BigJ
FRF Addict
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2010
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The wife and I recently completed an 1810mile, 7 day round trip that included a day in the sand with fellow Raptor fanatics, a few days in Vegas, a bit of light rock crawling and some fire trailing.
Every mile was an absolute pleasure. You guys know all the pro's; comfort and quiet on the road, solid and strong off it. This truck turns heads everywhere it goes; be it on the trail, on the road, in a parking lot or in the valet. Other than the meet and run at Anza Borrego with the 8 other Raptor owners, we only saw two other Raptors on the road. Two! And we saw both of them within 10 minutes of eachother, in Vegas on the same stretch of road. These trucks are exceedingly rare, and we didn't mind that at all
There are a few things we learned over the trip that we didn't love. Its minor stuff, but still its stuff you probably will want to know/think about if you're planning a trip like this...
1) The antenna. That thing whipped back and fourth all trip, and it just wouldn't stay tight. I checked it at least half a dozen times, and each time is was loose. Check yours and keep an eye on it if you don't want to lose it.
The whipping drew my peripheral attention constantly. It drove me nuts, to the point where I took it off for the ride home. I recognized this on the trip out and ordered a Craven Speed stubby Monday. It was waiting for me when I got home tonight, and its already on. IMHO it looks far better and even it if didn't I wouldn't care. No more whip! Click here for my full review of the CravenSpeed Stubby antenna.
2) Wind. Our trip home met with some moderate headwind; damn this truck gets blown around. My MPG dropped from a steady 15.5 down to 12 and I had to hold the wheel at a constant 11oclock position just to keep a straight line. Other drivers didn't seem to be having that hard of a time.
Nothing to be done about it, unfortunately, except note it and be aware. If its windy, keep both hands on that wheel and be prepared.
3) As a passenger, the stock radio controls are a loooong way away. My wife likes to control the radio (ok by me) and she found herself really stretching awkwardly to do so. A remote control would have been a nice option for Ford to offer, along the lines of what almost every aftermarket deck does these days.
4) SYNC; the voice recognition sucks. It works ok for settings, making a call and changing audio sources. But its downright terrible for recognizing play directions. We tried everything we could (including RTFM!) to get it to consistently play albums or tracks or artists, and I'd say it got it right maybe 1 in 10 times. We eventually gave up, bluetoothed our iPhones to SYNC, and just controlled the media from the iPhone itself. The bummer part with that plan is you can't have your iPhone plugged into the SYNC port to charge at the same time you're using it as a bluetooth headset, so bring a cig lighter power adapeter to charge your phone with.
But beyond those minor totally nitpicky issues, we are head over heels in love. We've owned a lot of vehicles of all types and this by far is the best.
Every mile was an absolute pleasure. You guys know all the pro's; comfort and quiet on the road, solid and strong off it. This truck turns heads everywhere it goes; be it on the trail, on the road, in a parking lot or in the valet. Other than the meet and run at Anza Borrego with the 8 other Raptor owners, we only saw two other Raptors on the road. Two! And we saw both of them within 10 minutes of eachother, in Vegas on the same stretch of road. These trucks are exceedingly rare, and we didn't mind that at all
There are a few things we learned over the trip that we didn't love. Its minor stuff, but still its stuff you probably will want to know/think about if you're planning a trip like this...
1) The antenna. That thing whipped back and fourth all trip, and it just wouldn't stay tight. I checked it at least half a dozen times, and each time is was loose. Check yours and keep an eye on it if you don't want to lose it.
The whipping drew my peripheral attention constantly. It drove me nuts, to the point where I took it off for the ride home. I recognized this on the trip out and ordered a Craven Speed stubby Monday. It was waiting for me when I got home tonight, and its already on. IMHO it looks far better and even it if didn't I wouldn't care. No more whip! Click here for my full review of the CravenSpeed Stubby antenna.
2) Wind. Our trip home met with some moderate headwind; damn this truck gets blown around. My MPG dropped from a steady 15.5 down to 12 and I had to hold the wheel at a constant 11oclock position just to keep a straight line. Other drivers didn't seem to be having that hard of a time.
Nothing to be done about it, unfortunately, except note it and be aware. If its windy, keep both hands on that wheel and be prepared.
3) As a passenger, the stock radio controls are a loooong way away. My wife likes to control the radio (ok by me) and she found herself really stretching awkwardly to do so. A remote control would have been a nice option for Ford to offer, along the lines of what almost every aftermarket deck does these days.
4) SYNC; the voice recognition sucks. It works ok for settings, making a call and changing audio sources. But its downright terrible for recognizing play directions. We tried everything we could (including RTFM!) to get it to consistently play albums or tracks or artists, and I'd say it got it right maybe 1 in 10 times. We eventually gave up, bluetoothed our iPhones to SYNC, and just controlled the media from the iPhone itself. The bummer part with that plan is you can't have your iPhone plugged into the SYNC port to charge at the same time you're using it as a bluetooth headset, so bring a cig lighter power adapeter to charge your phone with.
But beyond those minor totally nitpicky issues, we are head over heels in love. We've owned a lot of vehicles of all types and this by far is the best.
