This round included:
- 2 - New Goodyear Wrangler 37x12.50x15 MT/R tires
- Cut front fenders to accomodate the 37x12.50x15 MT/R tires
- Hayden 5500GVWR Fin and Tube oil cooler. For the power steering fluid.
- Grab Strap. For the passenger to pull themselves up in the truck with.
- 2 - Class B and C Fire Extinguishers.
Ok, admittedly this list is not as long as the others have been thus far.
But they are important ones none the less, and there are some things I want to tell you about them while it's fresh in my mind.
Lets start at the top of the list. The tires. If you are a 4x4 person you know how agonizing the choice of tires can be for your truck when you have a multi use frame of mind. Sure, it would be easy if it didn't get driven on the Interstate . . much. It would be equally easy to pick a tire if it was an Interstate cruiser that didn't get many roots and rocks in its diet.
Thus my point, figuring out which is the "best" tire is not an easy task. It is just plain unfair in my own personal opinion, when something cost as much as FIVE 37 inch tires (gotta have a full size spare with lockers on both ends!) a person should be able to test drive a couple of different brands before deciding. The local tire guy didn't agree with me. Imagine that.
In the end, I decided to go with what I know. These tires pull like crazy on this truck. If you read the last page you may remember my mechanic has already told me to "be careful you have plenty of power to break lots of parts" after driving the truck. There may be better tires out there. But these work just fine. My final deciding factor was reading reviews on web sites. With few exceptions they all say the highway milage that can be expected from these tires is as good as it gets for the tire type.
I did notice after getting the new ones on, that the tires on that axle tend to spin a LOT easier on the pavement than the mostly worn out ones they replaced. I dropped the air pressure from the rated 35PSI to 32PSI to see if its an inflation problem or a tire compound problem. 'let you know what I find out as the miles wear on.
Next on the list is the Hyaden tube and fin oil cooler for the power steering.
The pump on the truck is not the Saganaw pump, it is that other one with the plastic body. Yea, I know, there is a big part of the problem right there. None the less, this pump is reasonably new, has a lifetime warranty from Autozone, and fits the dang pump mounting brackets currently on the engine.
Reason enough for me to think a transmission cooler would be a great power steering cooler after an hour in the woods and my pump started fussing. Oh, you should have hear it! Whining and crying like it was being tortured.
Like a bolt out of the blue it dawned on me; Hey! Those 37 inch tires are probably torturing that pump after an hour of twisty turning at real low speed. My Bart Simpson moment for the month and you get to share it with me. Aren't I fortunate !
Below you will see that I replaced the high pressure line with a braided steel line using standard -AN fittings on the ends. I used the teflon lined double braided stainless steel stuff so that hose is no longer something I need to carry a spare for. You may know that the OEM hose is a very special . . piece of junk. You either make a conversion to standard hose such as this, or you carry a spare OEM hose. That takes up money and space. Both at a premium for me too - I assure you.
Removing the old steel line Ford laughingly used for a power steering oil cooler gave me a little more peace of mind as well. Something like that has no business facing front on the front cross member of a four wheel drive truck. 6-inches of lift and 37-inch tires or not.
I had my local hydraulic hose guy bend me up a short "adapter fitting" to replace completely the connection from the old OEM cooler line to the steering box. I simply unscrewed the end fitting off the steering box and the hose clamp off the return port on the pump, and removed the entire cooler pipe assembly thing in one piece.
The new fitting is, as you will see bent to point directly to the hose connection for the cooler. Not only does this look much cleaner, it makes it easier for the oil to flow through the hose - remember this is low pressure oil return - and easier to keep the hose from contacting any sharp edges as it routes through the core support to the cooler core mounted to the front of the A/C condenser.
Catch that? Through the core support? Ford has some great big holes on each side of the radiator you can use with very little extra effort compared to ghetto routing hoses down below the core support giving you two more things to potentially catch with a root, limb, or log. Take the time to do it right.
Enjoy . . I hope.
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 | Front and side views of the engine. Spark Plug wires. Note the lack of spaghetti. It is not that hard to do! The photo at left shows the new high pressure hose and part of the old "cooler" line. |
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 New Fitting and new cooler lines. |  Steering oil cooler core tucked in grill. |  New rear tires! They stick out just right. |
 Left fender section removed | These two photos show the fender section we removed. 3-Layers thick. That was a surprise ! |  3 layers of metal. BIG surprise. |
 Left fender. After being cut. | Cut with a combination of die grinder, chisel, and naturally, hacksaw. |  Right fender. After being cut. |
 Grab Strap. Works great ! |  Class B and C extinguishers. One on each side. |  Floor pan resealed and color coordinated ;-). |
| More as time, inclination and finances allow. Oh in case you are wondering . . . I took a brown one-inch web strap about a foot long and made the grab loop. I anchored it to the "A" pillar with a 1/4" self taping metal screw and fender washer. Then I notched and reinstalled the trim.
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| HERE is the truck home page. HERE is the first page of modifications. Done December of 2004. HERE is the second page of modifications. Done June of 2005. HERE is the third page of modifications. Done December of 2005. HERE is the fifth page of modifications. Done June of 2006. | ||
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