B2 putting in work!

[jkufen]

I just wanted to gloat a little bit about how tough my 86 B2 has been. It is completely stock and I have done things with it that some of my buddies full sizes have had trouble doing. This past weekend a friend of mine called me and said that he had a 35' driving RV that he needed help moving to his shop so that he could cut it up for a project. Well I ride out to his house and see that this camper is crammed in a corner of a yard where it has been sitting for 5 years. The RV was buried up to the frame in mud and dirt, the tires were flat, and it was an automatic that was stuck in park. Well I brought the old b2 over and told him I could get that camper out of the fenced in yard no problem. Let's just say he was skeptical. It was a 35' camper and the sticker in the door said it had a gross weight of almost 15,000 pounds. Plus it was full of junk from the original owner who used it as a storage shed so it was probably closer to 17-18,000 pounds. We I hooked a strap to the front bumper and the way it was positioned I had to drag the front end sideways to get the camper lined up to take it out of the gate because it was in a corner. We hooked the strap to the factory rear bumper and I went to pulling. At first I couldnt get the RV to budge at all. It was as solid as a rock. After about 10 minutes of pulling the camper started to slide around. I dragged it about 20 feet and then it was lined up for the gate. We then dragged it out of the gate. Once we got it out the gate we managed to get it into neutral and filled the tires full of air. At this point in time I have the whole neighborhood watching this redneck pull this big camper with such a little truck. Well truthfully getting it out of the yard was the easy part. Now I had to tow this RV 10 miles or so down the road to the shop. Well it took a while and I believe I dont have much of a clutch left but we got the camper to the shop. :icon_thumby:

Sorry for the long story but I just had to gloat a little about the b2. Now the b2 is the talk of the town! It never ceases to amaze me.



A pic the misses snapped while going down the road.

 

[wildbill23c]

The Bronco 2's and the Rangers are pretty under-rated IMO. These vehicles are pretty capable, people just don't like them because they aren't built to win races.

We had a tough shed built a couple years ago. The idiots who came out to do the install, I told them to wait at the road and I would open the gate to my field so they could drive right around to the location without getting stuck in part of my yard that was wet. Well they didn't listen they just proceeded to back into the yard. They were driving a 2WD Ford F-450 or F-550 can't remember which, but anyhow they buried that truck in my yard up to the rear differential. At that time my grandfather had a 93 Ford Ranger, only truck we had at the time. Latched onto that truck and literally drug it out of my yard. The weight of the truck I have no clue, plus it was loaded with all of the sections of the tough shed.

Yes these little trucks are more capable than what people think. Didn't mean to intercept your thread, just saying, they are capable, they won't win any races but they'll get you and whatever you hook to where it needs to go.

 

[MeanMark87]

That poor little B2 - tough little rig.

The thing is, stock vehicles are capable of some pretty amazing things. Look no futher than Top Gear for examples....James driving that Volvo wagon all the way across Africa, Jeremy's stock Range Rover making it to the top of the Andes...people would be surprised what their vehicles can do if pressed into service. Hell I used my old Pontiac Sunfire to help pull down a tree once.

 

[wildbill23c]

That poor little B2 - tough little rig.

The thing is, stock vehicles are capable of some pretty amazing things. Look no futher than Top Gear for examples....James driving that Volvo wagon all the way across Africa, Jeremy's stock Range Rover making it to the top of the Andes...people would be surprised what their vehicles can do if pressed into service. Hell I used my old Pontiac Sunfire to help pull down a tree once.

I agree, you put a knowledgeable driver in a stock vehicle you would be surprised what that vehicle that you just use to drive you to and from work can really do if needed.

 

[MeanMark87]

I agree, you put a knowledgeable driver in a stock vehicle you would be surprised what that vehicle that you just use to drive you to and from work can really do if needed.

I hauled a yard of black dirt in the back of my Ranger once. She had to work pretty damn hard but it did it. It's all about how you drive it.

Semi-related:

The OP's story reminded me of a story a mechanic I used to work with told me. He grew up way up in northern Minnesota near the Canadian border. A friend of his had an old trailer home he needed hauled out of his lot and about 10 miles down the road. This trailer had been sitting there for decades, and he asked this mechanic to pull it out with a log skidder. Well he hooks up the log skidder and takes off and after about half a mile of hauling it up a long ass driveway out to the road, he turns around to figure out why it's pulling so hard. Turns out, when he started pulling the trailer, it pulled the whole thing right off the axles and he was dragging the trailer house on its bottom through the dirt.

