pablo94sc
Well-Known Member
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- #1
8k mile road trip over the last 3 weeks from Memphis to Olympic NP has me ready to put the truck under the knife, literally and figuratively. Here's what I learned.
First thing I noticed, the sag from the rack, tent, and gear. 300lb springs are going to be ordered soon, as sitting level-ish really screwed with my visibility, and adjusting the seat didn't help much as I couldn't seem to get it dialed in like before. Braking was slightly worse as well, but not sure how much of that was weight vs rake.
I want more clearance. Not a lot, but a spacer lift with 35s should allow me to take trails with a little less care for wheel placement. South Draw Rd, just south of Capitol Reef, is maybe a 4/10 trail, but the Raptor handled it fine with maybe only a couple small bumps on the underside. Another inch of clearance would make it a breeze. Bumpers are not an issue or a needed upgrade unless you plan to hit 5-6/10+ trails or mount accessories without a lot of fab work or cutting.
I need real sliders. I made a right turn too tight and got the PS running board hung up on a boulder ballard in a parking lot. I was able to crab walk the truck off the rock, but not before putting a new hole in it and realigning the running board. Kiddo didn't see it either, so I'm not a total idiot, just partial.
The Ark mid height splash guards I installed worked as intended and kept most of the muck off the truck. Definitely happy with them. That said, if you run poke and don't have splash guards, I hope you get kicked in the berries.
Intercooler has to be upgraded. The charge temps doubled from ~20F over ambient to ~40F over in the last two years. Could be full of bugs, but that's a pretty big jump from our roadtrip 2 years prior. Suggestions on the best bang for the buck here would be appreciated, especially if you have before/after temps with the new cooler. Looking for less heat soak and consistent, cooler temps.
Cold air intakes are definitely not needed. I never saw intake temps more than 4F above ambient, whether it was 100F or 50F out, no matter the speed or trail.
The grill shutters really effect cooling. Open with the AC on, coolant temps at the cylinder heads were easily 20F lower than AC off and closed. No real difference in gas mileage noticed, so not sure if these are even needed except in the winter to keep temps in the operating range.
The Wildtop rack I bought cannot be recommended at this time. I had my concerns before the trip and posted them here. After doing the Cathedral Valley loop in Capitol Reef, the clamps loosened enough to slide the rack forward a full inch with enough side-to-side shimmy that the rubber feet on the bottom rails came out. Also allowed the zippers to rub directly on the paint. I had to retorque the bolts every couple days the remainder of the trip. I will be removing everything in the next few weeks to redesign this thing to make it Raptor approved, and might even market my own version.
The AAL ditch brackets with antenna wings bounce around a lot with dual light pods installed on them. Everything is tight, so I can't recommend running dual pods on them unless you're okay with some jiggle. Probably fine with a single pod and antenna mounted as that's what they were designed for. That said, I'm thinking of alternate solutions for mounting ditch lights on our trucks. Hood glare is atrocious.
Speaking of the hood, this thing scared the crap out of me anytime we passed a semi on a two lane road at 60mph or above (the speed limits on some of these rural highways). I noticed it before, but this trip was more blue highways than intestate. The hood jumps like crazy and as best as I can tell, only the latch is preventing it from flying open. If you've seen this, you know what I'm talking about. I'm thinking that opening up the hood vents may help with the pressure differential. Thoughts?
The power ports in the bed are fantastic. Every day the 12v charged the Anker SOLIX C1000 1Kw power station and kept my fridge running and misc tent gear topped off.
https://www.ankersolix.com/products/c1000?variant=49702371524938
Caveat: this made charging stuff in the cab slow. Truck could probably use a bigger inverter or alternator if you're using a power station or second battery.
AC blower started getting weaker after playing in the desert, so I'm thinking it's time for a new cabin air filter.
Camp kitchen was mostly successful, but definitely could use some tweaks for better organization and usability.
Finally, I really think Ford dropped the ball only installing a 20 gallon tank on a truck that averages 15mpg loaded down for camping/overlanding. An extra 5 gallons would go a long way, literally, to keep range anxiety at bay. Instead, I filled up every 150-200 miles. My bladder thanked me, but seriously, what a PITA.
PS: strong tailwinds (>30mph) got me over 22mpg at 80mph in Wyoming. Similar headwinds netted ~13mpg at 80mph in New Mexico and Utah. Slowing down and riding behind semis @ 70mph netted about .5mpg improvement, but the savings didn't justify the distance lost.
