G's Raptor

so many raptors on flatbeds recently lol

What a great thread. I spent a couple of hours each of the past two days reading. What I really like is that I live in the Northeast and because you provided the WHY, in a lot of cases, it enables me to better determine if the mods you made are needed and or are appropriate for my environment and the intended use of my Raptor. My truck should be here in a few weeks and I have been a lurker for about a year and think there is real value to this information flow. I know this thread has made me a smarter consumer and can therefore prioritize my mod list better than I could have before reading all 36 pages.

Kojack19 said:

What a great thread. I spent a couple of hours each of the past two days reading. What I really like is that I live in the Northeast and because you provided the WHY, in a lot of cases, it enables me to better determine if the mods you made are needed and or are appropriate for my environment and the intended use of my Raptor. My truck should be here in a few weeks and I have been a lurker for about a year and think there is real value to this information flow. I know this thread has made me a smarter consumer and can therefore prioritize my mod list better than I could have before reading all 36 pages.

Click to expand...

Thanks Kojack, for that is the reason is why I took the time to do this.

So update time - Frankly haven't done much to the truck except Brakes. Like a razor blade that slowly dulls and you don't realize how bad it was until you replace, my brakes started to cause some pretty good shaking coming down from higher speeds. Pretty unnerving, yet I lived with it, even completed the Black Hills run in that condition. Finally got them checked and it was time to replace the pads and turn the rotors. It was only about 23,000 yet the pads were cracked and almost completely used up. Interesting that there is no sensor piece to squeal when time is up. What a night and day difference. Then took it a step further and replaced the brake lines with a set of SS from Outlaw. So far so good.

Next run is the night run to Vegas in two weeks - Sept 12th and I am looking for a navigator. Anyone up for a fun time blasting through the desert hit me up with a pm.

Oh I did finally get the replacement 37" KM2 from Discount Tire - took over 4 months. Got to love those replacement certs! All the other mods I have done are holding up perfectly. I drive it every day, the E63 gets only limited use on weekends and one recent high speed run to Sonoma - every time I think of selling that car and then drive it, to realize the satisfaction that a high performance sedan can deliver, very different experience from the Raptor which provides for the primordial instinct to dominate in inhospitable terrain - and that includes scarry those ****** little Priuses out of my way

I'll see you out there on the 12th...assuming I get my truck back from ORW one day.

I recently put on the SS lines from Outlaw as well. Man, what a difference in feel. Only complaint in them would be the kit didn't come with little brackets to replace the OEM brackets, but that was pretty minor.

Baja - Bandito 500 Run

Truck is prepped and ready for 4 days of Baja adventure. SVC rebuilt my rear Fox 3.0 shocks. Good thing too as seals were starting to fail as we saw some dirt in reservoir. Going to do the fronts and upgrade to DSC reservoirs when I return. I am also making some changes to the rear spring setup, which should help balance the performance between front and rear. Ever since Corey revalved the front Fox 3.0 the front has been out-performing the rear. It literally doubled the performance. I am letting Jarrett at SVC and his team optimize the rear with custom shackles and new springs from Deaver. I love the National Springs I have now, they have been great. I would stay with National but they do not have a working relationship with SVC so...they are for sale. I can drop off at National for them to be re-arched, painted etc for new owner, they can ship direct. PM me if interested. $895 rebuilt or $595 as is. Fht extra.

UMP CAI follow up, Finally dis-assembled, cleaned and inspected. Very happy to see not one spec of dust or dirt made it past the filter into the intake. We blew quite a bit of dust out using air hose from inside blowing out. Frankly I was surprised at how clean it was considering amount of off-road usage.

Good to hear on the UMP.

Yukon Joe
www.RUNRAPTORRUN.com

My ump has been a real performer as well, although I've had three of the replacement coolant overflow tanks crack on me so far.

Baja Tested

Truck performed well, we rode hard and fast with no mechanical issues except for a torn CV boot and a few dings on skid plates. Compared to the carnage I witnessed on other trucks, very pleased with how she ran. I continue to have some electrical issues, intermittently it will throw codes after a hard jolt and I lose antilock brakes and off road mode, but really didn't affect my enjoyment or performance other than anti-lock, but in the dirt it doesn't matter much. By manually shifting I was able to keep the revs up anyway. It would go away on its own after a bit. Two other heavily modified trucks had much worse electrical bugs that knocked them out completely! One was trailered around the entire trip and the other failed on the way home and was towed. I escorted them back into SD County from San Felipe. If anyone ever wondered if one truck could safely tow another with a 25 foot strap at 80+ MPH for 300 miles, I saw it done. Two very skilled drivers in constant communication. Going across the border was funny as hell, one ******* tried to cut in between them, lol!

Awsume
Having been towed with a towbar of 6ish feet at 50mph was my scaries moment yet
But 80mph at 25feet with a cabble sounds scetchy as well
Especialy covering 300 miles

Hates of to the drivers... glad all made it home save and sound

Shameless Plug

I have been on a lot of organized trips over the last 3 years, well over 20 and without a doubt the Baja expedition from Outlaw Expeditions was by far the best run and most fun of them all. We got to see the worst of Mexico, albeit briefly, and enjoyed the best of what Mexico has to offer. Real Mexico, real genuine hard working folks, insanely good food, great company, the terrain was varied so was never bored, you name it, we did it. Ocean vistas with crashing waves, driving on the beach, escorted into town by head councilman and police, VIP treatment wherever we went, mountain driving on ranch roads, high speed dirt switchbacks. They love our sport in Mexico, 2nd only to soccer. folks stopped, turned around and pulled out cell phones to film, kids swarmed us asking for race / product stickers - which we gave to huge smiles and thanks. If you get a chance - take it.