aFe Cat-Back Exhaust System 3" Stainless Steel Rebel Dual Side Exit With Black Tips Raptor F-150 2017-2020

The sound of the exhaust on the new Raptor is definitely a hot topic right now. We've done several videos showing you several different systems to give you a wide range of options. Well, today we're going to show you one of the more unique offerings for the new Raptor, that is the aFe Rebel Side Exhaust system.

The unique thing about this aFe Rebel exhaust is that instead of exiting the factory location behind the rear bumper, it's going to exit in front of the rear tire, giving it a unique sound. This is made of three-inch mandrel bent 304 stainless steel with black tips, and it is made right here in the USA. This will fit both cab versions of the 2017 Raptor.

For this installation, you need a lift or a jack and jack stands, 3/8" ratchet, 10 millimeter socket, 13 millimeter socket, 15 millimeter socket, and a 15 millimeter wrench.

Once you have the factory exhaust system off the car, we're going to start by installing these U-nuts. They're going to go on the outside of the frame over here, so we have an additional hanger for the side exit exhaust. We're going right up here underneath this mount and above the leaf spring mount, we're going to put these in from the top and just slide them on. They'll go on really easily. We're going to put the clamp up into place with it facing towards the back of the car, use the hardware to install the U-nuts.

Now we'll begin the installation of the exhaust itself by installing the front pipe. One is going to slide onto the factory clamp, and the other one use the original bolts and the provided nuts. I'm not going to make these all the way tight yet, just starting to snug them down a little bit. You want to make sure you do it evenly as well. Then we'll snug down the clamp as well. The kit includes these two extension pipes. If you have a Super Crew like ours, the four-door pickup truck, you're going to use these. If you have the Extended Cab version, the Super Cab, you will not use these. Then slide the clamps. Then we'll snug these down as well.

We're going to put two clamps down on the extension pipe, make sure you're getting the nuts on where you can get to them. Now we'll put them up for into place on the factory hanger. We're going to snug these up next and move onto the tail pipe section. They've provided a rubber insulator, we're going to put that on the hanger we installed earlier, now put the tail pipe up into place. We'll put some clamps on the pipe first. Okay, we'll tighten these clamps next. The last step is going to be the tips.

Grab a clamp and slide the tips on. Here it's kind of up to you if you want to have them even, if you want to have them off-set, whatever angle you think looks good, there's plenty of pipe to work with. Going to leave them just slightly off-set. When they're straight, tighten down the clamp. Okay, go back and make any adjustments you need to, tighten down your clamps and your installation is finished.

The aFe system was definitely one of the easier ones to install, but let's see how it sounds. Seems to be a little louder actually at idle than when you rev it. That doesn't have a bad tone to it, let's take it out on the road.

All right, so the first thing I'm going to tell you about the Rebel Side Exhaust from aFe for the Raptor is it makes no excuses. In a lot of these systems out there, have resonators, mufflers, all kinds of different things to try to kind of tame down the tone of the V6 engine. This one doesn't do that. This system's all about flow. It's get the exhaust through the exhaust and get it out as fast as possible. When you do that, you're going to get a louder sound. There's no mistaking this for a V6. They know it's a V6 sound, and aFe owns it. They make sure you hear every ounce of the turbo and the exhaust on this truck and it is a louder system.

Raptor's a badass truck and this system is loud and in your face just like the truck itself is. It's not going to be for everybody, but if you're looking for flow because you're definitely going to get maximum flow when it goes right out the side of the truck and you want a loud tone, this is definitely one to check out. At cruising now, we're 2000 RPM cruising on the highway and it's a little deep tone. You hear it, it doesn't sound stock, but it's not loud by any stretch. When you downshift, it gets loud in a hurry.Let's try with the windows down. Something we don't usually do, but let's see here. Obviously it's a lot louder with the windows down, but again even cruising, now we're right on 1500 RPMs here, perfectly fine until you downshift and then it wakes up.

Like I said before, while there are some manufacturers that, some of the companies are trying to give this a different tone. They're trying to take away not make it sound so much like a turbo V6 and give it a different kind of sound. aFe doesn't do that. They own it, they definitely take what that engine is and they just throw it in your face and some might like the sound, some might think it sounds like a Honda. I mean it depends what you're into but if you wanted a loud, in your face kind of sound out of the exhaust of your Raptor to kind of match the looks of the Raptor, aFe’s system is worth checking out.