The Flying Raptor

The Flying Raptor

by Hunter Zenger on June 11, 2024 Categories: News

The Salty Gears Raptor is certainly one to remember! From flying high in the desert to some slow paced rock crawling this truck is it! The Ford Raptor is one of the most capable vehicles you can get. We could have been happy with the live valve shocks, electronically controlled shocks that continuously adjust damping rates in real-time based on terrain and driving conditions. We could have been happy with the high-strength, aluminum control arms. That being said, we knew the truck had so much more to offer. We started out with the Addictive Desert Designs mid travel kit that included a fabricated lower control arm with 1.5 inch uniball at the knuckle and 1 inch uniball mounts at the frame. These lower control arms also gave us mounting spots for limit straps. The kit also included upper control arms of the same quality as the lowers.  As for the rear we installed leaf springs and hydraulic bump stops. With the full suspension kit installed we had a fully capable pre runner ready for some action.


The next phase for Raptor was all about the looks. We started with some new shoes, 37x12.50r17 Grabber X3s on the Raptor’s Ford Performance beadlock-converted wheels. Next on the list was front and rear bumpers. In typical Salty Gears fashion, we went with Addictive Desert Designs, specifically the Bomber series. We also added more than enough Code 4 lights for any night time driving you might encounter. Continuing with looks we added a Prinsu roof rack with even more lights to match the front bumper. With the exterior already looking good, the team at Salty Gears decided to take another step forward, this time getting crazy by adding a complete fiberglass wide body kit from Advanced Fiberglass concepts which was paint matched to the truck’s Ford Performance Blue color. 


At this stage, the Salty Gears Raptor was nearly perfect, but there was just one more thing it needed.The last thing added to the truck was an RSI Smart Cap with a kitchen module installed on the driver side. With the build complete a day could look like sending it hard through the sandy whoops or conquering Hell's Gate in Moab, Utah. With all the adventuring you could do in this sweet rig you are bound to get hungry, but who needs to go to a restaurant taking time away from the outdoors when you have an entire kitchen utensils and all nicely stored in the bed of your truck. Check out our YouTube video on this build at (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIhjWDvtlc) or the YouTube video of it easily climbing Hell’s Gate in Moab, Utah (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYrh3LuUm-8) Our friend Nate @raptorsofinsta also has a video up of our build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGm2fs4qrB4)


The Raptor is currently owned by one of our friend at The Spacestation (https://www.spacestation.com) Check out the video by their friend Peter McKinnon featuring the Raport build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S2vxSOXKEo


Front Bumper

  • 2017-2020 FORD RAPTOR BOMBER FRONT BUMPER Part # F110014110103

  • Rear Bumper 

    • 2017-2020 FORD RAPTOR BOMBER REAR BUMPER Part # R110011370103