Roger The Raptor

[WW_RANGER_X]

How are the BMS tie rods? Do you notice a big difference over stock? Slowly stockpiling parts to refresh my front end and wondering if I should pony up for aftermarket tie rods or stick with OE

Daily driving on the street I don't seem to notice a huge difference. I do think its slightly tighter but that's probably due to the sloppy factory tie rod ends that needed to be changed out. Before I got the truck I talked to a lot of raptor owners and picked their brains on what they thought would be some good first upgrades and they all sad to upgrade the tie rods because they are prone to bending.

Thank goodness you didn’t buy the orange Fox 3.0” IBP’s with the dual hoses and check valves to circulate the fluid. Those check valves have failed in EVERY set I’ve serviced and obliterated the internals. Definitely a bad ass design they have but the parts are majorly undersized

Yeah I'm happy I went with what I did. Kings were out of stock at the time through my supplier and i got a killer deal on all 4.
I've never touched those orange ones. kind of scared to, to be honest lol. I've also never messed with live valving fox's either.

 

[DialedShockPrep]

I haven’t done a set of the live valves yet, I believe they need a DC power supply to manipulate the valve.
The dual hose ones are such a pain to do. If it goes somewhat smoothly I can do the one pair in an 8hr day lol I’m getting quicker with them but they just suck to work on in general. You have good shocks, just deviate from the traditional Fox 3-2-1 stacks and you’ll be good haha

 

[Nick619nc]

Let me know when your ready for some UCAs and Ill get you hooked up with the BLGT discount!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

I had this idea in my head for months to build some type of aluminum shroud to cover my race radio after I mounted it on top of the dash. After a sketch on paper, beer box cardboard templates and tape, scanning said templates and emailing them to the bodj, he was able to make my idea a reality. So stoked on this piece! These trucks are so cookie cutter you gotta be just a little different.















Lastly, today I got my Gravity Pro6 LED KC lights for my a pilar brackets I got a few months ago from SDHQ.

 

[michael_gonzalez]

Beer boxes are ideal template material.

Looks good!

 

[toyick]

I just read through your thread. thank you for the motivation!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Nothing crazy but I picked up a fluid holder from Artec industries. This is their “4 banger” holder. One thing I noticed that was different from the last one I bought is this one is made out of aluminum, which is nice so I don’t have to paint it. The holder I had on the ranger was the “6 gun” and it came raw steel. Holding 2 quarts of motor oil, 1 quart of trans fluid and a quart of power steering fluid. I know it ain’t much but it may help myself or someone else in need on the trail.

 

[Motiracer38]

Those are rad but I wish they made a mirrored version as the latch would be impossible to get to in the spot I have free.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

I cant stand how tall the truck sits in the rear with the ICON springs and SVC stock length shackles, so I've been searching for drop shackle options. Finally found what I've been looking for. Foutz Motorsports 7" shackle that drops the truck 2" in the rear that works with my spring pack and hopefully give me the look I'm wanting.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Finally able to have a night in the garage to get one of many projects done. I mounted my SDHQ a pillar light mounts with a pair of KC Gravity Pro 6’s. With the raptor’s having their own upfitter system and KC’s harness that comes with these lights, it made the install pretty easy. Most the time was spent dressing wires and making sure everything is clean and out of the way of the hood hinges. These lights are bad ass!















After next weekend (offroad expo) I plan to finally install my front FOX coilovers! I’m stoked on how the truck is coming together. In October it’ll be a year of ownership, 11k smiles later. Still plenty of things to do but I’m super fortunate to be able to do what I’ve done so far. My little side gig shock service business has allowed me to pay the payment for this thing each month and pay for all the aftermarket accessories I’ve been throwing at it.

 

[gascapkevin]

Haha that's crazy, October 13th will be one year of ownership with my Waptuh!

