I thought I may as well start a build thread since I finally bit the bullet and started actually building up my raptor to be meet my overlanding needs.
I bought my Raptor from a dealer in Maryland in December of 2014 and it arrived to Hawaii late February 2015.
This is from the day I brought it home!
I almost immediately started with the cosmetic, minor and yawn inducing mods:
First to go was the annoying mirror reflectors and the ugly floppy antenna.
Next up I wanted to put in a winch in the truck. I happened to already had a Superwinch Talon 9.5S on hand for my old Land Rover that I ended up selling. I wanted to get a 12k winch, but ended up throwing in what I had on hand, and its worked well so far.
The only real downside with this setup compared to a Land Rover or Jeep is that the plug for the winch is under the hood, requiring you to pop the hood to access the winch. More on that later.
Unfortunately I had a bit of a set back right after installing the winch. A large truck in front of my ended up chucking a decent sized pebble into my windshield, sending a huge crack along the top of the windshield. Thankfully Safelite had my windshield in stock and replaced it the very next day.
The next little issue that came up was that Hawaii is a front plate state and when I installed the winch I ended up removing the front plate and never really got around to reinstalling it, and a verbal warning from some of Honolulu PD's finest motivated me to correct that.
I ended up using the factory plate mount and flipping it upside down and using two nutserts on the bumperette. I kind of liked the offset look. Reminded me of the ecoboost as well. I also added some VisionX 4.5 light cannons mounted on SDHQ A-pillar mounts. You can just barely see them above.
The biggest thing holding up my build was the shipping rates to Hawaii, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the perks of being in Hawaii. The Raptor served admirably as my surf-mobile!
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Around October 2016 I ended up getting orders to the East Coast and had to put everything on hold, as I had to pack up my house and all my tools, then I moved out of my place so I could get renters in. I ended up shipping my truck from Hawaii early in December 2016. After a few months of bouncing around between hotels, renting rooms and couch surfing I finally found a place to call my own. After getting my tools, I was back at it. My first mod was by necessity as I ended up getting two flats in the span of about 2 months. So I ended up buying a whole new set of tires. After researching a bunch of different tires I ended up going with General Grabber X3s. I also made the jump to beadlocks.
I loved the X3s. They are super heavy though and going to beadlocks didn't help at all. I'm glad I have them as it allowed me to confidently air down on some of my trips to the Outer Banks.
My next modification was to make it so I no longer had to pop the hood when I needed to use the winch. Thankfully Superwinch had a remote kit for my exact winch. Using some spare parts I had I was able to make a nice mounting plate for the receiver and tuck the wiring out of the way.
Forgive my lack of gloves in the video, it was just a proof of concept.
I'm super glad that I ended up installing this neat bit of gear since just a few months later we got hit by a massive snow storm and it came in super handy helping the neighbors out.
Unfortunately my day ended early as I ended up frying the winch. Thankfully the part that broke was easily fixed thanks to the Superwinch's killer customer support.
I spent most of the later part of 2018 and early 2019 gone, as my post history may suggest, but I came back with a bunch of money saved up (which I spent on my Jeep... oops!) and started doing some more mods to help with reliability, future-proofing and extending the life of my truck.
Though I was home for when a hurricane hit my neck of the woods. Thankfully I was able to put the truck out of harms way and no one was hurt. But driving back home (I live closer to the water so I stayed with a friend) was something else.
The first order of business was fixing the passengers side tail light which had a crack in it, and there is nothing jankier than a fogged up light on 50 thousand dollar truck.
I also ended up installing a Mag Hytec diff cover and replacing the fluid with Royal Purple 75W140. I know some people are against these style of diff covers, especially after Banks performance put out those youtube videos on the subject, but I had already purchased this item while on sale and the Ford Performance was was nearly 300 bucks. I like the utility of this one being able to check levels and drain and refill without removing the cover.
Though I didnt take any pictures, I also installed the SDHQ ABS guards.
My most recent modification was the "saudi" style trans cooler. It was a super easy install. ended up taking about 3/4ths a quart of trans fluid. Its a standard Ford Factory part that is on all Super Duty trucks and all Raptors that were exported to Saudi Arabia.
Next I purchased a Leitner Designs ACS and I installed it right away. Pretty straight forward install. Didn't like drilling into the bed but I knew it had to be done. Ended up coming out pretty awesome looking and super utilitarian. I chose this setup over getting a small rack that would have put an RTT below the level of the cab because I'm mostly going to be using this for stuff like surfboards/kayaks/stand up paddle boards and with their length having something that allows those to be above the level of the cab is a nice feature. I don't plan on using an RTT at this time, and even if I make the swap to that it won't be on there full time. I also considered a bed cap but I wasn't sure I wanted to make my sleeping arrangements in a 5.5 foot bed, plus that would take up all my cargo room.
Also moved the spare tire to the bed full time with a more rugged ratchet strap than the cheapo husky brand one I had been using. I may end up looking into getting one of those swing away spare tire carriers eventually, but this works great for now.
I also was able to install my CVT Awning and my Front Runner surfboard/SUP cradle. I ended up going down with a few friends to Outer Banks and testing it all out. The rack felt sturdy, the board stayed in place despite 80+ mph speeds. I really enjoyed myself. Driving out on the sand was great fun and I got to winch a few people out. All around good time. I love the awning and for the cost it does extremely well, but later on I can see myself getting one of those batwing style awnings that doesn't require legs and will also cover the tailgate which acts as my food prep area.
I want to get some sort of on board air system so that I can fill up the truck without relying on cheap tire inflators or paying for air at a gas station. I ran at about 25ish PSI the whole time on the beach. It was a weird feeling on the road until I could fill up about a mile after the beach.
I realized with the extra weight of 3 passengers and everything in the bed I definitely need to address my brakes. I've ordered some steel braided lines and will be getting new rotors and pads shortly. I also am looking into getting an aluminum gas tank skid plate to replace my plastic one for a little added piece of mind. I'll keep updating as I build.
