What's Wrong With This Picture: Raptor Hunting Edition

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: December 17th, 2010

what s wrong with this picture raptor hunting edition

Where did GMC get the idea to take a short-bed pickup, widen the track, fit some Fox shocks and generally beef it up to create a factory off-road “halo” truck? Oh right, from Ford. If you’re not convinced that Detroit still has at least one foot firmly stuck in the past, this halo niche-chasing behemoth should help clear up some of that doubt.

#FutureVehicles #Trucks #Tuners

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Jandrews on Dec 17, 2010

This thing is absolutely hilarious. As poser-riffic as the Raptor is (and let us count the ways...), this is even worse. First, no one offroads even a fullsize pickup if they're serious about it. They're too long, maneuver too poorly, and have horrible approach/departure/breakover angles. They're too heavy, and don't float on sand or mud. They have high centers of gravity. The Raptor's fancy shocks are great for mall crawling...and the block under the rear leaf springs is great for axle-wrap. In the offroad world it's Jeep, Mid-size/compact pickup/SUV, or custom truggy or bust. What then, are we to make of an even more bloated beast supposedly "tuned" for offroad duty? Are you fucking kidding me GM? Did you just offroad "tune" a fucking 3/4 ton pickup by *deleting* the live front axle? Perhaps you didn't notice the place of the solid axle swap on factory-IFS vehicles as the ultimate offroad tuning mod? This is why you went bankrupt. Previous comments were right: It's a good thing halo vehicles are money-losers by definition. This thing will be bought by men on the west coast with large incomes and tiny penises. Congratulations to GM for creating the first vehicle in the "AutoBrobile" niche.

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Faygo on Dec 17, 2010

not sure where anyone gets the idea that halo products are money-losers. M cars make tons of money, so do SRTs and SVT product. unless you're greenwashing, no car company is going to approve a program which loses money. no one. the Raptor may feel a bit soft and tippy on the road, but it's actually not bad at all when you get used to it. the crew cab is large, but for those who want the extra space, it's pretty useful. Raptor is not a rock-crawler/mud-bogger/single-track creeper, nor was it intended as such. I'll believe this thing if they actually build it. I'm not sure how you get something with that much big. heavy engine up front to not land like a lawn dart over any sort of jumps, but maybe they'll figure it out. a lot of serious engineering went into the Raptor, we'll see whether GM wants to do the same, or just jack up a truck and put shocks on it.

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- Jandrews on Dec 18, 2010
  
  "a lot of serious engineering went into the Raptor, we’ll see whether GM wants to do the same, or just jack up a truck and put shocks on it." Not really. They took an F-150 and slapped a "long" travel kit on the front (calling 11.x inches long travel is pretty generous - well designed aftermarket mid-travel setups get 9-11 inches of travel, long travel usually ends up in the teens). The rear gets slightly softer landings from better shocks and flexier leaf packs, but gains no bonus in travel and pays a big penalty in towing and payload. My biggest beef with these so called "off-road" tuned vehicles is that they aren't off-road tuned at all. They're dirt road tuned. True, the raptor wasn't designed to take on rocks, mud, and mixed trails...which is why it really doesn't impress people that have been in the trenches in seriously hairy terrain.
  
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- Faygo on Dec 20, 2010
  
  when you're in a position to judge the engineering that goes into an OE program, let me know. I am and there is significant work in the Raptor. ask the guys at Fox how much more work they were asked to do on the Raptor than on any other program they've worked on for anyone - it's orders of magnitude more testing and prove-out. blow it off all you want, but the level of sign-off and execution required of an OE is beyond the capability of nearly every aftermarket company. having seen lot of "engineered" aftermarket products for all sorts of applications, it's comical how many of them are the farthest thing from. just like hardcore roadracers are not going to be impressed with street-legal, warrantied factory optioned street cars, people who are the 99.9 percentile users of offroad capability are not going to be impressed with a Raptor. however, I'd not seen a single review by any sort of offroad press folk not say that it's an immensely impressive piece of work and impressive value for that it provides. I also think you're getting hung up (hah) on the rock-crawling/trails/etc side of offroading as a metric which needs to be met. just like open track auto-x rally, different vehicles are for different applications. then again, just like most M3, Corvette, STi, Evo, Porsche, etc drivers are not going to use their vehicles in the environment where they have been designed to excel, I'm sure lots of Raptor owners won't either. doesn't mean the capability of the vehicle isn't real and there. I still don't think GM will spend the money to build something which has the same capability as the Raptor, but I guess we'll have to wait & see. I'm not holding my breath.
  
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- TomH on Dec 20, 2010
  
  Faygo, You're correct on a lot of counts vis-a-vis the Raptor and its engineered bits. Jandrews and his ilk may not "get it," but then again, the get what they deserve.
  
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