Is Buying a Wrecked Raptor from an Auction a Good Idea?

After travelling nearly 2,000 miles round-trip, YouTuber discovers Raptor has more damage than first thought.

We love the Ford Raptor. In fact, just about everyone loves the Ford Raptor. Even ten years after its release there really isn’t anything else like it on the road today. However, they are fairly expensive even on the used market, particularly the newer second generation models. However, it is possible to get one for a much cheaper price if you are willing to roll the dice on one that has previously been crashed. If the damage isn’t so bad and you can do a lot of the work yourself, you could end up with a great truck at a great price. It could also go the other way, and you could be going down a rabbit hole of never-ending expensive repairs.

YouTuber Westen Champlin documents on his channel what it was like to purchase and bring home a Raptor that had an unfortunate run in with some sort of solid object. He travels from his home in Kansas to collect his truck from an insurance auction in El Paso, Texas. After unloading and an initial inspection the prognoses is worse than he thought.

Upon arrival at the auction site the Raptor is brought out on a forklift and loaded onto the trailer. The first thing that strikes Champlin is the width of the Raptor: “She’s a wide girl.” He is not kidding, as the trucks tires barely fit on the trailer. Even with the damage, he is excited to see the truck in person. Sometimes, it all depends on your perspective when taking on a project like this, and Champlin seems to have the right attitude: “If I cover this eye, it looks really good, and if I close this eye, it looks fantastic.”

Once he gets it back home Champlin faces his first, of what is likely many challenges, and that is getting the Raptor off the trailer. Did we mention this is a wide truck? In order to get the truck wheels to clear the trailer fenders, the fenders must be unbolted and removed. That was easy enough on one side, but the Raptor running board was blocking access to the bolts on the other side so the track loader had to be brought in to lift the truck. After much finagling the truck is finally free from the trailer and Champlin can have a good look around.

There is some good news and bad news. Starting with the good, the interior of the truck is in really nice shape outside of some airbags that have been deployed. Seats and carpets are clean with no cracks or rips. “This truck was really taken care of.” Says Champlin. However, there is some bad news and that stems from the fact that the truck was hit a lot harder than first thought.

One of the selling points of the Raptor is its beefy suspension that is designed to help it survive flying through the air. As a result of this over engineered suspension, amazingly, no suspension components we broken in the crash. However, it did pay a price as Champlin observes: “But it found a weak point. I don’t know if you can see but that frame rail has seen better days.” Yes, this truck has a bent frame. Is that the worst of it? We don’t know because there is no key, so Champlin can’t start it up to see if the engine or transmission sustained any damage as well. A key is going to have to be made before an attempt to start it can be made.

We have one other bit of bad news for Champlin, although it is not the end of the world. He refers to his Raptor as a 2019 model. However, if you look closely you can see this truck does not have the Fox Live Valve shocks which were standard beginning in 2019, so this is a 2017 or 2018 truck. This isn’t going to deter Champlin from getting this truck sorted: “You know what? Everything can be fixed. And how hard can it be?” That is the right attitude going into something like this, but as far as how hard it is going to be, that remains to be seen.

Joe Kucinski

Joe has been obsessed with cars since he got his very first Matchbox toy in the ‘70s. In 2003, he found a new obsession in track days that led to obtaining his SCCA competition license in 2015. In 2019, he became a certified driving instructor for the National Auto Sport Association. His love for all things four wheels has never wavered, whether it's driving some of the best cars in the world on the racetrack, tackling 2,000-mile road trips in 2-seat sports cars or being winched off the side of a mountaintop in a Jeep. Writing for the suite of Internet Brands Auto Communities sites, including Rennlist.com, Ford Truck Enthusiasts, 6 Speed and more allows him to share that knowledge and passion with others.