Fox Life!!! Anything Related to Fox Suspension

The dealer should be able to tell thread pitch base on the one that wasn't missing one. This a stealership? Double check their work it they can't even figure out pitch.

 

Kings having a softer rod being one of their main disadvantages compared to Fox, why did fox go softer rod on the performance elite?

"Piston rods are one of the most important parts of a shock in terms of durability. Damaged rods from flying debris are the leading cause of leaking shocks, having a harder and stronger piston rod reduces the likely hood of a leaky shock. Factory Series shocks use a 17-4 H900 stainless steel piston rod that is extremely strong, resistant to flying debris and corrosion resistant. The Fox 2.5 Factory Series coilover piston rod is the best in the off-road industry. Fox 2.5 Performance Series coilover shocks use a high carbon steel piston rod that is likely 1040-1060 case hardened steel. High carbon steel rods are standard in the industry and are similar to King Performance Series shocks. Below you can see that the Factory Series piston rod has twice the resistance to flying debris (HRc) and is almost twice the strength.

"
from accutune website Fox 2.5 Factory Series vs 2.5 Performance Series Coilovers – AccuTune Off-Road (accutuneoffroad.com)

@AccuTune Offroad any thoughts??

 

Trying to settle on a kit and read up for a couple weeks. I have seen Accutune's videos showing DSC giving a ~150% damping increase vs. King's 50% single mid-frequency dial, and noted that DSC users usually only change 1-2 clicks between onroad and offroad. This seems to imply there is a lot of adjustability with DSC since the full dial range doesn't seem to be used (based on my limited internet impression).

I'm wondering if we tuned a FOX mid-travel setup to be 'very soft' with the DSC valves fully open (e.g. as soft as my 23 OR with stock suspension that bottoms out on the highway), would tightening up both valves yield a fairly stiff and /usable/ suspension that also has decent mid-frequency damping? Or are the low and high speed DSC dials focused more on the very low and very high frequencies similar to typical bass and treble knobs on a stereo?

This example is designed to try to discriminate if the DSC is worth it (based on how much adjustability is attainable) vs. just getting non-adjustable shocks that are tuned as best as possible the first time.

Thanks for any input on tuning with DSC.

 

Context: 2014 AC 4.0L 6Spd MT 4x4, P265/70/R16 Yoko Geolandar GO15 tires at ~30 PSI. Deaver U402 III's (heavy) + FOX PE 2.5 DSCs all 4 corners, Accutune UCAs. (Here's the exact package I got from Accutune, with their lightest "Adventure" shock re-valving/tune.) Self-installed the suspension about 6,200 miles ago.

About 2" to 2.25" lift, front & rear nearly level. ARB front bumper, no winch. ARE contractor cap + lumber rack + tools = ~450 lbs static weight on back. I add about 250-300 lbs of ballast (mostly steel) to the bed when not carrying other cargo, for a total rear cargo weight around 750ish lbs.

Driving patterns: 90-95% DD, some of which is on rough country roads, 5% weekend warrior forest roads. ~5-7.5K miles year on average.

I use the DSC adjusters a couple of times a month, whenever I load heavy cargo (lumber, lots of large steel tools, concrete block, whatever) and/or when going on forest-trail / long dirt roads.

Typically I'll run the DSCs at various settings, as follows. (Same settings all 4 corners. So far haven't explored/attempted different front/rear DSC combinations.)

(low / high knobs, respectively):
0/1, on highway, unloaded.
2/2 if carrying a moderately-heavy load in bed on highway.
5/3 on-highway with a heavy trailer. (>= 4,000 lbs.)
6/3 on-highway if heavily loaded in bed + heavy trailer.

3/5 on forest roads, unloaded or lightly loaded
5/5 on forest roads, medium-heavy loaded (700-800 lbs.)

Without a good 3-axis high-rez accelerometer bolted to the truck body & data-logger setup it's impossible to quantify objectively how the different DSC settings change the ride quality / responsiveness. Subjectively, changes of 2 clicks in either direction, esp on the larger/low dial, are immediately noticeable. Going from the bottom (0) to top (7 clicks) on the DSC makes the truck feel like it has 2 entirely different suspensions on it. Which is exactly what I want/need out of my do-all DD highway chariot/grocery getter/ work truck/weekend forest & overland truck. Without DSC I would have either comfortable highway or comfortable dirt road, but not both.

I would characterize the "off-road" (dirt forest roads in my case, not rock crawling or desert running) experience w/ this Fox 2.5 setup as "comfortable -- for a dirt road." It does not make a forest road at 20-25 mph feel like driving on the highway. There's still plenty of bump & some body roll. But all of the bump & body roll is controlled, thorougly filtered through the suspension. Loaded at 700-800 lbs at 20-25mph hitting minor to moderate potholes and dips (?? maybe 1-2 feet diameter by max 8" deep), over a 6-7 hour trip, I don't recall any unpleasant jolting bottoming-out even once. A stock suspension could only manage that, with a similar load, by staying at ~10mph or less.

The full FOX 2.5 setup, even with stock 16" wheels & stock-size tires, gives a large margin of confidence on dirt/forest roads. I'm doing 20-25 mph but feel I could safely and comfortably do 35 mph. My speed is limited by safety considerations from occasional oncoming traffic (other trucks, dirt bikers.. possibly even hikers..,) not by uncontrolled body roll & potholes bottoming out the shocks.

