Raptor Assault.
- Thread starter smurfslayer
- Start date
Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.
WhatExit?
FRF Addict
I'm still waiting to see when they start setting dates for those of us who've bought but haven't yet gotten in
FWIW - when I signed up the link said it was full for the year and no longer accepting new. When I looked at the details it showed open slots so I figured what the hell...signed up online on a date that showed open slots. Got multiple confirmations and also made sure and paid the insurance to help with that confirmation.
When I looked the other day it was yet showing some open slots on other days...
When I looked the other day it was yet showing some open slots on other days...
Thank you for posting this. I had resigned myself to going next year due to lack of availability, but I was able to jump into the Nov 8-9 class.
Also here's another paid option - Raptor Programs - VORE - Vegas Off Road Experience
I don't know what they have available for trucks now, but when I went they had 3 trucks, 11 SCAB 12/13 SCREW, and the other was in the shop getting a supercharger added. I want to say the SCAB had the oversized shocks, the ones where they had to cut out the bed to fit thru.
It was a pretty good overall trip, only thing that sucked was I wanted to do more offroad technical stuff so I could learn more about the truck and there was a race going on that next weekend so we had to stay close to the facility since they had racers and the course was right there. Everything we went on short of the dry lake bed I had been in similar situations before. Dry lake bed was 100 mph and then a bunch of donuts and figure 8's.
Did learn about Jill descent and tires, plus it was cool to drive the different Raptors configured differently. The one with the larger shocks was fun to drive, but I yet use my truck as a truck so can't cut out the bed.
With that one you can at least bring a buddy or more so that helps. A buddy and I went and we drove different Raptors and then swapped trucks. Our guide was pretty cool, can't recall his name but we just referred to him as cowboy. Definitely recommend it. Oh if you want to shoot and blow stuff up they have add on packages. Also got to do a few laps in one of the 'rally' trucks. That was fun, but nowhere near the power of the Raptor.
I don't know what they have available for trucks now, but when I went they had 3 trucks, 11 SCAB 12/13 SCREW, and the other was in the shop getting a supercharger added. I want to say the SCAB had the oversized shocks, the ones where they had to cut out the bed to fit thru.
It was a pretty good overall trip, only thing that sucked was I wanted to do more offroad technical stuff so I could learn more about the truck and there was a race going on that next weekend so we had to stay close to the facility since they had racers and the course was right there. Everything we went on short of the dry lake bed I had been in similar situations before. Dry lake bed was 100 mph and then a bunch of donuts and figure 8's.
Did learn about Jill descent and tires, plus it was cool to drive the different Raptors configured differently. The one with the larger shocks was fun to drive, but I yet use my truck as a truck so can't cut out the bed.
With that one you can at least bring a buddy or more so that helps. A buddy and I went and we drove different Raptors and then swapped trucks. Our guide was pretty cool, can't recall his name but we just referred to him as cowboy. Definitely recommend it. Oh if you want to shoot and blow stuff up they have add on packages. Also got to do a few laps in one of the 'rally' trucks. That was fun, but nowhere near the power of the Raptor.
Raptor Assault Review:
Reception was ok, other Mustang and Focus owners there as well, so each group gets a specific 'wrist' band. Someone should just pipe up and say "Hey all Raptor owners after reception meet up at Booneville Brewery (next to Holiday Inn Express) in Tooele."
Meal was decent, but a bit steep $ for a guest, but then again it's a free event....
Class time is decent, not too long. The variety of terrain is a plus. On the shotcrete course you get the truck at 30 deg side hill and it is still solid, guy may even pull on it to show you how solid/tip resistant it is at that angle. Really cool. Couldn't get the answer on roughly what sidehill angle it rolls at.
Short course in different modes was fun. I opened it up as much as I could and nearly took out cones a few times, but wish that course was a big larger.
Off road trip was very good overall. While I've been on steeper and worse terrain, the length of some of the hill climbs and some of the technicalities with the rocks were decent, plus showing you the 'added' clearance due to the suspension travel at some of those angles. Thought we would hit in a few spots but didn't.
Instructors did not really push anything and were straight up about most things. I say most as on a few things they did mention liability and such and on some they mentioned 'non-sponsored' items. Minimal BS and sales.
