Long Distance '85 Ranger Build

[85_Ranger4x4]

Last fall I actually got invited by the owner of another forum I am on (Jim at The Ranger Station) to go on a real overland (kinda) trip. I have "known" some of these guys online for over 20 years and have camped/offroaded with most since I started doing these trips in 2019. This year we are going to run part of the Kentucky Adventure Trail, namely segment one or at least as much as we can in the time allotted.

TRS Vagabonds - The Ranger Station

TRS Vagabonds are an overlanding group honoring the original Vagabonds and promoting the Ford Ranger and adventure travel.

www.therangerstation.com

So I had to kind of shift gears to get my camp setup more portable. The 8 man family tent need not apply. Well I have a 7' bed and a topper, why not sleep back there? So I snagged a sheet of plywood and some 2x4's. I need somewhere to store water and whatnot so i made a hinged door at the front. I made a subframe to sit at the front I could tie things to as well. My 4yo was going to go with me and was happy to help build which really added to the fun.



I had a bed that I need to get put on my truck and the under the rail drop in liner I wanted to put in my truck, so I combined the two for a open access model to build my platform to fit.







I later added a cheap tarp to reduce the chances of splinters, my son picked it out...





Then I put the bedliner in



Forward tie down structure





I did add some power points at the rear of the platform.



Water and charcoal ended up up front which worked out nice, it was out of the way when on the road.



All packed up and ready to roll!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So on Friday 8/31 we struck off for Central Kentucky. It was a pretty hard two-day drive to get there, IIRC 14hrs plus stops.



Cooled cupholders? Man I have all the whistles and bells!



Kind of fun scenery for Illinois, reminds me of the bluffs of Iowa's Loess Hills.



Stopped at Salem Illinois for the night, found another longbed to anchor with at Arby's







After driving more we are like practically almost there...



Someone wanted his window down, found a nice pulloff





This is what I have put up with...





And the Ranger made it back to its hometown very likely for the first time in 39 years, back in February of 1985 is was built here in Louisville Kentucky... for the first time.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Rolled into Red River Gorge Campground at a decent time, sorted out a issue with my cooling fans and got camp set up.





Time for bed and try out this thing we have been working on for the better part of a year...



The Red River goes right past the campground, gorgeous sunrise that morning. The KAT actually runs on the other side of the river.













From there we went to Natural Bridge State Park. Some went on a hike, they had a neat stream in a picnic area we checked out. There were turtles, fish and we even saw a crawdad.





Then off to the NADA tunnel.







I didn't get any pictures but it was cool, the ceiling is still stained black from the steam locomotives it was built for.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then we went to see the natural bridges.



Walking across that was about the scariest thing I have done as a parent.











The lovely Miss Livey





The holes and swirls in the stone were facinating.



Then onto Spaas Creek. We decided there was more water on the trail than there was in the actual creek.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then we went onto Pumpkin Hollow.







Online I always got the vibe it was the easier one between it and Spaas Creek. Where we are stopped there around the corner it was badly rutted. The consensus was we could probably get thru it but it would be very slow going and it was already 5pm, so we cut out and backtracked out to find a campsite.





We ended up at Callie's which was a really nice campground, had a large pond/small lake/whatever you want to classify it as. Very pretty campground, even had a restaurant.

Yes there was some rock crawling in camp...



And some bull got shot too.



I grabbed what I thought was "just add boiling water" mac and cheese cups so I didn't have to mess with milk and butter on the trail. Turns out if you read the directions you add water and then microwave. Of course I fogot to pack the microwave so I had to regroup midswing. I added water to the line like they said and then dumped the whole works in my little cup and cooked that until it resembled mac and cheese.





Grilled some minute steaks and it was a pretty good supper.



Instant oatmeal worked great for me for breakfast. Oliver had dry cereal.



We got packed up and went off to the playground to burn off some energy before sitting in the truck all day.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Kinda glad I left the Bronco at home...









Pottybreak/lunchtime

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Eventually we settled into Turkey Foot Campground in the Danial Boone National Forest.

Very nice campground, although a "campground" it didn't take much imagination to think were camping in the woods... with toilets just down the road.







I had brought my old (like 20yo) pop up hunting blind for a changing room/privy.



Grilled burgers and chips for supper.



Well I thought it was good anyway...

















Another oatmeal and cereal morning.



Awesomely cute thing that caught me by surprise... magic leaves. They can just float on their own. It was actually caught on a spider web but I let him have his magic.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Back on the KAT we stopped at a cave. Oliver wanted my phone to take a picture of "a weird bug" I didn't think anything of it until we got home... holy cow.







For this flatlander the terrain and plantlife almost seemed fake.





On the road again.



















Then we stopped at Camp Wildcat, the site of a Civil War battle.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

And then... the river.

