spazzyfry123
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Tyler
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2025
- Threads
- 12
- Messages
- 228
- Reaction score
- 303
- Location
- North Georgia Mountains
- Vehicle(s)
- Ranger Raptor
- Thread starter
- #1
Had a code brown moment yesterday. Truck has 900 miles on it and still on dealer drive out plates. 2025 Ranger Raptor.
I'm up by my parent's place in North Carolina to spend the day with daddio sighting in his new rifle at the range. On our way back from a pitstop at the local gun store, probably less than a mile from their house on a paved, rural B-road, the truck begins to rotate on me as I'm coming out of a turn. I'm guessing here, but maybe 40 mph? A sensation I can only describe as hitting a patch of ice. Steering input is seemingly doing nothing and I'm trying both brake and gas to see if I can get something to connect. The truck rotates on me doing a 180 with tires squealing and stops in a ditch on the opposite site of the road. At this point I have utterly no idea what had happened, but it was evident that it was something in the steering as hand inputs really felt like the steering wheel was air-gapped from the wheels.
The ditch is no big deal - a simple thing a golf cart could get out of. The truck is struggling a bit to get out, but there wasn't time to get out and assess as I'm sitting on a blind turn. I give it some gas and get out with some good vibration going through the truck and I drive it maybe 100 feet to a turnout on the side of the road. Yep, snapped tie rod. Driver wheel aimed maybe 10 degrees left and passenger full lock right.
I'm new to this platform, but is this some kind of fluke or is this an actual problem with these trucks? I am completely shocked to see a critical component fail. I had a slight driver's door panel rattle and a much louder rattle, almost clunk that was coming from what I had assumed to be behind the dash near the firewall on the passenger side that I had planned to bring into the dealer this week. Now I am convinced this passenger side noise had something to do with this tie rod and here we are. The rattles were disappointing to see as that is something that I've seen mentioned in all of the videos and reviews leading up to my purchase - EVERYONE said that there are just zero rattles, and it was absolutely a deciding factor in what lead to my ultimate purchase.
If I can spin this into some sort of a situational positive, had the snap occurred maybe 50 feet later, instead of a ditch bringing me to a stop it would have been a recent stack 3' diameter trees. This drive was for me to drop my dad off (everyone is okay) which was to be immediately followed by me heading back home over the mountain with a million switch backs and commonplace for 100'+ drops. All things considered, this was absolutely the best place for it to fail.
Now for some comments on Ford - specifically their customer service. And I'm going to dump, so I apologize for the novel.
I will confidently say that this was one of the worst exchanges I have ever experienced. All in from the time the incident occurred to my truck being rolled off in the staging lanes at the dealer's service department was about an eight hour ordeal. Maybe more? I still feel like I'm in a bit of a daze. My father-in-law picked me up from the dealer to bring me back home with us getting in the driveway a bit after midnight.
It's evidently not possible to work with humans to get things resolved, and the ones that you are able to interact with are severely incompetent with the primary focus being to read a script with a chipper demeanor.
I call in for roadside assistance, navigate through the myriad of prompts to then be sent a link via text with the AI voice on the other side basically telling me to click on the link sent to me, a slap on the ass with a "go get 'em tiger, good luck" approach, and the line disconnects.
I run through the app questionnaire prompted to me via the link sent, and I select the dealer that is closest to my house that is presented to me by the app. I am told that I owe them $22.50 for the tow; I'm chuffed that I need to come up with anything, but at this point I just need this taken care of. At questionnaire completion I'm told everything is done and to wait for the towing company to call me with an ETA. Hmm, I guess they'll collect payment when the tow happens? I dunno? 30 minutes pass and I've got nothing, so I call back in to see what's going on.
After 15 minutes of being ping ponged around through their queue, I finally get a hold of someone that tells me that they are waiting on my payment and to follow the link that was texted to me. "Well, no link was texted to me?" "Oh, strange. Let me get you over to the payment department to take care of this." 30 more minutes of being on hold, I'm now with the payment lady that tells me that I need to follow the link that was texted to me.
"NOTHING HAS BEEN TEXTED TO ME."
"Oh strange, let me send that back over to you."
"Okay, thanks. Please stay with me so we can confirm it was sent over."
"Sorry sir, we are unable to stay on the line as we need to keep the lines open for emergencies."
"How is this not an emergency? My steering failed at speed and I am on the side of the road."
"Sorry sir, we are unable to stay on the line as we need to keep the lines open for emergencies."
"I'm sorry, but this texted link for payment has failed multiple times now. I can't go through your prompts again, please just resend it so we can both confirm so we can get this tow truck here."