 

[wildbill23c]

^^^ Talk about lugging around an anchor LOL.

A friend of mine used to live in Nevada, he worked in one of the mines as a welder for several years. They had property but only had a 27' travel trailer down there. Well in that time the trailer had sunk up to the bottom of the trailer, well when the time came for them to move, he goes out and hooks onto the trailer (mind you this isn't a Ford Ranger but goes to show what the little trucks can do, he did this with a 1988 Dodge D-50 4x4 4 cylinder truck), well in the process of moving the trailer out of where it had sunk, it literally ripped the grey and black water holding tanks right off the trailer. They towed that trailer from Nevada all the way to Emmett Idaho behind that little Dodge D-50. It also became their hunting truck, damn thing would go anywhere once the offroad tires were put on it.

 

[jkufen]

I can't quit putting the b2 to work. I bought it for $1500 and I had every intention of putting it to the test. We usually go wheeling once or twice a week and every time I have one or two people that talk smack about how the b2 is useless because it is so small. Well by the end of the night when I am the only running truck and have to tow all there full sizes home they become believers. I have tried it one time going easy on the b2 for about 3 weeks because I thought about doing a restoration on it and it broke down. The fuel pumps wouldn't come on and the truck wouldn't crank. Well about 3 weeks later a buddy of mine called me and said that him and 3 other trucks were stuck and nobody else could get them out. Well i told him the b2 wasnt running but I would go look at it again and see if it was something I could get going temporarily. I walked out there and turned the key and it fired up on the first turn. Ever since then I realized the truck enjoyed showing up other people so I give it all it's got all the time. I never have issues with the b2 when its putting in work but whenever it goes longer than about a week without doing anything it's not built to do it'll start to run rough.

 

[jkufen]

This is the bronco as it sits now except cleaner. As you can see its nothing special.

 

[wildbill23c]

Pretty nice B2 even with the non-matched door body looks pretty good at least.

I think my B2 has the same problem. Not trying to show off, but if I drive it easy, and not beat on it it starts having random issues, if I drive it hard it does fine WTF. Anyhow my B2 is down again at the moment, well I could drive it but kind of holding off as I'm not sure if the starter is damaged or just another issue with spacing on it or coming lose, its going in on Monday for new front and rear main seals. Can't wait to get it back and driving it again. Got a kid in high school that wants something to do so I said well you can take it back in and do the seals, and possibly a tune-up god knows how long that its been since it had new plugs and wires, previous owner didn't do crap with it, well other than beating it to crap by lack of maintenance and cleaning. Slowly getting it back to a reliable condition. Engine has great power, and aside from the whining in overdrive it does great, I've had it on a couple of extremely mild trails at which time I had junk bald ass tires on it and it was still pulling itself along in 2WD just fine.

I pulled out a couple of shrubs from the middle of my driveway earlier this year with my B2. Mom was like I don't think the Bronco is gonna even budge them, well I proved her wrong on that one. People don't give these RBV's much credit. And yes many times I see RBV's rescuing full size vehicles. I think its because they are so small they can almost float in places where full size trucks will just sink to their axles.

Great to see someone using their truck as it was intended.

 

[jkufen]

Yeah all my buddies went the route with f250's and chevy 2500's with the diesels thinking that the bigger the truck and the more power it has the better it does off road. They get stuck a lot and end up calling me. We feel that we are professional off roaders but there is a lot that we don't know about. It wasnt until i joined this forum before i realized what i was missing. I use to think it was all about big tires and hitting a mud hole at 20 mph. Now I have learned a lot about proper gearing, lockers, SAS, etc. So now I look at how my buddies off road and now i understand why my b2 can do the things it can and why they have such a hard time. I didnt realize how much of it is technique and driving skills.

 

[wildbill23c]

Add in the extra weight of a larger vehicle combined with a larger heavier engine and they tend to sink like rocks, and in a diesel vehicle its even worse as the diesel engine weighs even more.

Stock compact trucks are extremely capable. I've only been stuck once, and I wasn't exactly stuck its just my little 2WD 1984 Ford Ranger was so light it was just floating in the mud hole, if it was 4WD I could have got out because the front wheels were up against the back of the hole. Other than that incident that little 2WD truck took me hunting, camping, and up and down trails where 4WD's were having trouble. I guess maybe when you have a smaller truck and lack 4WD you just learn to drive and learn what you vehicle can do.

It is fun though pulling full size trucks out with a little truck, it makes them really feel bad LOL.