FRS Truck - Raptor Owner Perspective

[@jettmart4350]

Lmk if you wanna take my 23 whipple R out for a test drive. Love your videos.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Thanks man. Would love to take you up on it to experience how the truck performance

[@SHAKA.RAPTOR]

Dude, you're Bossy as hell! If I had the R, I would have made the offer as well for the same reason. Can't wait to see that video! 🤙🏼🤙🏼

[@MrToby-ic6kz]

Like the deep dive into the truck a lot. Great review and awesome video 🤙🏼🔥

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Thanks. Much appreciated.

[@Bcrc96]

I have a little bit of experience with the live valve on side by sides . I know it’s just a side by side but I have found that the front sway bar and live valve kind of fight each other in the chatter bumps and side to side movement. As soon as I took mine off and let the suspension work it changed the dynamics a lot and didn’t throw you side to side . Being a production truck they have to leave the sway bar on but I believe taking it off would help a lot in the off camber bumps where you would get a almost over exaggerated feel from one side fighting each other. Great video you guys killed it on the break down of this truck!

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

That could be a factor I’m sure. But we’ve seen TRXs and raptors with live valves / active valves run much more level and flatter with the sway bar connected. This could be too that extra frame flex that the team was talking about contributing as well.

[@SpankyKL]

1 hour+ long video?! Blessed

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

There is a lot to cover 🤷‍♂️. Deep dive like this is not for everyone. But I really enjoy geeking out on these builds

[@SpankyKL]

⁠@@KeepItDirtyOffRoadI personally enjoy your longer videos, keep them coming

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Thanks man.

[@Mursedave]

Great review guys 👍🏻

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Thanks 🙏

[@BadV2]

They did their research and all 500 will be sold. Smart for them. But, a built HM Raptor, for less, is the way. Warranty is nice, but at that price, I really doubt money is an issue for the buyers.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Very true. Those that can afford these will hold them as trophies, and very, very few will actually see dirt. I’ll wait till they start to sell these parts in the aftermarket so I can build my own.

[@Mizzington24]

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoadwe need to get those upgraded dual valve shocks on the 24 raptors !

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Yes we do!! Would be interesting to see if there is a way to also integrate the position sensor for the raptor

[@Antho-R22]

It’s nice to see fox going further with the Live valves. Like you said, will be nice when that becomes available for our Raptors. The upper and panhard absolutely should be a billet peice. Doesn’t make any sense other than cost savings.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Yeah man. Would be cool to see how these shocks can level up performance of the raptor. And yeah, there was a few cost cutting choices made that are perplexing due to the MSRP for the first limited run.

[@SHAKA.RAPTOR]

Same thoughts on the long travel. I'm new to off-roading, but I'm a numbers guy. I need higher ABV on beer and Whiskey, so seeing that this was an inch and a half bigger travel than the Raptor and had the 37-inch tires sucked, I was hoping for 20+ inch upgrade for it being a long travel. The engine is awesome! The bolt on for me is great. I don't keep it dirty off-road. The usability is absolute crap compared to the Raptor. The price required way more. I'm a no-go on it. I was hoping for more, though, being a Chevy guy from the start. Saw the comments and noticed a few didn't watch til the end. I'm here with my bottle down the river. Lol 🤙🏼🤙🏼

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

It’s actually only half inch more travel than a stock Gen3 Raptor both front and back. Very minimal extra. But I agree, there is a lot of drawbacks here that make the price of the truck crazy. At a lower price point most of them could be forgiven. And yeah man, a video this long is only for those that geek out on trucks like us. Most will maybe watch 10-15min of the whole video and that’s it. It’s the world we live in with shorter attention spans. My hope is to get the guys that want the deep dive and want that extra detail to keep tuning in.

[@SHAKA.RAPTOR]

@KeepItDirtyOffRoad I'm here to get deep! Lol, I did have to pause it after about 5 mins. My wife and I watched House of Dragon, and then I got back to the goods. I'm also not a fan of the front extra lights. For the price, I would have wanted to see something better. If it was under the price of a Raptor R, there might be less nitpicking, but for that price, it's probably going to be for a very specific fan. I'm starting to see why they only made 500. Thanks for the video, man! I really was hoping for something better, but they can't all be Raptors. I mean winners. Lol 🤙🏼🤙🏼

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

@SHAKA.RAPTOR 🤣 they definitely can’t all be raptors. But these guys got close. It this was priced at or below Raptor R money, I would want one too. But I think on the DIY side and buying the kits will be much cheaper.

