Banks Cummins

Today, Ian and Jessi are on the project Ranger, big time frame rails, drive train and the interior all come together. Plus see how the modifieds

tear up the rock crawling trails with some down home ingenuity. Extreme starts. Now,

welcome to Xtreme 4x4 and another phase in our project Ranger resurrection. If you remember, we began with that hulk of a truck that we pulled out of a junkyard and began to build a Baha

themed off Road Bandit.

After we stripped off what we did not need, we began to rebuild the truck, starting with the cab.

We added extended cab panels to give us a location for the rear mounted radiator as well as stretch out the wielding.

Then we gutted the interior

and

fed up a custom roll cage inside the truck.

Now it's time for us to start dealing with the parts on the outside of the cap. A lot of people have been asking us as to why did we leave this part of the C channel frame underneath the cap

and we left it there for a lot of reasons. You have easy access to the body mounts to line them up. You can secure the body of the frame bench a lot easier. But most importantly, we chose to do a two by six ladder frame underneath this cab

and it's just going to tie into that seat channel really nice. And then we're going to go ahead and take our roll cage and tie it into the new frame, giving it the triangulation strength that it needs. Then we can start doing with our engine mounts and our transmission mounts and we'll have to measure for some axles. We've got some more interior stuff to work on. So we've got a lot to do. We better start getting the work. Good idea

down.

All right,

we've got all of our frame pieces cut and they're just mocked into place for now. But before we could start welding things in like this cross member, we gotta run a center line line down the entire frame jake.

Now, normally, when you're using a frame bench, you don't have to use the string method to find center. But in our case, our cross member numbers have fallen off. So this just goes to show you that you don't have to have a frame bench to build a chassis. You can use any bench as long as it's level and it's sturdy.

Once the center line is established, we can take a plumb bob like this and hang it off the center marking on a cross member to determine if the truck is actually square in the jig, you need the truck square in the jig. So when you measure off that cross member to the outer points of the frame, you will know that that frame is actually square. If your frame is out of square, the truck will look like a banana on four wheels driving down the road.

All right, it looks like back here it's almost

bang on.

Um I think we're a little bit off up here. How much is a little bit off? I would say about two or three inches. I would say that's a lot. So I think we're gonna have to do some ratcheting.

You're almost there you go.

00000000, stop

with the truck straight on the jig. We can go ahead and tie in our new frame size with the new craftsman.

When it comes to our transmission, we really wanted bulletproof. So we called the guys at Rockland Standard Gear and had them put together an NV 4505 speed trans. Now the new venture 4500 is an awesome off road trans.

It's a hell

gear set that's constant mesh and it's fully synchronized and this one is synchronized even in reverse. And what that means is when you're going from first to reverse with a little bit of engine speed and

wheel spin, it'll slide right in. Now, you can still find the NB 4500 and Bone yards. They came in the nineties GM and Dodge one ton trucks. The earliest versions had a 6.3 to 1 gear ratio, which is great for a crawler, but because this thing ain't no crawler, we opted for the 5.6 1st gear. We're gonna mate it to the engine with one of these Lakewood Scatter shields because this thing is indestructible.

Now, I know that the ranger is gonna look like a Prerunner truck, but you gotta remember it's four wheel drive. So we're gonna put in this NP 271 transfer case. We plan on taking that truck on some serious terrain and don't wanna run across any problems along the way.

Now, this too is from Rockland Standard Gear where they've been building hardcore standard transmissions and transfer cases for over 20 years. And the best part is is that they don't sell just complete units if you need only a few components, those are the guys to call.

So we got a Ford engine, a Dodge transmission and a Ford transfer case and that's a lot of different parts. So to help put them all together, we got this adapter plate from advanced adapters

to go in between the bell housing and the body of that NV 4500. And we're gonna mock everything into place using this plastic engine block we got from P

And the nice thing is it's drilled and tapped just like the original block. So if you mock this thing into place. You know, the real engine is sure to fit. Plus it's gonna help speed up your fabrication process because you're not dealing with the weight of the actual engine. So if you don't have your block, it's ok because these things come in big blocks, small blocks and your favorite combos. They're all there.

Check back out for the Brave, got more fabrication to do on the engine

up next. See how off road technology helps conquer Mother Nature. Hardcore rock crawling. When Xtreme 4x4 continues.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 and part of the shop you never get to see. And that's the office because we spend most of our time out in the shop building the trucks. But when we are in here, we're ordering parts and we're talking to people like you on our message boards, answering questions to ditch doctor 21 and hupy and HF 351 thing you guys keep asking for is more rock crawling. So we're heading back to Jellicoe Tennessee for some hard core action

restricted to oe frame stock steering and 37 inch tires. The modified still tear it up at rock crawling competition.

