Raptors Bending?

[michael_loomis]

Love to see a stock silverado, Tundra, Ram or Titan on the same toad at the same speed as a comparison?

I'm sure all those trucks with some bolt on shocks/springs would do just fine. Everything has it's breaking point when pushed.

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[J Prich]

I brought attention to this problem in Nov of 2009. I still think/know its an overly-hyped truck.

Owners of Raptors, what are your thoughts?

http://jalopnik.com/5820104/are-ford...or-off+roading

Not trying to alter the course of the discussion here....but why go through all this trouble? If don't own one and have no intention of ever buying one, why put so much effort in to trying to discredit it? I just don't quite understand the desire to try to cut down innovation.

If you don't personally like the Raptor, super. But I don't see any need to go the extra mile to crusade against the thing. Ive seen more non Raptor owners expressing "concern" over the frame issue than guys that actually spent their hard earned money on them.

[Jack]

Just put one of the big soft superlift bump stops and be done with it.
Or stop over driving. It does not have to be one big bump, but a serise of small ones that stack the rear spring then you are primed to over load the frame on the next hit.
Finding the natural fequency then amplifying it is the worst thing.

[A Vance]

What do you mean its not a trophy truck and I cant drive it like one. It says off road. lol. Come on that truck was way over driven. That is faster than alot of guys pre run courses in full on built pre runners. You want to spend 40 grand and drive like your a race car driver buy a race car. Not a street legal truck. With the way everyone wants to sue it wont be long before someones sues ford and they discontinue the whole line of truck.

[johnnyweb]

What do you mean its not a trophy truck and I cant drive it like one. It says off road. lol. Come on that truck was way over driven. That is faster than alot of guys pre run courses in full on built pre runners. You want to spend 40 grand and drive like your a race car driver buy a race car. Not a street legal truck. With the way everyone wants to sue it wont be long before someones sues ford and they discontinue the whole line of truck.

Good points. I wanted to see the speedo? Looked like they're movin along real well. Cool video even if the frame is bending it looks as the truck handled well.

[treypal]

I did 800 miles of the Baja 1000 course in 2010 and my frame is straight. I broke a mirror, blew a shock seal, those little rubber push pads on the front bumper fell off, and pinched my exhaust (that one was my own fault). Ford warrantied everything but the exhaust.

What I didn't do was try to overdrive the truck. I was prerunning with 4 other trucks (one was a raptor). The two raptors stayed in the back. The lead truck was a A-Armed ram charger. He would call back anything we had to worry about before we got there, so we were well informed about conditions. I knew that the truck had to get me home to Texas. I also knew that I had only made 6 payments on it. So I drove it accordingly. I had a blast. One of the best adventures of my life. Once again, zero frame tweakage. So yes it's a great truck that you can take places no other stock truck can go, but just like anything else, it has it's limits. As long as you know the limits the truck is great. Just like a sports car, they can get you in alot of trouble quickly if you don't respect them.

I do have to agree that the UCAs seem a little weak. Mine have been replaced with Total Chaos units, so no worries there.


Favorite pic of the trip.



5500 Miles. Zero Frame Issues!

[gwilliamsjr]

My truck was the one used for the SD to Telluride trip. When Chad and I took that trip in my Raptor had 300 miles on it. The truck currently has 41,000 miles on it. Since then we have prerun the Silverstate 300, and put roughly 7,000 total miles in the dirt. This truck has ZERO issues. We wonder why other manufacturers don't go out on a limb and produce more products like the Raptor, it's becuase of the potential negative PR with people taking these vehicles beyond their limit then go out of their way to make it look like it wasn't their fault. Why isn't anyone talking about exactly what hit/jump/g-out bent their frame ? People need to check the space between the driver seat and steering wheel before they post on public forums blaming Ford. We should be commending Ford for producing a product that brings greater attention to our sport, and the contigency money they bring to BITD, becuase it's these types of actions that could unfortunately take it all away.

[Laurie]

We love our Raptor. I keep finding things I'm amazed it can do and Ford won't void my warranty. Ford has done an amazing job and should be commended.

[BenStock]

Not sure how many people actually read the article but the quote below is from a driver who was part of this convoy. (This driver did not bend his frame but he had the proper perspective for the blame):

If Ford fixes these, I will be surprised. Why? The trucks were driven past what they are capable of. You do not buy a GT500 and expect it to drive like a race car, why would you buy a Raptor and expect it to handle and take the abuse of a trophy truck?...While it was not a challenging route we took, we caught quite a bit of air, jumped the road, hit numerous G-Outs at faster than anything sensible, hit speeds off road in excess of 125mph (I did) and had a [poop] load of fun doing so. How were most of the bent frames caused? inherent weakness in the frame and over driving the truck. Is there mods to fix this for those of you who are scared? Yes. Drive slower in the desert and know the road you are driving.

[Zambo]

hit speeds off road in excess of 125mph (I did)

Submitted without comment.