My One Year Review - 2019 Agate Black SCREW 801A

[Gerald]

Daily Driver

I’ve only got about 5,600 miles on my Raptor in the first year. My commute to work is only about 12 miles roundtrip (no highway). I also have an old 2003 F-150 Lariat that I use for hauling (sand, dirt, mulch, grass, lumber, steel, furniture, etc.). On the weekend, usually I’m only going down the road a few miles to the golf course and I use my 2003 F-150 for that. No real reason other than to run it a bit on the weekends so it doesn’t sit too long. Once or twice a month I travel for work and so I take my old truck to leave parked at the airport. So I really don’t put many miles on my Raptor and then COVID-19 stay at home stuff started, so that really cut the miles back. I might have had about 7,000-8,000 on the Raptor had it not been for working from home for the past 3 months.

I will say that the Raptor is an awesome daily driver. The seats are the most comfortable I’ve been in and I love the way it handles and owns the road. Everyone else seems like they are in very small vehicles around me. I don’t drive like I stole it, but it is awesome knowing that I can accelerate like hell anytime I need to and I have done that a few times when the situation requires it. The sound system is very good for my novice ears, no complaints whatsoever. It can get pretty hot here in Houston and it’s great to start the car from my office with the FordPass App on my phone. By the time I get to the truck, it has cooled down nicely. There are some ditches around some of the parking lots at work and it’s fun from time to time to drive right through them like they weren’t there! Haven’t gotten in trouble yet!

 

[Gerald]

Fuel Choice

I’ve been using 87 octane fuel with no issues at all. I get all the power I need when I do floor it. Pass people right up. I might not be getting all the horsepower possible or the best gas mileage, but I am getting all I need. The price difference between 87 and 93 octane here is about $0.48 per gallon. So until I find myself in a situation where I need more horsepower, I’ll continue to use the 87 octane. Since I haven’t been putting a lot of miles on the truck, I haven’t really run the tank very low. Usually about once a week or once every 10 days, I’ll get down to about 3/4 full and I’ll go ahead and fill up. I think only once did I ever get down to about half full. That 36 gallon tank can hold a lot of fuel!

 

[Gerald]

Offroading

I did some rock crawling at Hidden Falls Adventure Park in Marble Falls, Texas. I had a blast. It was fun driving up and down rocky slopes and I tried out the trail control and it worked perfect. I also found a spot there where there was a pretty good hump in the trail and I managed to get some decent air. I’d estimate about 12 inches. That was fun and the Raptor handled it so smoothly that I wasn’t sure I had gotten air until I looked at the video. Completely stock suspension and it handled it amazingly. The Raptor is an amazing truck!





We’ve gone to the beach a few times now and the Raptor handles the sand with ease. You don’t have to go slow if you don’t want, the Raptor handles the bumps and soft sand very smoothly. It’s a blast to go about 40 mph and just enjoy the ride on the sand and the ocean breeze through the windows. I also ran it through the water, probably 4-6 inches deep. Again no problems for the Raptor and you can make a huge wall of water!

 

[Gerald]

Tonneau Bed Cover

I ended up going with the Truxedo soft cover. I don’t have anything that I keep in the bed so I don’t need the security of a hard cover. I just wanted something that provided weather protection for the camping gear, beach umbrellas, camping chairs, fishing gear, etc. I also know I don’t have to strap everything down since everything rides nicely under the soft cover. So far it has been great! No issues at all and no fading at all. I have been putting a protective coating on it when I do the rest of the truck.

 

[Gerald]

Towing and Payload

So far I haven’t had to tow anything too big. The biggest trailer I’ve towed is a U-Haul 6 x 12 foot enclosed trailer fully loaded with furniture and household items for when we’ve had to move my son around. The Raptor handled that trailer with ease. I really couldn’t even tell a trailer was back there. What I do love is the amount of room in the back seat area. It’s amazing how much leg room there is even when the front seats are all the way back. When we’ve moved my son around, lifting the back seats creates an incredible amount of cargo space inside the cab with a very flat floor to load things onto. Between the back seat area, the bed, and the U-Haul trailer, we could really load up a lot of stuff!!

Since I still have my 2003 F-150 for hauling stuff in the bed, I haven’t had to use my Raptor. I’ve read all the negative reviews about the payload, but whatever. I much prefer the softer suspension for the offroading as well as on pavement ride. I’ll likely be getting rid of my older truck at the end of the year and may install some HD Deavers to lessen the squat when I eventually do haul stuff.

 

[Gerald]

Additional Lighting

I added the Baja Designs S2 reverse lights and they are awesome! My install thread is here if you want to see the process.

https://www.fordraptorforum.com/threads/my-bd-s2-reverse-light-kit-install.73094/

They are hooked into my reverse circuit and to the auxiliary switches in the cab. They really help with the visibility when backing the truck up. My hope is to add some Rigid Radiance LEDs in the front bumper. I really like the fact that those lights have an amber backlight and just adds to the awesome look of the overall front of the Raptor when the running lights are on. One other project I’ll be working on soon is adding another LED light to the bed on a bogan arm. That light will be hooked up to an aux switch and then I’ll be able to move that light around and point it anywhere inside the bed as well as position it so it can point up and over the side of the bed. I think that will be very handy for our camping trips at night when we need some temporary additional lighting.

