Ranger repairs

[Capricious]

My tow vehicle is a 2002 Ford Ranger, 3.0 V6, auto, long bed. The book says it will tow about 4,000 lbs. I use it and a single axle utility trailer to haul a walk-behind brush mower, old sears garden tractor and a Mitsubishi 16 hp diesel tractor (not all at the same time). Max. load, according to a truck scale, is about 2,600 lbs for the loaded trailer.

Back on Jan 15 I was driving on the highway and traffic stopped, and I stopped, but the guy behind me did not stop. Hit me hard and pushed me into the car in front of me. Some fairly good damage to the front:




However the main damage was to the rear:



The combination of bumper and receiver hitch was too solid to bend much, so the frame rails buckled right behind the rear spring hangers for the leaf springs. (2) body shops said the truck was essentially 'totaled," as the frame would need to be replaced.

The truck was still drivable and I continued to drive it, but I could not longer tow a trailer, which put me in a bind as I have some land to maintain, in addition to mowing about 1 1/2 acres for a non-profit.

Yes, I should see some money out of this incident, but I will not be seeing it any time a soon, as I was hit by a federal government vehicle, a DEA car. Until you have been hit by a government vehicle, and dealt with the Federal Tort Claims Act, you have no idea what the word "hassle" means. I expect to see some money maybe in August or Sept.

In the mean time, I have decided to repair the old Ranger to the extent that I can tow a trailer with it, to get me through the summer. Sometime, hopefully after the first of the year, I intend to replace it with a new truck, probably a 1/2 ton.

 

[Capricious]

In some respects I am lucky that it is a Ford Ranger. Since Rangers have a real bad reputation for frame rust, there are after market suppliers selling replacement pieces for the rears of the frame rails, which is usually where the worst of the rust damage is.

I ordered a set of these pieces off ebay but was a bit dsapointed when they arrived. they were advertised as having all the right holes drilled in the right places, but no mention was made of, and no photos showed, the large clearance "cut-outs" in the flanges of the channels:





These cut-outs are intended to fit around the riveted tabs of cross members. Evidently the people who make these pieces assume one has rusted-out channel webs, but that the flanges are still solid, and the plan is for these pieces to overlap the original frame rails and be fully welded all around. The problem, as you engineering types are aware, is that the flanges are where the strength of a channel is.

I considered returning the things, but then I would have to pay return shipping, no small amount for a couple heavy hunks of 11 ga. steel. I also considered taking the pieces to a metal shop and having them make me up a couple pieces of channel out of 11 ga to the same dimensions, and then returning the original pieces for credit, but that would have run into some money. I finally decided to use the pieces, but to weld 3/16" doublers onto both the top and bottom flanges. I cut some flat bar to length, 2 inch for the bottom flange and 2 1/2 inch for the top flange, marked the positions of the holes, drilled the holes in the flat bar, and then welded it all up. My welding is not of the highest quality, but since these things are welded almost all around, and also welded on the back-sides in the "cut-outs,' and since there are also bolts that pass through both the doublers and the original pieces I am confident the things will hold together:

 

[Capricious]

What really kinda pi__ me off is the big cut-outs in the flanges that I did not want, yet the pieces did not have a rounded cut-out on the bottom flange that I did need. The lower flanges of the frame rails on the truck have rounded clearance "bends" to allow the spare tire to fit in between them:




...so I had to trim the lower flanges on the new pieces to fit around these bends in the lower flanges:




I took a cardboard template of the frame rails to lay-out these cuts, and got them pretty close to correct. Had to do a bit of grinding once I could actually try them in place.


Primed them and put them aside:

 

[Capricious]

Previously, I had fabricated a lifting boom for the 3-point on the little Mitsubishi tractor:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/333128-3-point-hitch-lifiting-boom.html

I planned to use this to remove the bed from the Ranger. Yes, if you have one or two big guys to help you, lifting the bed off a Ranger is no big deal, but I have no one to help me, so I do everything by myself.
















Left the bed hanging overnight; the lift did not "leak-down" at all:

 

[Capricious]

 

[Capricious]

Cutting off the frame ends with angle grinder & cut-off wheel:






Jacked-up the rear of the frame to remove weight from the leaf springs and unbolted the rearward spring hangers:





The spring hangers had been replaced about 2 years ago (orignals had rusted paper-thin) so removing them was pretty easy.




Fitting the replacement pieces for final trimming and additional hole drilling:










Grinding the heads off rivets, so that the cross member can be attached to the new frame pieces with bolts:




All bolts utilized are new; either metric M10, grade 10.9, flange heads on bolts and nuts, and self-locking nuts ( same as original); or SAE grade 8 including nuts & washers.

 

[Capricious]

Done.

For those that care, no welding to original frame- new pieces are bolted only. Welding on new pieces was done with 100 amps ( top setting on my old 240 volt AC welder) 3/32 6013

Note that the spring hangers are bolted through new pieces and into original frame rails- suspension does not rely on the new pieces; just the hitch. Used new hardware to mount the hitch (grade 8) as the hitch took a real hit and I did not trust the old bolts ( which were grade 5).

Minimum (7) bolts holding each new piece on, not including bolts into cross member.

I drilled (2) new holes in each frame web- no new holes in the flanges (that's a no-no, I understand).

 

[HHR]

Looks good!

 

[dodge man]

Nice job, wish I had those skills.

 

[sld]

Outstanding work! It looks like it will be better than before.

I admire your skill in metal working and am glad the Ranger didn't go to the junk yard.

I bought aftermarket chrome bumpers for a Ranger once due to the old ones rusting out. I think I only paid about 150.00 each and they fit perfectly.