Protecting against trail stripes - worth trying?

[K-dog]

Hi all,

Got my ‘24 Raptor a little over a month ago. First new-ish vehicle I’ve ever owned and most expensive by a long shot, so I’m worrying about things I haven’t on my previous vehicles like trail-striping tanking the resale value if I happen to move and want something else in a couple years. I love the truck, don’t get me wrong, just still in the phase of rationalizing if it’s really worth $50k to me.

I want to use this truck as its intended to be used, it won’t be a pavement princess. I live in AZ and have only had it on the wider trails so far, but there’s some tight ones I want to try that already tore up my previous XC70 trail rig. So, since it still looks pristine now is it worth getting a ceramic coat or PPF for protection, or just send it and the value hit isn’t that bad? I don’t care if it looks scratched up under my ownership, IMO a truck like this looks best dirty.

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[bgn]

My opinion as a Lariat FX4 owner, which is quite a bit cheaper: nope!

Ceramic coat won't help.

PPF is expensive. You'll never recoup the thousands of dollars it'll cost to wrap the truck.

For me in the Cascades with alder and tight roads, I try to minimize scratches, especially with small reroutes if I know the area well. But if I rub the clear coat off or get a fat scratch, so be it. Like me, it's a depreciating asset and I'm gonna use my truck for what I bought it for.