Carbon8's Avalanche Raptor

[Jake17]

Sending my ADD bumpers out for re-coating...they came in scuffed.

that sucks

 

[Carbon8]

Weekend came, plans changed.

Tackled my suspension today, RPG Stage 3 W/ Deaver +3 Rear. Eibach lift springs W/ RPG collars up front. Truck sits level at 17 3/4" from top of wheel to fender on all 4 sides. Overall ride is great, feels a lot more planted in the corners. Main reason is for towing and to alleviate the increased weight going on the truck soon.

Install was to be honest more difficult than I imagined, not to say hard but time consuming when doing it alone. Difficult points worth pointing out

Main cross member, I could not get this installed from under the truck. Looks like ford with the Aluminum bed added some extra cross supports so getting it through from under the truck just doesn't seem possible, I even dropped the exhaust tips and spare tire and couldn't get it. Not saying it cant be done, just saying I wasn't going to work that long at it. So I ended up bending the bed pinch weld up on the passenger side and sliding it through that way


Removing the OE leafs is another fun point, unless you want to drop the gas tank and your exhaust you have some nice grade 8 bolts that you have to cut off, some torch blades and a sawzall will get you through them but you still need to be cautious around the gas tank. Don't worry Deaver and RPG provide replacement hardware.


Contrary to popular belief these reinforcement brackets are also needed, got one side of the system mounted before I realized that. Not very difficult but not explained in the online video and at least my kit did not come with any instructions so I had to call about these.


Last hard point is mounting the last side bracket, once you have the cross member installed and one side bracket getting the last one in, with the cross member being inserted into is a challenge. RPG recommend loosening the bed bolts and raising it a bit. I decided a steal bar between the cross member and on the axle and just dropped the truck on it was enough to provide clearance to slide it on.



Everything else was pretty straight forward, just heavy as hell leafs to mount up by yourself, but if your up to it this system can be installed solo.


Eibach Lift springs are really straight forward, about a 3 hour install. I pulled my entire assembly and took them to a shop though. I do not have a compressor that can handle these. Also decided to keep the RPG collars and am very glad I did. With the added rear height plus the 200+ lbs going on the front I feel it was the right choice.


Overall supper happy with the outcome, really not a bad thing to say about either product...except perhaps Eibach could improve their packaging. Looks like they air dropped them to my house springs arrive in real rough shape, I hear I am not the only one to experience this either but at the end of the day its just cosmetics.


More to come after the holiday.

 

[Carbon8]

Got my Alignment done, and had the shop throw on my SPD adapters. 3 Hours of labor for the install but I was not going to deal with the headache involved.

Truck is noise high by 1/4" but I imagine will settle.



Decided to get some Toyo RT 37's to mount, hopefully should have them next week.

 

[Jolly89]

Awesome truck man

 

[Carbon8]

Had some trouble with my image hosting site....but have had my ADD/Full Race Intercooler kit on for about a week, also got a DECKED storage system done.

Still working out a boost leak with the Tbolts that come with the kit but have everything I need and am confident I will have it solved tomorrow. Kit is of top notch quality, I wish I would have known that you could request a black coating on the intercooler as the aluminum is a little flashy in the grill. Maybe during the down months I will send it off to be coated black.

Kit moves your EBOV to VTA so it does significantly increase your intake noise. Figured while I was at it I ordered the TurboSmart upgraded VTA kit and my 5Star Nguage came in today so should have the new tune by midweek which is just in time for another (final) Dyno run on Friday.

Per the DECKED system since I will be loosing the cover when I get the racks installed I do want some weatherproof storage. It is a very thought out system, provides a ton of storage as well and can support almost anything you would need (under 2000lbs) on it. Ordered it with the locks and drainage plugs as well for some firearm storage and ability to turn it into a cooler when needed.

 

[k-rub]

How were you able to tell you had a boost leak after the intercooler was in? I just put mine in and everything seems fine. I have a light high pitched noise on full throttle. Almost sounds like its coming from the intake.

Im showing ~18 psi on my NGauge with full throttle.

I didn't expect to have to cut the grill bezel to fit the intercooler since Full Race advertises it as plug and play with no cutting required.

Had some trouble with my image hosting site....but have had my ADD/Full Race Intercooler kit on for about a week, also got a DECKED storage system done.

Still working out a boost leak with the Tbolts that come with the kit but have everything I need and am confident I will have it solved tomorrow. Kit is of top notch quality, I wish I would have known that you could request a black coating on the intercooler as the aluminum is a little flashy in the grill. Maybe during the down months I will send it off to be coated black.

