SnoBall 2025 - first time - equipment feedback & tips

[Blast2hell]

you forgot to tell him to bring a "****" couch for "safety"

Haha yes, very comfy to park your truck on instead of nearby trees.

 

[Big Blue]

I attended Snoball for a number of years and was a support driver for a couple. It's a great time and event. You will be fine, plenty of experienced people to help you when needed. Enjoy the scenery and the other Raptor owners. If you don't get stuck at least once, you're not having a good enough time. Just remember my approach; When in doubt, throttle out. You might enjoy reading this. The original Snoball 500 was the first Raptor event I attended over 10 years ago.

*Big Blue's Guide to Raptor Runs*

This thread is dedicated to my experiences, comments and suggestions with various Raptor Runs offered through FRF: I consider myself a serious Auto enthusiast. I have had lots of cool rides, as a matter of fact, since it’s only the wife and I, every car/truck I have owned would fall under the...

www.fordraptorforum.com

 

[LordxEkim]

Sounds sweet

 

[leonardopessoa]

I attended Snoball for a number of years and was a support driver for a couple. It's a great time and event. You will be fine, plenty of experienced people to help you when needed. Enjoy the scenery and the other Raptor owners. If you don't get stuck at least once, you're not having a good enough time. Just remember my approach; When in doubt, throttle out. You might enjoy reading this. The original Snoball 500 was the first Raptor event I attended over 10 years ago.

*Big Blue's Guide to Raptor Runs*

This thread is dedicated to my experiences, comments and suggestions with various Raptor Runs offered through FRF: I consider myself a serious Auto enthusiast. I have had lots of cool rides, as a matter of fact, since it’s only the wife and I, every car/truck I have owned would fall under the...

www.fordraptorforum.com

View attachment 474628

Thanks for sharing! Will give it a read.

That raptor looks evil btw

 

[leonardopessoa]

About the radio, I’ve seen the options here but also saw a bunch around 200$ on Amazon vs 400$. Other than VHF 50W, does it have other requirements? Would something like this work?

 

[MeFryRice]

About the radio, I’ve seen the options here but also saw a bunch around 200$ on Amazon vs 400$. Other than VHF 50WView attachment 475007, does it have other requirements? Would something like this work?View attachment 475006

Can’t speak on those radios but for not much more money, you can buy a proven quality one.

 

[downforce137]

buy once, cry once

i have a TYT TH9800, which has served me pretty well over 5 years..

been thru several mics, but its very frustrating to get out on the trails to find out the radio isnt working properly and even worse if something is happening and you need to tell the people behind to STOP!

many of the new radios need to be opened up and remove diodes from the circuit board thanks to the FCC on the channels we operate on for snoball.. basically they have limited those freqs to 5W so if a radio is capable of more, the channels are supposed to be locked out from the factory on USA sold radios.. need to research that as welll.. thats why i suggested going with LVJ because it will come setup, and programmed with all the channels you will ever need. plug and play...

 

[leonardopessoa]

buy once, cry once

i have a TYT TH9800, which has served me pretty well over 5 years..

been thru several mics, but its very frustrating to get out on the trails to find out the radio isnt working properly and even worse if something is happening and you need to tell the people behind to STOP!

many of the new radios need to be opened up and remove diodes from the circuit board thanks to the FCC on the channels we operate on for snoball.. basically they have limited those freqs to 5W so if a radio is capable of more, the channels are supposed to be locked out from the factory on USA sold radios.. need to research that as welll.. thats why i suggested going with LVJ because it will come setup, and programmed with all the channels you will ever need. plug and play...

Now all of that makes sense. Thanks for the context! I’ve just reached out to LVJ on messenger and found myself an installer locally for both the amber lights and radio.

 

[ACE]

+1 for getting a radio from LVJ. He has handhelds too and can talk to you about antennas to get. I have the GJ (now swarfworks) 3rd brake light with NMO antenna mount. Keith set me up with a good hand held and adapter plug that connects to the 3rd brake light with NMO antenna.
For the spare in the bed I had mine secured by ratchet straps for 3 years. No issues. I have a bed rack now from grove Fabworks. This will be my 5th Snoball coming up, it is so much fun!

 

[dsiggi]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1F7IEE/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

This is what I have run for 5 years. Also Yeti lead runs the same. Radio has been beat to death bouncing around out west and multiple offroad trips and keeps on ticking. Jason (Alpha Lead) ran the same for many years, thats how I ended up with this radio, but he switched a couple years back. Not sure for what reason, probably just to get a new radio.

I only had 1 fail but that was due to my own error, and is likely fixable.

That being said, you are then stuck figuring out programming, supporting on your own etc (as myself and Yeti lead are actually doing currently trying to remember how we programmed them years ago and making some changes).

Keith makes this all very easy if you just use him.