For a critical component like this, you would think they would use a forged component. Is it aluminum? It's hard to tell as the color looks so similar to the control arm.
My 2¢ on bandaid workarounds...
I agree......Sometimes the aftermarket world gets ahead of the manufacture. Something as simple design as this sleeve appears might save me the same fait.
Maybe, but I don't buy the last statement. Ford has been making tie rods for decades. There's nothing special or unusual about a TRE on a new Raptor. I'd bet if you crossed reverenced P/Ns, you would find this same part on many of Ford's products, and even on other makes. My 1¢, it might be a defective part due to manufacturing defects, or as others stated, damaged during shipping.
Still looking for the pile of broken or snapped Ford Performance RR and BR tie rods at the Raptor Assault Course that require an AM sleeve to prevent. If any place would break them by the dozen, that would be it.
The part of this theory that doesn't add up is this: If the damage was existing at delivery and bad enough to cause a break like that, it would have been noticeable as it would have tracked horribly from day 1. I think, like @embedded rock first suggested, that there was some kind of a steering failure leading to the mishap and when the truck went sideways into the ditch the wheel was forced hard against the side of the ditch and bent/snapped the tie rod.
This is the direction I am leaning towards as well. From what I did see/notice, assembly paint still in place indicating to me that the alignment had not been altered from the factory. Had something been bent at transport, the truck would have been squirrelly with some wild toe parameters.
And this is squarely where I've been sitting since Saturday. My gut has been turning waiting for the "well, this is your fault" phone call.
Good point. There should also be some kind of additional damage even cosmetically, possibly to ball joints or even the Fox shock. Tie rods have very high tensile strength but the weakest part is the threaded area and it broke near the nut. It is also possible that lane centering was on and the vehicle made a correction that caused it. Don't know what effect lane centering has on dirt roads where the road sides are not uniform or the sensor finds it, doesn't find it, then finds it again etc. And as you say the dealer may claim it was driver induced, not a part failure, thus no warranty coverage.. Still trying to wrap my head around a RR built to withstand a lot of stress and strain snapping a tie rod like that.
For what it's worth, a big reason I purchased this truck is because there's really not anything that I want to do to it. I was after a turn-key, ready to rock, fun truck to drive most days. Who knows, years from now, maybe I will want to start going down the rabbit hole, but it's really a truck that from the factory has everything I'd want. When these 33" K03s wear out, I'd replace them with 33" K03s. Its use case for me is something cool, fun, and interesting to take the office and the occasional off shoot on a wide forest service road just because. I already have an extremely capable off-roader with all kinds of kits and bobs that takes on severe duty - stuff this truck wouldn't come close to seeing.The tie rods\power steering are a weaker point on this platform
....But not THAT weak
Glad no one was hurt.
That Tie rod had to to be damaged elsewhere, prior to your turn where everything went sideways. If you haven't bashed anything with it since you purchased, maybe it was chained down improperly during transport or a staffer rode over a barrier at the dealer and was scared to speak up?
You only need to upgrade the rack and rods if you are going with 37" tires or more IMO, the stock setup should handle up to 35's as long as you aren't an idiot while wheeling and don't abuse the front end (cranking wheel in deep ruts, against rocks or other heavy resistance, or if a tire catches\snags while at high speed)
Something to consider if you upgrade the tie rods but not the HOSS...is that the rack case then becomes the failure point, which is far more costly. It's designed to snap a cheap tie rod before the steering rack.
IMO upgrade both, or simply be aware of the limits of stock setup and carry a spare tie rod while off road. The HOSS steering rack is physically fairly straight forward to swap, but be aware you will need a forscan connection to enable the computer to recognize it.
74weld sells steering rack housings of various strengths (Stage 1-3) to upgrade the existing HOSS steering rack.
I hear ya, this is definitely a defect or improper setup that caused this, I assure you all the raptor owners here aren't snapping tie rods every left turn they make lol...people would be dying and the lawsuits flying.
100%
