Stock Ranger Raptor in Hot Springs Off-Road Park

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Hey guys, just figured I’d share some photos of my experience over in the Off-Road park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was a blast seeing what some of the expected strengths and weakness were on the Ranger Raptor. I bought it back in October and it has about 3800 miles on the odometer. It is completely stock and doesn’t have any tune on it either. The only thing I purchased and installed was a Rival 4x4 transmission skid and their fuel tank skid. I did modify the oe transfer case skid plate so that I could still have it installed without the need to remove it for the transmission skid plate to fit. After getting those installed, I decided to go to the park to test it out and hired a guide as well (this was my first time off-roading ever). Boy what it such a great experience.

We played around for a bit on some basic obstacles to get familiar with approach, departure, and break over angles. From that, we learned (as expected), the skid plates were probably going to get used. The limited ground clearance and 33s were just enough to get through most basic obstacles with some rubbing. I did deflate the tires to around 22 psi which hurt clearance even further. Also, the side steps stayed attached but did get grinded on a few times. We remained almost exclusively in 4Lo the entire four hours or so we were there. Once we figured out what the limits were, we decided to run Snake(one of the Jeep Badge of Honor Trails). We did it successfully as well. Overall, the thing was a blast. Lockers worked beautifully when needed and the modes worked as needed (mixture of off-road, rock crawl, and normal mode was used). It definitely needs some 35s and a lift just for the added clearance but overall, I can’t say it’s missing a whole lot. Spacers may do well to position the stance wider out for a little more stability on the trails but as stock as it is, we had some sketchy sideways action at times and it was able to pull through without much damage at all.

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[25BlackRaptor]

Looks like a great time! I just took my rig out for the first time and it looks like you and I came to the same conclusion... need more clearance. Good pics, cheers!

 

[Marman]

Great writeup and pics, looks like a great time. Such a great park. In the early 2000's when it was Superlift park, our 4x4 club would help with clearing trees and such for new trails and then spent the rest of the afternoon trail riding. I had my 1994 Ranger on 33s back then.

 

[Tpage]

Great writeup and pics, looks like a great time. Such a great park. In the early 2000's when it was Superlift park, our 4x4 club would help with clearing trees and such for new trails and then spent the rest of the afternoon trail riding. I had my 1994 Ranger on 33s back then.

That’s amazing. It was my first time going to a place like that and it didn’t disappoint a bit. I’m from Louisiana so although we’ve got the mud, we don’t have the views or the beautiful hills/mountains. It’s been a few days and I’m already itching to go back!

 

[Lion77]

The stock RR is more capable than most people give it credit for. You don't NEED 35's, a lift etc. for the majority of off-road trails. Sure, if your thing is hard core 4x4'ing, those mods give it more capability, but you're going for the last 5%, not the 95% and giving up something for it. Handling, acceleration, braking, gas mileage for long trips on-road, towing reliability, drivetrain reliability etc.

For trails, there are better options than pickups, period. I'd go Jeep Rubicon (which also comes with 33" KO2's ironically) or Bronco Sasquatch (also 33's, with 35's as also an up-fit option just like the Jeeps) for a dedicated trail wheeler'.

I see tons of pics of stock RR's doing quite well and honestly, if you throw on a pair of rock sliders and a high clearance front bumper, you really add some capability to an otherwise stock truck without altering its Rally / Baja DNA, which is the bread and butter of its intended purpose. There are so many threads on "I added 35's not the truck feels slow, my gas mileage sucks so much I don't want to drive it bla bla bla'. No sh**! To be expected, that's the trade-off.

I think sliders, sliders and gas tank armor are probably the better route to start with for increasing 4x4 capability than a lift and tires. That's been my observation, and I really love the Rally / Baja nature of the truck as is (mine just has a Pro Cal, still even running stock bead lock bricks). Got a set of lightweight 705's on order to enhance its rally-like nature for the sand the dunes and other higher speed uses.

Tires / lift would be the last mod IF I ever decided to go that route and only if I ever really found a wide variety of use cases where the stock 33's, sliders and high clarence bumper were just very unworkable, but I doubt it since I'm not interested in trying level 7-10 trails, just not my thing!

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