Go big or go home. The modified class is really where it's at. It was built to allow the extreme off Roader to move into rock crawling without the big budget high down the rich.

The defending U Rock Extreme East champ knows he's not gonna run his land cruiser stock against these rocks.

Yeah.

In

my particular vehicle we've done some extensive modifications. It's got a full coil overs and a four L

suspension. All my suspension is 7075 aluminum

LS

with the coil overs and,

you know, it flexes a lot. It flexes so much. We use limiting straps

to keep it from falling out from under the vehicle.

Well, you can see from where we're parked,

you know, to get past something like this, should there have been a cone sitting right there.

You've got to have that articulation. Otherwise you're carrying a tire in the air and your vehicle is even far more unbalanced.

It takes more than good articulation to get through these courses.

Well, the thing that really makes the vehicle go is the locking differentials because that's what makes all four wheels turn at the same time. This is the Atlas transfer case shifters, one for the front, one for the rear. So you can shift them independently.

And the value of the independent shifting is you can unlock the front or the rear.

So I can actually put the vehicle in front wheel drive only

the rear end neutral and use

his cutting brake lock, the rear brakes

and do a front dig by turning the wheels in front wheel drive only

and the vehicle will pivot on the back action instead of a curve,

it tracks right across.

And you probably see some of that out here on the courses when people made really tight turns. They relied on their cutting brake,

what his machine conquers even impresses Mike things. When you look at

it, you just don't think you'll go and bang. They do it.

Everybody has their own ideas as to what works out here. And a variety of engineered rigs makes it interesting for the fans. Every rig out here is different and that's what's so awesome about this sport is there's not a single rig that's the same.

So it makes for a wide variety of

action to watch because every

reacts differently. Every driver drives differently. And it's just so fun

to get through this rocky east coast terrain. Josh modified the wheelbase on his 1988 ring.

The wheel base is a very important issue, especially now that they're having to do a whole lot of hill climbs and stuff.

So,

like I'm running 100 and one inch wheel base, a stock wheel base, you just typical 93 inches your thereabouts. And by extending the wheel base, it helps us climb better. It makes the rig more stable.

But also when you lengthen the wheel base, it causes your center of gravity to be less because

the further distance between the wheels,

the greater chance of a rock hitting your skid plate.

So everybody, you tuck your skid plate up as high as you can

to keep all your transmission and transportation and stuff out of the way.

And that's the key is to make the bottom of the rig as fast as possible because you're gonna scrape, you're gonna rub, you're gonna do body damage and you just got to realize that and try to build a rig in such a way that it has nothing to hang up on.

You know, you don't, you don't want a sharp corner for a rock to catch on and you, you just stick there.

They may have different philosophies on setup, but it's all about getting to the top. It

is the ultimate in fun. There is nothing I've found

that gets me this excited without physically beating me down and the rocks are huge. You know, you're climbing over rocks, half the size of your vehicle

and that's really hard.

It's, it's hard on the vehicles. It's hard on the driver to say, I don't know if I can do this and you actually have to step up and make it happen.

Oh

Got an idea for the show. Drop us a line at Xtreme 4x4, tv.com.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 and Project Ranger Resurrection. We just finished putting in our ladder frame and now it's time for us to determine where the engine transmission and transfer case is gonna go. I'm gonna start by pulling off this floor plate so I can get an idea of where the shifter is gonna be.

Then I'm gonna drop this engine in between the frame rails. Now, we want the motor to sit as far back in the frame as possible for weight transfer. So once we have this one where we want it, we can start building some motor mounts.

All right, we got our engine mounts made and how we're gonna mount it to the frame

is that we will eventually put a Urethane bushing through this tubing,

put it on this little prop here and weld it all to the frame. But we can't quite do that yet because we're not quite sure that this is the exact place we're gonna keep the engine.

So for now, I'm just gonna tack weld these mounts on the frame. So it's not moving around during our mock up stage

with the engine mounts mopped up, we can get started on the roll cage up front.

Ok. These tubes are going to be the start of our engine roll cage. Now, when we put the real engine in place, we'll be running two more tubes across the top of it and then back through the firewall to tie into the passenger cage. Now, that will make the whole front of the truck super strong. The downfall is when we pull the motor, it will have to come through the bottom.

And by adding these tubes here, we're giving the truck extra strength through triangulation.

Now, what we mean by triangulation is that a square has four weak points and when you cut it in half and give it its diagonals, it's bracing it. So it doesn't actually twist.

