Raptor with some aftermarket suspension bits cruises through a series of jumps at speed.
When Ford began marketing the F-150 Raptor, the automaker included footage of the off-road-ready performance truck tackling some pretty big jumps. Unfortunately, when some owners tried that, they ran into problems with the chassis and the airbag system, but this week’s Freaky Friday video reaffirms our faith in the Raptor’s ability to leap small buildings in a single bound.
Well, it doesn’t leap any buildings, but this F-150 takes a large dirt jump smoothly enough to continue on over a series of smaller jumps. This video comes to us from the WeimarJoe YouTube channel and it shows that the SVT pickup is just as capable of jumping as the original FoMoCo marketing materials suggested.
Big Raptor Jump
The video above begins with a scene from the movie Napoleon Dynamite, where he crushing on the bicycle of a classmate. He compliments the shocks on the bike, at which point we get a look at an aftermarket Fox upgraded shock absorber setup for the Raptor.
Next, Napoleon Dynamite asks his classmate if he “ever take it off any sweet jumps”, at which point we get to the heart of this video. The Raptorroars down the dirt path, hitting the big jump and popping high into the air. The truck lands with a nose down just a bit and the back end bounces pretty high, but the driver maintains control and hits the next jump.
Napoleon Dynamite declares that “you got like three feet of air”, which is followed by a slow-motion clip of the Raptor taking to the skies.
Modifications
It should be noted that this Ford SVT Raptor F-150 is not stock. As mentioned above, it has an aftermarket Foxshock setup, as well as aftermarket leaf springs. Even with those aftermarket upgrades, the tires appear to bottom-out in the wheel wells, but not enough to do any damage. It looks like the truck might have larger-than-stock tires as well, but the bottom line here is that with a few upgrades, the early Raptor can handle the big jumps.
Of course, the setting makes a difference as well. This path is clearly intended for off-road vehicles to catch air, with properly-angled landing zones that help prevent the truck from slamming down. This helps prevent the chassis from bending or the airbags from deploying, making the video more fun for everyone.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
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"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
