G's Raptor

[E63]

I needed to catch up on this thread and a sleepless night is a good time to do so! G like always your right ups are awesome. What CAI are you talking about? Or is that still "classified"?

Kskid - Thanks, I know all about them sleepless nights. Mine I pretend to sleep while solving the problem in some delirious dream state like in Ground hog day

Has the sun risen and set a proper number of times, and has enough water gone under the bridge???......

no, lol

Unfortunately "Life" is getting in the way of progress on these developments, but I promise will be worth the wait. But I will tease some more, the CAI is fully cased in Stainless, uses a centrifugal design that expels dirt while providing greater airflow and filtration than anything else in the Raptor world...maybe I just said too much? If so, keep your guesses to yourself please or PM me if it is just bursting out.

 

[E63]

Passenger Cage, Rear Seat Unlock Mod

Truck has been gone for about a month, got the steering rack replaced under warranty - Cudos to Tuttle Click Ford in Irvine for doing this and replacing the PS High Pressure hose under warranty. After that, we got the truck over to Raceco to finish work on the "Secret Project". Time to let the cat out of the bag. I know this is going to be controversial, but I hope those that think I'm nuts will keep an open mind and read through this before passing judgement.

The reward will be a really cool mod that allows me now to unlock, and lower both rear seat back rests without removing anything else. Ford should look at this and work into future designs.

Passenger Cage:
We have all seen the full cage mods many times, each company does it differently and the results is how much usability as DD do you lose. Can't wait to see the final result that Jarrett did at RPG, so far it is the most usable full cage I have seen. Often the result is that you lose original seats - I like my AC front Seats, lose rear seats and storage underneath. You lose the side and in many cases the front airbags. Anyway, I didn't go that route, what we did was "Bolt in Cage".

What is it:
It primarily is designed to allow the attachment of a four or five point harness system. In addition it also increases the structural integrity of the middle and rear of the cab.

What were the design parameters:
Unfortunately it took several tries, what you are about to see is version 3. In this final version the seats have full travel f/r. The harness bar was raised to just below the seat shoulder. The "B" Pillar was angled in front of the Cab dome light and the rear harness bars were raised to allow the rear seat to move up and down - which was critical for me to get to my tools in the "Tuffy" box below.


It was important to me to not lose the safety feature of the side curtain airbag so what we believe to be enough room was allowed for the top connecting bars of the "B" and "C" pillars.

I asked for some additional attachment points be added so I can strap extra gear down inside the cab.

Even though Jamie came up with a slick "X" cross frame roof setup, I had it removed for passenger safety when riding around town without harnesses or helmets.
To allow for full rear and front seat access
To be stronger and safer than not doing it.
Keep functionality of all existing belts, rear window, dome light, grab handles, coat handles, original seats, Tuffy storage box etc.







Here is Jamie’s creation, the two brackets are a little different, this Drivers side has to be drilled and relocated about a ¼” in.


Here is the passenger side


Here is the rear “C” pillar mount. There are 4 very large, thick, gusseted steel plates, at all four corners and they each sit on the main cab cross supports. The rear bolts in under the rear seat and seatbelt mounts, probably the strongest section of the entire truck body. The “B” pillar has an additional under cab cross brace that it bolts up to.

Belts fit nicely behind the seat when not in use.

There is now 2 to 3 cubic feet of storage behind the rear seats. Now it does take some strong fingers to release the latch and to secure you need to slam the seat hard while pressing in front of the bracket, but with some practice it is becoming easier and easier. The red arrow is pointed to a 10' coiled recovery sling that is 12” x 3” that is now out of the way.

Cut the mat to fit around the “B” pillar post

Made some temporary harness holders to keep the belts from sliding off the seat when not on. Harnesses are no fun getting into, I used zip ties before, I think this will work better.



It was suggested to simply run the belts between the head rests, I tried that but it constricts the neck.
Needless to say I opted to not go this way.
This pic shows Drivers belt in DD mode, stowed away, holding tool kit behind seat, also I hooked up some bungees so you can see the attach points.

For those that have never removed your back seat I posted up some info earlier in this thread, the easiest way to remove the bolts is with air ratchet, 18mm deep socket.

Front seat anchor points are massive eye bolts that go thru hole in bottom of seat frame, the lower belts clip in, the side panel removes easily


This pic shows how close the rear seat with headrest just kisses the “Oh Shit” handle, er, I mean front shoulder harness tube. Actually that bar was a big hit with my kids and their friends to hold onto when getting into the whoops.

