I want to love my new truck, but still havent "connected" with it.

[7six2]

Have a safe 4th of July folks! I'm headed fishing soon.

 

[jaz13]

I’m not the op... and I didn’t describe any one-off issues that I have experience with my Raptor.

I described a lack of refinement that ALL Raptors and F150s have... and a reoccurring them where some buyers have remorse paying $75k for this level of refinement.

Common tells most people looking for refinement in a $75k vehicle to buy a base model luxury vehicle, not a suped-up work truck. Entry level X5 starts at $60k. You should check it out. Sounds like your kind of vehicle.

 

[Krillin]

Mod it! U will love it

 

[rtmozingo]

Most of the reasons why you're not satisfied with your Raptor is why I ultimately sold mine and bought a '19 Ram Rebel 12A. I ordered my '17 Raptor and waited for the better part of a year to get it. I didn't think I'd miss the V8 in my '12 Ram as the Raptor had so much more power, better suspension...all of the Kool Aid stuff that Ford fed us all. This site was a battle ground between the Gen I owners and Gen II early adopters. Well it turns out that the Gen I guys were right after all, and I battled with them plenty.

I'm sorry man but the EcoBoost engines just freakin' suck. They have no soul or character at all (sold my wife's Explorer with the 3.5 in it too). They have lag, not good off idle. The sound sucks, the fake engine piped in sound always bugged me too. Next to the new Rams, the Raptor interior looks real old now too. The new Ram interiors and dash absolutely blow the Ford away. The programming of the transmission is just kind of whack in the Raptor. I never used the drive modes much as they hang in gear too much and are generally just there for Ford to offer up some tech BS. Gear hunting in normal mode, too much shifting compared to that nice 8 spd in the Ram. The suspension is good, I'll give it that. Not sold on the aluminum body either. There's no point in having a turbo V6 when you can get a V8 w/cylinder de-activation. MPG is real close to being the same. The Rebel tows over 3K more pounds as well. Had three warranty issues to boot; I had a coolant pipe pop off while offroad (production line quick connect was still on), my door locks froze up and my oil pan warped and started leaking. They replaced it with the same part lol. To sum up, the Raptor ain't all that after having it for almost 2.5 years and 28K miles. I'll never buy a non-V8 truck as long as they continue to be offered on the market.


If off road is your priority I'd check out the Power Wagon or wait for the Tremor package in the F250.

Hah, I knew what kind of post to expect as soon as I saw your username.

My grandfather and father-in-law both have the biggest V8 in their Silverado. I appreciate Chevy taking the alternate route with deactivation, but all three of us prefer my motor. Unlike their V8s, there is no delay when I step on the throttle, and I've more power and torque than they do. My mileage is not far off either. They both thought I had a big V8 initially.

The rest of your post is senseless. Of course the new Ram interior is nicer - they are competing against a 4 year old interior.

As far as offroading goes, weight is not your friend. An HD truck will never do as well as half ton for that reason.

To OP: Each mode allows customization. Deep Snow/Sand is normal offroad, so try that or just Normal with the TC button held down if Baja is too much for the conditions.

As for tires, I have trouble getting my rears to stick even at 33 psi, so if you disable TC you should have no problem smoking the tires. Don't forget there is a manual shifting mode, might help get the shift points where you like them.

 

[BIG TIME BALLER]

Common tells most people looking for refinement in a $75k vehicle to buy a base model luxury vehicle, not a suped-up work truck. Entry level X5 starts at $60k. You should check it out. Sounds like your kind of vehicle.

I’ve had a couple of them... probably why I have perspective on what $75k should get you.

 

[pierceography]

@7six2 Have you considered a pedal commander? I'm in a similar situation as you regarding the tune; I'd really like to get one, but am concerned about the warranty implications. I may wind up getting a PC just for a little extra fun. But tbh the stock modes are "good enough" for me.

But it sucks you haven't connected, so to speak, with the truck yet. I was kind of worried when I got mine that the money I was spending and the months of waiting would lead to unrealistic expectations. However, I love it. Sure there are some things that annoy me a little, but there's no perfect vehicle. But what I love most about the truck isn't tangible: It just feels more badass than any other truck on the road.

As for the naysayers, F them. RAPTERRIER is just another Jake17 reincarnated (or, 17jake) -- Fiat fanboys who will do nothing but exclaim, "But my 12 inch LCD is bigger" and, "My slower truck sounds faster!"

And mp_tx is nothing but a straight ****** bag; Accusing others of being a snowflake when he's the one seemingly offended by an opinion he doesn't agree with.

Anyway, I hope you've found the other genuine posts at least somewhat helpful.

 

[smurfslayer]

First there are some features that I’m not fond of: Auto Start/Stop, Auto Door Locks, Electronic Locking Tailgate, Double Horn Honk, and the various Drive Modes that have to be toggled. I know that most of these can be dealt with using Forscan so I wont dwell here.

With the drive modes it seems there aren’t any that suite ME. I like the response of sport mode on the street but hate the way it hangs onto the gears when I let off the throttle. When driving off-road, Normal mode upshifts to soon and takes me out of the power band. Switching to Deep Sand/Snow mode helps but the shift points are still a little high…and I’m stuck with using 4WD. That leads me to Baja mode. I love Baja mode for high-speed fun like racing my buddy down the beach…and it does allow me to go to 2WD for some awesome drifting/donuts…but for normal offroad driving the shift points are way too high. I also encounter situations that I'd like the shocks to be softer but this is only available in the offroad modes. These modes all have their place but really I could do without most of them if the truck just had more power and would let me toggle only the shocks. I mean there are individual settings for steering feel why not ride quality? Speaking of steering feel...every time I toggle drive modes my steering and traction control preferences get changed. I've literally spend an entire beach run toggling buttons trying to find what works for me only to have it all change next key cycle. All my previous trucks didn’t have these buttons yet always managed to stay in the band without bogging.

