First New Vehicle Purchase and 1/2 Ton Truck Review

[Jake]

This thing is remaining mostly stock under warranty. I want to rip it hard and just shove it back to the dealer when it breaks.

You better rip on it the second you get it home. I have had so much fun with this blue Raptor. Took it up Flagpole Knob yesterday, which is mostly a wide, dirt-and-gravel fire road. There are some straight sections where you can see what's coming for a little ways. So I put it in Baja mode, transmission in "M" with my fingers on the paddle shifters, and went for it. In Baja mode, the shocks firm up, and if the truck leaves the ground completely, they go to "full firm" to help catch the landing. I do not think we got it in the air 100%, but there were moments of lots of boost and lots of suspension droop to verify the shocks are really damn good. 

And then we pulled into a little side area and thrashed around in the mud for a bit. Spent 25 minutes at Miracle Wash later in the afternoon, had to then hose down the wash bay, and I'm taking it over lunch to a car wash in Bethesda for a final round of cleaning. Totally worth it.

DJ, you are going to love yours. The seats and shocks make it way better than a standard F-150. The exhaust note is lame, the exhaust sound played over the speakers is super lame and should be disabled in Forscan immediately, and the tire noise gets tiresome on the highway. Highway MPG is ~18 versus ~24 for a normal 3.5 EcoBoost Lariat or whatever, but a Lariat can't catch itself if you take it off some sweet jumps.