my frame near the bolt hole for the driver’s side rear shock absorber.  I should really replace the heater and radiator hoses along with a new t-stat soon too.

Good times.

That said, the truck has been mostly trouble free.  It started fine in -20F weather for a week this last winter even on the 10 year old battery (then that died and I put a battery in).  It also went through more than a foot of unplowed snow on several occasions when our road wasn’t plowed and I had to get to work.  I’ve towed 2,000 lbs with it before, had 1,500lbs of fresh cut firewood in the back and I’ve also done some off roading.  Guess I can’t complain she needs a little love every now and again.

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to let you know how happy I have been with my current and past Ford products, and how I am dismayed at the lack of current vehicles that could replace them.  I love my Ford Ranger.  It is small enough for me to put anywhere on my property, but still rugged enough to haul my firewood.  It is large enough to pull a trailer, but efficient enough to get good gas mileage as a daily driver.  It also has a manual transmission giving me complete control over the driveline.

Now I hear Ford is planning on cancelling the Ranger?  Yes, it needs to change – it is outdated.  But cancelled?  Not unless there is another small truck taking it’s place.  What I need is a light truck that can haul 1/4 cord of wood or more and still get 25+mpg when unloaded.  If it is a front wheel drive mini-truck, fine.  If it is a new version of the Ranger, fine.  But I WILL NOT buy one of the large F150s as a replacement vehicle.  And I WILL NOT sacrifice drive-ability and purchase an automatic transmission.  I am 26 years old and I have never owned an automatic and I don’t plan to for as long as I am driving.  If this forces me away from Ford, which would be a sad day indeed since I am so attached to the brand, so be it.

I would also like to see manual transmissions as options on more vehicles.  Maybe even some 6spd manuals.

Thanks for taking the time to listen, I truly appreciate it.

– Joseph Raymond

My 2000 Ford Ranger has a 2,200 lb towing capacity (only so low because it is the 4wd supercab 5spd with the small V6).  It also has a 1,280 lb payload.  The GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) is 6,000 lbs.  This means the curb weight of the truck (3,800 lbs) plus whatever it has for payload in it and towing hooked up.  It has seen around 1,500lbs in the bed twice now and over 1,000lbs more times than I can count on my hands and toes and never had much of an issue with it.  It has also pulled out three different vehicles, one of which weighed more than the truck.  I haven’t done much with trailers though, in fact, I’ve only moved empty ones so far.  Tomorrow I will be hauling about 2,000lbs behind the truck (trailer and load), should do just fine.

Back to the specs, you can see that if I max out my towing I can’t have ANYTHING in the truck for payload to stay legit.  If I have the max payload in the back of my truck, that leaves me with 920lbs that I could tow behind me.  So having a trailer would be handy to increase my overall load carrying capacity.  The biggest help would be that I could fit things on a trailer that won’t fit in my 6ft bed.  Due to weight constraints I will only be able to haul 1/4 to 1/3 cord of wet/fresh cut wood at a time, but could easily haul 1/2 cord of seasoned firewood.

Since the truck came from the factory with a Class III hitch rated at 5,000lbs, towing a “Ranger size” trailer won’t be a concern.