Kit moves your EBOV to VTA so it does significantly increase your intake noise. Figured while I was at it I ordered the TurboSmart upgraded VTA kit and my 5Star Nguage came in today so should have the new tune by midweek which is just in time for another (final) Dyno run on Friday.

Per the DECKED system since I will be loosing the cover when I get the racks installed I do want some weatherproof storage. It is a very thought out system, provides a ton of storage as well and can support almost anything you would need (under 2000lbs) on it. Ordered it with the locks and drainage plugs as well for some firearm storage and ability to turn it into a cooler when needed.

 

[Carbon8]

How were you able to tell you had a boost leak after the intercooler was in? I just put mine in and everything seems fine. I have a light high pitched noise on full throttle. Almost sounds like its coming from the intake.

Im showing ~18 psi on my NGauge with full throttle.

I didn't expect to have to cut the grill bezel to fit the intercooler since Full Race advertises it as plug and play with no cutting required.

Bezel wasn't bad. Leak is a high pitch whistle when full throttle and I see 14PSI max during it.

 

[k-rub]

I get the same whistle even though I pull 18.4 psi. I need to do a boost leak test though.

 

[Carbon8]

Wow, crazy how much can change in 2 months. I will just start were I left off.

Boost leak is fixed, added a small amount of extra torque and some 3M lock adhesive and no more issues.

After that I went ahead and installed my ADD HB base rack, jesus is that thing heavy. Install was very easy, took more time to assemble the rack (small area to get a wrench on the assembly nuts). Install requires 6 holes drilled into the bed, but you do it with the rack so the line up is impossible to mess up.

Wires the amber lights to my parking lights and the bright setting to my box lights works out very well.

I also was able to install a Weathertech soft cover with the rack as well, some modification had to be done to the rails to allow them to fit over the rack bolts but a simple mod and you can run your racks and cover your bed.








---------- Post added at 04:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:05 AM ----------

From there I played around with tuning a lot. Was able to do a great comparison between stock vs scorcher vs 5star with trap time data as well. My truck weights 6800# at the time of testing.


Stock
368.3HP
368.1TQ
1/8 Mile
[email protected]


Scorcher
421.1HP
425.1TQ
1/8 Mile
[email protected]


5 Star Daily
408.0HP
462.2TQ
1/8Mile
[email protected]


5 Star Perf
414.6HP
467.1TQ
1/8 Mile
[email protected]

I am on my 3rd revision of the 5star tune, I realized quickly that I do not like the trans tune available their is nothing wrong with the stock trans when in sport mode. It was very jerky with unnecessary hard shifts and as you can see resulted in negligible power and trap performance. When looking the Dyno the Schorcher unit produces the best curve but it is just an extension of the stock graph what really killed it in trap was the OE lag that was not present in the 5 star thus resulting in much faster launches and times (maybe a pedal commander or similar could fix this).

Regardless I have stuck with the 5star tune for now....that being said I also have MPT tunes but I have not had a chance to run them or test them in anyway. Curious to see the difference but I am again out of town until late fall so it will have to wait.

---------- Post added at 04:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:29 AM ----------

Since I thought I was done dyno testing I got around to installing my tires, dealer left my OE at 50PSI and never thought to check, not sure if that or what else but around 7,000 miles my BFG's were at half tread. I wanted bigger anyways so I got a set of 37x12.5R17 Toyo RT on the truck and so far am really impressed with them. As I am in the north I wanted something more for the wet and the snow than am MT tire.

Put my DECKED system to the test... kinda.


How she's currently sitting


---------- Post added at 04:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:33 AM ----------

Any lastly and maybe most depressingly (In a way) and importantly I have made the decision to sell the truck.

Over the summer I purchased a 29' travel trailer, and I am really enjoying it with the family in the course of the first 30 days of owning it we used it for 14 nights in 4 different parks/ cities and even though the Raptor will tow the trailer its just not practical. I already have over 5,000 miles of trips and camps for next spring and summer and will be ordering a 2018 F350 this fall to replace this truck.

I am doing research and not entirely sure what to list the truck for, or to sell things separate IE my THREE ADD bumpers brand new never installed W/ 2 winches and a ton of lights or just offer a package deal to someone.

So if you read this, and are looking for a really well built truck PM me to discuss. Looking to sell her in November as that when I will be picking up my 350.