It took over a week to get the mountain top and aero wing off. What with watching endless videos on how to take them off only to find mine is not the same type. Rain, wind and that's just me with not enough energy.
After noticing the manufacturers name on the key cover I searched Armadillo mountain top and found a very useful installation video. It showed just where the hidden bolts were that were holding up progress.
Finally off. It doesn't look so pretty now but its a step closer to fitting the demountable
Two of the handle type tie-downs have been taken off and will be replaced ( during top removal ) The centre rail accepts two more tie -downs. The tub and load liner are slightly different dimensions to the old Ranger allowing more space between the wheel arches but slightly higher.
A couple of trial fittings showed that with the angle that the drive sits and the higher tailgate I needed the camper about 100mm higher than before.
Spider-like and ready to get the truck under it. The gaffer taped polystyrene on the camper corner save my head quite a few times
Having initially designed the camper to fit with the tailgate in place (That was before I joined this group and found that most people take them off to save weight ) I thought I would try the fit with it on. Either my design was a bit out or the tailgate is longer but I was 50mm short
Looking good though. It allowed me to determine the positions of the turnbuckles and where I need to fit two brackets.
The truck was put back on the road and an attempt was made to unclip the reversing camera feed. No luck, I couldn't get a good enough grip with these old fingers.
I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and remove the spare wheel (which I wanted to do to check it out ) and give me more room for another go at the clip.
Next problem.
The spare wheel won't dropdown.
There is a winding handle that should let the chain down that holds the wheel in place. It came down about 50mm then stopped with the chain going slack. A closer inspection showed that a thing that looked like a small grease gun was sticking through one of the wheel bolt holes. I tried pulling, pushing, banging, swearing but it just sat there.
I phoned my son to get him to go next door to the garage and ask them how it comes off.
There was nothing like this on the old Ranger.
Half an hour later came the answer. It's a wheel lock.
There was no mention of this in the manual or on the tube videos that I watched. Apparently, it was a recall and fitted by Ford after some of the more light-fingered members of the human race found the aluminium spare wheels were easy pray and started to collect them to weigh in.
Funnily enough, On one of the two sets of keys I received, there were two keys I could not identify.
Back under the truck with a torch I found the grease gun looking object had an end cap that when removed revealed the key hole.
The spike near the chain goes through a wheel nut hole then the barrel locks onto it. Simples
It looks obvious when its all clean and you can see the markings
It was a job well worth doing though. All the bolt holes were caked full of dry mud as was the whole wheel. Well, it had done 140k miles on building sites so you expect it to be a bit grubby.
I would have hated to be out on a cold wet night trying to sort that lot out.
Horror story alert
Back in the day, my tires were changed at the fitters where they used a preset air torque gun (supposedly)
Out with my wife and two young kids when we had a puncture. The cars little wheel brace would not undo the overtightened wheel nuts. So, a two-mile walk to the nearest garage. A £10 deposit on a borrowed 4 foot pry bar. Then a two-mile walk back carrying a hulking great lump of steel
Lesson learned. I always go around all the wheel nuts at home with my spider and retighten them with the brace.
Back to the camera feed.............................manyarna
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm" .......(Winston Churchill)
2007 Ford Ranger "Thunder" 4x4
Camper aedificavit domum
2016 Ford Ranger "Wildtrack" 4x4
