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PNWlife

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Greetings Everyone!

New guy here, another lurker, I’ve been scoping out posts since I bought my Raptor, Nov-2018. And I’ve finally gotten around to making an account to ask some questions.

2013 Tuxedo Black SCrew - Purchased with 55000 miles. Put about 20,000 miles on it the first year, only about 5k so far in the second (was living remotely the first year and the truck was my daily driver). ~80,000 miles on it now.

My goal is to never live that deep off a main road again (about a mile+ up a non-maintained, single track dirt road) and plan to use my WRX as my daily driver. I love this truck and want to keep her on the road for as long as possible. I live in the PNW and the primary use of this truck will be for camping / hunting treks out on forest service roads and the like. She’ll get muddy but I’m not going to be running in the dessert or jumping, or using the truck as a toy (i don’t make THAT much money). I’ve never gotten deep into off-roading but I’m definitely interested in over-landing.

A couple maintenance items that I am currently in for:
  • Shock rebuild - I think I’m planning on buying some OEM replacements and sending them in to fox for the rebuild as I don’t believe these have been rebuilt yet, and I’ve read a bunch of hit/miss reports on the top rebuild exchange programs. Having a rotational set would be ideal,
  • Brakes - I’m in need of new pads (at the very least). I’ve read multiple posts about people doing brake line upgrades and really enjoying the change in feel from the off-road spec’d oem feel. I’m interested in getting some feedback here as I’m no expert.
  • Is there any major maintenance interval that I’ve missed other than the shock rebuild? Anything coming up?
  • I’m still in the process of digging through the threads for these items, please feel free to point me in any specific direction!
I’m also interested in feedback on the rear suspension, as I intend on loading up the back end for long road trips / over-land trips. Since I’m not jumping this beast, should I be looking at modifying the bump-stops? From the reading I’ve done, rear leaf spring upgrades are often recommended.

And finally, I know a bunch of members recommend certain garages to take raptors to in AZ and CA, I’m wondering if there are any in the Central WA area that are worth their weight for suspension modifications, maintenance work, etc?

raptorpic.jpeg
 

smurfslayer

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. We’re hunting sasquatch77
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Welcome to FRF!

I am not able to answer the maintenance items as I’ve got a Gen2. I will say there are a bunch of overlanders on the forum and some good vendor support.

#BlackRaptorsMatter
 
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PNWlife

PNWlife

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Thanks smurfslayer, I've seen more and more posts on overlanding and suspension questions.

Looking for some free time to invest in some research.
 

or2baja

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I personally would upgrade your shocks to a non OEM shock and then have yours rebuilt for just incase situation or sell them. The quality of shock tuning balanced with spring rate is constantly improving and OEM is garbage.
 
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PNWlife

PNWlife

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Thanks for the input, I can understand that perspective. For me it's return on investment for the upgraded shocks to 3.0s vs the cost of replacing the OEM. If I were off roading more frequently and intending to push the truck to its limits, it'd be a no brainer.

I'll do some more digging, as the shock replacement is high on the priority list at this point. If anyone has a good thread to dig into and can link it here I'd appreciate it.

As an update to this thread Rick from Freedom Motorsports has been super helpful and I've got an order of R1 concept rotors on the way. Really looking forward to that replacement.
 
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