Wow, pretty great to hear your story, mate! As with everything, there's always a first time, and it starts out small. First, you're simply pouring a new bottle of coolant, and the next thing, you're rotating tyres... Wonderful! Making mistakes is a process of learning, and that's goes for everything. Sooner rather than later, you start to gain confidence, and that's when you get the hand of things.
Those pickups are certainly very robust machines, and there's quite a few Rangers here in Malaysia, too. Not sure if your Ranger and ours is the same, as we're not a fan of big pickups here. Or at least, our roads are way too tiny for those American-sized monsters! Easy to run, easy to fix, and loads of things to carry! Cheers, and have a great day :-D