KCs are looking good too!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Last week I pulled the chase rack out of the bed to remove some unnecessary tabs, add a stronger tab for my 1/2” flag whip, and build a cooler mount for my Engel cooler. The area where I added the cooler was meant for a second spare tire which I didn’t thing was necessary. It turned out pretty bad ass. Last and final thing I want to add later is some sort of race jack. I left enough space under the cooler to mount a pro eagle/badlands type jack. Got everything all done before the weekend and got the truck shined up for a local car show with a friend. Only a few more weekends left to get this thing ready for the CD clean up and thanksgiving. I still need to install my fox coilovers and am still patiently waiting for my rear drop shackles. Good times ahead!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Ended up having to go a different route on rear shackles. The Foutz Motorsports shackles were taking way too long to complete. It had been over a month with no answer on completion time. I didn’t want to risk it so I canceled my order and picked up a set from BMS. Got them in 2 days. Things are beef!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

I need some opinions here. SVC rear shackles I’m currently running are 4.5” eye to eye (same as factory length), BMS shackles are 6.75”. They claim this is a true 2” drop shackle. Now, when I purchased my Icon Leaf packs they came with bump stop spacers that are 2.75” long to drop the factory bump down. So, should I cut 2” off the spacer and have just a 3/4” spacer in there since they claim these shackles drop the truck 2”, or should I just delete the spacer all together and bolt the factory bump back into its original position and gain 3/4” of up travel? Am I splitting hairs here? My 3.0 Fox’s have a mean bump zone to aid in heavy dampening situations. Thoughts?

I may be way overthinking this just FYI lol

 

[Cleandezert]

where do your shocks bottom out? i would match that to what bump stops you use.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

where do your shocks bottom out? i would match that to what bump stops you use.

I’m banking on Icon’s R&D team to have figured out full bump location (based on this bump spacer) so I don’t have to rip the leaf pack apart and cycle suspension my self. That was much easier on the ranger lol. My aftermarket Foxs are direct replacements for the OG foxs that raptors come with so I assume that travel numbers are the same and their calculations are correct. I’m just thinking, cutting 2 inches out of the spacer will give me the same up travel I had before drop shackles. But will removing 3/4” more hurt?

 

[Cleandezert]

maybe I am slow (actually I know I am) but in my own head, the shackle shouldn't affect where the bump stop should be located. The shackle will only affect the arc of the springs and the ride height. The shock and axle hitting something is what will affect bump travel. So if you are using a stock fox shock, then mount the bump stop to the stock height because that is your limiting factor... not anything else.

 

[96f-u250]

3/4” could be the difference of bottoming out your shock with little to no bumpstop engagement. Id want more bumpstop contact because those Oem style bumpstops collapse quite a bit.
If you dont want to do it the correct way and cycle your leaf pack, just measure up between your bumpstop and axle. Then measure your shocks uptravel taking into account shock angle. Then compare those two numbers to see how much bumpstop engagement you want before your shock bottoms out.

 

[desert_steve]

Personally, I'd err on the side of caution and run some kind of 3/4" spacer. I'd rather possibly lose a tiny bit of travel (3/4"?) VS my shocks be the new bump stop and get the raptor frame curve, or bent/broken shock mounts, hurt the shocks, etc.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Took the truck to my work this morning where I have access to just about anything and everything I need as long as I can get the work done over the weekend so I don’t tie up a lift for the next work week. Plan was to install the fox coilovers up front and the BMS shackles out back. Racked the truck, swapped the rear shackles in 20 minutes. Things are going way too fast so of course a problem had to occur. Installed driver side coilover in about a half hour. Passenger side didn’t go so well. Upper control arm ball joint nut locked up. After an hour of fighting it I gave up and cut the ball joint nut off to separate the spindle, hoping a control arm was available local. The factory Raptor upper control arms are not serviceable which means the ball joint is not replaceable so you have to buy a loaded arm. I scrambled and was able to find a factory replacement at O’Reillys of all places out of Fresno. So I had it delivered to the shop and kept pushing. It’s been a long day but truck is all back together finally and ready for the desert aside from an alignment.