Home with New Raptor - Initial Impressions

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Bigs125

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Congrats on the new truck! I have had my truck for about 3 months now, the same color and options as you do, and love the truck! Awesome ride and fun to drive. Gotta find some places to go off roading though - which can be difficult in NY. Enjoy!
 

jaz13

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Your contradicting your self here or I miss understood your enjoying “soft” and “mushy” and “lack of modulation” is that right?

A BBK with pistons on both sides and floating rotors will not only increase stopping power and reduce heat, save weight, they also give much better modulation then an off and on switch....

I wouldn’t describe any BBK or proper caliper to be “grabby”

I believe your saying 17” wheels not rotors...?

Sorry hotlap for the thread jack here!

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You are correct, 17" wheel, not rotor, a typo on my part.

As for brakes, sports cars are primarily designed to modulate their brakes using pressure, not travel. No doubt you know F1 cars require as much as 250lbs of pedal pressure and have virtually zero pedal travel. But those crazy high levels of pressure are actually helpful because they allow drivers to more precisely modulate braking. (Human physiology is much better at precisely controlling muscle exertion than limb position. This is also why the Blue Angel jets have crazy high stick loads for formation flying.) This pressure oriented design is why sports cars brakes feel so firm and crisp.

But what works on the street doesn't work on the dirt. If Ford used high brake pedal forces to threshold brake on the dirt, those same brakes would be impossible to use on the street where significantly higher pressures would be required for the higher levels of grip. That is why our off-road brakes use a lot more throw than sports cars (the extra travel is why people claim they feel "mushy"). For off-road use, we use pedal position to threshold brake because the pedal forces are so light they are hard to control with just pressure. And since our bodies are not as good at controlling position, we need a wider pedal travel window to modulate the brakes in. The advantage of this "mushy" configuration is we can still get full stopping power on the street with normal levels of braking pressure. But it does mean the brake pedal has a far longer stroke than the GT350R.

Ford sells lots of performance cars with firm brakes, so they know how do it if that is what was best for the Raptor. That means the Raptor's brakes feel the way they do on purpose. As a sports car owner, I totally understand why drivers who never offraod would prefer a different configuration. But our brakes are better for a truck that offroads.
 
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HotLap

HotLap

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Congrats on the new truck! I have had my truck for about 3 months now, the same color and options as you do, and love the truck! Awesome ride and fun to drive. Gotta find some places to go off roading though - which can be difficult in NY. Enjoy!

Thanks Bigs, really enjoying the new Raptor, my neighbors like it too - had a full garage of guys over yesterday, checking it out and putting a rather large dent in the man fridge contents :)
 

Gsteve

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Live in Colorado and at one point was daily driving those I-70 mountain corners. They feel worse than they really are and in my Raptor I take them 15-20mph above the recommended speed all the time without issue.

The suspension is soft and you will get some body movement, but the truck is far more stable than it feels. Don't react and just drive on through it and you will be fine. The truck wants to hold its line and the only time it is dangerous is when the driver moves the wheel to "correct" or hits the brakes. The driver's reactions is what unsettles the truck and makes it dangerous, not the soft suspension.

Do all your braking before the corner. "Trail braking" as you say causes the truck to understeer and you will lose cornering performance. It also increases the risk of losing the backend if too much weight shifts forward. No gas, no brake, and no wheel movement in the corner and the truck will surprise you with what it can do safely.

Don't fear the body movement, the truck will figure it out all on its own. Driver inputs only make it worse. You are much better off coasting around a corner than trying to slow in the middle of it.

This is bang on , i had a 14 and have a 18 and in conditions that had me correcting and managing a turn with bumps in my previous truck ( suburban) the raptor can just "have its head". It will move and shake but doesnt change its path much. I have a new road near me i play on. It has a rail road track dead center of the curve. I fool around going over it at speed. It first feels like you are gonna get pitched into the ditch if you dont correct what feels like is about to happen , but if you do actually try that you will get in trouble. Hold the wheel on course , the truck will sort it out fine.
 
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HotLap

HotLap

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This is bang on , i had a 14 and have a 18 and in conditions that had me correcting and managing a turn with bumps in my previous truck ( suburban) the raptor can just "have its head". It will move and shake but doesnt change its path much. I have a new road near me i play on. It has a rail road track dead center of the curve. I fool around going over it at speed. It first feels like you are gonna get pitched into the ditch if you dont correct what feels like is about to happen , but if you do actually try that you will get in trouble. Hold the wheel on course , the truck will sort it out fine.

Well put GSteve, you and Jaz13 have articulated the Raptor handling very well. This should be a "sticky" under "what to expect (handling) when you get your new Raptor"!! Wish I'd have had this advice prior to picking up my new Raptor, but eventually I did figure it out after a few tense moments ;)
 

POOPonYOU

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Very useful information. Thanks for sharing your experience when hitting bumps on curves and how to react or not react.

Do the deavers help when traveling at high speeds offroad or only on highways?
 

brettmess24

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Do the deavers help when traveling at high speeds offroad or only on highways?


Short and sweet answer is YES the deavers help in every scenario other than lightining your wallet. However one of the many tech fellas will be a long in a minute with a long winded answer[emoji6] I’m a driver....





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POOPonYOU

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Short and sweet answer is YES the deavers help in every scenario other than lightining your wallet. However one of the many tech fellas will be a long in a minute with a long winded answer[emoji6] I’m a driver....

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How much would it cost to install? I see they cost about $1300. So many things to buy when I get mine.
 

brettmess24

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How much would it cost to install? I see they cost about $1300. So many things to buy when I get mine.



All depends on what bump kit you go with. My guess is about $300 in labor for deaver and bump kit install. I do most of my own work.


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Lasercat

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ZK, awesome that you have the GT350 too! Great ride!! First thing I did at the dealership was check the tire pressure and it was 38lbs, so that wasn't a contributing factor. I am going to check into the Deavers - more to come, thx!!

38 is fine for the front, but do yourself a favor and drop the rear pressure to 32-34 and give it a go before you drop money on new springs. It'll ride so much better!
 
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