raptor alternative/make your own?

Seems to me that the Raptor is to the Ranger shown above what a factory Viper is to a Locost. Different animals altogether.

ecoboost f150?

Pretty much Kreb. Its about being a normal every day I could use this truck as well as off road capable. Its the desert blasting equivalent of a brand new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the functional difference between the Raptor and the regular F-150 was just in the suspension, mostly the shocks.

Is there more to it than that other than aesthetics?

It's suspension (long travel, wider), drivetrain (more durable/heavy duty), tires (larger at 35"), and cosmetics (with some functionality reasons).

From: (old news. Newer models may have changed but I didn't research)

http://www.fourwheeler.com/featuredvehicles/129_0811_2010_ford_f150_svt_raptor_off_road_truck/viewall.html

SVT decided that its performance focus on the Raptor would be on suspension, truly setting the Raptor apart from anything else ever built for the truck market. At the heart of the Raptor is its basic chassis layout that brings the track width out by 3.2 inches on each side and a wheelbase lengthened by 15 mm. In the front, it is done with massive aluminum lower control arms and new upper control arms with beefy ball joints and strengthened tie rods. The front CV axles are bigger and stronger and have the ability to run at more severe angles. The rear 34-spline 9.75-inch rear axle (a 31-spline 8.8-inch is used in the front) has been widened and uses thicker tubes for increased durability, as well as stronger steel for the shock mounts.

The real story of the Raptor, however, is in the shocks, co-developed with Fox Racing. These specially constructed dampers were made specifically for the Raptor program and are unlike any other Fox product available. In fact, Ford has exclusive use of the Fox patent for the technology in these exclusive internal triple-bypass shocks used here.

7.1 inches of front shaft travel, while the rears have 10.9 inches of shaft travel. This equates to an impressive 11.1 inches of front wheel travel (compared to 8.5 inches on the standard F-150) and 13.1 inches of rear wheel travel (same as the F-150) for the Raptor. While those numbers may not sound as good as some aftermarket long-travel kits, remember we are talking about bypass shocks here, which give beautifully controlled, clean travel. The Raptor is also very streetable and passes all of Ford's internal requirements for on-road handling.

My Ranger has 10" up front and 14" in the rear...same suspension type. IFS up front, leaf and shock in the rear. And you can upgrade to a 4-link suspension and blow the Raptor out of the water offroad for less than $4K.

I'm not dogging the Raptor, I think it's awesome and way "nicer" than my truck. My interior is torn apart for a cage. Mine is also streetable and gets a good rep, but I don't mind beating it up a little ;)

Also I think a lot of folks don't see the difference in 4-wheeler's suspension and go-fast desert offroad suspension.

Fully locked (front and rear, all 4 wheels driving) wheelers do have a lot of wheel travel for articulation and to be able to stick to the ground and maintain traction on very deep terrain. But the shocks are very stiff, to force the tire down, to maintain that traction.

Desert offroad trucks also have wheel travel, but have more tuning and suspensions with progressive spring rates in their components. They also want to stick to the ground, but their ground speed (much faster than crawling on rocks) requires gentle up-travel to keep the vehicle body level and not bouncing up and down because the suspension is bottoming out and driving wheel travel forces into the chassis.

The Ultra4 series is a great way to see machines built to do both.

TrophyGirlDesigns wrote: But the shocks are very stiff, to force the tire down, to maintain that traction.

Not to nitpick but shocks cannot force the tires down, only slow the up/down travel of what theyre attached to.

A shock is pretty passive aside from that.

I've always used very lightly valved shocks for my trail trucks and rockcrawlers.

Ok 'keep' the tire down.

TrophyGirlDesigns wrote: Ok 'keep' the tire down.

Yeah? My shocks were lightly valved to allow free travel independent of the frame/body. THAT what allowed the tires to remain in contact with the ground-rock-ledge etc. Stiff shocks always caused me to lift a tire until the shock slowly allowed the droop of one side and the compression of the other.

EDIT: Nevermind. Im not trying to cause problems. f Forum typing can lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding. I get your points just fine!

Absolutely. The point of the Raptor is you can have all that with a warranty a nice daily driver and it actually has stuff that is hard to do on your own like the offroad mode. The new ones have a locking front diff option, hill descent etc. Plus they look cool :)

I say we're looking in the wrong direction. . .