Ranger R70 “easy” updates 2025
Dirtyeggroll reply :
It finally happened. I pulled home a 1996 Ranger R70!
Its mostly in pretty good shape, but I suspect it has been fished pretty hard since its loaded with a nice amount of accessories.
It has a 2001 125 Mercury ELPTO that appears to come off of a Tracker boat based on the cowl decals.
As far as accessories it has:
80 lb 45" shaft Ultrex w/ iPilot
Humminbird 898c upfront
Humminbird 997c at the console
MinnKota MK330D 3 bank charger
2 Optimum Blue Top Trolling motor batteries
Hydrowave
Deck Extension
I am making this thread because I am going to do some relatively simple upgrades and couldn't find many details online about the specific upgrades I am wanting to make.
1) FIRST I am going to add a keel guard. It is very clear that this boat has seen some hard beaches. There are a few spots on the keel where the matting is showing that range from 0.5 to about 1.5 inches in length (almost kept me from buying the boat). Fortunately, a guy in our bass club does gel and glass work and all of the areas can be repaired and covered with a keel guard.
2) I am going to add a recessed trolling motor tray. Based on whats out there on the web, there is not a lot of room under the deck to add a tray as the front livewell goes really far up. I plan to add some measurements and nice pics to the web for others to use as reference to avoid losing any structural integrity and to avoid getting into the front livewell (I may convert this livewell to some kind of storage).
3) The boat has a bench seat with a single 6" tear in it. Additionally, its not a big boat and could use some more storage space. So, I plan to replace the bench with some buckets and add a center console/step. I can only currently find one instance online where someone has replaced the seat with buckets and the measurements weren't very detailed. I plan to leave some space behind the passenger seat to fit a net behind and make a place either under the seat or in the center console where a bump board can slide into.
More pics
TOXIC reply :
Good luck. You've got a pretty aggressive upgrade schedule. As for the keel damage, if you can get it repaired by a glass guy so much the better but if you are tight on funds, you could patch the glass with marine tech or any fiberglass patching material and not worry about it looking perfect since you are going to cover it with a shield anyway. I would recomend a KeelShield by Gator Guards. Made in USA, Lifetime warranty. It is my preference for a self-install. As for the seats, you will spend an arm and a leg if you go through Ranger. Take a little trip over to Bassboatseats.com and check out what thy have to offer. Adding under seat storage to seat pans that are solid is no easy task. Concerning the tray, get your hull ID # and Call Ranger. They will tell you if you can put the size tray you need for your ultrex in that model year boat.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
On 1/7/2019 at 9:31 PM, TOXIC said:Good luck. You've got a pretty aggressive upgrade schedule. As for the keel damage, if you can get it repaired by a glass guy so much the better but if you are tight on funds, you could patch the glass with marine tech or any fiberglass patching material and not worry about it looking perfect since you are going to cover it with a shield anyway. I would recomend a KeelShield by Gator Guards. Made in USA, Lifetime warranty. It is my preference for a self-install. As for the seats, you will spend an arm and a leg if you go through Ranger. Take a little trip over to Bassboatseats.com and check out what thy have to offer. Adding under seat storage to seat pans that are solid is no easy task. Concerning the tray, get your hull ID # and Call Ranger. They will tell you if you can put the size tray you need for your ultrex in that model year boat.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Got a little ahead myself and ordered a MegaWare guard about a week ago. Though I have heard that they can have a life as short as about 3 years, so I might return it and go with the Gator. Thanks for the suggestion.
Im not planning on putting storage under the seat since the gas tank is under there, just planning on the console. Thinking it will be pretty much bolt on for some buckets, just trying to determine which ones from bassboatseats will fit well.
Ranger suggests not to do a recessed tray in the R70, so some engineering will be involved to reinforce the deck after cutting it.
A-Jay reply :
Sweet ~
Congrats & Best of Luck with the New Rig
A-Jay
Dirtyeggroll reply :
So it begins. None of this work however is being done by me. A willing member of the club I belong who does boats on the side is doing me a solid for a deal I can’t believe. Comfort D-lux tray going in today!
