SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1529580
THE ANTI-RAPTOR Half The Price Of A Ford Raptor With Twice The Performance By Dan Sanchez Photos provided by Ryan Edwards You won’t find many off-road enthusiasts who dislike the Ford F-150 Raptor and its capabilities. But some truck fans like Ryan Edwards, Sales and Race Support for Vision Wheel, simply don’t want to spend upwards of $85K for one, only to add another $50K in performance upgrades to give it the capabilities of a pre-runner that is also drivable on the street. “I’ve ridden dirt bikes and UTVs almost all my life,” said Edwards, “But building a pre-runner style truck had always been a dream of mine, so when the opportunity came up, I had this vision for one and this is it.” The 2019 Ford F-150 Edwards calls the “Anti-Raptor” started as a daily driver truck. It wasn’t until later that he decided to go all in and build the truck into the cool pre-runner it is today. “There aren’t too many Ford F-150 pre-runners as the whole F-150 world gets overshadowed by the Ford Raptor,” says Edwards. “So my idea was to take my F-150 and turn it into a full-on pre-runner, which cost me about half the price of a new Ford Raptor but with twice the performance.” As with most pre-runner builds, Edward’s truck combines various parts and pieces that work together to give it incredible off-road capabilities. Starting at the front end, the F-150 received a Dirt King Long-Travel kit that Edwards and his friend Mike added 2.5 Fox Coil-over and 3.0 Fox Bypass shocks. “I saw a lot of Chevy guys build their pre-runners with a four-link rear suspension and have never seen an F-150 with one,” said Edwards. “So I asked my friends at Hanna Race & Design in Costa Mesa, CA to come up with one for me.” The four-link suspension features custom fabricated Frame Lacing for the rear link mounts and a Bed Cage and Bump Stop kit that also acts as a mounting rack for the King 3.0 coil-over shocks and 2.5 bump stops. A Wicked Creations 4” rear axle housing features a Weller 9” third member with 5.16:1 gearing and 2.5” full-floater hubs. A Rock Jock pre-runner anti-sway bar and billet arms are also added, along with Wilwood six-piston caliper brakes. The suspension is finished with a set of 40x13.5R17 Maxxis Razr MT tires mounted on 17x9 Vision Forged 111 Nemesis beadlock wheels. No pre-runner is complete without a set of big fenders, and Edwards used McNeil fiberglass units to give the 40-inch tires room to articulate and fit in a set of Alpha Rex Nova series headlights. A MigMaster custom front bumper replaced the factory chrome bumper and has a Baja Designs 20” Amber OnX6 light bar mounted to it. Additional BD XL 80 pod lights are mounted to the front pillars, and BD S2 Amber lights are used as chase lights at the rear. All accessory lights can be operated from a Switch Pro SP9100 switch panel inside the cab. PRP Enduro Crawl seats replaced the factory F-150 units, and a PCI Chase Radio is used for communication during four-wheel runs. To get the Anti-Raptor to this point took Edwards and his friends eight months to build. “I’ve been in the automotive aftermarket industry for more than 20 years, says Edwards. “This truck is the vision I had in my head for some time and I’m happy with it. The next step would be to add some more power to the factory 5.0L Coyote engine, with a supercharger, but that will have to wait.” For now, the Anti-Raptor casts its own shadow over the Ford truck enthusiast world, and it receives the respect it deserves among Raptor owners for its meticulous design and unique components that got it to this point. SJ