Squatting Dog
FRF Addict
Since I have been questions about my suspension set up.. I will detail my set up and answer questions about it. What worked and what didn't.. Hopefully, someone will learn for my experience and mistakes.
2012 SCrew
When I first got this truck I knew the environment I would be mostly driving in would be mud and jeep trails. And most of the trails are well worn and rutted by narrow jeeps. So I wanted to widen the Raptor to keep it out deep ruts. So I installed -12mm wheels this caused rubbing issues. So I had the front coil overs adjusted to the top perch..
This solved rubbing issues but caused bad harmonics in the front end. The passenger side and driver side were fighting each other over small bumps. So to solve this new issue, I ended up removing the front swaybar. With the additional preload on front coil overs body sway and roll was well under control. The additional articulation helped the front end stay on the ground on trails and allowed the torsen to work great..
Great set up for low speed trails and mud. Then Texas Raptor run came around.. This set up was horrible on the course.. The front was to stiff and the rear of the truck was sloppy and bouncy at speed.
So, I had RPG stage 3 bumpstop, national springs, raceline 1.5 upper control arms, and tie rods installed. This changed the whole feel of the truck. The back of the truck with progressive 11 leaf pack to stay on the ground and under control. The raceline UCA allowed additional droop without binding and additional piece of mind. After a 6 hour install, it was time to test out the new set up on the track. It was amazing the rear of the truck worked so well, but the front was still an issue because of top perch.. The front would "chatter" because of additional preload keeping the shock piston in the bypass zone of the shock. So there was little or no damping in compression or rebound..
Some of the negative caused top perch on my 2012..
The cv axles were running in near bind conditions all the time, and once in 4wd it would pinch the boots and tear them. Also the additional preload would cause the alignment to be knocked out easily..
So with 14,000+ miles on my truck I had two busted cv joints, two cross chopped tires from alignment issues..
So knowing I needed to be at mid perch height and adjustability in the shocks. More than what stock Fox shocks had to offer.. Started looking into upgrade options for the Raptor. Everything on the market is off the shelf shock adapted to fit the Raptor. Everything required the use of tools to adjust and set and no way to accurately set the shocks. Seeing Fox set up where you have to close the valves and count the number of turns of the wrench. There had to be something better out there, that met my requirements for a shock and my truck. Where I could have nice daily driver ride and be able to drive it hard on the weekends.
So I called several vendors and emailed several people and was pointed to ICON vehicle dynamics and their Raptor specific designed, tested and tuned shocks. Spent and hour or so talking to Brad on the phone while he was at SEMA.
Replacing stock shocks with ICONs, we noticed the rear shocks were blown.. The driver side was worse the passenger side. But still after 17,000 miles to have both rear shocks blown is kind of surprising. We replaced both axles and checked over everything.. The truck with the new set up was great.. And I will add to this as I put some miles on this set up.
-Greg
2012 SCrew
When I first got this truck I knew the environment I would be mostly driving in would be mud and jeep trails. And most of the trails are well worn and rutted by narrow jeeps. So I wanted to widen the Raptor to keep it out deep ruts. So I installed -12mm wheels this caused rubbing issues. So I had the front coil overs adjusted to the top perch..
This solved rubbing issues but caused bad harmonics in the front end. The passenger side and driver side were fighting each other over small bumps. So to solve this new issue, I ended up removing the front swaybar. With the additional preload on front coil overs body sway and roll was well under control. The additional articulation helped the front end stay on the ground on trails and allowed the torsen to work great..
Great set up for low speed trails and mud. Then Texas Raptor run came around.. This set up was horrible on the course.. The front was to stiff and the rear of the truck was sloppy and bouncy at speed.
So, I had RPG stage 3 bumpstop, national springs, raceline 1.5 upper control arms, and tie rods installed. This changed the whole feel of the truck. The back of the truck with progressive 11 leaf pack to stay on the ground and under control. The raceline UCA allowed additional droop without binding and additional piece of mind. After a 6 hour install, it was time to test out the new set up on the track. It was amazing the rear of the truck worked so well, but the front was still an issue because of top perch.. The front would "chatter" because of additional preload keeping the shock piston in the bypass zone of the shock. So there was little or no damping in compression or rebound..
Some of the negative caused top perch on my 2012..
The cv axles were running in near bind conditions all the time, and once in 4wd it would pinch the boots and tear them. Also the additional preload would cause the alignment to be knocked out easily..
So with 14,000+ miles on my truck I had two busted cv joints, two cross chopped tires from alignment issues..
So knowing I needed to be at mid perch height and adjustability in the shocks. More than what stock Fox shocks had to offer.. Started looking into upgrade options for the Raptor. Everything on the market is off the shelf shock adapted to fit the Raptor. Everything required the use of tools to adjust and set and no way to accurately set the shocks. Seeing Fox set up where you have to close the valves and count the number of turns of the wrench. There had to be something better out there, that met my requirements for a shock and my truck. Where I could have nice daily driver ride and be able to drive it hard on the weekends.
So I called several vendors and emailed several people and was pointed to ICON vehicle dynamics and their Raptor specific designed, tested and tuned shocks. Spent and hour or so talking to Brad on the phone while he was at SEMA.
Replacing stock shocks with ICONs, we noticed the rear shocks were blown.. The driver side was worse the passenger side. But still after 17,000 miles to have both rear shocks blown is kind of surprising. We replaced both axles and checked over everything.. The truck with the new set up was great.. And I will add to this as I put some miles on this set up.
-Greg