Would've liked to drive more, but driver swap was pretty even so that was good, but still....maybe it was good though cause I had a number of phone calls and emails to deal with while in passenger seat....damn it, work sometimes! ;o)
Details:
Gen I trucks the instructors drove. They drove alone for the most part. The ones I checked out they were heavily modified, ICON shocks, bump stops, frame welding, etc.
They have the tuck that ran the BAJA on the showroom. It's beat up, but it actually had the 2.7 L Eco in it. I didn't know that, always thought the 3.5L. Then it's interesting to see the spare parts they carried and the condition of the exhaust....
Trucks were ran at 27-28 psig tire pressure. When asking their opinion they referred to liability and said door was 38. Then said the best pverall hwy ride was 37-38 in the front and then 5 less in the rear and/or add 200 lbs to the bed....with saying you see what we ran at all day and how it performed...
Front light bar all trucks from what I could tell had, yet partially blocked camera view.
Only mods I really saw overall was front bull bar with light, rear roll bar with rear bead mounted tire (note factory spare tire under truck removed) and extra stickers.
Recommendations - try to find a truck at the same package as yours. I got a lesser series than 802A....a number of things were different, not horrible, but would've been better if I had another 802A. It sounded like they had a few.
Based on others try to stay at the Holiday Inn Express Tooele. It's right next to the Brewhouse and close to the school. I stayed at the American Inn, clean and no real issues, but older hotel and could hear people above me some, when they were walking around.
Don't try to leave the same day. I came in the day of reception and left the day after the class. The altitude difference along with a number of things...get a good rest the night before and you'll likely be tired after the course so instead of fighting the airport, traffic, etc. just head out the next day.
'Performance Shop' - bought stuff for the family, but nothing for pre-teens. Shirts all pretty much adult sizes. Got my 7 yr old a sticker...Tee shirts are a fair price, but the polo's while nice, IMO are overpriced. I bought one, almost didn't. Liked it and then a few things, plus it being a 'free' course, bought the damn shirt.
Again good course overall, wish I could've talked to more guys...all I talked to at my class were new Raptor owners and 3 or 4 were new truck owners. Two said there trucks will likely never go offroad.
Met a couple of guys day of my class who's class was the next day that were both former Gen I owners, so it was cool talking to them.
None the less - thanks Ford for sponsoring! I sent a number of pics to friends and such and they were saying they wanted to go/were jealous.
Learned more about Left foot braking and control, had been doing it, but more so out of feel, not technical knowledge. Works well in a number of instances, but they 'pushed' it during rock crawl mode.
Learned/confirmed Neutral with Parking Brake and then Park. Done it before on hills up/down to lessen 'clunk', but they pushed/confirmed.
Lockers - they really pushed minimal usage. I agreed, but they explained why tear up the truck prematurely? Had us only put them in on situations that would more than likely require it. Otherwise turn off. Recommend only having them on in loose terrain and going as straight as reasonable, but turn them on and even 4x4 early as better to be early and not need then to need and have something shift in too hard by panicing/wanting to keep up speed and trying to shift on the fly.
*Also 'learned/confirmed' right foot resistance. They said in the class to try and always have your heel/top of your foot against the transmission sidewall with side pressure as this does a few things: minimizes throttle accidental 'bounce' when going over bumpy terrain, hit a good bump right foot more likely to bounce up and come back down on throttle and in turn gives you more control. Hadn't thought about it that way, but tried there's and maybe I need a bigger foot/throttle or need to be more comfortable angling my foot. Either way realized what I actually have done is push my knee/calf into the transmission sidewall to help. More comfortable for me.
Reception was ok, other Mustang and Focus owners there as well, so each group gets a specific 'wrist' band. Someone should just pipe up and say "Hey all Raptor owners after reception meet up at Booneville Brewery (next to Holiday Inn Express) in Tooele."
Meal was decent, but a bit steep $ for a guest, but then again it's a free event....
Class time is decent, not too long. The variety of terrain is a plus. On the shotcrete course you get the truck at 30 deg side hill and it is still solid, guy may even pull on it to show you how solid/tip resistant it is at that angle. Really cool. Couldn't get the answer on roughly what sidehill angle it rolls at.
Short course in different modes was fun. I opened it up as much as I could and nearly took out cones a few times, but wish that course was a big larger.
