zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Trucks
/
Ford's Kind Of Made 'Raptor Lite' Versions Of F-150 And Ranger With New Factory Upgrades
Ford's Kind Of Made 'Raptor Lite' Versions Of F-150 And Ranger With New Factory Upgrades-November 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:13:07

Composite by the author, photos by the manufacturer

Ford is going to sell suspension upgrades for the Ranger and F-150 pickup trucks that are slightly more robust than the existing FX4 off-road trim, but well shy of the extreme Raptor on cost and capability. It’s actually a pretty interesting development for the truck scene.

People have been putting lift kits and big tires on pickup trucks since, well, practically speaking, . But prevailing lore is that the monster truck kind of kicked off the recreational practice of wheeling as we know it today.

Anyway, the popularity of modifying work vehicles for play gave rise to a big aftermarket. But in the last decade, we’ve seen a lot more car companies making trucks offer their own in-house customization and enthusiast-spec variants. Ford has had the Raptor desert truck, Chevy’s got the Colorado ZR2, Toyota has its TRD Pro models and Jeep has a big catalog of toys, including lifts, its dealers will install on your Wrangler for a fee.

These companies have offered mild off-road treatments for their daily driver-focused models for even longer. Ford’s FX4 and Chevy’s Z71 trims usually added all-terrain tires, skid plates, and slightly softer suspension for decent performance in slow off-pavement excursions.

All this to say: Ford’s now got a kit slotting between its baseline FX4 off-road offering and the expensive Raptor, with its unique power plant, traction control system, suspension, and design.

Image for article titled Ford's Kind Of Made 'Raptor Lite' Versions Of F-150 And Ranger With New Factory Upgrades

For a list price of $1,495, not including installation, here’s the rundown of what you get per Ford’s :

New aluminum FOX shock bodies are designed to provide ample cooling capacity over rough terrainNew front coilover springs deliver optimal spring rateVehicle-specific upper front mounts with polyurethane bushings work to help isolate noise and vibration2-inch front lift levels the truck from front to rear

Ford’s description conveniently included the benefits of the parts–those big shocks let you go a little faster over bumps, because they can hang with the heat that comes with a lot of pumping up and down. The other things are just ancillary to the coilovers to get them to work right.

1 / 2

Ford claims:

“Ranger sees an approximate 21 percent increase in approach angle and a 10 percent increase in breakover angle. F-150 with a 145-inch wheelbase sees an approximate 22 percent increase in approach angle and 7 percent increase in breakover angle.”

Based on what you’d pay for aftermarket coilover kit from a reputable company like Fox, King or Icon, $1,500 seems like a reasonable price for this.

It won’t transform your truck into an off-road monster, but it’d probably give you a nice ride over rough stuff and look cool. The benefit of buying this stuff straight from Ford is that it’s theoretically designed to work with the truck, and you could probably roll it into your monthly payment plan.

Image for article titled Ford's Kind Of Made 'Raptor Lite' Versions Of F-150 And Ranger With New Factory Upgrades

I was actually just on Ford’s build-and-price the other day, spec’ing out a sweet single-cab F-150 XLT with a V8, four-wheel drive and a locking rear differential. Add this little Fox coilover kit to that and you’d have yourself a heckin’ nice little rig.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Trucks
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
By definition, a big truck like a or struggles to be small. Even in its smallest, most trucky configuration — a two-door single cab — a full-size truck is relatively large and comes with a sizable bed for hauling cargo. But a small truck like the third-generation can do...
Nov 7, 2025
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
In addition to the all-electric , the truck brand announced this week that it will also release a engine gasoline-powered hybrid version of its electric pickup, called Ramcharger. The goal here is to use the V6 engine as a generator for the electric powertrain when the 92 kWh battery...
Nov 7, 2025
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
gets dunked on for letting models like the languish for years. But, the truck saw a model update well before the release of the , which is mechanically much like an with a design. Outside of the U.S., the successor to the second-generation Frontier came in 2014 with the...
Nov 7, 2025
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
No square inch of the Northeast is safe from deer, as video out of New Jersey shows. A deer, tearing through the suburbs, managed to leap over a Pontiac Vibe and Honda CR-V before landing on the bedside of a 2007 Chevy Silverado — just as a prospective buyer arrived...
Nov 7, 2025
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
No car has ever driven at higher altitude than this 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S with portal axles. On Saturday the Porsche crew, led by racing driver Romain Dumas, reached the highest peak of the west ridge of the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile, . That’s the tallest...
Nov 7, 2025
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
Those who saw the meteoric rise of through the 2010s and onward probably associate the badge with the . The was Chevy’s halo midsize truck when it was released in 2016, but the ZR2 badging goes all the way to the when Chevy made the S-10 ZR2. It’s gnarly....
Nov 7, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved