Levelling with Fox Shocks

RBPNosaj · January 4, 2016

Miss the other part of your question-no I didn't have to adjust.

Thanks for the input. Those of you running Fox coilovers is it enough difference to go this route or just go with the RC 2.5 or ready lift 2.25?

David Oliver · January 14, 2016

Just installed mine and the same thing. Only 1/2" of lift and they haven't even settled yet. Now FOX is telling me some of the aluminum control arms were made in a similar shape as the steel ones. Their coil overs for the aluminum control arm trucks are 1/2" shorter. He said some of the aluminum arm trucks may need the longer assembly made for the steel arm trucks. I just sent them over a bunch of photos of my control arms and they're going to look them over and see if they can figure it out. He said not to crank up the pre-load too much as it will hurt the ride. Not sure at this point if they're going to ship me the longer ones or what but hopefully they'll help me get it sorted. I had a 2" leveling block installed before and now my truck is almost back to stock height, but my wallet is $1000 lighter (front and rear shocks).

So were they able to figure this out? I'm on the cusp of pulling the trigger on a 2.0 setup (mostly on road and imagine a couple extra inches of travel would help offroad), but am not interested if they can't resolve this. Also, now that you've run it for a bit longer, hows the on road ride holding up?

nando87 · January 14, 2016

So were they able to figure this out? I'm on the cusp of pulling the trigger on a 2.0 setup (mostly on road and imagine a couple extra inches of travel would help offroad), but am not interested if they can't resolve this. Also, now that you've run it for a bit longer, hows the on road ride holding up?

Yes, I believe I figured out what's going on after speaking with a tech at Fox for a while. See my post, may answer your questions as to why some of the trucks don't get the claimed 2" of lift.

David Oliver · January 14, 2016

But they've not swapped them with the others made for the steel upper a-arm? Have they figured out what to look for so you can know ahead of time (the difference between supposed aluminum upper arms?)

Travis Whitmore · January 15, 2016

So were they able to figure this out? I'm on the cusp of pulling the trigger on a 2.0 setup (mostly on road and imagine a couple extra inches of travel would help offroad), but am not interested if they can't resolve this. Also, now that you've run it for a bit longer, hows the on road ride holding up?

They paid for me to ship them back. Their solution was to add in more pre-load to the coil overs. They should've had 1.5" of lift after they were done but I never re-installed them. Had a bad taste in my mouth from the whole thing and sold them at a pretty big hit. Drove a total of about 5 miles on them and lost about $500. Still running my 2" level kit on the crappy Rancho suspension. I'm debating Camburg upper control arms and some Bilstein 5100's until I can afford to buy the King coil overs.

nando87 · January 15, 2016

But they've not swapped them with the others made for the steel upper a-arm? Have they figured out what to look for so you can know ahead of time (the difference between supposed aluminum upper arms?)

Yes, they offer two different part numbers for the shock (one with a spacer for alum and one full size for steel UCA).

If you have alum. you have two choice, either buy the part number meant for the alum. arms and you wont get much lift but maybe 1/2 at most.

OR

You can cut a tab off located in the box of the UCA mount to allow full travel of the UCA and buy the steel part number shock. This will get you full lift and travel as the design was intended.

IF you have the steel arms, you have NOTHING to worry about. Just buy the steel part number and all will be good, you will get the proper lift and travel.

David Oliver · January 15, 2016

Yes, they offer two different part numbers for the shock (one with a spacer for alum and one full size for steel UCA).

If you have alum. you have two choice, either buy the part number meant for the alum. arms and you wont get much lift but maybe 1/2 at most.

OR

You can cut a tab off located in the box of the UCA mount to allow full travel of the UCA and buy the steel part number shock. This will get you full lift and travel as the design was intended.

IF you have the steel arms, you have NOTHING to worry about. Just buy the steel part number and all will be good, you will get the proper lift and travel.

Awesome summary. Thank you.

I'm just concerned that if they put this little thought into the aluminum kit, which was clearly an afterthought using off the shelf parts, how much time did they really spend valving the best shock for our rigs. Sometimes I assume when a new model comes out they do little more than weigh four corners, compare to a similar model, and modify as little as possible to get it to work.

I like the fox setup as it's less work than the bilsteins, and quite a bit cheaper than the king/icon setups. The rancho quicklift isn't even an option given the fact that they look of poor quality, have complaints about the coils, and are clearly run by accountants not "passionate product engineers" (this is obvious given they slap their label on the shit shocks of every z71 or ford fx4 and nobody likes them).

Unfortunately I'm going to have to think about this for a while... As large as FOX racing is now, you'd think they'd have a full time online guy following these discussions.

Travis Whitmore · January 15, 2016

FWIW both steel and aluminum arm trucks have the droop stops. I'm still not convinced this is the issue. I just think Fox got it wrong.

