Ford Leaf Springs

Are Ford Raptor frames too weak for off-roading?

The $42,000 Ford SVT Raptor has won plaudits from enthusiasts across the spectrum for offering the excitement of a desert race-ready truck in a factory-built, dealer-warrantied vehicle. Nearly four years after its debut, its only true competition comes from a bolt-on kit Dodge sells for $19,000 on top of the price of a Ram pickup.

But last month, experienced owners complained on the RaptorForumz.com that a Nevada desert run had left a majority of their trucks with a frame bent in exactly the same location. The owners all had the same diagnosis: a rear frame and bed tilted a few degrees upward, due to a poor location for a "bump stop" — the rubber cushion that prevents the suspension from crashing into the frame. While Ford advertises the Raptor as having 12.1 inches of rear suspension travel, Raptor owners say at speed on a road, the suspension has only four or five inches of space before it hits the bump stop.

When the original poster took his Raptor in for service, Ford engineers examined his truck and took photos of its underside. After much back-and-forth, Ford ruled the damage was due to "extensive customer abuse," and denied a warranty claim for the $765 estimate to put the frame straight. Other Raptor owners with bent frames received similar verdicts from Ford, leaving some outraged:

14 Raptor owners on an outing drive fast down a gravel road and 10 come back with bent frames.... no other damage - no broken axles, no flat tires, no leaf spring problems, no smashed body panels or skid plates, no wheel bearing problems, etc... That is a design flaw - bottoming out your truck should NOT bend the frame and leave no other damage unless the frame is very delicate.

But how fast is too fast?

Performance car and truck enthusiasts generally know what to expect from their vehicles — and what goes beyond the limits of their warranties. Jeep owners have decades of experience with off-roading, enough to suggest that those who want to speed through water need to install an engine snorkel before tackling waves . Just last week, Ford triggered another dustup with Mustang owners after warning dealers to be on the lookout for go-fast mods to new V8 engines that would void the warranty . In each case, there's a well-stocked pool of enthusiasts who've been tinkering with their cars for years and generally understand the boundaries of what a dealer and automaker will fix.

But the Raptor is so pioneering there isn't a huge user base, and there's never been a vehicle meant for high-speed desert travel — the most destructive form of auto racing — with an automaker's warranty.

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