...well, sorta. I'll get to that, though.
So about seven months ago when my son was born, the wife and I began to realize ( that is, she did immediately, and I did after weeks of rationalizing, bargaining, and all the other stages of grief ) that our little Italian two seater wasn't going to be quite the car for us, the boy, and our three dogs. We were both interested in something that could get us out of the city and then some, and we looked real close at a JL Rubicon. Giving up my little Alfa Romeo, though, made me worry about the commute. I wanted something with balance if not outright cornering ability, and enough power to pass on the local autobahn ( make that parking lot ) that is the 210 freeway.
The Raptor is bigger, faster, safer, a race truck or close enough to it, and of course can fly. So decision made, I looked for a local seller, and scheduled an appointment with a certain dealership in Van Nuys. Test drove it. Loved it. Wanted to buy it.
That dealer wanted $15k over MSRP of course, and I told him I wouldn't pay it. He tried the shell game with my trade in but still wanted $9k. I said nope. He said nope. So I went home on a Friday, signed up here at FRF on Saturday, and on Sunday found Darin.
Darin is out of Pennsylvania at Maguire's Ford, and had put an add up for a 2018 req at MSRP. He'd drop ship it to a SoCal dealer not located in Van Nuys, handle the paperwork, and manage communications with the factory about those production issues they had for a while. Some weeks later I started getting shipping notifications from Darin - the truck was on a rail rolling out of Michigan and slowly making its way to the Los Angeles area. We settled the money and paperwork and soon enough I picked it up and brought it home.
Here's the Raptor reconnoitering Joshua Tree
It was good timing, too: we had a vacation coming up in Joshua Tree. There oughtta be some fun places to wheel out there, I thought. And indeed, there's no shortage, with Johnson Valley being essentially half way between home and JT, all the trails in the park itself, and all the dirt roads to nowhere out in the middle of the desert that anyone could ask for. So I decided to do something extremely stupid. I figured I'd take it out on a trail, by myself, first time off road, first time in a truck, in the middle of a 110F day, in a desert where people have wandered off and died more than once.
But hey, I bought some recovery boards, so I should be fine! Right?
Anyway, I watched some handy Youtube videos and decided, since I'd long wanted to go explore some mines out here, that I'd take Old Dale Road into the Brooklyn Mining District, go climb around on a mountain half covered in cyanide laced dirt, and then stroll leisurely through the mine for a while. By myself. Before returning home.
That's actually looking up into a stope.
I took the high road in, which if you're not familiar with it is passably wide, but has very steep inclines and declines with just a couple of rough spots. Probably owing more to my ignorance of wheeling than anything else, I really felt King of the Road out there, with descents over blind crests and what looked like a ramp straight into blue sky, the truck just rolled. Found the mine, explored it a bit, then hiked back to the truck for the ride home.
I decided to take the low road out. Again for those unfamiliar with it, the low road is a Jeep trail through a rocky dry river wash, and while they're not giant boulders or anything, I'd never done that before. Slow and easy, and the truck'll make its way through, right? Right. Mostly right. About halfway through the wash I drove off a cliff. Or what seemed like one, as the truck rotated toward passenger and I heard what I was pretty sure was the running board taking the brunt of it. Loudly.
I still don't know what happened. Didn't see any drop off, no untoward rocks looming on my line. Maybe I hit a rock wrong and slipped the front end off too soon. Didn't seem to matter, though, and we kept rollin'.
The Lunar Rover.
Eventually I made it out and toward late afternoon was making my way Old Dale Road toward Twentynine Palms. When I saw that view, I stopped for a photo. Then I saw the damage. The running board had been kinked up into the lower door sill, which was nicely dented. Couldn't open the passenger door until I jumped on the board to bend its bracket back in to a useable position. What an idiot, I thought. Brand new truck, dented.
Then I realized I really didn't care. In fact in a sheepish sort of way I was glad of it. Our neighbors and colleagues couldn't sneer about the pretentiousness of owning such a truck while working at home half the time, and leaving it parked, on the street or at the office, virtually all of the time. I'd done something pretty d***n stupid, but had a blast doing it. Yeah, maybe I could've died if I'd got stuck too bad, or had actually driven right into that vertical mine shaft on the road out before veering out of the way. So, there's some adventure to be had.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but that's my first experience with the Raptor, and I love it. So thanks to FRF for connecting me with Darin and providing so many resources and so much knowledge you guys offer. And thanks of course to Darin, who not only made the Raptor possible, but made getting it a breeze. With the premium these trucks command in the Los Angeles area, it's definitely safe to say that between the FRF and Darin I saved some $9k at least.
A road-side mine I noticed on the way back.
Thanks for reading.
