Long travel, why?

[ISFast]

I want a LT kit just because it makes my wee wee grow!!!

But in all reality it would be cool to have just because. There is good points both ways but if it wasn't your DD (which mine is now) it would make keeping on top of things way easier and most car and truck stuff are "braggin rights" anyways.

Its like a supercharger.... do you need one NO, could you put that money into something else to upgrade first YES, but what do most people talk about .... numbers so yeah.

And yes driving lessons would be a great place for that money to go. Madcow flat ran me over at TRR but then again I would put money his raptor was the fastest one out there completely stock and apples to apples shows what a driver can do.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

hence the "mad cow" i guess there is truth behind his name...... haha

 

[treypal]

I guess I should change my statement a little.

I'd say if you live anywhere with whoops, it might be a consideration, with the knowledge that if you push the truck as hard as the front suspension will go, the rest of the truck is going to suffer. If you don't ever see whoops or really rough stuff, then I would definitely spend the money elsewhere. BTW Texana Ranch is NOT rough at all compared to out west...

I'll be honest, eventually my truck will be caged, linked and LT. It will be paid off first though.

Isn't the white Brenthel raptor from their marketing vids a texas truck? If I remember correctly, the guy beats hard on his truck and it isn't modded anything past the kit upfront. Also, I recall he raves about the trucks performance. Maybe he's exaggerating or isn't telling the full story with damage reports but something tells me he's having a blast in that truck and it's holding up just fine.

It's not like we're talking center-mount tt suspension here. The 16"- 19" kits aren't going to blast so hard through the rough that the truck starts falling apart. These mid-travel kits available to us are nothing new and guys are running them on all kinds of other trucks. At least around my neck of the woods.

Not knocking your viewpoint Trey because I hold your opinions very highly regarded. I guess time will tell as those who choose to go that route will be the guinea pigs so to speak. If my truck starts breaking, I'll be the first to tell...

Our local deserts are littered with whoops that bring our lightly modified raptors to a snail pace. Barstow is usually the go to spot for me and my friends and if you've seen that terrain, than you'll be able to relate to the snail pace comment. It would be nice just to go that much faster through that stuff.

 

[KaiserM715]

I am 95% sure my truck will never see a long travel kit.
1. I am not willing to tie up that much money in this truck
2. I like like to do trail rides, too, and anything that increases the width of my truck will stop me (or at least make it more difficult) from going some places that I want to go.
3. This truck is my daily and any increased width would make that more of a hassle, too.
4. How often would I need the additional travel? Realistically once or twice a year. Not worth it to me.
5. Greg brings up a good point, I am not sure I would want to deal with the increased maintenance.

Note: As Tizzle said, different hats... YMMV, etc.

Trey brings up a great point. Driver training is a great idea.

 

[SVT_4X4]

For myself looking for maybe a little more travel. Jumping at the dunes bottomed out both front & back a few times. Going with some springs and bump stops for my next project on the rear. So interested in all options, but most likely the top LT is not for me, but maybe something a little more than what it has now.

 

[onesickpuppy]

As an ex limited class 1600 owner/operator/builder, I would agree with Trey partly. The class I was in most evryone had the same travel front and rear to deal with, so you were able to see driving styles that were faster or not. The worst guy to pass, is someone that drives like you!!!
Now, with that said, we spent most/all of our R&D in tuning the suspension. This will take you from ok or average to better as Trey eludded to, by a mid-perch walking on him. These trucks are tuned close factory and you will need to stay on top of making sure everything is good, but once we start changing weight/distribution of wieght we somehow espect it to self-returne itself to the new or differant setup. I can tell you that we had at least two differant setups that we would put in our car depending on the course we were giong to and terrein types. Also do not forget that when you make changes to the front or rear it has an effect on the other. Now this was not all in shocks either, spring rates are ultra important, in most cases most builder over spring for their recommendations. We found all you need is what it takes to hold the car at a given hight. Now add the complexity of wanting to tow a trailer. You either will have something close, or purpose built, which our trucks try to cover a broad spectrum.
Now yes, more travel (properly turned) would be better than un-tuned by a long shot.
Sorry to bore you with the past, but it may help some....
I guess what I am getting to is we used to wip on class 10 cars with twice the wheel travel and more ponies.
Not to put any of our vendors down for promoting long travel set ups!!! Actually I am really watching the RPG one if it can get more travel and same track width. If I was going all out and a single purpose truck I would surely go with more wheel travel (duh), and it makes up for driving skills to some sort.
Good luck!!!

 

[Dan06]

When are we going to start addressing the issue that we need a designated Ford Raptor racing class, similiar to jeep speed? I believe all this bickering is leading to this anyways, I just think I am one of the first to say it. The first races would need to be on private land (texana ranch?) and we could seperate it into 2 or 3 classes: stock, modified and modified plus (?), whatever, but the idea is there somewhere.

A Raptor is not a luxury prerunner, or a trophy truck, but I think we can all agree its very good at what it does. I'm down, start working out the deets TreyPal!!

I occasionally cross this thread while browsing FRF. I've always loved this post... Too bad nothing became of it to my knowledge.

 

[bstoner59]

The first Raptor X has been scheduled my Mr. Pal

 

[Dan06]

The first Raptor X has been scheduled my Mr. Pal

Awesome! guess I missed that. Gonna have to do a search for it.

 

[Allied Offroad]

Awesome! guess I missed that. Gonna have to do a search for it.

Yeah and GLRE did one over the summer, and have numerous other events planned.