[@mdgeist472]

The Raptor does have height position sensors at all 4 corners. Im not sure if Fox uses this data to adjust Live Valve, but I assume that data is available on the CanBus.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Gen3 Raptor does on all 4 corners but the gen2 only had it on the fronts. And none of them look at the positions within the shock like these are and that’s the difference here. It looks at where the shock stroke is at and in the long term is a better options as the sensors do get damaged easy.

[@anthonytrujillo7971]

I think you're misunderstanding how a springs free height and preload height are not determined by the amount of threads showing on top of a shock body. Through hole bolts on a box frame are not a good idea unless you weld in solid supports through the frame. Through hole bolts without support inside the box, we'll loosen over time as the frame flexes. I'm pretty sure the steering issues you're seeing is torque steer. They have a lot of power pulling those front tires inward ( Bushing deflection) when they get traction and flexing out when they lose traction. If you put the truck in two wheel drive and ran the same course, i'm pretty sure you wouldn't see that happening.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Truck was in 2wd for all the testing. And you could feel the wobble by the seat and not the steering wheel so as other have pointed it out, it’s most likely bump steer. As for the spring, you are right and someone else already pointed that out. They are using a shorter spring here. But a lot of what we felt was while we were in 2wd. It would be far worse in 4wd

[@FELIPE1JR]

looks nice wish I can afford, to fix those rattles it might need Cadillac soft close doors, and some Frame bracing underneath to keep it from flexing its a high hp beast

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Ford uses a combination of rubber bushings on the door latch and extra reinforcement from the factory. The rear cab is a tough spot to reinforce because that’s where the drive shaft is at. So I’m sure that’s a factor why they don’t have any extra bracing here

[@joseramirez2573]

Baja kits is going to make this kit! No pricing announced yet

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Yep, but I don’t think it will be available till next year. Baja kits is part of Fox now and they are not going to do anything to reduce their sale of the first 500 trucks.

[@iceee187]

Hey quick question...The lower control arm bracket on a gen 2... mine got pushed in about 2.5mm.. Took a nose dive. Who can fix this? frame shop, Ford? Still drives straight and no issues.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Any decent body shop with a frame machine can fix it. And that’s who you want checking things out because chances are you bent more than just the LCA mounts. Some offroad shops can help too, just depends on how bad you bent it. If you just curled the bottoms. Any good offroad shop can fix that. But if the whole plate moved than go to a body shop because you most likely bent more than just the LCAs

[@iceee187]

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad ok thank you. Is this going to be in the thousands$$, looks like just the bottom of one side has been pushed in. Like you said kinda curled upward on the edges.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

All depends on what is bent. Just the LCA you may get repaired for under $1000. If you bent anything else well you may want to get the insurance company involved.

[@sterlingbingham7975]

Awesome Vid! Lots of info. Question. How do you know how much preload they were running on the rear springs vs just a shorter spring? Just curious.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

They were just running a much shorter spring here. Looks really odd.

[@automotiveandmore]

Did you ever get a chance to test drive one of the GM 1500s with the LZ0 Duramax?

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

I did man. And it was super nice. Great torque, a lot of pickup and go. Very impressed with that inline 6. I also drove the Colorado i4 too so that may have made it feel better because with the 35s and bison package it felt sluggish. While the i6 diesel was super nice and made me want to build a Chevy prerunner

[@automotiveandmore]

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad GM prerunner would be sick!

[@claudiomunoz471]

Great video been listening to it all day at work, I agree at 150k this truck would be perfect, but at 210k I just want a little more, hot take but they should’ve started with a Denali interior instead of a Chevy interior just so it’d be a little nicer

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Thanks, Hopefully they offer the parts as kits here soon and we can pick whatever 1/2 ton truck we want from GM to use as our base.

[@kristoferfc6525]

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad totally agree, feels like it's own version of those Dirt King trucks but obviously with the power upgrades and such

[@kristoferfc6525]

I agree, except with the economy of scale of GM they could make that price, when it's a bunch of collab'ed companies and such and there's straight labor costs and development costs are all tied into this 210k price

[@hwinterr]

I love my whippled mid travel gen 1 but man this truck blows away the R in the suspension+powertrain aspect. Ford needs to drop a super raptor with actual trailing arms and air bumps

[@hwinterr]

1:06:47 This is just bump steer, they need to fix the pivot locations of the tie rods and it will be fixed, especially because it is toeing in and out while cycling through the travel. Bump steer is also most apparent at the extreme ends of the suspension travel so as it was fully extended in the clip you played, the tie rods were sucking inwards.