So about seven months ago when my son was born, the wife and I began to realize ( that is, she did immediately, and I did after weeks of rationalizing, bargaining, and all the other stages of grief ) that our little Italian two seater wasn't going to be quite the car for us, the boy, and our three dogs. We were both interested in something that could get us out of the city and then some, and we looked real close at a JL Rubicon. Giving up my little Alfa Romeo, though, made me worry about the commute. I wanted something with balance if not outright cornering ability, and enough power to pass on the local autobahn ( make that parking lot ) that is the 210 freeway.
The Raptor is bigger, faster, safer, a race truck or close enough to it, and of course can fly. So decision made, I looked for a local seller, and scheduled an appointment with a certain dealership in Van Nuys. Test drove it. Loved it. Wanted to buy it.
That dealer wanted $15k over MSRP of course, and I told him I wouldn't pay it. He tried the shell game with my trade in but still wanted $9k. I said nope. He said nope. So I went home on a Friday, signed up here at FRF on Saturday, and on Sunday found Darin.
Darin is out of Pennsylvania at Maguire's Ford, and had put an add up for a 2018 req at MSRP. He'd drop ship it to a SoCal dealer not located in Van Nuys, handle the paperwork, and manage communications with the factory about those production issues they had for a while. Some weeks later I started getting shipping notifications from Darin - the truck was on a rail rolling out of Michigan and slowly making its way to the Los Angeles area. We settled the money and paperwork and soon enough I picked it up and brought it home.
Here's the Raptor reconnoitering Joshua Tree
It was good timing, too: we had a vacation coming up in Joshua Tree. There oughtta be some fun places to wheel out there, I thought. And indeed, there's no shortage, with Johnson Valley being essentially half way between home and JT, all the trails in the park itself, and all the dirt roads to nowhere out in the middle of the desert that anyone could ask for. So I decided to do something extremely stupid. I figured I'd take it out on a trail, by myself, first time off road, first time in a truck, in the middle of a 110F day, in a desert where people have wandered off and died more than once.
But hey, I bought some recovery boards, so I should be fine! Right?
Anyway, I watched some handy Youtube videos and decided, since I'd long wanted to go explore some mines out here, that I'd take Old Dale Road into the Brooklyn Mining District, go climb around on a mountain half covered in cyanide laced dirt, and then stroll leisurely through the mine for a while. By myself. Before returning home.
That's actually looking up into a stope.
I took the high road in, which if you're not familiar with it is passably wide, but has very steep inclines and declines with just a couple of rough spots. Probably owing more to my ignorance of wheeling than anything else, I really felt King of the Road out there, with descents over blind crests and what looked like a ramp straight into blue sky, the truck just rolled. Found the mine, explored it a bit, then hiked back to the truck for the ride home.
I decided to take the low road out. Again for those unfamiliar with it, the low road is a Jeep trail through a rocky dry river wash, and while they're not giant boulders or anything, I'd never done that before. Slow and easy, and the truck'll make its way through, right? Right. Mostly right. About halfway through the wash I drove off a cliff. Or what seemed like one, as the truck rotated toward passenger and I heard what I was pretty sure was the running board taking the brunt of it. Loudly.
I still don't know what happened. Didn't see any drop off, no untoward rocks looming on my line. Maybe I hit a rock wrong and slipped the front end off too soon. Didn't seem to matter, though, and we kept rollin'.
The Lunar Rover.
Eventually I made it out and toward late afternoon was making my way Old Dale Road toward Twentynine Palms. When I saw that view, I stopped for a photo. Then I saw the damage. The running board had been kinked up into the lower door sill, which was nicely dented. Couldn't open the passenger door until I jumped on the board to bend its bracket back in to a useable position. What an idiot, I thought. Brand new truck, dented.
Then I realized I really didn't care. In fact in a sheepish sort of way I was glad of it. Our neighbors and colleagues couldn't sneer about the pretentiousness of owning such a truck while working at home half the time, and leaving it parked, on the street or at the office, virtually all of the time. I'd done something pretty d***n stupid, but had a blast doing it. Yeah, maybe I could've died if I'd got stuck too bad, or had actually driven right into that vertical mine shaft on the road out before veering out of the way. So, there's some adventure to be had.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but that's my first experience with the Raptor, and I love it. So thanks to FRF for connecting me with Darin and providing so many resources and so much knowledge you guys offer. And thanks of course to Darin, who not only made the Raptor possible, but made getting it a breeze. With the premium these trucks command in the Los Angeles area, it's definitely safe to say that between the FRF and Darin I saved some $9k at least.
A road-side mine I noticed on the way back.
Thanks for reading.
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Have fun in it and don't kill yourself.
