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sikedsyko

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If you have it in gravel mode it has no problems on a gravel roads or wash boards surfaces. That is what the different modes are for atleast put it in auto 4wd like the Subaru has then tells us the difference.
Truck doesn't have a Gravel mode, but this has little to do with the powertrain anyways. 4WD isn't going to help much when the truck can't keep any tire on the ground for more than a fraction of a second. The truck also won't turn or brake, regardless of 4wd mode. And for what its worth I did try it in 4H and 2H.

The suspension was in offroad mode. My main impression is that it would probably do better with lower tire pressures than the 39 cold psi I was running, but IMO this truck should work better than the $50 shocks on an old Subaru at controlling the suspension over a surface like that.
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MJB4450

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I'll admit that I haven't had a subscription to MT for almost 30 years so when did they start using valley girls to do reviews?
 

hand-filer

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I'll admit that I haven't had a subscription to MT for almost 30 years so when did they start using valley girls to do reviews?
Around the time that the stereotype that women are inferior to men was debunked.
 

rwolfcastle

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Truck doesn't have a Gravel mode, but this has little to do with the powertrain anyways. 4WD isn't going to help much when the truck can't keep any tire on the ground for more than a fraction of a second. The truck also won't turn or brake, regardless of 4wd mode. And for what its worth I did try it in 4H and 2H.

The suspension was in offroad mode. My main impression is that it would probably do better with lower tire pressures than the 39 cold psi I was running, but IMO this truck should work better than the $50 shocks on an old Subaru at controlling the suspension over a surface like that.
I've noticed a big difference between having suspension in off-road mode and having the whole truck in Baja mode. I know that Baja mode also has the "off-road" suspension setting, but I swear there's a big difference in softness when in Baja. Anytime I'm on washboard or anything where I'm going over 30mph, I stick it in baja and the truck just floats.
 

Grranger

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They’re not wrong about the trucks performance in gravel washboard. I just spent a week driving forest roads in New Mexico and the truck was down right dangerous on 30-40mph washboard gravel. My friends 15 year old Subaru Forester was better there.
Sounds like the problem was in the driver seat.
 

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sikedsyko

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Sounds like the problem was in the driver seat.
TIL the driver has some major impact on driving a constant speed in a straight line, causing the truck to oscillate violently.

A basic ass Subaru does just fine. The truck is sprung too stiff for that use case. Probably why Motor Trend thinks the ZR2 performs better.
 

sikedsyko

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I've noticed a big difference between having suspension in off-road mode and having the whole truck in Baja mode. I know that Baja mode also has the "off-road" suspension setting, but I swear there's a big difference in softness when in Baja. Anytime I'm on washboard or anything where I'm going over 30mph, I stick it in baja and the truck just floats.
it would be nice if Ford would provide some more detail on things like that, above the single line blurb in the owners manual that off road suspension is for off-road. I didn’t put the truck in Baja mode, because it olds gears annoyingly long in that mode for anything below 8/10ths pace.
 

Grranger

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it would be nice if Ford would provide some more detail on things like that, above the single line blurb in the owners manual that off road suspension is for off-road. I didn’t put the truck in Baja mode, because it olds gears annoyingly long in that mode for anything below 8/10ths pace.
You didn’t even change drive modes and completely read the truck for filth? Yeah, the problem was definitely in the driver seat.
 

MIAZ

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This kinda reminds me of a YouTube review that I had watched some time ago. which one I don’t know, after spending a lot of time reading and watching almost any Raptor content I could find. The best description I can remember is the location was an older mountain, rounded over, probably in the east somewhere with shorter trees which indicate exposure to higher winds and maybe snow in season at altitude. The road was sometimes broken blacktop and a lot of turns, width was on the narrow side with trees hanging close to the road. I hope that description would help someone else remember the video. Anyway, the guy is driving the Raptor for the first time and getting on it and liking the response more and more and after getting to a turnaround, a one way in and out road, he’s driving and liking in his description and near the end says he doesn’t like the steering input or response and that indicated to me that he didn’t know there was a button on the steering wheel to adjust it 3 ways.
I’m thinking there is a combination of adjustments on the Raptor and with changed tire pressures that will be great for the wash board roads. Someone will figure it out or already know the solution, come on drivers, let the rest of us know.
 

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G L Rockwell

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They all complain about this, but it's one of the better features in my opinion. It's super easy to get in gear, I've never had an issue with it, and it looks a million times better than that big fugly stick that shoots up 2 feet in the middle of your cab. I absolutely hated that thing in my 5G Ranger.



You should see their Youtube review between the RRaptor and the ZR2. I've never seen a car review vid get ratio'd so hard, and they weren't all Ford fanboys tearing them to shreds either. Their journalists are horrible and so boring on video.
motortrend like consumer reports are shills for government motors.
 

moproblems

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TIL the driver has some major impact on driving a constant speed in a straight line, causing the truck to oscillate violently.

A basic ass Subaru does just fine. The truck is sprung too stiff for that use case. Probably why Motor Trend thinks the ZR2 performs better.
Washboards are all about damping. If damping is too soft in general the tire will wheel hop. Offroad stiffens up the shocks over standard comfort. When I ran heavy washboards recently I was at 39psi in off road and never had a single problem.
 

stemplar

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Within the first minute of the video she complained about the front bumper being metal instead of plastic and then stuck her head into the wheel well... Back in my day they had a special school bus for people like her.
Interesting take. I didn’t see the bumper comment as a complaint, but as her pointing out that it’s actually steel. In other words, it was a compliment.
 
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Tagtexas

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Interesting take. I didn’t see the bumper comment as a complaint, but as her pointing out that it’s actually steel. In other words, it was a compliment.
She implied that a pedestrian getting hit by a steel bumper would be worse than a plastic one. I found her comment to be a head scratcher.
 

rxv_poor

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They had expectations of what they wanted it to be from the start. Not very unbiased.
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