King 2.5s or Fox 2.5s

Hey everyone. Going to be doing my lift soon. Was looking at mid travel kits from accutune.com. What should I get King or Fox? Any pros/cons? And do I really need the adjustable ones?

 

I have extended travel Fox 2.5s with adjusters. Can't really speak to pros and cons between them and Kings since I only have perspective on one side. Accutune has a comparison article on the 2.0 variants, but i'll bet the characteristics of their respective 2.5s are similar. https://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/fox-vs-king-2-0-coilover-shock-comparison/

One of the biggest differences between the two as far as i know comes down to the adjusters, so if you're not getting them then there's less of a distinction. Fox adjusters support both high and low speed compression adjusting while Kings just have one universal adjuster. My truck is my daily driver more often than an off-road vehicle, so the ability to fine tune the ride for different contexts was attractive to me. I also live by the buy-once-cry-once methodology. It's worth noting that it costs more to buy just the coilovers and add resi + adjusters later than it is to buy everything from the get go.

 

If you want to know the best answer call AccuTune. They will help you decide what’s best for your application.
They have used both on many different Tacoma’s.

 

Hmmm so OEM replacements are now marketed as mid-travel?

Both are respectable brands, I have seen fitment issues with Fox on other applications. King is typically regarded as one of the best out there in terms of quality, performance, customer service, etc.

It's really personal preference.

As far as adjusters, I run adjusters in the rear only because I run varying loads. I adjust the rear to handle the different weights in different offroad conditions. For street use they are mainly set and forget,

 

You can’t go wrong with any of them. Get the one that your heart desires.

 

I am ordering a full suspension kit w/ adjustable compressions (not Fox or Kings though). It's up to you on adjustable. I currently have a 6112/5160 Bilstein setup and hated that I couldn't adjust the compression.
However, I remove my stuff (Bed rack, RTT, camping gears, jerry cans, etc) after trips/off-roading so that's about 300-500 lbs off the truck for daily driving. If you have constant weight, I don't think you would need it.

 

Im in the same boat. I've been on here reading for hours trying to decide and still can't make up my mind! I've come to the conclusion and being logical is to just call Accutune.

 

Was on the same boat, went with fox due this video. https://youtu.be/amVEZfTNjCk
Got a good deal from 4wheelparts $1601 shipped

 

All depends on the valving

 

Eh, it's kind of misleading. It really all comes down to the tune any vendor can have a suspension tuned, my shocks came with a custom tune from King. I would be curious if Accutune actually tears a brand new shock down and installed their own shimstacks or if they just order the custom tune from the manufacturer like everyone else. Compression adjusters have limited use, most set and forget, and it takes a while to figure out which setting is the best for each condition, trail type, weight of vehicle, speed etc.

But opinions right..

 

Comes to down to what color you like better

 

@AccuTune Offroad can you answer the tuning questions? I’m curious as well.

 

Yes we do in fact pull apart 99% of the shocks we sell and revalve them to our specifications based on the customers vehicle. This is what makes us unique to the industry. We take into consideration: your truck model, lift height needed, total weight with additional accessories, how you will be using the truck mostly (daily driver, weekend warrior, tow rig etc), shock brand/model, spring rates up front and rear leaf springs. From there we use our own proprietary calculator to put a shim stack together. We get even more in depth with tuning when it comes to off-road race vehicles. For those, its even more custom but we can get a pretty good tune with our calculations and can fine tune them with an on-site tuning session. For custom shocks like these, we have customers fill out this form <--- So yes, we definitely tune our shocks

Most retailers out there will order a "custom tune" from King or Fox for a 05+ Tacoma. This is what you will be getting as a custom tune. Are they asking for details about your truck like we are?
https://youtu.be/UDRnW29_jIg

 

Good to know! Not to poke, but how is this any different/better than King or Fox doing it. When King did my valving all those factors were provided, model, lift, weight, accessories, type of offroading, etc

EDIT: Ah ok, watched the video, very cool stuff, that had to be a lot of data to create those proprietary calculations

 

Going direct with King you may in fact be getting a custom tune, where online retailers are most likely not. Not all tuning is equal, similar to engine tuning etc. We believe our techniques work well and have a lot of experience with Toyotas that prove it. With this experience, we make it super easy to order from us online or over the phone.

 

I didn't know adding resis and adjusters later was even a thing

 

Adding reservoirs not so much, adding adjusters yes but can be extremely expensive. Adding adjusters requires the entire reservoir to be replaced and also be tuned to accommodate that upgrade.

 

Bummer. I'd totally get adjusters on my front 2.5's. What would the ballpark be for cost?

 

Hey OP, I have the ext travel 2.5 Fox's with adjusters front and rear. As most have said, buy once, cry once is my philosophy. If you are on the fence about adjusters, do it! Better spend the money upfront than regret it and shell out later. As for the difference between Fox and King:

1) Adjuster type: Fox has 2 way adjusters with more fine tuning control between each click.
2) I've read and heard that Fox FACTORY series shocks are built with slightly better materials (metals that won't degrade/rust/corrode as quickly as Kings). I think the accutune article linked above might mention this? I can't remember. I live by the ocean so I went with Fox again for this.
3) I've heard time and time again that Kings have better customer service, but if you are going through Accutune then you also have their customer service to go through as well. I've heard good things and have called them many times myself. Very knowledgable and reputable company.

My buddy has the same truck as me and the Kings equivalent to my Fox's and we wheel together a lot. Honestly they perform the exact same pretty much offroad. You can't really go wrong. He got his for the customer service reason I listed, I got mine because of the materials and adjusters.

Also, in my experience on road, it is a set it and forget it for daily driving with the adjusters. However I've adjusted the rears for towing/hauling heavy stuff in the bed. Also, offroad you should definitely be adjusting for different terrain. I do so frequently, and I'm glad I got adjusters.

 

Fox DSC or King Adjusters is like $400-450/each parts and labor