Fitting 35’s with minimal trimming NOW ADDING LONG TRAVEL AND 934 CV’s

Then you should buy them and report back with your expertise.

@Supra4x4 has gone down this rabbit hole and probably has the most insightful info.

 

I already have my kings bought and paid for so it's not me that's actually interested. But they do seem to be a good option for those that don't want to wait a year for shocks.

 

I made mine removable to get to all the goodies and used thinner steel for the skid plus it’s an easy shape to cut out if I need to replace it. No bends or anything

 

Don’t trust the lead times listed. I’m at 7, going on 8 months on my 8” coilovers I custom ordered from Locked. And yes, carbon is making the shocks for Locked. According to Riley at locked, prior to Carbon taking over production, their shocks were produced internationally. Carbon is out of Colorado and produces their parts in-house, and that’s what Riley told me he wanted. From what I hear, they put out a decent product. But I cannot confirm yet. The story from locked is, Carbon machines all their components, and then sends them to locked who builds them to their specs and brand. And just like every USA manufacturer, backed up right now with supply chain on raw materials. I’m reserving judgement until I receive the coilovers, but I was also told 4 weeks back in September so take that for what it’s worth.

My coilovers are supposed to look like this when they arrive. Hoping they do. I just talked to Riley a couple weeks ago and he said he’s trying to get my shocks out but keeps getting pushed back by machined components.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUtDZf7vUQ4/

 

From what I've seen on their insta they do seem to be pretty nicely built. But realistically it's not like shocks are some overly complicated pieces either. As long as the right materials are used and the proper attention to detail is there, I see no reason that they wouldn't be a viable option. I'm sure as they progress as a company we will hear more and more, good and bad.

 

Yeah, I’ll agree, they are not complicated. At the end of the day, its function over form. If we’re talking about quality, I owned Kings and Fox, but the best quality and attention to detail I’ve seen is from ADS. Had their bypasses and coilovers, and they’ve been my favorite. That being said, I got a really good price from Locked and I just need something that works. So we’ll see, fingers

 

See that's where we differ. I helped install ADS on a T4R last year, there was missing parts, big fitment issues etc. ADS blew him off when he called to let them know. That one experience was enough for me to never look at them. I don't doubt they are legit, but customer service lacked heavily for us and that's the single biggest thing that helps me decide who's getting my money.

 

I see. I don’t know what happened there, sometimes there’s bad apples. I can’t attest to their customer service other than that they’re a smaller outlet and get very busy around race time. But yeah that’s the beauty of competition, if someone doesn’t or isn’t there to provide a service, other businesses will. TBH when it comes to shocks, you pretty much just pick a color and they work.

Just don’t come at me with that King blue…. It clashes so bad.

 

I know I can get the shocks coated or whatever but MAN the stock King shocks look like shit after a single winter. I know that socal doesn't see anything but 75/sun, but a smidgen of weather protection would be cool

 

That’s honestly all of them. I’ll be pulling mine down as soon as they come in for ceramic.

 

Every brand will have some sort of surface corrosion. The foxes I’ve had have been the worst. Didn’t have kings long enough to weigh in. My ADS coilovers have some oxidation on the body only. Newer ADS shocks have a clear coating of some sort on them, I forget what kind it is. But I remember talking with some users in the ADS thread who reported that they when they contacted ADS, they said it was taking longer for parts to come back from coating than it was for them to build the shocks themselves.

Nice thing about the Carbon, Locked shocks having that black coating. I’ve seen it in person and have it on my bumpstops. It gets dirty but it hasn’t chipped or oxidized.

 

I think all of that stuff is anodized which is awesome for sure. To be honest, for what you pay for the big names they should be more than just plated. I get the fact that *most* will never have the problems us snowy weather people have. But for those of us that do it sucks. I ceramic coat all of my shocks and powder all of my suspension components, even if they are already coated because 99% of the time parts that are coated have poor prep coming from production shops.

 

ADS are cerakoted clear. It’s worked fantastic against road salt. I have a small patch they missed at the end of an adjustment tube that shows what they’d look like without a coating.

The black ceramic King did on my coilovers was too thin and didn’t get deep enough into the threads. Started rusting after one winter.

 

Just an fyi - real anodizing can only be done on aluminum so coated shock bodies are not anodized.

If you want an extra tough anno finish shot peen/blast the aluminum first. It gives it a cool satin finish and it much more abrasion resistant too.

 

Isn’t Cerakote a ceramic finish?

 

you have to paint them as rough country so nobody steals them

also
Plastidip

 

That is all salt after 45 minutes of driving up here.

Edit: and yeah that's snow in the bed haha

 

Yes. And that’s what I spray. They have air cure, oven cure options. Oven cure is far more durable. I’ve seen ceramic on kings and from what I see it’s just air cure.

I’ll say, the clear ADS uses is some tough stuff. And a massive perk. As far as I know, they come standard in clear ceramic.

 

You don’t do any frame coating? I woolwax mine 2x a winter and it helps soooooo much. My frame still looks really nice for 200k

 

The air cure cerakite provides the best chemical and abrasion resistance according to them. I sprayed cerakote for years on weapons and such. The chemical resistance is top notch