I would love to get lesons from an expert

[Wilson]

I'm all about free it's a lot cheaper than having to pay and most the time it's as much fun

 

[Aaron]

Baja. Learn on the fly.

Only advice I can offer is to not drive faster than your ability which should be far lower than the trucks ability. And everyone should worry more about understeer instead of how to jump it. Way bigger problem.

Yeah, understeer will bite you in the ass. It's huge to learn how to manage that. I'm still hard at work on that one every time I go out and I'm getting a lot better at it.

The first time you come up to a corner and the truck doesn't turn like it's supposed to is a "shit your pants" moment for sure!

As for jumping, The way I learned way back when on my dirt bike and have transferred to everything else since is to first scout out a good launch ramp that's smooth and not too steep and has a nice downhill landing, or if it's a really small jump then a flat landing can work too, just as long as either landing is smooth and clear of obstacles.

Once you've found it. Start off slowly (no air kind of slow) and hit it till you get the feel of it. Once you really have a feel for how the truck rolls over it then speed up GRADUALLY and keep feeling how the truck reacts. The idea here is to gradually speed up until you catch a little bit of air (inches) and get comfortable.

Eventually you'll get a feel for how the truck reacts to jumping and you can start going bigger. I know it's not as cool as just stomping on the go pedal and throwing your truck 5 feet in the air, but it'll save you a lot of headache and possibly injury later on if you take a methodical approach to it.

The great thing about it is that this method can apply to any technique you want to learn. Sorry I got a little long winded

 

[Humvee21]

It's kinda lame to be a Raptor owner living on the east coast.

 

[MarkT]

Understeer is not a problem in the Raptor once you figure out the technique... in fact, I worry more about oversteer at speed... and that's with the "boat anchor" 5.4.

What I'm going to describe is counter-intuitive... but the Raptor handling is very much like some of the off-road cars I used to race short course and dez with.

My bet is that most people are trying to power the Raptor around the corner. Lots of fun in 2wd-lock at low speed! But won't work at speed. Turn the wheel and mash the gas at speeds above 10 or 20mph and the Raptor plows straight ahead 9 times out of 10... especially in 4WD.

Instead... try this. Carry a little extra speed into the corner, steady throttle. When you want the truck to rotate, turn in and LIFT OFF THE GAS and the back end will come around. Then you get back on the gas (moderately) to stop the slide and the truck straightens up... hopefully pointing in the right direction!

Kind of an "anti-power slide" LOL The official "handling" term is that the stock Raptor has "trailing throttle oversteer" characteristics.

TRY THIS TECHNIQUE AT YOUR OWN RISK and in an area where there's nothing to hit or a cliff to drive off!

It takes some practice to master... but works well once you get the hang of it... catching the slide is actually the hardest part... very easy to let the back end step out too far and that can be hard to recover from at high speed.

A whole lot going on when you do this... have to enter the corner fast enough, but not too fast... the throttle lift needs to be synchronized with the turn in... and you need to learn when to get back on the gas and how hard... but soon it all becomes second nature.

YMMV...

 

[MagicMtnDan]

Funny you mention this. I've actually got at trip for Sunday posted up in the SW forum right now for the Phoenix area.

Be sure to invite some Raptor virgins who've never had their Fords off road. That oughta get them excited

 

[DirtNasty]

Im pissed that the NOVA rally cross guys wont let me run my raptor on their rally cross course.



they need a damn truck class damnit...

 

[MagicMtnDan]

It's kinda lame to be a Raptor owner living on the east coast.

That's OK you can always install a frame strenthening bump stop kit with uppper A arms and Fox 3.5's and chop your sheet metal and buy bumpers and lights

 

[M1919A2]

It's kinda lame to be a Raptor owner living on the east coast.

It's all about choices. Stay where you are - that leave more space for those out here.