SHOCK TOWER CRACKING

[KentSD]

Took my shocks off to send out for rebuild yesterday.

Coil bucket is completely f****

Any ideas?

Truck has 80k Baja Miles on it so its no surprise but anyone ever replaced before?

 

[Jakenbake]

Took my shocks off to send out for rebuild yesterday.

Shock tower is completely f****

Any ideas?

Truck has 80k Baja Miles on it so its no surprise but anyone ever replaced before?

Could always cut it out, remove the coil bucket completely and build new shock towers for a long travel………..

In all seriousness I would say you have two options:

Cut it out and install an aftermarket (camburg or other) gen 2 coil bucket and move one. There are a few on this forum that could probably chime in on this.

Or drill at the ends of each crack to stop it, then try and weld it back. I think this might be difficult given the location of everything though.

 

[MDJAK]

May not be a perfect analogy, but I owned until recently a 2021 CanAm X3 XRC, the rock climbing model. It was a beast, 1600 pounds or so, 190 hp, topped out at 89 mph. Cost $32,000 now. I paid $27k. For that kind of dough one would think it would hold up. Yet, the SxS forum is replete with frames that looked like they’d been through the ringer, cracks everywhere, after only a few thousand miles. The so called steel frame is likened to beach chair tubing.

I’m not saying you sound surprised or shocked by it. I’d give @Oldfart ’s left nut to have a 10th of the fun you’ve apparently had with 80k Baja miles. The only thing I get to go over is bollards in the pkg lot at Costco.

 

[Ruger]

In the interest of preventing this sort of damage, I have seen aftermarket parts for other makes/models that bolt to the top of the shock towers and bridge over the engine to link and brace them. I have not seen such a product for Raptors, though. I am not sure that there is sufficient room under the hood for a brace of that sort on the Raptor models. Does anyone know of a source?

 

[isis]

Dang man that looks like you had a ton of fun.

 

[GCATX]

A good welder can make that better than new. I'd guess you need a mobile welder now though.

 

[Jakenbake]

In the interest of preventing this sort of damage, I have seen aftermarket parts for other makes/models that bolt to the top of the shock towers and bridge over the engine to link and brace them. I have not seen such a product for Raptors, though. I am not sure that there is sufficient room under the hood for a brace of that sort on the Raptor models. Does anyone know of a source?

Yes, there is room for a strut tower brace. All I have seen are custom made to clear what intake you are running, stock resonator, whipple, etc.

I do not know of any off the shelf solutions

 

[NateMob]

Yes, there is room for a strut tower brace. All I have seen are custom made to clear what intake you are running, stock resonator, whipple, etc.

I do not know of any off the shelf solutions

The only one I've seen is in Dylan Brown's F150 with a 5.0L motor, not sure how different it's layout is in the engine bay. That entire truck is a work of art!

 

[Jakenbake]

The only one I've seen is in Dylan Brown's F150 with a 5.0L motor, not sure how different it's layout is in the engine bay. That entire truck is a work of art!

Ryan Felish’s truck had one on his HM lt kit (both N/A and whipple) and a texas motoworx SVC truck (@mjsvt or similar on Instagram) are the first two that come to mind that are gen 1 setups with a strut tower brace and a stock hood.

 

[Trailmaker]

Took my shocks off to send out for rebuild yesterday.

Coil bucket is completely f****

Any ideas?

Truck has 80k Baja Miles on it so its no surprise but anyone ever replaced before?

My first thought was to weld a 3/8 plate over the top. You were a few jumps from a shock through the hood. I did not realize how thin that was.