Ford Ranger Mods So Far...
 

Hello,
I'm new on the forum, so here goes. Here are some of the mods I've done to my current ride. It's a 96 Ford Ranger with the terrible V6 4.0 liter engine. It's supposed to get only 16 or 17 mpg combined, but with the mods so far gets 20-22 city!
I started by reducing the overall weight, removing all sorts of useless junk, that came in at 250-300 lbs. (jump seats, consoles, spare tire carrier, mudflaps,other misc. parts)...Next I added the airdam on the front...I had to endure a week or two of being called a tree hugging hippie freak by the guys at work, but for the better mpg's it was worth it! Today I started on the aero shell, and should have that finished by this weekend. I'll probably have a wood lid, with a plexi window in it, but it's not finished yet. It only weighs about 50 lbs, and is quite strong, so we'll see how the mpg's go...no exact figures yet!
I just paid the damn thing off, so I'm still enjoying not having a car payment for a month or two, and conseq. reluctant to invest major $ in ecomods...however I may drop some soon for one of those scangauges...looks like fun!
See y'all
Rich
sorry still no pics...this site says my filesizes are all too big...I'll have to do some work on reducing them...then resend...

Great results - from a 4.0 V6 no less! I'd love to see pics as I'm considering an air dam and aerodynamic canopy too. But had great results from low rolling resistance tires.

Air dams and fastback canopies are powerful tools for MPG.

pics!

Post your pics to photobucket.com then you can link them to here.

I'm really curious the mods you're doing to the truck, I'm currently driving a 92 Ranger with that horrible engine too!

ranger mods
 

Yeah,
You've got the 4l manual, but mines auto and 4x4...so consequently the best I've been able to get is 20+- on the highway. After much driving, and writing down my mileage I found that I was only getting about 2 or 3 mpg better than EPA / Ford stats. In other words, not that great. I put a rubber mat airdam on the front, which seems to be helping, but I'm not sure if I spent more effort on changin my driving style, after installing it, or if it was actually doing anything itself, it's hard to say. I began working on an aerodynamic shell, but decided it would make the truck pretty much useless as a truck, I couldn't open the sides, load any large tools, or bulk materials, so I removed it.
I think I might just go with a simple flexible tonneau cover for the back, and see if that helps. I'm reluctant to do much else to it, since I've just paid it off, and I'm enjoying not having a car payment for a while.
Basically, it comes down to this, If you convert your truck to an eco friendly aerodynamic shaped vehicle, it's no longer a truck, and consequently, you might just as well spend some money and buy a more economical vehicle. If you really are getting more than 20 mpg out of your truck, be happy, cos that's probably all you will get out of it. The Ranger that Ford advertises with 29 mpg is for a stock, brand new engine with no options, no AC, 4 cyl 5 speed manual no 4X4, with nothing in the bed...so if it's not hauling anything, what's the point? we might as well as be driving a little hatchback.
Good Luck
Rich

Agreed. I don't understand why some people use a truck primarily as a commuter and rarely as a hauler. Depending on the load capacity required, a light 2000lb capacity trailer can be pulled quite nicely fully loaded by a smaller car. On saturday we used a dialed in 240SX for autocross or track days, then hook up the trailer and pull 2 yards of yard bark home on sunday.

I commute in my truck about 3 months a year when it's freezing in the morning and too scketchy for riding the motorcycle. Otherwise the truck is strictly for haul mode. When the landscaping on our new house is complete and the need for a truck is less, I'm going back to a fun to drive small car and the light utility trailer, oh and the motorcycle.

For fun and aerodynamic profit, google "aerodynamic pickup". Fluent has a nice image of the aerodynamics of a pickup that show the pressures and flows. Good information for cleaning up a truck. I'd post the pic but the file is too large and I'm not savvy enough to figure out else to get it on this post.

Regards

Did a little more research on my Ranger and actually its the 3.0L engine... opps!... But the crazy thing is that based on Fuel Economy the 3.0 and the 4.0 both get the same EPA numbers! how strange! I did manage to hit 26mpg myself so it is possible to squeak out a few more drops of liquid gold savings!

If you replace your rear bumper with a sheetmetal roll pan that will drop alot more weight off.

Also you could look into some light weight wheels. I know that some of the offroad wheels are very light and avaliable in stock or even smaller than stock sizes.