Long Travel BS Thread

Regarding ADS, I had a customer send out all 4 shocks to them for rebuild recently. They came back looking like they had barely been touched. They left the same 5 of 6 rusty old top had studs and didn’t bother cleaning really anything. If someone send me shocks for rebuild and it is missing a stud and the rest are nasty, I’d replace them for my own sanity. Had to have them send out fresh studs and wasted a bunch of time. Just wasn’t awesome.

 

Does anyone have experience with Simpson seats? I was looking at the vortex II or I jsut spend a couple hundred more for PRP. They're also only about 25 minutes from my house.

 

Both companies got hit hard by the virus. I believe this applies to any manufacturing company. I know I felt it in my line of work.

 

Same, lol

 

Everybody felt it. However some came back stronger than others.

 

@906taco
Pretty much exactly what Shane said.
My research found that Fox had better seals, shafts, and larger tubes.

as for the coating, all of my shocks are the older? Non cerakote ones. I don’t have issues down here in socal, but I know others with different climates, corrosion could be a bigger issue. Sounds like either way you’d coat them or buy coated from the manufacture.

 

If only their customer service wasn’t dog shite….out of the two the only complaints of service have been from fox, seems if you aren’t a huge name they don’t care about you. Though I would say the seals aren’t necessarily better, viton has a different temp range which is why king uses them in the race shocks due to vitons tendency to leak at cold temps.

 

I do feel this is one area that King has excelled in. They're direct customer support historically seams to be better.

That has been one of Fox's major downfalls. The company grew at such an exponential rate with the OE contracts that they did not cater to the end user well. That has appeared to get a lot better recently though. They've made some large changes that allow better direct customer support. You can actually buy parts (not shocks) direct now and parts seem to be processed faster.

I have heard of the temp issue out of King's seal design. Doesn't appear to be such a problem with the Fox seals, even though they do use viton. I personally have one rear shock with viton seals in the bearing assembly and one with buna. lol Couldn't tell them apart regarding leakage.

 

On the whole spectrum of the King internals and Fox internals. Who would you guys recommend for aftermarket internals for a rebuild. I know this is the LT forum but I'm "mid travel" and trying to do LT things. Im going to get all 4 of my my shocks re-valved and my fronts rebuilt. I've got archives shock relocation with Kings 2.5x12 in the back. Ive got Deavers N98 (by accutune) if you guys aren't familiar with it its like the J66 but with more lift and more arch. In the front its just a lift spindle with the King ext travel OEM bolt in coil overs for the Tacoma. Running accutunes UCA. I want better internals in my shocks and I want them to be able to go faster offroad without getting a longer LCA. Thanks for any input.

 

I’ve never had my fox’s leak in cold and snowy temps either.

 

King undoubtedly has the best customer service of the two. I had Fox 2.0’s way back and they were trash. Plastic IFP etc. I ended up tossing them after about 7 months as Fox was no help.

Somewhat hoping that as a dealer, the customer support may be slightly better. But with how readily available parts are, unless there is a freak failure early in I don’t think customer support is really needed. Personally.

All I know is Fox is a whole lot more friendly on the dealer side of things with pricing. And it’s definitely worth exploring for me.

 

I think the dual adjusters on the Fox is another nice feature. This video offers some interesting info about piston differences.

https://youtu.be/vupySrzF0Lk?si=0w_ZrsJnuhsb29uQ

 

The more I mess around with this stuff the more I realize adjusters are kind of a gimmick. While they do work, the problem lies in the fact they blow open to full flow on a hard hit regardless. Maybe I’m off base here.

Another thing I’ve learned is to never listen to one specific company and their opinions as they all vary. More than likely because one offers better benefits to them on the business side of things.

I just want to hear from guys with real life first hand experience on what they have seen, had issues with etc.

 

I hear yah! I thought the video was interesting as it shows how they differ from a piston standpoint.

 

I just want some 3.5’s front and rear

 

An interesting tidbit regarding adjusters.. Recently got tuned King fronts from Accutune, and they recommended going down from #700 as were on my mid travel springs to 600# on the long travel. I was a little nervous as I weigh a lot, and I previously had 700# springs on my +2 LT FJ Cruiser and loved the ride. They said to trust them, so I did. Changing springs is no big deal anyway so wth right? I mention this because I asked them about any issues considering I do not run a sway bar. They said use the compression adjusters to control any body roll.. So far the ride has been good and the roll has been minimal. I have SPC Light Racing jounce shock bump stops to add to the fronts, which will also be where my limit straps attach so haven't really sent it yet..

 

I’m fairly confident I’m heavier than you and running 500s on the JD2.25”. No regrets. I’ve never tried kings but have never had issues with the component quality of fox. Just customer service and assembly quality…

 

That last part bugs me.

But with that said, one of my front free bleeds came blown already direct from king. Put pressure to it and charged the oil.

 

Well I have no complaints. I was just surprised. Here is my current weight semi loaded for camping:

 

Holy mother of god. What do you feed that thing?!