Fox Life!!! Anything Related to Fox Suspension

Stock LCAs. If your mount is as wide as the gap in the mounting tabs, does that mean you don’t have misalignment spacers?

 

Every Tacoma I’ve seen (and install videos) has this gap. Large misalignment spacer in the front, small in the rear. Same story, different truck.

I’ve never seen one that has a lower mount wide enough to fill the gap between the lower mounting tabs. Maybe Fox released a new lower eyelet mount?

Edit: it looks like the new performance elites (for the 3rd gens anyway) have a wider lower mount and no misalignment spacers. I have the old, steel body Factory Race Series.

 

I misspoke -- actually, there is a gap on mine, at least on the eyelets themselves. But it is fully filled by whatever sort of spacer/bushing that is inside them. Certainly there shouldn't be any play that allows the eyelet & stock lower mounting rod to rotate out-of-plane.

My parts are FOX model #883-06-178-113, Fox 2.5" Performance Elite, DSC, 0-3" lift. (Aluminum body.)

 

Nice, you got the PEs! It looks like they fixed a problematic design. That said…the old design has been fine for hundreds (thousands) of trucks, so I think it’s a solvable problem. I just gotta land on the right solution.

 

I watched a guy on YouTube grind down his PE’s to fit because his LCA ears were to tight instead of beating them open again.

 

You can run equal length spacers from King or other manufactures, but it will be up to the customer to verify sway bar clearance. That is the main reason to have the off set spacers for most 2.5 shocks.

 

Possibly not Fox specific, but I’d love some input from the more experienced Fox users.

I’ll be installing some new to me 2.5 Fox (880-02-418) coilovers with 2.0 (

$274 Fox 985-24-117 Reservoir Shock CD Adjuster

985-24-117) rears in the coming weeks. The coilovers currently have 14” 650# springs installed, but I have some 13” 600# springs that could be swapped on.

My rig isn’t super overweight, but not stock weight either. I’m running steel sliders, steel front and mid skids, an aluminum front bumper with Warn Evo winch/synthetic rope (~145#) and a fiberglass camper wheel with 50-75# of tools full time.

I’m currently running the Bilstein 2nd gen pro suspension which is basically TRD branded non-adjustable 6112/5160. Overall I like the ride as is, bit with the added weight I’ve lost some height.

Any thoughts on which spring weight to run to gain some height back without making the ride too firm? These coilover/shocks have the Fox off the shelf tune.

TIA

 

I'm running a fairly similar setup to yours. I ran 600lb springs for about 10k miles as the 'calculations' recommended it. I was never really happy with the front height and after those 10k miles my left front tire started rubbing when I'd hit a big hole. I switched over to 650lb springs and have been really happy, achieving the height I want, no more rubbing, and I haven't noticed any change in ride quality. 'Ride quality' is going to be the one thing that only you can gauge, I'm not sensitive to it, others might be. For me, the Tacoma has always felt like a truck and has never been 'comfortable' when compared to other modern vehicles, but I wasn't expecting it to be.

 

This maybe an unpopular question for most, but I wanted a better cushioned/controlled ride without additional lift, does any of the FOX2.5 has no or close to no lift options? I like the stock height of my truck and would just like a more dampened ride if that makes sense.
Thank you in advance!

 

I'd imagine you could go with a non ext travel body and run them close to stock height

 

Yes, you can run them at a very low lift and/or swap springs around to get the desired ride height.

 

Were your coilovers set at the 3 inches of lift from the factory?

 

Maybe I’m confused. I thought the limit is 21” from center of rod eye to top of top hat period no matter what spring is used with the Fox extended PE. I have mine set at 21” with a 600# spring. I do have extra weight. Would a 650# or 700# give me more lift without messing with the 21” rule? I have 14” coil and they are turned to about 3/4” of threads.

 

I'm not sure what FOX sets them to from the factory, since I got mine from Accutune & they pulled them apart & re-assembled them as part of their normal sequence of custom valving/tuning, etc.

As-shipped from Accutune, with their "Adventure"-level tuning, with 650-lb springs, the preload was set at 2.86". Note that as part of my order with Accutune I noted that I have an ARB front bumper but no winch installed, which increases stock front end actual weight maybe 30-40 lbs or so over stock. Note that the effective load is actually somewhat higher due to the ARB sticking way farther out (at least 6") compared to stock bumper.

The as-configured-by-Accutune preload amount lifted the front end too high for my liking, and also caused the front CV boot accordion folds to touch/rub. I reduced preload by 0.56" (down to 2.30") which dropped the front end by a full inch of actual lift, due to suspension motion ratio.

Note 1: If you are doing your own preload adjustments, invest in a quality set of spring compressors and take your cautious time getting to know how to use them. (For example: SPC Performance UNIV SPRING COMPRESSOR, model 40260) It is possibly to lose an eye, break teeth, or suffer penetrating flesh wounds if an improperly-compressed spring suddenly slips out of its restraints.

Note 2: My FOX'es look a bit odd because I debadged them (removed all decals) and rattle-can spraypainted them black to reduce their visual signature.

Note 3: The passenger-side coilover came from Accutune with a different preload setting, presumably to counteract "Tacoma Lean" due to battery, fuel tank, and driver weight on the driver's side of vehicle.) Its "before" setting was 2.44", and I reduced it by 0.65" to 1.79".

See attached photos:

DRIVER'S SIDE BEFORE


DRIVER'S SIDE AFTER

 

0-2" lift coilovers are what you would want. The Factory Race Series 2.5 RR coilovers come with a 13" long spring, and in most cases you can get down to that 0-1" lift or so. For the Performance Elite Series shocks that have a 14" long spring, I am not 100% sure you can get 0-1" of lift. The spring length may keep you from achieving that, even with zero threads showing on he shock body. We run into this issue occasionally (other vehicles) with people wanting less lift height but have no more preload to give up. Would need a shorter or lighter spring to accomplish this. Sometimes that option may not exist.

There is no specific one size fits all lift height they are set to. I would plan to make adjustments.

 

Just to be clear, unless you tell us exactly how much preload you would like on the coilovers, we do not make preload adjustments prior to sending out.

Also, just so others are clear, this is not how you measure preload. However, I do understand this method was used to see how much the preload collar was moved.

 

Thanks for that clarification, important point. In my case I used the top-of-collar-to-bottom-of-the-top-hat measurement because my calipers aren't large enough to measure the full spring length. Preferred the accuracy of calipers vs. the looser (and easier to confuse) "counting the threads" method, or using a carpenter's tape measure on the spring.

 

For measuring threads showing, yes that looks like a pretty good method. This is still not actually measuring preload. That term gets thrown around a lot and can easily get confusing, especially when trying to dial in your suspension for the best performance and avoid coil bind.

Diagram below is an example of how to measure preload:

​

 

How are you liking it so far for daily driving? I’m considering the 2.0s all around as well. Hoping this setup is soft enough to not feel every small imperfection in the road such as paint lines, cracks etc.

 

What tire rating do you have on your truck?