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Decide to also add some new graphs
Dirtyeggroll reply :
The shop where we were working on my boat is flooded. Power poles are being held hostage in the upper mezzanine due to the flooding. Was in the process of replacing a thru-hull transducer when it had to be evacuated.
If only had I just left it alone and not decided to do the upgrades I would be able to use it for the my week off in the first week of April... Maybe next year.
TOXIC reply :
Well that is a bummer. Patience is directly related to reward. Do it right.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Got the deck extension turned into a storage compartment.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
There is not gonna be time this year to redo the seats because now it’s time to fish!
Finally for the keel guard on and this boat is finally ready for the water! Hoping I can take it out one evening this week before a tournament this weekend.
(Edit: yikes the trailer is dirty!)
Allaroundfishing reply :
Lookin good, keep us updated on how she runs!!!
jaimeastin reply :
You didn't waste any time... I like that. Keep us posted for sure!
Dirtyeggroll reply :
On 4/9/2019 at 1:48 PM, jaimeastin said:You didn't water any time... I like that. Keep us posted for sure!
Did you mean “waste”?
If so, then you’re kind of right. With the gouges on the keel I was a bit worried about putting it in the water. I wasn’t confident in my ability to repair the keel on my own and had a week off of work that I had hoped to have the boat ready to fish by. Well that didn’t happen, so I used the week to work on all of the things I was comfortable doing myself until the guy who was helping me had a free afternoon.
I spent the whole week in the garage in the boat. The garage was a wreck and my wife was certainly ready for me to stop being in there crawling around on it randomly cursing here and there. I am too and I am ready to take it out after having it sit in the garage for 4 months.
jaimeastin reply :
On 4/9/2019 at 6:07 PM, Dirtyeggroll said:Did you mean “waste”?
If so, then you’re kind of right. With the gouges on the keel I was a bit worried about putting it in the water. I wasn’t confident in my ability to repair the keel on my own and had a week off of work that I had hoped to have the boat ready to fish by. Well that didn’t happen, so I used the week to work on all of the things I was comfortable doing myself until the guy who was helping me had a free afternoon.
I spent the whole week in the garage in the boat. The garage was a wreck and my wife was certainly ready for me to stop being in there crawling around on it randomly cursing here and there. I am too and I am ready to take it out after having it sit in the garage for 4 months.
Yes, waste.
Yes my wife hates when I work on the boat because it consumes my time so.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Finally got her out for the maiden voyage. About 30 minutes in, the floor started filling with water. Apparently I had busted a livewell recirculator outlet when I was installing one of the many things that required me to access the bilge. We were able to put the boat back on the trailer and move down the hose clamp and didn’t have any more problems the rest of the day.
Even put the first fish in the boat, and more importantly got my dad on some good fish too!
Dirtyeggroll reply :
The “Ranger Sport R70” decals were coming off and had been bothering me since day 1 of owning this boat. Not anymore! Replaced them with some domed numbers. I think they look great and add an updated look to the boat.
I also have been frustrated trying to get a hatch latch for my custom compartment from Ranger that matches the key to my other latches. Well I struck some luck and ran into a guy who was basically giving away a Loc-R-Bar. No more taking all of my stuff out of the middle compartment!
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Things are getting out of control.
I definitely have too many brief moments while wandering the hospital to obsess about the next add-on for the boat.