Tong Lu · January 18, 2016

I got them put on last weekend and have put close to a couple hundred miles on them. Install is pretty easy but I will say I had quite a bit of adjusting that I was not expecting to have to do.

When talking with Fox theses were sold as coming out of the box preset for 2" of lift over stock. After installing them the front of the truck was only raised about 5/8" and after sitting overnight that was reduced to about 1/4" of lift. Somewhat disappointed I talked with Fox about the best way to adjust the preload collar and was told that totally removing the coilover and to use a spring compressor then adjust the collar as needed was the prefered method...I was also told I can do it on the truck but to get it on stands to release some of the spring compression but this was the #2 method of adjustment.

Not having a spring compressor on hand I figured I would try to adjust while on the truck. I was able to get about 5 full turns on the adjusting collar before getting tight enough that I was worried about galling the shock body and preload collar so I stopped.

Those extra 5 turns resulted in a front end lift of about 1 1/8" over stock. I really want to get it just a tad higher and closer to 2" of lift but I wanted to drive it a bit to let the spring settle in some and see if it drops anymore.....that and I was tired of messing with it last weekend.

I will say that the ride is greatly improved over the factory Ranchos. Feels more stable and definitely more compliant.. Small rumble strips on the road honestly feel close enough to stock that I can't say it's any better but anything larger than a rumble strip these are head and shoulders above what I had. The bigger the hit or disruption the better these feel.

Overall I am happy with my decision to purchase these but just wish they would have come set at least close to the advertised lift of 2"....but I also understand that's how it goes sometimes once you start modding something.

My drive is on a slight slope so it's a little hard to tell but here it sits just about 1 1/8" raise over stock.

As much as I don't like those cheap strut spring compressors you can rent at the auto parts store....I am thinking I could get the truck on stands again and use those to compress 3 or 4 coils in the middle of the spring to alleviate some pressure and get a few more turns of the preload collar. Anyone smarter than I have any thoughts on this?

I was thinking about buying Fox or King coil overs and still use a 2inch spacer in the front. You should try it and let us know how the ride is

Travis Whitmore · January 18, 2016

I was thinking about buying Fox or King coil overs and still use a 2inch spacer in the front. You should try it and let us know how the ride is

That completely defeats the purpose of $1000 adjustable coil over suspension.

nando87 · January 19, 2016

FWIW both steel and aluminum arm trucks have the droop stops. I'm still not convinced this is the issue. I just think Fox got it wrong.

We keep going over this, its not the bump stop that limits the travel on the aluminum arms.

I understand you're frustrated with Fox as I would be too, however in my other post I explained that it was not the bump stop that they were referring to along with the other items you keep mentioning in other posts.

Spurshot · January 19, 2016

Guys, let's not let an argumentative point escalate here. Either bring evidence to the discussion or let the point go.

Fwiw, the extension (a.k.a. "Droop") stops, are welded to the front crossmember. I doubt there is a difference of the crossmember between trucks with aluminum A-arms or steel. However, the extension of the A-arm on my steel A-arm truck was limited by the internal extension stop in the shock, with both, the stock and King shock.

Travis Whitmore · January 19, 2016

Guys, let's not let an argumentative point escalate here. Either bring evidence to the discussion or let the point go.

Fwiw, the extension (a.k.a. "Droop") stops, are welded to the front crossmember. I doubt there is a difference of the crossmember between trucks with aluminum A-arms or steel. However, the extension of the A-arm on my steel A-arm truck was limited by the internal extension stop in the shock, with both, the stock and King shock.

Spoke to Cognito again yesterday and they told me something similar about the internals limiting travel. They sell a kit with Biltstein 5100's that are built to their spec with added travel to be used with their UCA's. This is the way I'm planning on going.

The tech at Cognito did say, not to sound like a broken record, that the only difference on the aluminum arm trucks is the ball joint taper. The aluminum trucks use an "8 lug" truck ball joint that is larger. He said the suspension travel on the trucks stock is identical.

Replacing the UCA and putting in struts with more travel should alleviate a few problems.

I guess I'll have to agree to disagree.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Jon A · January 19, 2016

...as for the adjusting them, you want to take them off the truck first, if you try to do it while they are still in the truck this could happen .. I tried to adjust mine while on the truck and I guess I didn't get the locking screw in far enough, it was as tight as I could get it but, I guess that wasn't good enough.. I drove around for about a day, and the next I went to go over uneven payment with a small drop off and that happens.. The looking collar fell all the way to the bottoms of the coilover.. I was pissed but it was my fault ..

Ouch. That sucks. In my opinion the split perch is a poor design choice for this application. For those shopping around, this is one point you may want to consider. ICON uses a solid perch which can be adjusted on the truck with no worry of this happening.