I have recently acquired a 2005 Ford Ranger through a family member to use as a commuter/project. I plan on doing all of the repairs and maintenance on it myself and wanted to get a repair manual for it. I'm pretty proficient when it comes to working on trucks and already do most of the R&M on my F250. I've heard Chilton is too detailed for a DIY but Haynes doesn't go into enough detail on some projects. Between Haynes and Chilton, which one do y'all prefer and why?

YouTube for the win. If you're going to pay money for a manual get the OEM service manual, otherwise you'll find 95% of what you don't already know how to do on YouTube. For a Ford I'd bet a Google search will locate an "official" Ford manual on DVD for less than you'd pay for a Chilton.

I think they're owned by the same company now and are pretty similar.

I would download the factory Ford service DVDs for free or buy a copy on ebay. That has the full dealer service info.

That's new and common enough that there will tons of info on YouTube. Then just google torque specs as needed

Haynes and Chilton both kinda suck.

You can almost always google up what you need. It will be on a forum or on youtube somewhere with torque specs and wiring diagrams and everything.

BTW, we need a pic of said Danger Ranger. I'm hoping its the 2.3 and manual.....

I still find them a useful reference but you can augment them a lot on the web. They're almost the same in my experience. Like, surprisingly similar, having seen both for the same vehicle.

They tell you what to do, the internet shows you how.
The internet helps you diagnose weird symptoms of a problem.
The manuals give you the torques and capacities and measurements you should get.

Love a 2000ish Ranger v6. Stomp on the pedal and its growly, and slow. Will last a looong time.

Thank you everybody for your help, I'm just going to stick to using youtube and google like I have in the past. Does anybody have a link to these Service manual DVD's? I wouldn't mind taking a look at those.

Unfortunately I can't post pictures of the "Danger Ranger" since I don't have a paid subscription but it is the 2.3 with the 5 speed manual with 215k on it. I'm not going to get anywhere fast but It's fun to drive and should last awhile.

The back story to it is that it was my 94 year old grandpa's pickup. He drove it right up till the week before he passed. He was never known to take good care of vehicles or equipment so when I got this ranger I knew it wasn't going to be in the best of shape. It ran and drove so that's all what mattered to me. It's a little rough on the outside but mechanically it's sound. I drove it down to Lubbock this past weekend just to get out of Amarillo for the day and it did great. The brakes are next on my list to do. I've never messed with drum brakes so hopefully I don't mess something up.

In the past, Haynes was better (than Chilton) because they actually did all of the disassembly and reassembly and took photos along the way. Nowadays, Youtube, Google, and message boards are the way to go.

Roger350 said:

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YouTube for the win.

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If you have a library card at a Texas library, or employed most universities, or enrolled as a student at any major university you most likely have access to the online version of Chilton's.

For your local library look under "Databases" and/or "TexShare Database". All the public libraries (and card holders) in TX should have access to the TexShare database. From there you will see the Chilton library.

There is all kinds of useful stuff in the TexShare database. It is nice to be able to print a wiring diagram and draw on it.

With that being said, try looking for a used Factory Service Manual on ebay. Its hit or miss whether those things will be really cheap or expensive.

you could also use alldatadiy. I've found it pretty helpful as well. But mostly I find what I need on youtube.