Then there’s the suspension. While it handles big bumps gracefully, its feels fluttery and unsettled over most rough roads. Seem like the back end is not in good coordination with the front. I will give it credit though for minimal body roll in corners so long as the road is smooth.

The biggest letdown in my opinion is the EcoBoost. I went into it open minded but its just underwhelming for this type of truck. Gas mileage is only a slight improvement over my old truck and now I’m using premium gas. It makes decent power but has to build up to it…performance does suffer badly in Texas’ climate too. What kinda truck puts out 510 lb-ft of torque and can’t even smoke the tires? My old V8 powered truck had significantly less power but felt lighter on its feet and more responsive.

I’m especially concerned about the longevity of this Ecoboom engine. I had no idea there was such a reputation of engine failures. Like my previous truck I had planned to keep this one beyond 200k/10yrs but now I’m concerned about post-warranty. Maintenance is frustrating as well. Have to climb into the engine bay, with a flashlight, to check or add oil; and every oil change has resulted in an Exxon Valdez in my garage.

I honestly miss my old Titan. It was simple and tough. Seemed to be built more solid and had some practical (to me) features that I miss having. To bad the new ones are such an eyesore.

let’s look at these criticisms 1x1

Drive modes: I fully get this criticism and agree with it. Normal mode is to “economy” oriented and literally fights you on the street. There need to be something in between normal mode, which should be ‘economy’ mode, and sport mode. Some have reported using tow/haul mode but I believe that locks out 8-10th gear also

Both my ’09 Ducati and 14 Kaw have drive modes that you can customize to your liking, including the level of traction control interference or off entirely, so it’s not like the tech is that hard to implement. If Ducati can do it, anyone can. Most bike manufacturers make more of a single model of bikes than Ducati churns out in total.
I’ve heard a lot of “EPA mandated” - bikes have to go through it too. The drive modes aren’t as convenient as Ford would have us think. Gone are the days when you simply turned off the pavement, yanked the lever into 4h and hit the gas. Now it’s stop, figure out the terrain, decide what mode to select, wait for the transfer case to catch up, then go. I know it’s all gadgety, but it’s far from convenient. And then there’s the “revert to normal mode at start up” bull$hit. Neither of my gadgety super bikes did this, and my truck shouldn’t either. I know there’s probably some Ford engineer whining about some knucklehead leaving the truck in rock crawl / starbucks mode, but come on, this could be way better.

Normal would not suck as bad if was a more aggressive shift pattern and less lazy throttle and I seriously doubt we’d lose any economy over those changes.

I think sport and the rest of the drive modes we have present a choice of either adapting to the vehicle or not liking it. Drive modes not fully suiting your needs is a legit complaint, it’s not a 100% match for probably a lot more people on here than care to admit. How hard would it be for Ford to give us a Raptor app, and let us make some subtle parameter changes like drive mode default, throttle delay in various modes and some of the other parameters like shock valving - maybe even an anti-dive for panic stops, etc. The Mustang GT performance pack has some track apps (that I’ve not even seen) but give a little leeway here and it would go a long way toward taming these criticisms.

I think OP has unrealistic expectations of the suspension and the complaint seems to center around handling manners for the ride not at speed. The adage ‘hit it faster and it’ll smooth out’ comes to mind. There’s no free lunch with suspension, no matter what the ride. You want luxury? buy a luxo-barge. It will have a smooth, composed ride, but you won’t be winning any autocross or track events. You want to win the auto-cross, you give up the luxury ride. You want to have a high speed off road oriented suspension, low speed ride is compromised. it’s true on cars, bikes and trucks. The truck floats to some extent, and can be unsettled by certain pavement conditions, but this is true of any live axle vehicle, and any of the current manufacturer’s off road oriented trucks with possibly one exception in the car world - Subaru. Within it’s limits of about 8-9 inches of travel and unloaded, they are capable of some pretty impressive stuff off road - right up to the point that they get stuck, but their ride quality is pretty settled. Off road bikes that you see on the street have the same issues; floaty, un-poised suspension that literally feels disconnected from the pavement. but put in an off road, gonzo terrain conditions similar to what the Raptor excels at and it handles it as expected and you have a lot more confidence in it in that environment.

So I think the Raptor suspension ‘complaints’ here are thinking the grass may be greener somewhere else. It’s not.

The tried and true complaint about the EcoBoost. You either like it or you don’t. ‘such a reputation’ look at the production numbers on this thing. OP said this is the biggest complaint, but typed twice as much about drive modes. I drive regularly in high 90’s to low 100’s and not had a problem. and the oil changes are messy. ok. I think others have made similar complaints and made suggestions on FRF as to how they handled it.

hey, if you miss the old truck you may have let it go too soon. 3 years is a pretty short turnaround, I’m at 2.5 years on my 2017 Rap. I feel like we’re a pretty good driver to vehicle match. Nothing’s perfect, I’d change things on the Raptor if it were up to me but not a whole lot.

 

[avalanchegrey]

Just sell your raptor period, and get the one you’ll be satisfied with.

 

[Andrew72]

It sounds like your truck has a blue power band in it. I’d take it back and ask them to install the green one

When you go off road make sure you add more tire pressure not less, you’ll go faster

 

[10851vc]

I Agree!!!! My 2018 is a *************!