Black widow suspension set up

[Squatting Dog]

Just by changing out the rears with ICON's got rid of that annoying rolling gallop, I felt like a human bobble head going down the highway.

Yes, at highway speeds it is smooth, too smooth.. At 30-40 there is some, but I haven't played around with the shock settings much to figure if it is rebound or compression that is causing it..

-Greg

 

[BIRDMAN]

Just by changing out the rears with ICON's got rid of that annoying rolling gallop, I felt like a human bobble head going down the highway.

Lmao. I call that the Quagmire. My head starts moving back and fourth and can't help but say giggity giggity giggity giggity

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[Squatting Dog]

How much do you have to trim off the spring bucket and rear shock mount? I have seen pics but it's hard to tell a relative size.

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View attachment 14417

Couldn't get a good picture of shock towers..

-Greg

 

[MagicMtnDan]

Lessons learned:

Top perch on 2012 and up is a no go..

It causes the cv axles to be in near bind conditions. And the additional strain caused by the torsen easily destroys the cv boots and joints.

If you are going to run at top perch on 2012 and up Raptors to clear 37" tires. I suggest upgrading to RCV axles to eliminate binding issues.

Negative offset wheels...

They are functional for mudding and gives the Raptor even more aggressive stance. It is causes rubbing and requires to be run at top perch (see above). It also causes more strain on front end components (wheel/hub bearings) and alignment issues.

Wheels.. I suggest +34mm (stock) to 0 mm and nothing wider because of above issues.

Shocks
Heated area of discussion. Here is my take and suggestions.

Stock fox shox are for street queens they do not allow ANY adjustments except for preload adjustment in front. They are great for occasional offroad experience and in my opinion they are just throw away shocks designed to meet minimum requirements of Ford Motor company.

Fox 3.0 are a step up from stock shocks.. They allow adjustability in the rear (with tools and guessing number turns) to control wild rear end. The fronts are less prone to heat fade but same amount of adjustability as stock shocks.. Unless you want to pull them apart and reshim them.. Good luck getting support from fox on tuning.. They will offer a shim kit, but not much support on shimming and tuning.

Kings 3.0 are the step up from Fox 3.0.. They offer great tunability but still need experience to tune them. Great for high speed desert applications, but heard several reports of being stiff for daily driver.

ICON 3.0 (in my opinion) the best solution for the Ford Raptor that is going to be driven to work during the week, and hard offroad during the weekend. They offer 10 settings of adjustabilty in front and 30 definite clicks in the rear. Without using a single tool. You can exactly set your front and rear for the driving conditions. Go "hard" to "soft" in one click on the front. For the Raptor that sees most of the time on the street and weekends in the dirt. These shocks are the clearly the best all around choice..

edit:
I wanted to add. I am not being paid or given discounts to mention one vendors product over another one. My intent is not to promote one over another, just give my first hand knowledge and experience with my Raptor and aftermarket products. This way other members can take an easier (cheaper) path to upgrading from learning from my experience.

-Greg

Fantastic information - very helpful for everyone who reads your write up.

What I find fascinating is the path you took starting with a perfectly excellent Raptor, wanting to set it up for Jeep trails (why you modified the Raptor to do that when it's perfectly good for Jeep trails except for its width, length, weight and overhangs) and how that got you in deeper and what you did to get your Raptor back to a good place.

Modifying suspensions (and a perfectly good vehicle like the Raptor) can be done quite easily with money (sometimes lots of money) but improving it is no easy or simple or inexpensive task.

I commend you for sharing your experiences with the forum!

 

[vanilla_gorilla]

SO Greg, I think I missed it, but did you have the Fox 3.0s or did you go from the stock Fox' to the Icons?

And great write up ,thanks for the honest feedback.

 

[justvettn]

View attachment 14417

Couldn't get a good picture of shock towers..

-Greg

Strange, your rear shocks look different than mine, they must have changed as well.

 

[BIRDMAN]

I don't see where you had to trim Greg...

 

[justvettn]

I don't see where you had to trim Greg...

I have a picture of mine before they were touched up with paint, I could post unless Greg has one he would rather share.

 

[Squatting Dog]

SO Greg, I think I missed it, but did you have the Fox 3.0s or did you go from the stock Fox' to the Icons?

And great write up ,thanks for the honest feedback.

Went from stock fox shocks, which both rear were blown from my driving to ICON's..

Strange, your rear shocks look different than mine, they must have changed as well.

interesting...

I don't see where you had to trim Greg...

It is minimal basically he smooth (radius) under the bolt..

-Greg

---------- Post added at 10:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 AM ----------

Fantastic information - very helpful for everyone who reads your write up.

What I find fascinating is the path you took starting with a perfectly excellent Raptor, wanting to set it up for Jeep trails (why you modified the Raptor to do that when it's perfectly good for Jeep trails except for its width, length, weight and overhangs) and how that got you in deeper and what you did to get your Raptor back to a good place.

Modifying suspensions (and a perfectly good vehicle like the Raptor) can be done quite easily with money (sometimes lots of money) but improving it is no easy or simple or inexpensive task.

I commend you for sharing your experiences with the forum!

I knew I was facing an uphill battle trying to make a good trail/mud vehicle out of the Raptor. Like you pointed out several things hinder the Raptor length, weight, width, and overhang. It is not impossible to do technical trail work with the Raptor, but it is mentally, and sometimes physically tiring.
And as far as mudding with high horsepower light weight jeeps. Having the negative offset wheels help fling the crap up and out. Instead of filling the wheel wells. But the not so light 3 tons, makes the truck sink like a rocks. There is no skipping across the top of the mud. With the Raptor it starts fast then ends up to a slow crawl of sawing the wheels back and forth. Again fun for a couple of times, then it is just silly. Plus the Raptor has all kinds of nooks and crannies for mud to cling to.. After TRR, I realized slow stuff is not as fun as the higher speed fun the Raptor is designed to do.

I took the long way around to get where my truck is now. I learned my truck inside and out and not afraid to plow it through the mud, trails or in the air.. The Raptor is a master of all offroad elements!

-Greg

 

[Jackemuphigh21]

Greg, I have a few questions for you. Did you end up coming to a solution with ICON to be able to run the RCV axles or did you just go with stock replacements? Also I know that several of the trucks I've seen that are running aftermarket shocks including the ICONs are still at about top perch height. That being said what is going to keep from tearing more boots and ruining cv's on stock axles on '12 and up models? Obviously the shocks are night and day better than factory so if I'm going to tear those parts up i'd rather do it with badass shocks going over gnarly terrain vs the average speed stuff with the stockers getting the same end result. I'm actually trying to get my ducks in a row to go with this same setup, these are just a few questions I haven't asked yet. -Russell