Off road trip was very good overall. While I've been on steeper and worse terrain, the length of some of the hill climbs and some of the technicalities with the rocks were decent, plus showing you the 'added' clearance due to the suspension travel at some of those angles. Thought we would hit in a few spots but didn't.
Instructors did not really push anything and were straight up about most things. I say most as on a few things they did mention liability and such and on some they mentioned 'non-sponsored' items. Minimal BS and sales.
Would've liked to drive more, but driver swap was pretty even so that was good, but still....maybe it was good though cause I had a number of phone calls and emails to deal with while in passenger seat....damn it, work sometimes! ;o)
Details:
Gen I trucks the instructors drove. They drove alone for the most part. The ones I checked out they were heavily modified, ICON shocks, bump stops, frame welding, etc.
They have the tuck that ran the BAJA on the showroom. It's beat up, but it actually had the 2.7 L Eco in it. I didn't know that, always thought the 3.5L. Then it's interesting to see the spare parts they carried and the condition of the exhaust....
Trucks were ran at 27-28 psig tire pressure. When asking their opinion they referred to liability and said door was 38. Then said the best pverall hwy ride was 37-38 in the front and then 5 less in the rear and/or add 200 lbs to the bed....with saying you see what we ran at all day and how it performed...
Front light bar all trucks from what I could tell had, yet partially blocked camera view.
Only mods I really saw overall was front bull bar with light, rear roll bar with rear bead mounted tire (note factory spare tire under truck removed) and extra stickers.
Recommendations - try to find a truck at the same package as yours. I got a lesser series than 802A....a number of things were different, not horrible, but would've been better if I had another 802A. It sounded like they had a few.
Based on others try to stay at the Holiday Inn Express Tooele. It's right next to the Brewhouse and close to the school. I stayed at the American Inn, clean and no real issues, but older hotel and could hear people above me some, when they were walking around.
Don't try to leave the same day. I came in the day of reception and left the day after the class. The altitude difference along with a number of things...get a good rest the night before and you'll likely be tired after the course so instead of fighting the airport, traffic, etc. just head out the next day.
'Performance Shop' - bought stuff for the family, but nothing for pre-teens. Shirts all pretty much adult sizes. Got my 7 yr old a sticker...Tee shirts are a fair price, but the polo's while nice, IMO are overpriced. I bought one, almost didn't. Liked it and then a few things, plus it being a 'free' course, bought the damn shirt.
Again good course overall, wish I could've talked to more guys...all I talked to at my class were new Raptor owners and 3 or 4 were new truck owners. Two said there trucks will likely never go offroad.
Met a couple of guys day of my class who's class was the next day that were both former Gen I owners, so it was cool talking to them.
None the less - thanks Ford for sponsoring! I sent a number of pics to friends and such and they were saying they wanted to go/were jealous.
Learned more about Left foot braking and control, had been doing it, but more so out of feel, not technical knowledge. Works well in a number of instances, but they 'pushed' it during rock crawl mode.
Learned/confirmed Neutral with Parking Brake and then Park. Done it before on hills up/down to lessen 'clunk', but they pushed/confirmed.
Lockers - they really pushed minimal usage. I agreed, but they explained why tear up the truck prematurely? Had us only put them in on situations that would more than likely require it. Otherwise turn off. Recommend only having them on in loose terrain and going as straight as reasonable, but turn them on and even 4x4 early as better to be early and not need then to need and have something shift in too hard by panicing/wanting to keep up speed and trying to shift on the fly.
*Also 'learned/confirmed' right foot resistance. They said in the class to try and always have your heel/top of your foot against the transmission sidewall with side pressure as this does a few things: minimizes throttle accidental 'bounce' when going over bumpy terrain, hit a good bump right foot more likely to bounce up and come back down on throttle and in turn gives you more control. Hadn't thought about it that way, but tried there's and maybe I need a bigger foot/throttle or need to be more comfortable angling my foot. Either way realized what I actually have done is push my knee/calf into the transmission sidewall to help. More comfortable for me.
Last edited:
Robtor310
FRF Addict
Oct 3/4th
Looking forward to it.
Looking forward to it.
x-ray
Active Member
Headed out this weekend for 9/24-9/25 class. Anyone else?
X
X
Similar threads