"Sorry sir, we are unable to stay on the line as we need to keep the lines open for emergencies."
"......"
"Sir? I am sending the link now. I hope you have a great rest of your day!"
Disconnected
Another probably 20 minutes go by, still no link has been texted to me. I receive a phone call and it's the same lady that I talked to last.
"Hi, just calling to make sure you received the link that I sent you. I don't show that we've received payment."
(In my head, "I thought you were unable to stay on the line to confirm the link was sent and that this was for emergencies") "Nothing has been texted to me."
"Okay sir, let me just take your payment over the phone."
"...."
"Sir?"
"Yes, I have my credit card ready."
Fast forward another hour (which at this point, we're probably 3 hours since the tie rod snapped), I receive a call from the tow truck guy to tell me he's about 1.5 hours out. Okay fine, let's get this done. About 30 minutes later, tow truck guy calls me back to say they need another $600. I tell them to take it up with Ford; I've already paid for the tow. He tells me he's canceling the trip because Ford told them they were delivering my truck to Tennessee, not Georgia. "Sorry bro." Aaaaand disconnect.
I now call Ford back again and navigate my way through another 30 minutes of prompts and hold music to start the entire process over again. Then after doing what's effectively a copy/paste of what's above, I finally have a confirmed truck on the way that will be to me in about two hours' time.
A dude shows up in an F-350 with a trailer. The only detail he had was that it was a Ranger and didn't know that the steer wheels were disconnected. Not realizing that it was a Raptor (wider), you could see it in his face that he didn't have the right kit for the job. I told him I don't care how, but this truck is getting on your trailer. For about the next hour and a half, I'm in the driver's seat of the Ranger inching it forward onto his trailer with him giving me spotter directions and man-handling the now limp passenger front wheel to keep it straight. The trailer wheel wells afforded us about an inch or so on either side of the truck wheels, so this was no small task given we really had no true control of the truck.
Over the mountain we go. All the while, the driver is crossing over into opposite lane traffic to avoid the switch backs. Nice guy, fun conversation, but damn. We arrive at the dealer and we then have to reverse the hour and a half process to get it off the trailer and in a parking place at the dealer.
As it sits now, I have no idea what the next steps are. I have no idea if the dealer even knows why my truck is in their parking lot. I have no idea if I should be expecting a rental. Oh and that $22.50 that generated hours and hours of back and forth? That's because the dealer location was a 53 mile tow. 3 miles outside of the 50 mile radius.
I'm up by my parent's place in North Carolina to spend the day with daddio sighting in his new rifle at the range. On our way back from a pitstop at the local gun store, probably less than a mile from their house on a paved, rural B-road, the truck begins to rotate on me as I'm coming out of a turn. I'm guessing here, but maybe 40 mph? A sensation I can only describe as hitting a patch of ice. Steering input is seemingly doing nothing and I'm trying both brake and gas to see if I can get something to connect. The truck rotates on me doing a 180 with tires squealing and stops in a ditch on the opposite site of the road. At this point I have utterly no idea what had happened, but it was evident that it was something in the steering as hand inputs really felt like the steering wheel was air-gapped from the wheels.
The ditch is no big deal - a simple thing a golf cart could get out of. The truck is struggling a bit to get out, but there wasn't time to get out and assess as I'm sitting on a blind turn. I give it some gas and get out with some good vibration going through the truck and I drive it maybe 100 feet to a turnout on the side of the road. Yep, snapped tie rod. Driver wheel aimed maybe 10 degrees left and passenger full lock right.
I'm new to this platform, but is this some kind of fluke or is this an actual problem with these trucks? I am completely shocked to see a critical component fail. I had a slight driver's door panel rattle and a much louder rattle, almost clunk that was coming from what I had assumed to be behind the dash near the firewall on the passenger side that I had planned to bring into the dealer this week. Now I am convinced this passenger side noise had something to do with this tie rod and here we are. The rattles were disappointing to see as that is something that I've seen mentioned in all of the videos and reviews leading up to my purchase - EVERYONE said that there are just zero rattles, and it was absolutely a deciding factor in what lead to my ultimate purchase.
If I can spin this into some sort of a situational positive, had the snap occurred maybe 50 feet later, instead of a ditch bringing me to a stop it would have been a recent stack 3' diameter trees. This drive was for me to drop my dad off (everyone is okay) which was to be immediately followed by me heading back home over the mountain with a million switch backs and commonplace for 100'+ drops. All things considered, this was absolutely the best place for it to fail.
Now for some comments on Ford - specifically their customer service. And I'm going to dump, so I apologize for the novel.
