Morons at MotorTrend

[a77cj7]

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.

RRaptor suspension is designed for higher speeds. I wouldn’t call it dangerous at 30mph, but it’s definitely rough and shifting around. 50mph is much improved, but still feel the washboards. 80mph+ is butter smooth and planted.

When i was running low speed trails in moab, i dropped to 20psi. Smoothed it out quite a bit.

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[MIAZ]

The “reporters” drive around for a couple of hours on predetermined routes and act like they know everything. Park your butt in the seat and go for cross country trip where you’re driving for 100 hours +, that’ll teach you a whole lot about what your ride is like. Varied roads , weather, road grade, altitude you’ll find out if you like it or not. I test drove a Chevy Canyon Bison Desert edition in January, it’s ok, smaller back seat and it’s way slower, the gas pedal didn’t make me grin at all, the Raptor does. I’m also betting it won’t be long before a Ford lift kit, 35’s and a Ford factory tune come along, Canyon advantage in rock crawling GONE! I wonder if Ford will do a factory tune, what would another 75 HP feel like??

 

[Bad1987gn]

Anybody else see this garbage from Motor Trend?

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2024-ford-ranger-raptor-pros-cons-review/

They don’t provide any real data to backup their prejudiced opinions and are completely out if step with nearly all auto journalists that have tested the Ranger Raptor. But of course what would you expect from a rag that picked the Rivian RT as Truck of the Year in 2022 over the little Ford Maverick.

Cancelled my subscription a while back.

I have a ranger and a Rivian R1T bought both new. The Rivian is vastly superior to the maverick....both are good vehicles,however.

 

[Justin_Glen]

She has her thumbs inside the steering wheel. Couldn't take her as a serious driver after that.

 

[Oreo_Five8]

I certainly prefer this E-Shifter to the dial used in other Ford's, however, its kind of silly how it operates. The BMW design where you push forward for Reverse and pull backwards for Drive is much easier to use.



The entire chassis was oscillating so bad that you had virtually no control over the vehicle. This was at ~20-40mph over smaller washboard on a well maintained, but heavily traveled gravel road. Factory spec tire pressure at 39psi cold, probably would have been better at lower pressures, but IMO this truck should be able to handle things like that. To me it seems like this truck is over sprung for its intended offroad use. Like I said, we also had my friend's Subaru Forester on the same road at the same speeds and it maintained much better tire contact.

39 PSI on a washboard road? Here's your sign!

 

[sikedsyko]

39 PSI on a washboard road? Here's your sign!

Nobody is airing down to drive a few miles down a forest service road. I'm sure lower PSI would help, but it makes no sense in this case.

It would be nice if Ford provided alternate PSI recommendations for low payload situations. It would probably be fine to run ~33 PSI all the time as long as the truck doesn't have much payload.

 

[Johnny 5]

Motor Trend ? The name speaks for itself. Motors are electric. I have an engine in my Ranger Raptor. Why would somebody who names their magazine after an electric motor know anything about an engine?????

 

[JimJa]

Have about 2600 miles on my RR and that includes a 1,000 mile non-stop highway drive. I drive 6 miles of very washboarded gravel to get to the highway. Last week I completed Ford's Assault Course in Utah. And - correctly - got flamed by this group for rock chips because I replaced me running boards with eboards. I'm dealing with it. My comments:
- Shifter. Took about one drive to get used to it. No problem. Much blah, blah about nothing. No problems with wife's dial-a-gear rotary shifter on her Escape either. It's a personal issue - some like it, some do not.
- I semi-agree with controllability on washboard gravel and daily speeds (39PSI in the tires). The truck seems very much built for high-speed desert driving vice day-to-day, 25-35MPH, gravel roads. Someone suggested Baja mode was better. Haven't tried it yet.
- Actually my. biggest beef is why on earth Ford doesn't make the tailgate sealable. Particularly since so many install a cap, bed carpet or cover. This isn't difficult.
- Assault driving course. Ford calls it a "driving school" and that's a reach. What it does do, however, is teach students the various modes of the truck and how to use them and a drive in each. Instructors (3) each had a Baja 1000 race experience. Each of the six students got to experience every driving mode from highway to rock-crawling, to trail control, to 64% (32 degree) slope to climb and drive across, etc. 101 degrees and more dust than I've ever experienced. Worked the A/C like crazy on recirc. Glad I attended.

 

[hand-filer]

Motor Trend ? The name speaks for itself. Motors are electric. I have an engine in my Ranger Raptor. Why would somebody who names their magazine after an electric motor know anything about an engine?????

Maybe you should consider switching to Engine oil at your next oil change.

 

[JustNick]

Motor Trend ? The name speaks for itself. Motors are electric. I have an engine in my Ranger Raptor. Why would somebody who names their magazine after an electric motor know anything about an engine?????

I'm sorry but that's factually incorrect. All engines fall under the motor category. A motor is any device that converts some form of energy (chemical, electrical, magnetic, etc.) into a motive force, thus the "mot" part of motor. An engine is any device that converts stored energy into motion typically through the use of a rotating assembly, but not exclusively (pulse wave engines fall into the atypical part of that).

 

[Johnny 5]

Maybe you should consider switching to Engine oil at your next oil change.

Or you could get in your Tesla and start your engine ?

 

[Johnny 5]

I'm sorry but that's factually incorrect. All engines fall under the motor category. A motor is any device that converts some form of energy (chemical, electrical, magnetic, etc.) into a motive force, thus the "mot" part of motor. An engine is any device that converts stored energy into motion typically through the use of a rotating assembly, but not exclusively (pulse wave engines fall into the atypical part of that).

Daytona 500 "Gentleman, start your motors!" ?????

 

[JustNick]

Daytona 500 "Gentleman, start your motors!" ?????

Oh my bad, I've been proven wrong. I've been foiled by the announcer at a MOTORsports event. I'll go shred my engineering degree now

 

[gtyates]

Did MT test the same truck as Car and Driver did? The reviews are shockingly different. But, since it is not an ev, MT doesn't care anyway... For anyone interested, C&D said to buy the RR.

 

[Tommy]

Motor Trend ? The name speaks for itself. Motors are electric. I have an engine in my Ranger Raptor. Why would somebody who names their magazine after an electric motor know anything about an engine?????

Motor Trend has been around since about 1949 and has been covering the auto industry since it first published. You may not like this review, and there seems to be some good reasons why the review was poorly done. But with almost 90 years of covering automobiles it is pretty hard to to be ranting about the periodicals name.

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