First Baja Run in the new whip

Picked up my 2017 Dec 28th put a grand on her then changed the oil then ran south.

(Prior truck for coming down here was 2015 Fx4 V8)

I keep a boat in Loreto so i drive down about every 6 weeks- That Fx4 did about 10 trips in 18 months so I was ready for an upgrade.

First off wow 150% different then my Fx4- I knew there was going to be a difference but not this big. Its apples and oranges. But I know everyone already knows that...

Some things I'm sure everyone would want to know:
MPG Sport Mode 8.1 Raptor MPG sport mode Fx4 v8 11.5
(Driving habits for down here) This was shocking for me. I thought the eco-boost was going to be much higher MPG but it eats fuel when your running down here more then the V8. When i took sport mode off for a few hours i could get 9.4 MPG - Im running and gunning FYI, when I'm on the 5 in San Diego it gets 16+

The Tranny needs some serious updates. It constantly gets stuck at redline, and i don't mean just a higher rpm, i mean its trying to blow it self up. Would have to throw her in Manual quickly go to a few higher gears then throw her back in Drive. (Even then sometimes she would downshift her self and do it all over again immediately- very very annoying)

Plenty of power passing trucks which a lot of you know is very important and handled very well on some dirt stretches. On my way home i may take the salt flats from Scorpion bay so if i do ill give another update.

Anyone want to know on the towing- Ill be hooking the boat up tomorrow and it weighs 5500lbs so ill let you know how it tows around town.

Overall so far though really happy with it and think its a great truck.

Pretty cool... one of the first to get a new Raptor and take it off-road. Looking forward to more posts.

Trick_Raptor said:

Pretty cool... one of the first to get a new Raptor and take it off-road. Looking forward to more posts.

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Seriously sick of the poser posts on FB with the new Raptor pretending they are off road with one wheel on a hill LMAO. This is how it's done. Why buy if you're not going to use it. Looking forward to more of these types of posts also.

I drove about 50 miles down an unmaintained beach in soft sand last weekend. I kept the truck in baja mode between 40 and 60 MPH for most of the duration. I too was amazed at how much gas the tuck burned with the rev's high in baja mode. I estimate I burned 8 gallons in 50 miles! I was very impressed with the power and smooth ride in the soft sand. I did some slow cruising as well on a washed out island pass, believe it or not, I also found the bump stops....It almost seem that the ride improves with speed. I also like how baja mode allows the ass end to get loose, It even scared the crap out of me a time or two Glad to see you 'using' your raptor as well!

Mech_eng said:

I drove about 50 miles down an unmaintained beach in soft sand last weekend. I kept the truck in baja mode between 40 and 60 MPH for most of the duration. I too was amazed at how much gas the tuck burned with the rev's high in baja mode. I estimate I burned 8 gallons in 50 miles! I was very impressed with the power and smooth ride in the soft sand. I did some slow cruising as well on a washed out island pass, believe it or not, I also found the bump stops....It almost seem that the ride improves with speed. I also like how baja mode allows the ass end to get loose, It even scared the crap out of me a time or two Glad to see you 'using' your raptor as well!

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The faster you go the smoother it gets especially if you're aired down to 18-22 psi .

Great post. Thanks for the real world feedback.

KaiserM715 said:

Great post. Thanks for the real world feedback.

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He's alive!

Wow, that's a pretty long drive through Mexico. Is it safe?

Truck looks good. Nice feedback too.

That's a hell of a lifestyle, going down to Baja to go boating every six weeks and taking a new raptor to do it with...

Thanks for all the comments. Yeah i bought it to use it thats for sure. So 1600 miles in 4 days down in Baja total (Loreto been the farthest south i went). Definitely got all the questions from everyone seen their first new raptor down there.

So way home was some real stuff. Truck was fully airborne and landed smoothly no issues at all. One of the trails has a drop down i didn't see coming and well it was wheels up from there. Didn't bottom out and was about a 3' step down doing about 70MPH Landed perfect no loss of control for even a second.

Hit a heavy rain storm/monsoon too for 50 miles of dirt and that was mud to the max. It handled pretty decent. Funny enough the truck knew it was in mud and shifted its self into 4x4 by its self which was nice. I didn't use the Mud/sand mode and i didnt use the Baja mode as I'm not too fond of it- Keeps too much torque powered up where you constantly lose traction which down south the last thing you want to do as a lot of you know. Rocks are not your friends and they are everywhere.

One thing which i really liked is when you hit these heavy puddles the water is pressed out and completely over your windshield. Obviously that didn't happen every time but the times it did it was nice that it didn't spay your wind shield.

Used paddle shifter on way home and got some better MPG. 8.9-

All and all its ready bone stock for trips down south and anyone who wants some cool routes or some travel info reach out I'm happy to help.