 

[Gerald]

Raptor Decals

There are two schools of thought for the Raptor bedside and hood graphics/decals. You either seem to hate them or love them. The one agreement between the two groups is that they are way overpriced. It’s ridiculous how much they want for them installed on the vehicle. I found a very nice bedside matte black decal on eBay for $50 for a pair. I initially thought that the decal wouldn’t show at all with my Raptor being black. But it actually turned our really nice. It’s a nice subdued look and I think a decent middle ground for the two schools. The decals have been on the truck for about 11 months now and through a hot humid Texas summer and they still look as good as when I first installed them. I’ve made sure to put protectant over the decals to help protect them from the elements and the sun’s UV radiation. I think these will definitely last 3-5 years with the proper protection. Then if they start looking faded, well it’s just another $50 to get another brand new set.

 

[Gerald]

Washing and Detailing

Funny, until the Raptor I never really was into detailing. I just washed whatever car I had with basic car washing soap from the grocery store or in some cases dishwashing soap like Dawn. I always liked a clean car, just never did anything more than a single bucket wash with a hand towel. Then dried with a basic terry cloth bathroom towel. After getting on the FRF, I started seeing all these posts about using a pressure washer with a foam cannon and a two bucket wash process. Then I started seeing all these videos on YouTube on just how much passion there is out there on properly detailing cars. Well some of that looked fun and it actually is to some degree relaxing to get outdoors and carefully wash your Raptor. And with a black Raptor, you do need to wash it often.

Well after watching many videos and reading a bunch of posts, I settled on Chemical Guys for my car wash soap. I got the Honeydew Snow Foam Auto Wash for the foam cannon and then the Citrus Wash and Gloss for the bucket wash. As far as I could tell, a foam cannon was a foam cannon and there was no need to spend a lot of money for a very adequate cannon. I think I spent like $15 on amazon for mine. I have a 2,200 psi gas powered pressure washer and it with the cannon do a great job of putting a nice thick foam on the truck. I let that sit for a few minutes and then pressure wash all the foam off of the truck. I find that doing that knocks off all the debris and most of the dirt such that you don’t need to use the two bucket wash method. I single bucket with the debris screen or ring at the bottom of the bucket works great. After handwashing the truck (after the foam treatment), I have found very little to no dirt and debris in the bottom of my single bucket. That’s with dunking and re-dunking my microfiber covered sponge in the bucket. So only one bucket is needed.



For the windows, I’ve been using an Adams window washing solution and that seems to work fine. I’ve read and seen guys claying their windows to get them super cleaned. Seems overkill, but I said what the hell and gave it a try. I used the Adams solution and a clay bar on all the windows. I couldn’t tell that the clay did anything for me and the windows pretty much looked the way they’ve always looked when I didn’t use a clay bar. So now the clay bars have gone into a back corner of the garage and will likely never see daylight again.

For the paint and external plastic, I’ve been primarily using Gtechniq C2V3 and it does an outstanding job of making the paint supper glossy and slippery. It’s very hydrophobic and safe for pretty much any surface. It also has some UV protection so I’m hoping it will do a good job protecting all the plastic trim pieces and my soft cover tonneau. I had heard some good things about P&S Beadmaker so I decided to get a bottle and try that out. It does work great and as far as I can tell does just as well as the C2V3. My only issue with it is it has a cure time of 8 hours for best results. Typically I wash the truck in the evenings and so by the time I would finish the Beadmaker coating, it would be dark. Here in Houston, you can start getting dew to settle on the cars in just a few hours after dark. So I could never ensure that my Beadmaker coating could stay dry and cure for the 8 hours needed. The Raptor doesn’t fit in my garage so it stays outdoors. So I haven’t been able to get the full cure time. I saw a video about Turtle Wax’s latest protectant coating, Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Spray Coating and it’s supposed to be a really good coating with UV protection. So I plan to give that a try the next time I put a coating on my truck.

For the interior, I’ve been using Meguiar’s Natural Shine and I don’t have a single complaint about the stuff. It goes on easy enough and I use it on all the leather and plastic as well as the navigation screen. It does not leave that wet, slimy, or glossy look. I use it on the floor mats and it does not make them slippery at all. It also has UV protection so hopefully it helps to minimize or eliminate any fading or cracking in the plastics.

 

[Gerald]

Maintenance

I received a lot of reward points on my FordPass App when I purchased my Raptor. These points can be used for oil changes at the dealership. So while I do like to do my own maintenance, it’s hard to pass up free service. I’ve only had to get one oil change so far. And I still have enough points to get two more services from the dealership. So it’ll still be a little while before I start doing my own oil changes. I do plan to install the Fumoto drain valve to make things easier and less messy.

Now that we’ve been heading to the beach as much as we have and playing in the saltwater, I will likely be spraying the undercarriage with some protectant. I’ve seen some posts for doing this and will have to research it more to figure out what will be best. Other than eventually putting some HD Deavers on the truck, I don’t really have any other mods I’m planning for the suspension. Well maybe some bump stops.

 

[Gerald]

Wheels

When I was shopping around for the truck, I saw a blacked out lifted truck with the Fuel Assault wheels. They were the best looking wheels I’d seen on any black truck and decided that was the wheels I would get for my Raptor. That was before I really researched much on FRF. Had I seen some of the awesome other alternatives out there, I might have gone with a different choice. There are some really nice choices I’ve seen on people’s Raptors. I’m completely happy with my wheels and think they look great. Wheel choices are very subjective and you’ll get all kinds of different opinions. I’ve gotten way more compliments on my wheels than negative comments. But I will say I think @nikhsub1 had the best negative comment. He said something like “those wheels are like an ugly child that only a mother could love.” I got quite a laugh out of that. I’m sure in a handful of years I will probably switch to another wheel and I look forward to it now that I know about all the great choices that are out there.