Buying an off-road vehicle is a pretty marginal move. You want that weekend warrior to fulfill your desire to hit the trails or the sand dunes, but you also want it to be your daily driver. After all, isn’t it fun to drive around town in a mud-soaked truck, flaunting your recent off-road adventure?
For 2010, Ford has introduced such a vehicle. Knowing damn well that despite offering a low range and skid plates on SUVs such as their Explorer, not many people will actually take it off the beaten path, whether they are aware or not that it has the skill to do it.
The Raptor was created with the help of the SVT division—that’s right, the same gang who developed the fire-breathing Shelby GT500. While it may seem like an odd project for them, the resulting product has the credentials for a great off-roader.
It starts with trick shocks provided by FOX Racing Shox, which offer 11.2 inches of front-wheel travel and 12.1 inches for the rear wheels, which is great for traversing uneven surfaces and jumping sand dunes. In fact, the whole front suspension has been redesigned compared with the conventional F-150.
Ford claims a smooth ride, but that’s not really the case; the Raptor exhibits a jittery ride on public roads, a little like pickups normally did 10 or 15 years ago. Still, it’s pretty tolerable on such an extremist truck.
The Raptor also sports a body that’s over 7 inches wider than a standard F-150, which may be pushing it a little. It’s necessary for housing the widened track and monster LT315/70R17 tires. At 2,192 mm, it’s the widest vehicle I personally have ever driven without dual rear wheels, and it shows.
The trails near my place are just wide enough for off-road vehicles such as Jeep Wranglers, so the Raptor gets scraped by bushes and branches, and at one point, I had to turn around because the path just wasn’t large enough to get through. In addition, parking the Raptor at the shopping mall takes a certain level of skill.
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| The Raptor was created with the help of the SVT division, the same gang who developed the fire-breathing Shelby GT500. (Photo: Michel Deslauriers/Auto123.com) |
For 2010, Ford has introduced such a vehicle. Knowing damn well that despite offering a low range and skid plates on SUVs such as their Explorer, not many people will actually take it off the beaten path, whether they are aware or not that it has the skill to do it.
The Raptor was created with the help of the SVT division—that’s right, the same gang who developed the fire-breathing Shelby GT500. While it may seem like an odd project for them, the resulting product has the credentials for a great off-roader.
It starts with trick shocks provided by FOX Racing Shox, which offer 11.2 inches of front-wheel travel and 12.1 inches for the rear wheels, which is great for traversing uneven surfaces and jumping sand dunes. In fact, the whole front suspension has been redesigned compared with the conventional F-150.
Ford claims a smooth ride, but that’s not really the case; the Raptor exhibits a jittery ride on public roads, a little like pickups normally did 10 or 15 years ago. Still, it’s pretty tolerable on such an extremist truck.
The Raptor also sports a body that’s over 7 inches wider than a standard F-150, which may be pushing it a little. It’s necessary for housing the widened track and monster LT315/70R17 tires. At 2,192 mm, it’s the widest vehicle I personally have ever driven without dual rear wheels, and it shows.
The trails near my place are just wide enough for off-road vehicles such as Jeep Wranglers, so the Raptor gets scraped by bushes and branches, and at one point, I had to turn around because the path just wasn’t large enough to get through. In addition, parking the Raptor at the shopping mall takes a certain level of skill.
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| At 86.3 inches excluding the mirrors, the Raptor is one of the widest vehicles we’ve ever driven. (Photo: Michel Deslauriers/Auto123.com) |