I will confidently say that this was one of the worst exchanges I have ever experienced. All in from the time the incident occurred to my truck being rolled off in the staging lanes at the dealer's service department was about an eight hour ordeal. Maybe more? I still feel like I'm in a bit of a daze. My father-in-law picked me up from the dealer to bring me back home with us getting in the driveway a bit after midnight.
It's evidently not possible to work with humans to get things resolved, and the ones that you are able to interact with are severely incompetent with the primary focus being to read a script with a chipper demeanor.
I call in for roadside assistance, navigate through the myriad of prompts to then be sent a link via text with the AI voice on the other side basically telling me to click on the link sent to me, a slap on the ass with a "go get 'em tiger, good luck" approach, and the line disconnects.
I run through the app questionnaire prompted to me via the link sent, and I select the dealer that is closest to my house that is presented to me by the app. I am told that I owe them $22.50 for the tow; I'm chuffed that I need to come up with anything, but at this point I just need this taken care of. At questionnaire completion I'm told everything is done and to wait for the towing company to call me with an ETA. Hmm, I guess they'll collect payment when the tow happens? I dunno? 30 minutes pass and I've got nothing, so I call back in to see what's going on.
After 15 minutes of being ping ponged around through their queue, I finally get a hold of someone that tells me that they are waiting on my payment and to follow the link that was texted to me. "Well, no link was texted to me?" "Oh, strange. Let me get you over to the payment department to take care of this." 30 more minutes of being on hold, I'm now with the payment lady that tells me that I need to follow the link that was texted to me.
"NOTHING HAS BEEN TEXTED TO ME."
"Oh strange, let me send that back over to you."
"Okay, thanks. Please stay with me so we can confirm it was sent over."
"Sorry sir, we are unable to stay on the line as we need to keep the lines open for emergencies."
"How is this not an emergency? My steering failed at speed and I am on the side of the road."
"Sorry sir, we are unable to stay on the line as we need to keep the lines open for emergencies."
"I'm sorry, but this texted link for payment has failed multiple times now. I can't go through your prompts again, please just resend it so we can both confirm so we can get this tow truck here."
"Sorry sir, we are unable to stay on the line as we need to keep the lines open for emergencies."
"......"
"Sir? I am sending the link now. I hope you have a great rest of your day!"
Disconnected
Another probably 20 minutes go by, still no link has been texted to me. I receive a phone call and it's the same lady that I talked to last.
"Hi, just calling to make sure you received the link that I sent you. I don't show that we've received payment."
(In my head, "I thought you were unable to stay on the line to confirm the link was sent and that this was for emergencies") "Nothing has been texted to me."
"Okay sir, let me just take your payment over the phone."
"...."
"Sir?"
"Yes, I have my credit card ready."
Fast forward another hour (which at this point, we're probably 3 hours since the tie rod snapped), I receive a call from the tow truck guy to tell me he's about 1.5 hours out. Okay fine, let's get this done. About 30 minutes later, tow truck guy calls me back to say they need another $600. I tell them to take it up with Ford; I've already paid for the tow. He tells me he's canceling the trip because Ford told them they were delivering my truck to Tennessee, not Georgia. "Sorry bro." Aaaaand disconnect.
I now call Ford back again and navigate my way through another 30 minutes of prompts and hold music to start the entire process over again. Then after doing what's effectively a copy/paste of what's above, I finally have a confirmed truck on the way that will be to me in about two hours' time.
A dude shows up in an F-350 with a trailer. The only detail he had was that it was a Ranger and didn't know that the steer wheels were disconnected. Not realizing that it was a Raptor (wider), you could see it in his face that he didn't have the right kit for the job. I told him I don't care how, but this truck is getting on your trailer. For about the next hour and a half, I'm in the driver's seat of the Ranger inching it forward onto his trailer with him giving me spotter directions and man-handling the now limp passenger front wheel to keep it straight. The trailer wheel wells afforded us about an inch or so on either side of the truck wheels, so this was no small task given we really had no true control of the truck.
Over the mountain we go. All the while, the driver is crossing over into opposite lane traffic to avoid the switch backs. Nice guy, fun conversation, but damn. We arrive at the dealer and we then have to reverse the hour and a half process to get it off the trailer and in a parking place at the dealer.
As it sits now, I have no idea what the next steps are. I have no idea if the dealer even knows why my truck is in their parking lot. I have no idea if I should be expecting a rental. Oh and that $22.50 that generated hours and hours of back and forth? That's because the dealer location was a 53 mile tow. 3 miles outside of the 50 mile radius.
Sponsored
