Watts Link vs. Panhard Bar - Why does Ford use Watts in the Ranger Raptor and Panhard in the Bronco?

[Aonarch]

Fair, that seems lacking on these trucks. I've not seen any good solutions for the basic lift and level on Raptors and Rangers.

Then again my Jeep rides so much better without any sway bars. I'll connect them for driving certain Colorado paved mountain passes but most of the time they're disconnected and pulled out of the way.

The Ranger Raptor was specifically engineered for its factory ride height and tires.

That's why there are not great ways to lift these. Live Valve coilovers on all four corners with a rear watts link makes it extremely difficult.

Portals are really the only way to go.

I'd say if someone wants a taller mid size or bigger tires, go with the ZR2 or Gladiator.

I bought my RR committed to leaving the suspension and tires stock. It's amazing out of the box.

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Fair, that seems lacking on these trucks. I've not seen any good solutions for the basic lift and level on Raptors and Rangers.

Then again my Jeep rides so much better without any sway bars. I'll connect them for driving certain Colorado paved mountain passes but most of the time they're disconnected and pulled out of the way.

Agree with the current options. A longer shock and spring would be better, but IFS is limiting without going to long arms and wider fenders. It's more costly than a Wrangler. I did trade my '24 JLUWX for the RR. Really enjoyed the Jeep, but it's not the best only-vehicle for me. I'd get another again--just not now as I'm contemplating another move.

 

[LangWWilliams]

Without pictures, it didn't happen.

They day I bought it

 

[Lion77]

The Ranger Raptor was specifically engineered for its factory ride height and tires.

That's why there are not great ways to lift these. Live Valve coilovers on all four corners with a rear watts link makes it extremely difficult.

Portals are really the only way to go.

I'd say if someone wants a taller mid size or bigger tires, go with the ZR2 or Gladiator.

I bought my RR committed to leaving the suspension and tires stock. It's amazing out of the box.

Not necessarily true. You can do a 2" front, 1" rear lift & level with strut spacers and UCA's. That will correct the front alignment, keep the Live Valves operating in proper ride zones with a ride height calibration after the lift.

But that's about the practical limit. It facilitates 35's and still allows for full compression. So if you want a ZR2 equivalent that isn't PRIUS SLOW like the actual ZR2 Bison (it's pretty dogged), you can just buy a RR for a lot less, do strut spacers, UCA's, 35 in tires mounted to set of ET35 offset wheels of your choice, and you basically have a "Utah Raptor" as I'm calling it, the lifted RR on 35's that's set up more for trail work / crawling than Baja, but it can still Baja pretty good and isn't as slow as a Prius.

No loss of travel, no loss of damping etc. A Pro Cal will off set the added mass / diameter of the tires, so you back to at least stock RR acceleration even on 35's. Nothing else out there can offer that in the mid-sized truck segment except maybe the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 that's got a garbage transfer case and cost $100k...mine as well buy a F-150 Raptor R that's way faster still for that price.

Also, Fox now has a 3.2" Live Valve shock kit that can lift up to 3" to accomodate larger tires (longer body), but it's a lot pricier than just the strut spacers and doesn't add any travel, so I'm not really seeing the value there other than larger body Live Valves that maybe are bit more robust to hard use (although the 2.5's take quite a beating in stock form).

So, there are now two good options for lifting and 35's on the RR that allow for full articulation / compression on jumps and don't screw up the damping zones. Although if you go more than 2" in the front, you'll run into issues with the CV joint angles, so some diff work would be needed to go 3".

For my uses, 33's are fine, that's plenty of tire for level 1-5 trails. I didn't buy a RR for rock crawling / hard core trails. 33"s are plenty of tire for dunes, dirt roads, farm fields and road use. Plus, they are a lot lighter, especially when paired with lightweight wheels, so for my uses, I like the more sport performance truck nature of it at stock height on stock 33's vs. a big slow crawler on 35's with a lift that's got more body roll in corners, just not my thing, so we agree there.

I like the speed and airtime! It does surprisingly well in corners on dry pavement too, especially after swapping out the OE Bead Locks for the Method 705's in ET+35. The slight increase in offset really helped with body roll on pavement vs. stock.

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