Hey, guys.
Joe from AmericanTrucks and today I'm gonna be reviewing and installing the Ford Performance
Raptor Leather Steering Wheel Kit with the Orange Sightline, fitting all '15 and up F150s.
This is going to be perfect for the F150 owner that's looking to make a huge upgrade to their
interior with the OEM Raptor wheel.
The steering wheel is a totally underrated part of the interior and can sometimes go
overlooked by manufacturers, but really it's the only thing you're always touching, so
upgrading the steering wheel can go a long way in terms of the driving experience for
your truck.
And right off the bat, this is going to be a huge improvement not only in the looks department
but how it feels in your hands as well.
We're ditching that rubber steering wheel in exchange for some real leather with orange
stitching and the orange sightline and some awesome brush trim in between the buttons,
all of which are going to be a huge improvement over factory.
Now another great thing about this wheel is it comes with the paddle shifters and heated
steering wheel option pre-installed.
So if your truck has those options, you're gonna be able to use this plug and play harness
right at the bottom to plug those in and they're gonna work just like factory.
Now if your truck does not have those options, this bottom harness will not have anything
to plug into, so these are pretty much going to be dead as well as the heated steering
wheel option.
But if you are wiring savvy, I was able to do some research on the F150 forums and there
are some wiring diagrams out there so you can wire those up and get them to work just
like factory.
Price for this steering wheel is going to be around the $450 mark.
While that may seem like a lot for something that's straight off the Raptor and such high
quality is this one directly from Ford, again this really goes a long way and it's the only
piece you're going to be touching every day and this thing is well worth it.
I'd pretty much recommended it even if it was double or triple the price.
Install isn't going to be too bad.
I'm going to give it an easy 2 out of 3 wrenches.
Should only take you an hour or two to get it installed.
Now just a heads up, this doesn't come with a factory airbag, so we'll be uninstalling
and reusing ours from the factory steering wheel.
So with that being said, let me show you how it's done.
For this install, you will need an impact, ratchet, 15/16 socket, small extension, 3-millimeter
Allen key, small flathead, and a torque wrench.
So first thing's first, we have to cut power to the airbag so we can work on our truck
safely.
In order to do that, I'm gonna remove the negative terminal with a 10-millimeter socket
and we're gonna let the truck sit for 10 to 15 minutes, let the power bleed out of it,
and we should be able to work on it safely.
So with all the power drained out of our truck, we can now start working on airbag removal.
You're going to need a 3-millimeter Allen key and you're gonna go into this hole right
here behind the steering wheel about where the paddle shifters would be, and you're looking
for a spring clip in there to release the left side of the airbag.
And you can see it'll only pop out just a little bit, but you'll know when that side
is out and then you could do the same thing for the other side.
And we're loose.
So with that released, that allows you access to the wiring harnesses in the back.
Now, these two right here are what connect your airbag and in order to release those,
get a small flathead screwdriver, pry up on that orange clip and that will release it
from the airbag.
And same thing for this clip over here as well.
And there's one more clip that's holding our airbag on.
It's this red one right here, and it's only on a little post in there, so to allow easier
access, you can pull it right off and that allows you to unclip that as well.
Before we put our airbag aside, I just wanted to show you guys exactly where that Allen
key was pressing on, and as you can see it's got a little channel on either side right
here to press on this spring clip.
And there's one more harness that needs disconnecting and it's this big gray one of the top.
In order to remove that, you depress the tab and give it a wiggle.
It should pop right out.
So with that out of the way, we can now take a 15/16 socket and a little extension and
remove the center nut holding on our steering wheel.
And with that off, the steering wheel should fall right off as well.
So with our factory wheel off the truck, I just wanted to take a second to put it next
to our new Raptor wheel and point out some of the huge improvements that the new steering
wheel is going to make.
And right off the bat, the most obvious one is going to be we're going to ditch this rubber
wheel for some awesome real leather that's stitched together with some orange stitching
and has the orange sightline right on top.
So if you're doing any racing or tight twisty roads, you know exactly where dead center
on the steering is.
We're also ditching this textured black trim around all of our buttons here for an awesome
piece of brush trim that hugely improves the look around our buttons and it's that small
detail that really goes a long way with the Raptor steering wheel like this one.
And again, what I said earlier, what's really hard to convey is how much of an improvement
this thing feels in your hands and since you're going to be touching it all the time, it really
does make a huge difference.
The leather is soft and supple.
The stitching is nice and tight and perfect.
You also have these nice sporty grips at 10 and 2 that give the steering wheel and awesome
sporty feel, and the paddle shifters click in with a nice, responsive, deep kind of thud
rather than a light click and feel great.
Now while the paddle shifters are only going to be plug and play on your '17 and up Raptor,
there are ways out there if you're savvy with wiring to get those spliced in and get them
to work.
So let me show you how to get this on your truck.
So with that out of the way, we can put our new Raptor wheel on and you want to make sure
that clock spring doesn't spin it all and stays in the upright position and you could
feed your harness through and set your wheel on just like that.
Make sure everything's sitting correctly and I'm just going to throw the nut back on there
to hold it still, then we'll reinstall all of our harnesses.
And with our new wheel on, we can reinstall our harness up top.
If your truck has a paddle shifters, you will also install this one on the bottom to retain
that use, and then we're gonna tighten down this nut in the center and the torque spec
for that is 41-foot-pounds.
And next, we can pull this red airbag connector off of its post and install that back into
our factory airbag and the plugs on the back as well, making sure blue goes into blue and
yellow goes into yellow.
And for the airbag, just give it a push back in.
You'll feel that spring click in place and we can reconnect our battery and you're pretty
much good to go.
And that is going to be it for my review and install of the Ford Performance Raptor Leather
Steering Wheel Kit with the Orange Sightline fitting all '15 and up F150s.
Thank you for watching.
I'm Joe and for all things F150, keep it right here at americantrucks.com.
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