Go to a junk yard, find an old volvo with A/C.

IF it has a YORK air compressor buy it. The trick with the York is that it has its own oil for lube. The other A/C units use the freon for lube. You can make a killer Air Compressor out of one of these. We did this on several vehicle and I have one sitting in the garage for my truck. It will run full size impact wrenches all day long.

When you make a setup like this, how big a tank do you need?

Are there any other cars that use York compressors?

We use between 5 and 10 gal tanks. What ever we find that mounts up nice on a frame rail. Harbor Freight had some tanks cheep for a while. I don't know if any others had the York but the old Volvo's were the most common.

They have an electric clutch so you have a switch for when you want the compressor to run. A tank, some fittings, and quick connects front and rear......

If you’re on the road a lot then satellite radio, best "tech" thing I bought for my truck yet.

Great stuff, thanks! Over the winter I am outfitting my Samurai for long weekend camping trips & fleeing from alien invasions. Onboard air would be awesome.

I should add, the floormats I referenced earlier were Husky Liners. Rhino liner is a bedliner, and I am a moron. Link to the site:

http://www.huskyliners.com/home.cfm

Made with pride in Winfield, KS.:)

just bought a passport radar detector with GPS and it's fan tas tic.

We did this to Cindy's Ranger...only the tonneau is soft top, so we can roll it out of the way when we want to haul something bigger. Also, a cargo bar...to keep the grocery bags in place.

You also might get yourself a Craftsman catalog...lots of options listed there for tool chests, etc.

Terry, hang in there...pickemups grow on you. They aren't the fastest, not the best MPG, etc. But are they EVER handy. I'm living quite well without a P-car, but I'll never be without a pickemup...

Its starting to earn its keep. Pulls the boat fine and we have been remodeling the master bath which made dumping the tear out much easier.

I can honestly say I never watched gas prices until I bought this truck. The mpg is intolerable. If they come up with a hybrid that has a decent towing capacity I'm all over it.

Being a used Dodge it hasn't been that bad maintainence wise. A high pressure pwr steering hose sprung a leak ($19.95) and the rear brake drum cylinder ($19.95) started leak. Swapping out the parts was a snitch. I also added a B&M trans cooler and cyberdyne temp gauge to keep stats while towing.

I need to fab up a boat trailer wheel mount in the bed so I can haul an extra one.

Of course I daily scour the for sale adds for my next real project.

You did well on the trans cooler, especially in light of doing tow duty. Spare trailer wheel/tire? When I had a sailboat, the spare was mounted to the trailer itself. I would suggest you look into hitch locks if your don't already have one. Mine was made by Master. It was a "boot" that locked over the trailer hitch, preventing somebody from hooking up & towing the boat away.

Yep, it takes gas to tow...my Dodge gets horrible mileage. The Ford Ranger doesn't have much towing ability, even with the largest 4.0 engine, but it yields an honest average of 20mpg....The best mod I did to it was eldelbrock shocks...which improved the handling tremendously. It's our main runabout, grocery getter now. I feel that the tonneau has improved the MPG figure @ highway speeds by eliminating the drag of the bed. I've also seen aftermarket tailgates made of mesh steel, thus allowing the dragging air to pass through.

Sounds like you're already learning how handy a pickemup can be. :)

Seriously, if households were restricted to only one vehicle? My choice would be a pickemup...

I hate driving a truck. Hate, hate, hate. But I also can't picture myself living without one. Damn it.

Terry,
You haven't said if this truck is diesel or not. If it is, you can put all kinds of trick things on it that will help make it last longer. I've put some on mine which include: bypass oil filter, coolant filter, tranny fluid filter, fuel filter, a 3-gauge set for turbo, EGT & tranny temp. There are also some trick chrome tow hooks for the front bumpers for some trucks. Actually no end to it.

Oh if it was a diesel turbo I would have turned up the boost on day one.

The wife's BMW lease is up in a year so I'm buying time. I think I'm going to get here a nice big SUV to tow the bot with and I can get back to driving a euro car daily.