Two Frames and a Five-Link Rear Suspension for the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor
Ford’s desert-race darling Raptor has offered two frames before, but that was to accommodate different cabs. Now offered in SuperCrew configuration only, the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor gets a separate frame just to handle the beating it will take from the new Raptor 37 variant’s Big Foot 37-inch tires when bounding off rocks and across arroyos. Let’s examine the frames, the Live Valve Fox Shox, the “trombone exhaust,” and other technical highlights that promise to make this third-generation Raptor the baddest of them all.
Two New Frames
All 2021 Raptor frames differ greatly from those of their lesser F-150 brethren to accommodate the longer-travel independent front and all-new five-link, coil-spring, live-axle rear suspension setups. In front are taller, stronger shock towers and a unique rear lower control arm pivot. At the rear, there are the control-arm mounting brackets, upper spring perches, and reinforced shock mounting locations