Next thing “simple” thing I want to do is remove the Tracker decals and replace with Mercury decals.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
This little boat has turned out to my liking.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Got a killer deal on some newer seats from a bigger Ranger boat. Test fitting them and not sure if I want to keep them or not. On the plus side they really make the boat look updated and they are very comfortable and spacious. On the negative side they don’t leave much room between them for a center console and don’t leave much room for someone much bigger than me to fit comfortably behind the console.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
TOXIC reply :
If you want the center coin box (that's what Ranger calls it) you are obviously not going to fit it in that space. Likewise the 3rd seat won't fit in that area either. I took my 3rd seat out and put in the coin box but mine is an 05 Z21 so it might have a wider beam.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
On 6/18/2019 at 1:43 AM, TOXIC said:If you want the center coin box (that's what Ranger calls it) you are obviously not going to fit it in that space. Likewise the 3rd seat won't fit in that area either. I took my 3rd seat out and put in the coin box but mine is an 05 Z21 so it might have a wider beam.
The R70 has a relatively narrow beam. Im gonna keep the seats and make my own “coin box”.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Decided to keep them and finish the install. Just enough room for a step and maybe even room for a cup holder or two and maybe even a small hatch. Really like the way they turned out. Really updates the boat!
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Added “cook’s 
go-to tackle system” under the custom compartment. I’m excited I have a place to store my frequents without having them floating around the deck.
boostr reply :
Nice work
OnthePotomac reply :
You have a real labor of love there and are doing a first class job on everything you have done. You will have a bond with that boat forever as you look back on all you have done.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
On 10/16/2019 at 11:05 PM, OnthePotomac said:You have a real labor of love there and are doing a first class job on everything you have done. You will have a bond with that boat forever as you look back on all you have done.
It has been my goal to take my time and use only quality parts for making this boat into what I want. It has been extremely rewarding and I have really enjoyed the process.
Next up on the docket is adding hydraulic steering. Took me all day on the day before Christmas Eve but, with some help I finally had to engineer a tool to get the steering wheel off. I tried every gear and steering wheel puller I could loan from O’Reilly to get the steering wheel hub removed with no success. Luckily, I have a friend who is a bass boat wizard who helped me fab up the perfect puller and that baby popped right off. I hope to get the hydraulic steering operational before the New Year. I ended up getting the Protech system from Cabela’s because I had a bunch of CLUB points to spend.
NorcalBassin reply :
Boat is looking great... one heck of a project for you this past year and it's cool seeing all of your progress.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Got the hydraulic steering installed and lines and helm filled with oil.
What I didn’t realize was how much turn of the motor I would lose due to the cylinder bottoming out. Boy am I disappointed. I really loved how how the little boat could maneuver at idle and how I could turn the motor to gain a couple inches in the garage.
I went from having greater than 45 degrees of motor turn to either side to having far less than 45 degrees on either side.
I did everything exactly per the instructions and checked it all multiple times. I think it’s just an artifact of the UFlex Protech system I am using.
Hoping I can come up with something to gain most of my turning back, because the install is pretty much irreversible given the larger hole I had to make for the new helm and the routing of the old steering cable. *sigh*
I’ll try to find some old pictures of the previous turning angle to compare to the new.
jaimeastin reply :
On 1/3/2020 at 9:44 PM, Dirtyeggroll said:Hoping I can come up with something to gain most of my turning back, because the install is pretty much irreversible given the larger hole I had to make for the new helm and the routing of the old steering cable. *sigh*
Dang... I know you will find a solution. These are just the little things that mess up a great idea in projects. I don't have a clue to help you right now, but hopefully you will come up with something or someone can chime in.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
Installed the MEGA 360!
Now to get the cover refitted to fit over it.
The next thing I want to do is remove the “Tracker” stickers from the motor and replace with some silver “Mercury” ones.
TNHillBilly reply :
How is the deck holding up with the foot pedal tray? Did you have to add structural mods to reinforce anything? I am planning to add the same tray to my 94 R70.
Dirtyeggroll reply :
On 2/16/2020 at 4:56 AM, TNHillBilly said:How is the deck holding up with the foot pedal tray? Did you have to add structural mods to reinforce anything? I am planning to add the same tray to my 94 R70.
No structure support needed. It’s firm up there with plenty of support already. Just make sure to seal the cut edges with fiberglass resin to prevent water intrusion into the wood between the fiberglass.
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