 

[NickPic83]

just awesome. that cage looks beefy but still pretty damn unintrusive. the harnesses look great as well

 

[SvtDon]

Wow does that look nice and clean!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Nick@Apollo-Optics]

Well thought-out, functional, and aesthetically pleasing mods as usual, E63. Well done.

 

[E63]

just awesome. that cage looks beefy but still pretty damn unintrusive. the harnesses look great as well

Wow does that look nice and clean!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Well thought-out, functional, and aesthetically pleasing mods as usual, E63. Well done.

Thanks guys, I am still waiting for the upcoming bashing from pure "Cage enthusiasts" Last time I foreshadowed this mod, several went absolutely mental on me...

 

[khcdave]

Cage looks great.

 

[sharpertouch]

wow what an amazing build and write up!

 

[E63]

UMP Cold Air Intake

As many of you have read, I was against changing out the stock CAI, as I wished to "Do No Harm" and rather improve all aspects of my truck when I performed modifications. Unfortunately all the CAI's I have looked at performed worse than the stock air box in the most critical of functions: Keeping dust and dirt out of the engine. Doubt me? Simply remove the large tube going into the engine intake and see how clean it is. Mine was never removed and I can tell you it was as clean as a whistle, others I have seen have all been dirty.

So what is the purpose of upgrading the CAI if the stock one is so good? Fair question. If you can increase the airflow with colder/denser air it will improve combustion and performance. The UMP delivers.



The UMP sucks like a Dyson vac, Inside it has a diverter that makes the airflow act like a cyclone, the heavier dirt particles are thrown to the outside via centrifugal force, and when you let up off the gas, the back pressure blows this dirt out of the filter, in essence, it cleans itself...well to an extent. Eventually you will need to replace the filter and ultra fine dust may reduce its performance. It will be more difficult to do this than the stock box, but the total time performing the chore will be less since it will rarely need it.

Inside is a generic truck air filter with their proprietary deflector zip tied into place.



The instructions are pretty good but they leave out several key details that I will try to show you.

There was no mention of popping the top button off the wire harness loom. Also bracket location is a little fuzzy in the pics. Here you will see black dots I did not use. Corey suggested I use Self Tapping screws instead of the fasteners they provided. Here I can suggest not using the screw gun to tighten as some of them stripped out. I ended up using larger screws with star washers.


I did try using the included fasteners for the Radiator overflow tank bracket. Never used one like these before and struggled some. The trick is to add some extra washers between the drilled nut and the top of the bolt. Make sure the scored edge of the nut is down towards the insert. Use ratcheting wrench instead of impact driver.



Here is cutting hole for intake behind headlight






And finished install:

 

[E63]

Fixing Rear Bedside Spread

Since I am running an F-1 cover, any spread in the rear bedsides is cause for concern. Mine got so bad that the F-1 would no longer stay latched. Unfortunately, the bed cage and cargo management does not allow any room for the traditional angle support rod.

Even if you go with the permanent angle support rod solution you will still need additional leverage to crank the bedsides in. solution is installing 2 additional cargo tie down hard points.

RPG ordered the parts and had them delivered direct to me as I was leaving the next day for Death Valley. Ordered after 5:00 and was still delivered the next day. McMaster-Carr's catalog is bigger than the LA phone book, but Corey found the pieces in just a few minutes, done and done.


Install was simple, I used the existing holes


I doubled up on the large fender washers, one inside and the other on the outside. Access is great once you pull the rear taillights - 2 10mm nuts.

Still my cage was in the way - I just bulled around it.




After running some, the strap slipped under the cage lifting it a bit in the back, it works fine.


That strap is as tight as a banjo string and the rear gaps are straight again. F-1 locks nice and tight even though the rails are listing to the inside some. After fixing the gaps, I next tackled the back bracket (latch) separating from the sandwiched aluminum core, some long self taping screws made short work of that and reinforced the latch.

I just finished 3 days, and 538 miles of off road fun in Death Valley, Ran it thru every type of terrain you can imagine and this mod held up great! So did the new UMP and the entire truck performed magnificently. Back at work and everyone's first response was "wasn't it crazy hot there?" - not in my AC cooled Raptor it wasn't.







And a short (crappy quality) video on a particularly tricky, tight, steep turn that that most of the supercrews high centered on:



Great trip - big thanks to Matt Richards for organizing