Old Man Build

[thatJeepguy]

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Lol . RIP Ted Knight . One of the greats.

 

[smurfslayer]

Latest update. Finally had time to get the alignment done so I could drive it out of the parking lot. Went straight to the car wash. 12hrs later was dirty again. I have some observations....................

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But.... why, in the name of all things holy would you do all of this work on a PRIMER painted truck?

AND then double down by WASHING it!!!

 

[Nex]

But.... why, in the name of all things holy would you do all of this work on a PRIMER painted truck?

AND then double down by WASHING it!!!

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

I am here to learn as much or more than teach, so if anyone has observations about my comments or set up please let them be known.
With any modification comes trade offs, my tires now rub the inner edge of the front mud flap, will have to do a small amount of trimming, also will adjust preload in a couple thousand miles or so.

The brakes are an amazing upgrade, now slows down/stops in a way that is much more confident, (same as my 2002 f350 with 32 piston brake system). While some have expressed their doubt in the need for a brake upgrade let me try an explain. My 2002 always stopped well, I did a brake upgrade on it because I had a near death experience and wanted shorter stopping distance. While this seems obvious let me continue. The stock Raptor brakes are not predictable/linear, for example it seems as an observation that putting 50lbs of brake pedal force would yield X amount of stopping force, BUT 100lbs was not 2X. Instead of linear it seemed more like exponential, meaning that 4x the force only got 2x the stopping power. Even stock my 2002 F350 was not that way, and now with the Alcon brakes the Raptor is not that way anymore. I will say after 400 miles there is a shit ton of brake dust on the wheels already.

The E-click is pretty phenomenal, Now it won't turn your stock truck into a @mattl600 build truck. But what it can do with live valve is pretty cool. I am still on stock rears waiting for my rear suspension set up to ship.

The Fox FRS spring are suppose to be stiffer, the rear Deaver HD definitely are. Many have complained about the stock Raptor ride, I personally was okay with the mushiness if it absorbed the hits off road. I bought my Raptor for one thing and one thing only, off roading. initially I was not happy, as I felt I had ruined the "ride", as on the street it was noticeably harsher. I started playing with the e-click and you can make it as soft or softer than stock, and you can firm it up, I was pretty happy pretty quick.

The best part is you can have a nice ride, but on braking or accel the shocks will stiffen up and take all the nose dive, squat out (pitch) that is actually very nice.

I don't see "whoops" like @mattl600 has posted about and make no mistake my $20k build is not going to compete with his $100,000 build. My terrain consists of, gravel/dirt fairly well maintained rods with potholes, some small, some rather large. Wash board road, the kind that shakes the teeth from your head, and what I used to call whoops, but are better described as "rollers" these are small hills 6-15 ft tall, spaced 50-70 feet apart, damn they are fun.

The wash board roads are the worst, with the e-click install I removed my sway bar as e-click has pitch AND roll compensation. Holy hell the wash board roads are nothing now. Last winter we had record snow and it has been 10 months since I have been on the road I was on a couple days ago, you ever look at a road and think, damn this is going to hurt? Well the road was more wash boarded than I have seen in 30 years. After about 20 miles we stopped and without any prompting my wife said "damn that was amazing", she has been offlroading with me for 30 years and she knows a shit road she she sees it.

In the rollers I was going to fast, and thought once I was going to lawn dart into the next hill/roller, so I believe for my terrain I have maxed out what a stock front suspension travel can do and really what a stock truck can do. Any more performance offroad would have to start with a roll cage. The truck isn't going to jump 60-70ft between rollers (and there are normally 5-7 in a row) without about $200k more in upgrades. so over all I am super happy, and need to slow down as the truck gives to much confidence in the terrain I see 90% of the time.

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

But.... why, in the name of all things holy would you do all of this work on a PRIMER painted truck?

AND then double down by WASHING it!!!

Did you never go to high school? all the fastest cars were primered!!!

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

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you know I type about 4 words a minute right??

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

PS: my wife noticed the better braking as well and she is just a passenger. I do need to let her drive one day.

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

After measuring about 18 times I have a case ordered for the rest of the bed. I will mount this ammo can to the chase rack and it should hold a ton of tools. The only tools I have really every needed are tire changing tools so if I have to start accessing this box regularly I need to stop going for a ride and get it in the shop to fix stuff, I normally do a vehicle inspection every ride or two.

have to mount it far enough away from end plate to allow clasp/lid removal.

 

[smurfslayer]

That’s great feedback on the updates so far.
Is your TPMS stable? there have a been several recent complaints and I saw the SDI system mentioned >1 time.

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

That’s great feedback on the updates so far.
Is your TPMS stable? there have a been several recent complaints and I saw the SDI system mentioned >1 time.

Not sure I understand the question. The TPMS display is stable in that it doesn't flicker or loose signal (tire showing --). But of course the pressures change a couple PSI. For example when I parked it yesterday they were at 26 psi (haven't air back up yet) it was around 40 degrees air temp and I did drive it about 5 miles. This morning with air temp of 18 they were all 22 (I did have to drive it to work today, about 3 miles).

This is pretty normal for tires.

If that doesn't answer your question, maybe rephrase it.