The 2022+ Ford Bronco Raptor came from the factory with more suspension travel and more electronic control than any Bronco before it. That's exactly what makes it so good in the desert — and exactly what leaves its rear suspension so vulnerable. Ford routed the hardware where the packaging allowed, not where the rocks aren't.

At Foutz Motorsports we've been building and racing Ford off-road platforms since 1998, and we built the very first Raptor to run the Baja 1000 back in 2009. We don't guess where these trucks break — we've watched it happen, on our own rigs and on customers' rigs. These two kits exist because we kept seeing the same two failures.

The Two Rear Suspension Protection Kits

Rear Shock Guard Mud Flap Kit

Why Do Bronco Raptor Rear Shocks Need a Mud Flap?

Because on the Bronco Raptor, the rear shocks sit out in the open directly behind the front tires. Every rock, every clod of mud, every bit of trail debris your 37" front tires pick up gets fired straight back at the shock bodies, the shafts, and the rear links. That's tire roost, and it does real damage — pitted shock shafts, torn seals, chipped coating, and eventually a leaking shock.

A standard mud flap doesn't solve this. It hangs behind the tire and stops at the sheet metal. The Foutz Rear Shock Guard Mud Flap is 18 inches long and 7 inches wide and is positioned specifically to put material between the front tire and the rear suspension. It's not a styling flap. It's a shield.

Built to Take a Hit, Not Just Look Like It Can

The flap itself is thick, nylon-reinforced rubber. That reinforcement matters: cheap rubber flaps curl back at speed and tear at the mounting holes after a season of hard use. This material stays put and stays flat when you're moving.

The mounting brackets are precision laser-cut, CNC-bent, and MIG-welded in our own shop, then finished in hammer-black powder coat. The bracket bolts to the upper side of the OEM frame using existing hardware — no drilling, no cutting, nothing permanent.

Best Pairing: Foutz Rear Mid Travel Suspension

If you're running our Rear Mid Travel Suspension Kit with 14" travel smooth-body and 3-tube bypass shocks, this flap kit isn't optional in our book — it's the cheapest insurance you can buy on that setup. Those shocks cost multiples of what this kit costs, and a pitted shaft on a bypass shock is not a cheap fix.

For full rear suspension coverage, stack it with the Rear Shock Skid Plate Kit (armors the lower shock shaft) and the Rear Lower Link Frame Skid with HDPE slide. Flap on top, skid underneath — the shock is covered from both directions.

Active Suspension Control Module Guard

What Is the Active Suspension Control Module on a Bronco Raptor?

The Active Suspension Control Module — the ASCM — is the brain behind the Bronco Raptor's Fox Live Valve suspension. It reads sensor data and adjusts shock damping in real time, dozens of times per second, so the truck can be comfortable on pavement and composed at speed in the dirt. It's what makes Baja mode and every other drive mode actually work.

Why Is the ASCM So Easy to Damage?

Because of where Ford put it. The module hangs low on the passenger side of the frame near the rear suspension — right in the path of anything the rear tire kicks up and anything you drag over. Worse, the plug connector is the most exposed part of the assembly. It's the first thing a rock finds.

Here's why that matters more than it sounds: when the ASCM is damaged, the Bronco Raptor loses all of its drive modes. Not one. All of them. You go from a $90,000 desert truck to a very heavy Bronco with a dash full of warnings — usually a long way from a dealer. And factory replacement modules are expensive and not always quick to source.

How the Foutz Guard Fixes It

The guard is cut from .125" aluminum, precision laser-cut in-house, CNC bent to shape, and finished in hammer-black powder coat for corrosion resistance. It's shaped to shield the body of the module and the exposed connector — which is the whole point, since covering the module but leaving the plug hanging out solves nothing.

Installation is a direct fit. It bolts to factory mounting points using the existing hardware plus the included threaded standoff studs, which set the correct gap between the guard and the module. No drilling, no modification, no wiring changes. The Fox Live Valve system doesn't know it's there — all factory drive modes, including Baja, are fully preserved.

Head-to-Head Specs

Which One Should You Buy First?

If you can only do one right now, start with the ASCM guard. It's the cheaper kit, it takes less time to install, and it protects against the failure with the worst consequence — losing every drive mode on the truck. Then add the mud flap kit before your next trip.

Running both is the right answer for anyone who wheels the truck hard. Together they're under $460 and they cover the two rear suspension failures we see most often on this platform.

Bronco Raptor Rear Suspension Protection FAQ

Built from Race-Proven Experience

Foutz Motorsports has been making off-road great since 1998. We built the first Ford Raptor to race the Baja 1000 in 2009, and our founder Greg Foutz has won countless races in production stock trucks. That's not marketing history — it's the reason we know where the Bronco Raptor is weak before most owners find out the hard way.

Every protection kit we make is engineered around the way these trucks are actually used, then cut, bent, welded, and coated in our own shop. If you're not sure which kit fits your build, call us. Our team has more hands-on experience with the Raptor family than anyone else on the planet.