Now with the engine in place,

the next step will be the transmission

after it's bolted to the adapter plate,

a welded brace under the lower mount will temporarily support it.

All right.

Well, the transmission is temporarily in place and we wanna start building our permanent mounts. But before we do that,

we gotta get the shifter in place.

But I think we're gonna have to have the seats in here first.

and for those seats, we went to Mastercraft for a set of sportsman suspension seats.

Now, those of you guys building hardcore off road rigs know the benefits of a suspension seat. But if you've never seen one before, check it out,

you've got a welded steel frame that the webbing and the fabric is slung in between and that's gonna absorb a lot of the shock when you're off road.

These ones come with an adjustable lumbar support for comfort

and they're ready to accept a five point harness. Now, four, a five point harness. We went back to Mastercraft and got their full race version with the quick disconnect just in case it's needed. But the coolest thing we got from them.

Window nets.

Here you go.

Nice and late. Huh?

Try that. Sit on there.

Grab the shift or two.

Oh, yeah. That's a heck of a lot better.

I think we're gonna have to change the shift, but

it's a little tall, isn't it?

It's big, big trucker style.

They're not fun and games

with the see hide set, we can build and install the mouse.

We use one by one square tubing for a flat mounting surface.

Ok. We have our seat mounts built into our roll cage. And if you remember when we were designing this cage, this was one of those considerations. You want your seats mounted to the cage. So if you roll the truck over, they don't just tear out of the floor.

Another item that you're gonna want to mount securely to the roll cage are the seat belts. Now, this five point harness came with specific instructions on how to mount them. So we're going to begin with the lap belts and these tabs that we made ourselves place the seat belt in between the two tabs, put the bolt through and weld it onto the roll cage. Now, it states that we need to do this 2.5 inches forward from the seat back.

And before we lay out any more of those seat belt tabs, we're going to put the seat in place.

We want to make sure the shoulder belts are between one and four inches below the slot in the back rests. So we're going to check that this bar we welded in before is in the right spot. Once we're sure of that, we can start working on

a submarine belt. Thanks. Some people refer to this as a crotch strap and it's an important part in a five point harness, especially in an off road truck. When this thing flips upside down, your body is going to want to slip out from underneath the seat belt.

The submarine belt or crotch strap is what's going to hold you in place

for more information on anything you've seen today. Check us out online, Xtreme 4x4, tv.com.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4. We've been working pretty hard on this range of resurrection. We got our engine mounts mocked up in place. We pulled the transmission in, we had to figure out where our shifter was gonna go and we mounted our seats. Now it's time for us to get back to building.

And the first thing we're gonna build or rebuild in this case are the motor mounts. When we mock these into place, we built them extra tall and now that the transmission is on its mounts, this thing isn't level anymore

with the transmission up on its temporary bracing. We can go ahead and start planning out the new cross member. Now, the original cross member mounted in these four holes which is going to be to our advantage. So I went ahead and made these plates out of eight inch steel.

I'll drill them for the mounting holes.

Then I will use a whole saw to cut two holes for the cross member tubes.

Then I will mock everything into place

and I'll weld it solid.

I finished rebuilding this motor mount. You can see I moved the tube into the mount itself and we're still going to mount it onto the side of the block with urethane bushings to support it. But I'll use ears off the side of the frame. We had to do this because we had the mounts on top of the frame

four. And now the motor is sitting a little bit lower

and this is gonna happen. Whenever you're mocking something up, you're gonna find problems and you're gonna have to rebuild stuff. But I've seen guys defend the wrong decision for about the same amount of time as it would have been to rebuild it. Right.

All right.

So the transmission cross member is done.

It'll look like it'll fit over there. Right.

Yep. Ok. So it should fit,

but we can't get it in just yet because the frame bench is in the way. So until we can get this piece out of the way,

we're just gonna stick with our temporary bracing.

Last thing we're gonna do today is take the doors off, clean out the guts.

Yeah. Who needs windows when we're gonna weld the doors shut anyway,

we'll skin them with aluminum panels because they're lightweight

and the welded doors will help strengthen the cab body.

Finally, these window nets will round out the race theme of our resurrected Rangers.

I still can't believe you wanted to end our hardcore fabrication show with window nets. Well, they're racy and they also didn't require multitudes of bending and cutting and fitting and notching. It was nice to have a break. Well, next time you see the ranger, we will be doing more bending and cutting and notching and fitting. Hopefully we'll have some fiberglass panels and we'll be measuring for the axles and we're gonna decide on the suspension and we still don't know whether that's gonna be radius im four length, three L,

two

length,

maybe even A one L I

never heard of that before.

Window Nets one link.

He

was this guy

coming.

Um.

Right.