Fox Life!!! Anything Related to Fox Suspension

Hey, I've been doing some searches and found many of the answers to my questions regarding Fox 2.5 shocks. Hopefully this thread is the right place to ask for some additional user feedback.

One of my main concerns with high performance shocks is maintenance/longevity:
What has been you guy's experience for time between rebuilds?

I understand that will vary by use, and I've seen a few "guidelines" shared by shock service providers.

What is the typical cost and downtime of having a shop do a shock rebuild?

I've rebuilt motorcycle shocks dozens of times, is this something I can do myself on a weekend? (I'm not sure I want to... but having a DIY option is nice). I'm close enough to Accutune now to drive by their shop, but anticipate moving out of state over the next year.

How sensitive are they to weight changes?

I'm currently at ~+65lbs front and +290lbs rear on stock suspension (RTT+rack+sliders). I anticipate ending the year around +400 front and +450 rear once bumpers/skids/winch are added. If I went with something like Accutune's stage 4A kit, would it work well to have it setup for my anticipated weight, and use the DSC adjusters to compensate while I'm still adding towards that final weight? I think I'm already pushing it with weight on my stock rear end (I sag when loaded for camping trips), so I'd prefer to do suspension ahead of bumpers. I'll likely have the budget for suspension in July, and will jump on a November black friday deal for bumpers/winch.

My current usage is mostly highway daily driving, but I'm camping off road ~2 weekends a month and doing ~1-2 week long trips a year. I'm averaging ~25K miles a year total (until I get a car to DD again), and my guestimate is ~1500 of those will be off pavement. I'm generally not concerned with road manners, coming from a sports car I already drive the Tacoma like a fat girl . My reason for wanting to upgrade is a combination of ground clearance/handling weight, and ride quality from 0-40mph on rough trails. I did about 160 miles of rough washboard on the North Rim of the grand canyon with stock suspension and got sick being bounced around. I'm not after go-fast desert driving, I just want to have a higher comfortable cruising speed on beat up trails. I'm concerned that if I go with Bilstein 6112/5160 I may get the longevity, but they could be harsh at low speeds on the trails I've been driving. I'd prefer to buy once-cry once sometime this summer, and intend to keep this truck 10+ years/250k miles like my past Tundra.

Thanks in advance, I'd really appreciate feedback from current users of Fox 2.5s.

 

Great questions and hoping to hear or see some feedback to your questions myself

 

Rebuild intervals vary like you mentioned. We suggest holding onto stock shocks as a temporary replacement when you send shocks in somewhere to be serviced. Average cost for a basic rebuild can be $175-225/each. If you have all the correct tools and are comfortable doing this kind of work, it can be a DIY project. It's a lot of work, so proper tools are important. If you buy through us, you get 25% off labor for service work. Average turn around time is 1-2 weeks. Adding the weight you mentioned will definitely require different springs. Front is an easy upgrade/swap, rear leafs can be a bit tricky. Icon RXT packs that we offer in our kits can be set at 3 different stages depending on total added weight. DSC adjusters will help control the shocks better with added weight, but wont help with keeping the truck from sagging.

 

How are the Fox shocks holding up for those of you that are in the "salt belt" like I am? I'm considering 2.0's this spring but don't want to drop all this money only to have them be all corroded in a year or two? I try to rinse the undercarriage and suspension a few times each winter but not having a garage means it's not always possible in a timely manner.

 

Fox 2.0 will be an aluminum shock, so that should hold up much better to corrosion than steel body shocks. Coil springs in general are prone to rust (no matter what brand). You can always add a coil/spring saver boot to help with corrosion in the winter time.

 

Thanks. Wasn't super concerned about the spring as much as the aluminum body of the shock getting all covered in that white corrosion that aluminum can get.

 

Thanks, I definitely appreciate your experience. The last thing I want is to jump all in too soon and regret it.

I am second guessing my plans to jump straight to a performance suspension, since I'm reluctant to accept what could be 2 weeks down time every 6 months (or maybe its 18 months, who knows). Perhaps the right answer for my personal situation is an interim setup until the trucks weight stops changing and I have another daily driver. Then I'll be more accepting of the unknown maintenance schedule.

It's not the fun conclusion to come to but maybe it's the better one in the long run. I know tuned suspension made a world of difference when I was racing motocross, so that's still where I'd like to get to.

 

oh, well just a basic mileage estimate would be upwards of 50k miles on the shocks before needing a rebuild. Definitely not a once a year thing at all. Most daily drivers can get much more than that. We also offer a free revalve for the lifetime you own the shocks. So even 3 years from now we will revalve the shocks for added weight for free. Up to you, but investing in great shocks now can certainly work out well vs buying temporary shocks.

 

This exactly! Finished the fronts over the weekend. I struggled a lot with mounting the remote reservoirs on my PES shocks. Found it difficult to fit the resi in the mount and also clearance the frame with the resi hose fittings and the top of the wheel well. Added some pictures for reference. Felt like I put a lot of pressure on the hose and and indirectly, the fittings trying to get it in there and lined up. I'm not sure if its a problem but the tolerances between my trucks frame and the resi hose fittings are so tight the splashguard sandwiched between the two can barely move. Tightest on the driver side for sure. Driver side I also removed some of the foam on the wheel well for the resi to clearance. Honestly, everything passenger side for me was much easier. Front and back.

Other than that, the UCA bolt was a headache. Nothing related to the Fox shocks.

 

Read through the entire thread and learned a lot, my eyes are on the verge of bleeding. Ended up ordering a set of 2.0 front and rears for my daily through Accutune. Unfortunately my application doesn't warrant the cooler stuff.

 

I apologize if this has been asked before. Can the mounting hardware from the Elite 2.5 series be used on the Factory race series? It also seems the orientation is rotated about 90 degrees, what's up with this? Does it help with easy of installation and with rubbing of the tire? I remember when installing the factory race series front coilovers, it was like wrestling bear trying to get them in place.

 

I'm pretty sure the mounting hardware can be used. Mounting my front resi's on my PES was like wrestling a bear as well. Challenging holding the resi's straight/in place while cinching down the Allen bolts. Made me want to use hose clamps instead...

 

Yes, its just a clamp made to fit around a 2.5" reservoir. Not sure why Fox changed reservoir orientation.

 

Only thing that concerns me with the new mounting location is the sway bar hitting the DSC adjusters. As seen in this video at the 7:50 marker.
https://youtu.be/6WOxFPUoQ4I?t=470

 

Definitely. Unfortunately its pretty difficult to cycle the front suspension to make sure the reservoir is up high enough (remove spring and cycle), so in general just need to push it up as far as it can go in the fender to avoid contact with the sway bar.

 

I have no sway bar. Does anyone have the fox PN for the new mounting hardware?

 

@AccuTune Offroad can you all create some "how to" installation tutorials specific to the front external resi's? I think this would help many of us.

 

How to install them? Fox already has that:
https://pvg-portal.ridefox.com/_con...167.22439316.1679929562-1223172486.1661867327

 

Yeah but we'd like to see how you all wrestle bears at Accutune. lol

Thanks for sharing.