I'll post pictures (edit
in the next post.
First thing I noticed, the sag from the rack, tent, and gear. 300lb springs are going to be ordered soon, as sitting level-ish really screwed with my visibility, and adjusting the seat didn't help much as I couldn't seem to get it dialed in like before. Braking was slightly worse as well, but not sure how much of that was weight vs rake.
I want more clearance. Not a lot, but a spacer lift with 35s should allow me to take trails with a little less care for wheel placement. South Draw Rd, just south of Capitol Reef, is maybe a 4/10 trail, but the Raptor handled it fine with maybe only a couple small bumps on the underside. Another inch of clearance would make it a breeze. Bumpers are not an issue or a needed upgrade unless you plan to hit 5-6/10+ trails or mount accessories without a lot of fab work or cutting.
I need real sliders. I made a right turn too tight and got the PS running board hung up on a boulder ballard in a parking lot. I was able to crab walk the truck off the rock, but not before putting a new hole in it and realigning the running board. Kiddo didn't see it either, so I'm not a total idiot, just partial.
The Ark mid height splash guards I installed worked as intended and kept most of the muck off the truck. Definitely happy with them. That said, if you run poke and don't have splash guards, I hope you get kicked in the berries.
Intercooler has to be upgraded. The charge temps doubled from ~20F over ambient to ~40F over in the last two years. Could be full of bugs, but that's a pretty big jump from our roadtrip 2 years prior. Suggestions on the best bang for the buck here would be appreciated, especially if you have before/after temps with the new cooler. Looking for less heat soak and consistent, cooler temps.
Cold air intakes are definitely not needed. I never saw intake temps more than 4F above ambient, whether it was 100F or 50F out, no matter the speed or trail.
The grill shutters really effect cooling. Open with the AC on, coolant temps at the cylinder heads were easily 20F lower than AC off and closed. No real difference in gas mileage noticed, so not sure if these are even needed except in the winter to keep temps in the operating range.
The Wildtop rack I bought cannot be recommended at this time. I had my concerns before the trip and posted them here. After doing the Cathedral Valley loop in Capitol Reef, the clamps loosened enough to slide the rack forward a full inch with enough side-to-side shimmy that the rubber feet on the bottom rails came out. Also allowed the zippers to rub directly on the paint. I had to retorque the bolts every couple days the remainder of the trip. I will be removing everything in the next few weeks to redesign this thing to make it Raptor approved, and might even market my own version.
The AAL ditch brackets with antenna wings bounce around a lot with dual light pods installed on them. Everything is tight, so I can't recommend running dual pods on them unless you're okay with some jiggle. Probably fine with a single pod and antenna mounted as that's what they were designed for. That said, I'm thinking of alternate solutions for mounting ditch lights on our trucks. Hood glare is atrocious.
Speaking of the hood, this thing scared the crap out of me anytime we passed a semi on a two lane road at 60mph or above (the speed limits on some of these rural highways). I noticed it before, but this trip was more blue highways than intestate. The hood jumps like crazy and as best as I can tell, only the latch is preventing it from flying open. If you've seen this, you know what I'm talking about. I'm thinking that opening up the hood vents may help with the pressure differential. Thoughts?
The power ports in the bed are fantastic. Every day the 12v charged the Anker SOLIX C1000 1Kw power station and kept my fridge running and misc tent gear topped off.
https://www.ankersolix.com/products/c1000?variant=49702371524938
Caveat: this made charging stuff in the cab slow. Truck could probably use a bigger inverter or alternator if you're using a power station or second battery.
AC blower started getting weaker after playing in the desert, so I'm thinking it's time for a new cabin air filter.
Camp kitchen was mostly successful, but definitely could use some tweaks for better organization and usability.
Finally, I really think Ford dropped the ball only installing a 20 gallon tank on a truck that averages 15mpg loaded down for camping/overlanding. An extra 5 gallons would go a long way, literally, to keep range anxiety at bay. Instead, I filled up every 150-200 miles. My bladder thanked me, but seriously, what a PITA.
PS: strong tailwinds (>30mph) got me over 22mpg at 80mph in Wyoming. Similar headwinds netted ~13mpg at 80mph in New Mexico and Utah. Slowing down and riding behind semis @ 70mph netted about .5mpg improvement, but the savings didn't justify the distance lost.
I'll post pictures (edit
in the next post.Sponsored
Last edited:
