They're not going to throw hydro bumps on an oem. They are noisy and make it sound like your truck is rattling apart.My guess is the bump stop upgrade will come on the Raptor R.
Trust me, you want to keep the weight over the front suspension as low as possible. The 7.3's iron block would make the truck nose heavy and would be worse than the Gen 1 as far as handling goes.
Cost and NVH are the reasons not to use hydraulic jounce bumpers. The yellow jounce bumpers are not rubber they are made of closed sell foam. Also they do a great job of slowing the axle down to keep from going metal to metal, there is a reason they are used by every auto manufacturer. In the pictures you cant see but there is also another one on the shock rod.A couple years ago I was working for a company (I will not name them) here in Vegas that specialized in the Raptor platform. The number one complaint of Gen 2 owners was "but muh veeeee-ate!". Did it matter that the HO EB made way more torque down at low RPM than the old 6.2? Oh hell no. Did it matter that the lighter HO EB drastically improved handling offroad? Nope, not one bit. It looks and sounds to me like the new exhaust on the Gen 3 is specifically designed to end the complaints of the sound of the EB compared to the old 6.2.
Now that Ford added a 5 link I am still wondering why they stuck with rubber bump stops and haven't upgraded to Fox hydraulic bump stops. With all of the investment into a better performing rear suspension it seems counter intuitive to cheap out on the bump stops. You can reinforce the frame area around the factory bump stop all you want, but if you can't slow the rear axle/suspension down as it comes to full bump, stuff will bend/break. After market bump kits are easy money in the Raptor aftermarket and should probably be the first upgrade for any Raptor owner who plans on driving off road.
You can bet on companies like Camburg, RPG, and SDHQ will have upgraded upper and lower links, adjustable panhard bars with FK rod ends and bump stop kits in no time for the rear suspension. I wonder if King or Fox will offer an OEM replacement bypass coil over for the rear?
Overall the Gen 3 is easily the best Raptor yet and I can't wait to go on a run with one of the local Raptor groups to see how it performs firsthand.
Here's some pics from my time in the off road industry. The blue truck was a 2015 F150 with 18" of travel (2.5 coil over, 3.0 bypass, J-Arm) up front and 24" in rear with a 3 link (my old 2002 GT stealing some clout). The Super Duty was a 2017 and we were asked by SEMA to contribute to this build. We designed and built the bumpers, the chase rack in back and the leaf sprung cantilever suspension on that truck.
Yep, factory bump stops are super sick...Cost and NVH are the reasons not to use hydraulic jounce bumpers. The yellow jounce bumpers are not rubber they are made of closed sell foam. Also they do a great job of slowing the axle down to keep from going metal to metal, there is a reason they are used by every auto manufacturer. In the pictures you cant see but there is also another one on the shock rod.
That's true there were issues for some of the first Gen trucks but they were fixed with a frame reinforcement while using the same jounce bumper. Yes hydraulic jounce bumpers are used in non-OEM off road applications but they would never meet OEM requirements. That's almost like saying because people run DOT slicks on the street that Ford should put them on the Mustang.Yep, factory bump stops are super sick...
Hyrdo bumps > solid bumps in all off road applications
Yea no. First off, a twin turbo factory Raptor has been tweaked fully by Ford. Different heads, tune etc. Not to mention it's a $100k truck designed for offroad vs what a gen 2 whipple standard f150 that is half the price when they are on what, gen 5 whipples?. It's well known that a gen 5 whipple can pull 1000hp from a stock mustang......perhaps not live long but doable. This is like comparing the Ford Aspire to the Ford Mustang, since they are both Fords. (And I have the insight having a gen 1 whipplecharged stang and a 17 EB F150) Take that 2015 F150 and spend the extra $50k price of the Raptor on weight reductions, power increases and bulletproof it. Then compare the two. Seriously, you can't compare a newer top end model to standard run of the mill version with a blower strapped on and expect the same thing from them. Did the 2015 get millions of dollars in research to make sure the blower and engine were in perfect tune with one another? Hell no. We all know the suspension of the Raptor is what makes it what it is, combined with the huge increase in power. And anyone I know who owns a Raptor isn't driving it through the trail. They buy an old one and build it for that. All these rich snobs aren't risking their $100k truck getting scratched.It's not an act, the HO EB is superior to the 6.2 and 5.0, supercharged or not, in this application. I can't stress enough how much the lighter weight of the EB benefits the Raptor while hitting trails at speed. It is night and day difference.
The company I worked for had 2 development vehicles we built our suspension and bumpers on:
A 2015 F150 4x4, 5.0, SCREW, with a 2.9 Whipple and full exhaust including headers.
A 2017 Raptor, HO EB, SCAB, with a custom Borla exhaust routed through our cantilever system.
Both trucks got had a 16" mid travel system up front (2.5 King coil over with remote bypass [minimal valving to let the bypass shock do most the work], 3.0 King remote bypass shock, rear cantilever system with 20" of travel, 3.0 King bypass shocks, Deaver +2 springs, sprung under conversion, front and rear King 2.5 hydraulic bump stops, on 37" tires.
We weighed both trucks and the Raptor had better F/R weight balance.
Out on the trail and in the dunes the Raptor had better all around performance, it felt light and responsive through the rough and was easy to manage. The F150 wasn't as easy to manage in the rough stuff and required more skill to maintain speed. The only place the blown 5.0 was better was hills climbs/sand drags.