[@hwinterr]

Its an LT too haha, LS has been gone for many years outside of crate engines. Its an LT1/L86 Truck Motor

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

I personally think it closer to being on par but I agree with you that I wished ford offered a more complete truck with camber caster locks, hydraulic bumps and billet arms. Some day maybe they will.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

I think it’s more than just bump steer though. Driver side has a tone more movement than the passenger side. And none of it is seen or felt in the steering wheel. And what ever the engine code is. LT 6.2 was badass here and the best feature of this truck either the whipple. I have not really gotten back into Chevy since the 90s. This truck is having me look again.

[@hwinterr]

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad I love my ford 6.2 but owning a Yukon Denali with the L86 6.2 and now a Camaro with the LT 6.2, they just feel like the power was always available instead of only above 3k RPM like the boss motor. But still, gotta give credit to Ford because it didnt require them to outsource to Fox and Brenthel to build a Baja ready truck, they just did it in house and learned from their mistakes which is so killer. Thanks for the review of the truck I have been waiting to see it from a different POV than the media lol

[@mattsproull181]

Mention to the team that we at Steer Smarts can build a new ball joint for it!

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

You guys have experience with the GM electronic rack? Because that’s the trucks biggest issue right now

[@mattsproull181]

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad the 2500/3500’s historically have these issues and can be solved with HD joints and longer thread engagement.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Interesting. Definitely needs some help for sure. The way the tires were moving differently from each other was kinda shocking. Driving it was a little confusing. Once we saw the footage it all made sense.

[@kirkschreier2369]

You do Not know how much preload is on the shocks without measuring spring length at factory setting, and the free length when removed. I doubt they have too much preload. I believe the spring free length is at the minimum required length they determined is necessary. Longer springs would sit in a more natural place on the shock bodies and would look "more normal". But I would assume these are the shortest springs required, and might have other advantages we don't know, ie weight, clearance etc. The rear would definitely benefit from a true dual spring with sliders and slide stoppers, same as almost all race shocks you see, but this spring was chosen for OE reliabilty. Spring sliders wear on shock bodies and this would not be allowed in car manufacturing OE application. Please stop saying preload!

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Thanks for the breakdown. And now that spring setting makes sense. Almost looks like they used a shock body designed for a much longer spring or for dual rate springs and added threads to handle the shorter spring. They did have it on the table and visible from the presentation video. It did not look like a long spring. And they had destroyed their original spring already. They also mentioned the no slide and scratching up the shocks. From what we saw, the truck performed well. It needs a little more tweaking but it’s basically there and perming better than a TRX right now.

[@hahaha0086]

200k you can get a supercharged 4-linked F150, and one of one

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Probably for way less too.

[@mdgeist472]

The pricing isn't going to cause the oil sheiikhs to blink.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

No it’s not and why I don’t think Fox will have a hard time seeking them all.

[@jeffnewbill5599]

I wish GM still made an LS but unfortunately the 6.2l L87 is an LT.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Oh That’s right. All the new GM V8 engines are LT. I’m not a big GM guy on the new stuff and totally missed that.

[@SHAKA.RAPTOR]

That was a great correction. What were your thoughts on the amazing Chevy steering off-road? I personally loved the Chevy power and coming for a 1969 Chevy Chevelle, I love the Frankenstein builds. 🤙🏼🤙🏼

[@Artlover688]

Of course it’s better than raptor. It’s twice the price and that’s not even the Chevy bro. That’s literally a pre-runner hardly any bit Chevy except for the motor.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

🤣🤣 that’s not a prerunner. Not even close. It’s barely on par with a stock Raptor R. Barely

[@MF-jd4qh]

It's called bump steer.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Ok. Random comment with no context. Please explain.

[@MF-jd4qh]

I'm referring to the front tires towing in and out over the bumps. Its just a bad suspension geometry in conjunction with the wrong offset of the wheels. It's probably limited by the oem design of the suspension. Not the end of the world, just annoying.

[@KeepItDirtyOffRoad]

Ah ok. Thanks for clarifying. And I agree. Look a little closer at the slow video though. Passenger tire is moving one way, driver tire is moving another way, and a lot more, and the steering wheel is not showing any of it. Aside from some bad geometry there is a bad rack or ball joint, or hub too on that passenger side. All pointing to bump steer putting additional wear on components.

[@MF-jd4qh]

Pretty cool truck. But not like an HM Elite. But $$$