Cactus Plastic Fantastic - '21 Ranger build

[Err]

And so we have the beginning of something like my 6th build of the camper / overlander / expo sort. I still have a fairly heavily built '15 Sprinter 4x4 but wanted to put something together that's lighter, more capable off-road, and able to haul @ss down rough roads. I love the van for longer trips but sometimes I don't need all that crap. So a mid-sized build sounded like just the thing.

Not another Taco... I suppose you could characterize me as a Toyota fan. I've had an '81 pickup, '87 FJ60, three 4-runners, and I currently own an '02 Taco xtra-cab manual that I absolutely love. But lets face it, outside of the Tundra, Toyota engines leave a lot to be desired in terms of torque output for moving along the highway at or near the speed limit. Knowing that I didn't want a diesel, that leaves the Ranger for big HP and TQ numbers in a mid-sized package.

In terms of spec, I settled on a fairly loaded XLT over going the Lariat route. The Lariat includes HIDs (but they suck) and leather (which I could take or leave) but otherwise, an XLT with the 302a and FX4 and tow packages is about the same as a Lariat. And let's face it, in these crazy times, ya take what you can get. I managed to find 2 XLTs in-bound to dealers and took the one that arrived first. I waffled a bit on color but settled on Cactus Grey. It looks so good on the Bronco and Mustang Mach 1. I hated it on the stock Ranger. The color is "soft" and the Ranger styling is also soft. In absence of the Bronco's big tires and bold fender flares Cactus Grey makes for a weird looking truck. Here it is the day I picked it up. Ugly as sin.


And then I delivered it directly to APG in Souther California for a few upgrades. Warranty? LOL!!!



More to come...

 

[CountryboyNC]

I don’t think it looked bad stock, at all. Excited to see what it becomes.

 

[Err]

With the most of the suspension, bumpers, fenders, an bedsides removed APG got to work on applying their full Ranger ProRunner conversion to my truck.

The bed was fully stripped down


And replaced with carbon fibre bedsides fabricated in house



The stock front fenders were tossed to to be replaced with extra wide carbon fiber units to match the bedsides

 

[Err]

Simultaneously, a ton of work was being done to address suspension, recovery, and lighting.

APG fabricates their own long travel suspension system in house. Their system adds 3" over the stock UCA's/LCA's and nets 12.75" of travel up front. I opted for King 2.5" with remote reservoirs and external compression and rebound adjustability. A Warn m8000 winch was also installed which integrates perfectly into APG's alloy bumper. Out back, I went with APG's progressive HD spring pack suitable for 500+ lbs load in the bed. The whole point of this build is to be light weight and nimble so I'll be trying to stay close to that number.

 

[Err]

While they were in there doing suspension and body work, I had APG add a few power add-ons. The 2.3 EB will make a ton of power but I'm keeping the engine mods fairly mild. We added a Mountune oversized intercooler so that I can stay in the boost longer when needed and a Ford Performance pack. I have plans to add an AWE cat back exhaust but will probably hold on taking it any further for a while. Even with just basic mods, power jumps north of 300 HP and TQ peaks in the mid 300's along with a re-tune of the tranny shift points.

 

[Err]

Rather than belabor this thread with a dozen more build photos, lets skip forward with a few shots with wheels on the ground and ready to start the "overland" phase of the build.

 

[Err]

Next stop was a quick trip over to Rigd to pickup an Ultraswing tire carrier. I went with the camp stove / cutting board platform to extend my kitchen area space.

 

[Err]

Next stop, Belgrade, Montana to pickup my GFCv2 camper.

 

[Err]

GFC installed

 

[blakeape]

I like where this is headed! Strong work Mister

 

[yfarm]

Any engine performance information before and after?
if not numbers, how does it feel acceleration stock vs mods?
Went to trade my gen1 Raptor on a 4runner pro, did the deal over the phone, went to pick up the vehicle and pay
and said let me do a test drive first. Came back, handed the keys to the salesman and said cant do it. He asked why and I said no power. I want a smaller vehicle as a dd, have ordered a bronco but this is very appealing if the performance is there. Want the 6.2 raptor power in a smaller package. Like the turn key of the APG process.

 

[Err]

I just came out of a 1st Gen Raptor with the 6.2. I feel the same way as you. Toyota's are great from a reliability perspective but the lack of torque makes them dogs to drive, especially at highway speeds at elevation. The Ranger is a completely different beast with the torque the little Ecoboost makes. Even bone stock it flies down the road and pulls big mountain passes at extra-legal speeds with ease. Now my truck has the Ford Performance tune bumping the 270 HP / 310 TQ to somewhere around 310 HP / 360 TQ. Compared to the Tacoma/4-Runner at around 278 HP / 268 TQ the difference is night and day. Even with a GFC and heavy 35" tires, the Ranger still just flies down the road and over high mountain passes.

Down side, it's easy to chew through some fuel on boost.

 

[Buddha.]

Have you thought about a bigger fuel tank? I think they’re made for other markets.

 

[Err]

Have you thought about a bigger fuel tank? I think they’re made for other markets.

Yeah, I'm waiting on Long Range America to finish up their tank for NA spec Rangers. Unfortunately, the NA spec frame is quite a bit different from the ROW frame (have confirmed this myself first hand). The final product is supposed to be around 34-36 gallons. I can't wait.

 

[Err]

Next up is to address on-road lighting. I already have 4 Baja Designs XL Pro's up front for Offroad driving. I also have a pair of Designs Squadron fogs. But for on-road driving, the stock halogen Ranger headlights are somewhere between poor and down right dangerous. Combine that with the fact that any good adventure inevitably involves a bit of night time driving no matter how much you plan for daytime and I knew I needed a solution.

I ordered up a set of Alpharex Nova full LED replacement headlights to fix this once and for all. Why not just swap in factory LED's out of the Lariat? They actually have less light output and throw than the halogens. What about a bulb upgrade? Well, it turns out the shape of the reflectors in the stock headlight assemblies are as much to blame as the bulbs so that doesn't fully address the issue either.

So, I took my brand new build and took the front-end apart which was really kinda fun to dig into the carbon fiber body work that APG did. The fenders retain use of the factory mount points (+1 additional) and are a breeze to remove as needed. You can also see the fender liners, which unlike a lot of hack glass jobs, these liners still provide factory level protection.

A couple hours later and all buttoned up. No problem getting the body lines nice and lined up and the Alpharex lights really dress up the front end in addition to adding much needed lumens