Updating the wiper arms and cowl

Mother nature can be harsh, especially when your garage can't hold your Raptor.  I've had this beast parked outside for 8 years now, and some of the plastic has taken a beating!  I did some research on the forums and Facebook and found that replacing the cowl plastic and wiper arms can really refresh the look and functionally seal up the hood space between the windshield and hood.

Below, you can see how thrashed the OEM parts were from NorCal sun, rain, leaves, etc.  Very faded, cracked and even some sections broken off an missing.  The wiper arms, while they worked just fine - needed a refresh, no more ceramic coating could bring them back.

These are the parts that I used to replace the old OEM parts, it's ~$200 in parts

• Windshield Wiper Cowl Cover Panel Grille Set  $127
• (this part includes new nozzles and hoses)
• Dorman 42799 Front Driver Side Windshield Wiper Arm $33
• Dorman 42798 Front Passenger Side Windshield Wiper Arm $36

Removing the old parts isn't too hard.  First remove the old wiper arms.  Start with the driver side.  This is done by sliding out a small tab that holds the wiper arms onto the rotating assembly on the wiper motor.  A small flathead screwdriver works great.  You may need to wiggle the arm a bit to get it off, just keep that tab extended and it will come straight off the wiper motor hub.  

Once you figure out the driver side, the passenger side is identical - just a bit harder to reach. As you can see, my OEM parts are pretty thrashed.

Next up - pop the hood, and lift to full height to get better access to the cowl pieces.  

You can use the flat head screwdriver to pop the snap slots.  There are also 3 clips per side that will pull out when you lift up on the cowl pieces.  The passenger side is where the wiper washers are connected, there is a simple clip that holds the hose to the body, and simply pull the water connector from the hose.

Here are the old cowl pieces off the truck.  The rubber/plastic is hammered.  Also, I cleaned up the windshield and cowl area - used a razor blade to clean the glass really well as the grime is caked on.

Lastly, you replace the old parts with the new parts just the inverse process.  Just to note, the new wiper arms came with a small metal tab that I had to remove, no matter how hard I tried - I couldn't get that tab to fit the small slot in my hubs - your mileage may vary.  A simple flathead screwdriver popped the tab out and they fit fine.

I sprayed the new parts with a good ceramic sealant/wax: 

Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Spray Coating

Now the final result!  Just like new!  Good luck on replacing yours!

Added Deaver +3HD leaf springs today!

 The Raptor tends to 'squat' a bit with the travel trailer, so after many days of research I bottomed out (sic) on the Deaver +3HD leafs with the Offroad Alliance raised bump stops!  Why?  They'll add 1" of clearance in the back, they offer an amazing ride, and this will give us more oomph with the Raptor suspension.  

They're seriously BEEFY leaf springs.  The OEM springs are 4 leafs, the Deaver +3HD are 12 leafs!  But the ride is incredibly compliant!  Love this update!!

The truck is a totally new beast when towing now, before you could 'feel' the trailer much more - but now it feels like it was meant to do this!  Two big thumbs up for this addition!

Got a travel trailer - finally!

My wife and I have wanted to get a travel trailer ever since we got the Raptor 7 years ago!  We finally bit the bullet(haha) and got a used 2016 Keystone Bullet Ultra-Lite 220RBIWE - we love it!  Obviously, Raptors are not really 'towing' vehicles for daily use, but this trailer is 4600lbs, and GWVR of 6400 lbs and 480lb tongue weight.  For a 25.5' trailer it comes nicely setup with dual slides and a center island.  We got a weight distribution hitch (WDH) with the trailer as well which made a HUGE difference in ride quality while towing.

Here are some pics!  

Finally installed my subwoofer upgrade

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So many projects, so little time... but I've been wanting to update my subwoofer and amp for as long as I've owned the truck - it's been six years! LOL

Originally I had a Pioneer DVC subwoofer, but realized it was a 2 Ohm model and my amp, Kenwood KAC-M3001 was really built for 4 ohm so I opted to get a different subwoofer - the KICKER CompRT 8"(20cm) Subwoofer, DVC, 4-ohm This would allow the amp to run at 2 Ohms @ 300W (giving me 50% more power than if I had used the Pioneer setup)

My son printed out a spacer on his 3D printer because the subwoofer was a bit too large at the mounting lip, but the spacer (about 3/4" thick) was perfect. I also used some stuffing in the box and covered the box with Thermo-Tec which helps to clean up the boominess and give the bass a new dimension.

You can see the spacer, with 2 squishable gaskets (in white) between the box and the speaker

This is it fully mounted, 8 screws holding the spacer, and 8 screws holding the sub to the spacer

I used the existing wire run to use my new wires and a couple of push-tab that are normally used for automotive panels to hold them in place - worked great! Ziptied them to ensure they don't move around.

Here's the mockup of the amp - I ran an 8 gauge wire from the battery to the amp, and grounded the amp to the bolt at the bottom of the cabin.

Here you can see the subwoofer box with new Kicker subwoofer fully mounted with the Thermo-Tec sound deadener

With the seat all the way up, there is PLENTY of room between the speaker and the back of the seat

I re-used the wiring from the OEM amplifier to feed the new AMP - here are the colors on both sides of the connectors

I then snipped the ends, and wired the +/- wires into some RCA connectors

Overall, very happy with the sound. I turned up the sensitivity (gain) and dialed in the cutoff around 80-85Hz and it sounds amazing! Much different bass from the OEM setup. Highly recommended!!