People who will drive their new Ford Raptor mostly to Sears and the grocery store should be ashamed of themselves. Have you seen the new shock absorbers on this thing?!
The latest in a line of teaser videos on the next-generation, off-road, Baja-ready pickup showcases a set of next-generation shock absorbers, designed to be bigger, beefier, tougher, and more durable in more situations, more of the time.
According to science people, shocks, like brakes, can get hot and fade when used hard. So, the new Raptor runs a new set of Fox dampers that are revised, and enlarged, to create less heat, and dissipate that heat more effectively.
Exclusive to the Raptor, the new 3-inch-diameter Fox shocks have an added base valve piston that enables lower gas pressure, resulting in a more comfortable ride, too. The internal bypass system in the front and rear shocks comes with nine distinct zones that progressively manage shock forces, allowing for smooth on-road trips along with hard-hitting off-road driving. The most extreme of these zones act like hydraulic ‘bump stops’ to send fluid through the top of the piston while the shock is fully compressed, preventing Raptor from bottoming out, because bottoming out is for cute-ute driving peasants.
Ford says all this fancy stuff allows Raptor to maintain a comfortable ride, and leads to improved confidence for the driver while exploring all of its extra-long suspension travel goodness. In fact, the new Raptor has nearly 2 inches more suspension travel than its predecessor. That’s well over a foot at both ends of the truck! Translation? When you’re just out for a rip, and you’re taking your sick-ass new Raptor off of jumps to impress the ladies, you’ll be doing it with more comfort and durability.
Here’s a video of the Raptor’s fancy new Fox Shocks getting beaten on by a Ford engineer for the camera.
Other cool new Raptor Stuff
It’s lighter by up to 500 pounds, it has a transmission with 10 (yes, 10) gears, and it’ll run a high-output version of Ford’s latest 3.5 litre ECOBOOST V6 engine. Sounding your blow-off valve while airborne?! Well I freaking guess so!
Oh, and there’s a terrain management mode that’s all fancy, and lets you dial the Raptor to several presets for various forms of off-road badassery and monkeybusiness.
- Normal mode for everyday driving
- Street mode for higher-performance, on-road driving
- Weather mode for rain, snow or ice
- Mud and sand mode for muddy and sandy trails and terrain
- Baja mode for high-speed desert running (yehoo!)
- Rock mode for low-speed rock crawling
Here’s a video of the Terrain Management System in Action
photos by Ford
