Building a vehicle isn’t easy. Believe me I know, and building a vehicle that veers sharply off the beaten path is even harder. When it comes to following in the foot steps of others Andrew Myers clearly isn’t the type. The proof of this lies in his “2000 Honda Ranger XLT”.
This truck has been floating around Facebook — and causing huge debates– for a while and I was waiting to see if it was going to get a bit more complete before posting. However earlier this week Andrew reached out on Instagram confirming that this is essentially the trucks final form.
From a straight up visual stand point it’s clear as day this truck is unique and also very low.
The truck is static, and features a very significant stock floor body drop. Usually a stock floor body drop of this significance would result in a motor sticking out of the hood, but in this case Andrew side-stepped that by pulling the factory motor from between the fenders.
Today the truck’s power comes from behind the cab.
Using some creative engineering, and seemingly whatever metal he had laying about the shop, Andrew has installed the entire front cradle of a Honda (I can’t quite tell if Integra or Civic) in the back of his Ranger.
Reuse was the name of the game here with Andrew re-purposing as many stock parts as he could. I’m not going to lie it’s a fairly clever way to create a rear engine vehicle, considering that as far as the drive train components are concerned it’s still in a Honda.
He was even able to use the factory cooling system, hoses and all. The braking system of course had to change along with the wiring harnesses on both the Honda and Ford sides of the fence.
The motor swap isn’t what has most people up in arms about this truck though. It is the execution.
Simply put it looks like it shouldn’t work. Several people also questioned the engineering merit of the entire truck and said it won’t drive a mile. Currently the truck is Andrew’s daily driver.
Executing a lofty idea like this from start to finish is an accomplishment in itself so hats off to Andrew for seeing this through to the end.
No matter what anyone says he figured it out all on his own.
Of course time will tell if the naysayers are right and this truck really is a rolling accident waiting to happen, or if Andrew pulled a fast one on us and actually created a vehicle that will last a long time.
If you want to take a look at how this truck came to be, ask questions, or simply tune in to see if it’s going to explode you can check out the Honda Ranger Facebook page.
A lot of me is wondering what the truck would look like if Andrew pulled it off the road and put his mind toward building it cleanly. In this photo below he proves he is fully capable.
He seems to have no desire to execute to that level on this truck though so we can leave this as one of life’s many great “what ifs”.