I only watched Jim cross. I was pretty nervous about it. As I was watching him cross I thought I need to unplug my efans and I was debating about pulling the accordion tubes so the air cleaner would just draw from inside the engine bay and not from behind the grille. Then I thought back, running Spaas Creek with puddles maybe a foot deep I was getting water into the belt driven fan which was spraying the engine. I think it splashes ahead off the blunt front axle and into the fan which sprays it all over the engine.

I also thought I need to unplug the temp sensor for the pusher fans. After I got Oliver belted in (which I did soul searching over... what if I find a hole and roll the truck? We had just been driving thru a dry creekbed that had huge holes in it) I forgot about the temp sender.

My usual looking for trouble gear is low third. It is a hair faster than high first. I can ride the brakes and go kinda slow or I can punch it and still get pretty decent wheelspin without having to shift. Everyone said I hit it a little hard. Watching my gopro it does seem faster than I remembered it being. It also seems like I didn't get very far but looking at pictures I made it over halfway before the engine quit. The big splash I think is coming off the truck, I took absolutely no water over the hood.

Water was about that deep where it died, I would have to watch Jim's video again but I think I was past the channel...



And here comes a friends dog to the rescue!



He tagged along for the fun of it too.





Neat view downriver after Jim tugged me out.







Pop the hood, it was really only wet around the engine, not so much the fender where the ignition brainbox and coil live. So I popped apart the distributor connector and it was wet. Ran to the back of the truck to fetch a can of brake cleaner. Two puffs and it fired right up. I let it run while I repacked things an it started to get a funny lope which scared me. Then it died. I tried to start it but it wouldn't say a word. Then it hit me, I turned the key on to unlock the wheel when Jim pulled me... and I shut off the fuel pump so I didn't flood it bouncing thru the river with the engine not running. Turned that on and it fired right up again. 😊

First ever river crossing like that. My technique needs work for sure... but for the way the fan had been spraying my engine it could have happened sooner in the week too. I need to seal the connector and I think I need to make some kind of splash shield to keep water from coming up underneath the engine. I also need to wire in a switch to kill the efans.

Creek crossing was milder and uneventful

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Enough burning of daylight so we hit the rail again.







More natural bridges!



People try and try to grow ferns at home... and here they grow out of solid rock.





The different shapes in the rock is interesting. Bubbles, swirls and almost like stucco.











Ended up at Laurel Lake Camping Resort for our last night.





Tried Velveta mac and cheese in a cup that night. I liked the Kraft better. Kraft was a powder like normal, Velveta had the "cheese" in pouches you squeezed out. There was a weird powder substance on the macaroni to help it set up quicker... seemed more processed but the Kraft probably has the same stuff in the powder. I will probably just use Kraft going forward. If nothing else I don't have pouches that once contained cheese goo to deal with in my trash.





I grilled chicken that night, it was good but I didn't get a pic of it.





There was holly growing all over the campground which was neat... until a guy tried to walk thru it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We got packed up early Thursday and headed off to the playground since it was there and we had time.





Then it was time to mount up one last time and head west to meet up with the rest of the TRSers. We did run the KAT a little farther south first.





Then we found a huge neat rock shelf.









Then we hit the highway until we found a cool scenic pulloff.



Kind of reminds me of the old McDonald's playland tree seat

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then we took off for Cumberland Falls. In front of where were parked we saw a large lazy river with large rock sheets under seemingly shallow water. There was a debate how hard it would be to drive across that fortunately did not go any farther than debate stage.













Yes that is what you always heard it is at the end of a rainbow!



Of course the darn bucket was empty








Actually passed a Holley store, if wishes were fishes we would have stopped so I could pick up a new Stealth EFI kit...





Then we finally landed at the campground at LBL!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So yeah, it was a ton of fun and I have a few tweaks I want to make on my setup. We didn't actually camp along the trail like we wanted to... but most campsites on the trail were a in a swamp... didn't really want Shrek to pop up out of nowwhere and give us the boot. We also did a fair bit of hiking which cuts into drive time. We left the KAT to head to the TRS Roundup shortly before the shooter near London happened... which was near the Civil War campground we toured.

 

[Dougnuts]

Awesome trip! We went hiking at Natural Bridge on 9/2 (Labor Day) and I saw about 4-5 of these TRS guys pull into the lodge parking lot.

There are definitely some places in RRG that feel like you're in a prehistoric rain forest, with what seems like a microclimate of different plant life.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Awesome trip! We went hiking at Natural Bridge on 9/2 (Labor Day) and I saw about 4-5 of these TRS guys pull into the lodge parking lot.

There are definitely some places in RRG that feel like you're in a prehistoric rain forest, with what seems like a microclimate of different plant life.

There were only five trucks, I was one of them! lol

I really enjoyed it, we went to LBL last year but there was a lot more to see and experience on and around the KAT. I wish it wasn't so far out there, it would be fun to do more of it.