I don't have all the pieces of your puzzle yet, but have played with a few of them. I have a Gen 2 FRap...I've had it since new, 70k miles from roadtrips all around the country and a lot of off-road driving. For off-road stuff, I'd rather be 60+mph and sideways that crawling. I've camped out of it for a month at a time, hauled kid's stuff to college, done mellow roadtrips with my older parents / inlaws to places like Yosemite. All an all-arounder, it's plain hard to beat. I also had First Edition 4dr Bronco that I did an extended test drive with...owned it for 6 months before deciding which to keep (FRap or Bronco)...I decided to keep the FRap. Having had older Broncos growing up, I was looking forward to being back in one. I think they did a really nice job on it with the exception of the wind noise from the top. My biggest issue, however, was that it just didn't feel 'special'...the interior was a little ho hum and, more importantly, the driving dynamics simply did not excite me. I'm a driving geek at heart and, while cliche as it may be, 'life's too short to drive boring cars' (my wife even gave me a t-shirt for Christmas that says that). The Frap still has a playful side that's fun to push on a windy mountain road...and in the dirt.
For the BRap, I'm hopeful that there will be a nice melding of the two. All of the reviews I've seen of it seem to suggest that's the case...including reviewers who seem to have the same driver-focused mentality that I do (and own similar cars, in fact)...like the Savagegeese guys.
My plan is to do exactly what I did with the FE Bronco: since I feel fortunate to have a stab at the BRap, I'm going to buy and live with it for awhile...and then decide. A change of pace is always good too...but I must say that it will be incredibly difficult part with the Gen2 Frap. It really is a special vehicle and could very well be one of those vehicles you really wish you hadn't let go of.
I'd encourage you to try to do what I'm doing and keep that Frap until you have it sorted out in your own mind. I'm taking a little grief for it here...a 'logical' person (such as my wife) sees no need to spend more money, time, energy, driveway space, etc, etc on yet another vehicle...but I (as a somewhat-logical yet also highly-emotional person when it comes to cars) can't make up my mind on something as important to me as my cars without spending some good quality time with one of them before I make the call to part with one I already dig.
Hopefully one of the members here that has or had a 2nd Gen Raptor will chime in.
That's a tough choice. If you don't need the bed, I would go for it!