My overall recommendation: If you can afford it, do it. It's spendy as hell but it just plants the truck far better than the stock 2014 TRD OR suspension, esp. when loaded. Nothing actually or legally increases GVWR / payload, but this suspension makes it possible to load to GVWR and well beyond comfortably and (as far as handling goes, exclusive of braking) -- safely. (I'm going to call that "subjective safety," obviously it's always technically illegal / unsafe to exceed GVWR, but on a suspension with ?? 3x? 4x? 5x? the damping capacity of stock, if the vehicle turns and swerves and handles bumps and potholes nimbly at full load, that's safe enough for me.)

Whenever I stop to consider the cost of this suspension upgrade, it always goes something like this:
%#&(%) $6K+ (with tax etc.) for a &%)#(&$ suspension!!! It's really only worth $3.5K, but FOX gets to set prices because the market for high-quality/high-capacity shocks is tiny compared to the total base of light pickup trucks out in the world.

But, I view my Taco (young at 80K miles) as a lifetime investment (God willing, cross fingers not getting totaled by XYZ idiot driver out on the roads,) and since the shocks are fully rebuildable (at least once -- maybe 2 or 3 times, even, if I treat them well?) -- potentially I might keep them on the vehicle for the life of the truck, to 250K+ miles and beyond. (Rebuilding every, say, 40-50K miles.) So viewed on that timeframe a $6K cost isn't as hard to take.

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Note 1: As-shipped from Accutune, the preload on the front coilovers put the front at about 2.75" of lift. This is too high as it puts the CV joints/boots just into the range where the rubber CV boot folds start to touch & rub on one another. This is easy to see if there is the slightest bit of road dust on them, as it gets rubbed away within 50-100 miles at the affected areas. A subtle point, but if ignored, at some point (?5K-15K miles later?) the boots will tear at the rubbing spots & the CV grease will get lost and/or spoiled. Bad news. You can do one of three things to mitigate: stretch the existing boots out, buy special extended-length aftermarket CV boots, or lower the truck to around 2"-ish max lift above stock height.

I reduced preload (safely, using quality spring compressors very carefully, off the vehicle) enough to drop the front end to about 2.0 to 2.2" of lift. This brought the CV angles down to a gentler & better place. Accutune can't get the preload for any given vehicle "exactly right." You might get lucky, but you should be ready to adjust preload if needed. Either invest in a quality set of coil spring compressors, or go to a nearby shop that can do it for you. (Or send them back to Accutune - but this seems painful given the time lag & shipping cost, plus the chance that you may need or want a second preload adjustment at some future time.)

Note 2: Get an alignment done shortly (within 250 miles) after installing a suspension that lifts the vehicle. If you don't & instead drive 5K miles on it with front tires squealing through turns, etc., you're likely to ruin a set of tires prematurely and have exceedingly poor wet-road traction. I speak from experience on this.

Note 3: Particularly if you live in the rust belt: you may want to loosen all 4 of your LCA cam bolts to see whether they still turn freely, before you take truck in for an alignment. If the LCA cam bolts are seized (due to rust) the shop won't be able to align the truck at all. You will either need a complete new set of LCAs, or more likely the shop will offer to saw out the old bolts, extract the old bolts/bushings, and press in new ones. If this is needed it will add a lot of time & cost to the job, esp. if the parts aren't available on short notice locally. If you at least know that some or all of the LCA cam bolts are frozen, you then have options like DIY'ing it or talking to the shop & ordering necessary parts in advance.

If you choose to check your LCA cam bolts as described above, MARK all 4 of your LCA cam bolt tabs on BOTH sides (a total of 8 paint marks) before you loosen the bolts! That way you can return your truck to an approximate alignment after you check the LCA cam bolts for free movement.

Note 4: If you go heavy leaf springs for load capacity, they have to be loaded properly to work. I.e. 700-1000 lb-rated leafs will feel like rough sh*t if the rear only weighs 500 lbs, regardless of shocks/DSC settings. I carry several hundred lbs of ballast (mostly lumps of steel like 60-ton jacks, large bench vises, etc.) to get to the 700lb zone when not carrying other cargo. If you don't really need/want heavy load capacity, get lighter-rated rear leafs. (As a side note about routinely carrying 700 lbs on the back, I can still get 18 mpg (even with a 4" above-cab tall cap and a gangly full lumber rack; awful aero) if I stay at 55 mph on highway.)

 

damn fine write up sir. I guess I need to play with mine some more!

 

Have you posted your full setup/configuration earlier? If so, reply with a link to it and I'll check it out.

As mentioned above I've found that proper loading of the springs is key to having a decent ride. If the springs are over- or under-loaded, basically the shocks can't do their job because the springs aren't giving them the chance.

Springs are quite sensitive & have a sweet spot, and in my experience "tuning" the springs in particular simply means matching the amt of weight on them to the rating of the spring. 450 lbs on Deaver U402 stage III's = uncomfortable buckboard. 700-750+ lbs = mmm, feels planted & supple over bumps.

As a special/extra aside, running at >700+ lbs in the rear in a well-sprung/well-shocked Taco gives the truck a lot of confidence on dirt roads. No more tail-wagging (rear traction loss) on turns on dry dirt roads. And with that much mass in back, inertia is greatly increased, which gives the springs & shocks something to "work against", if you will, when absorbing hits. Like a larger boxer being able to absorb heavier blows, simply due to there being more mass. A pothole delivers a "punch" to the rear axle, shocks/springs deliver it to the frame, the frame delivers it to the bed/topper/rack/cargo, and if that all weighs ~1000 lbs (grand total) instead of ~300 lbs on a stock truck, whatever impulse remains is spread out over 3x as much time = softer ride.

 

Thanks for this exceptional writeup. I have read through it a few times and am still picking up detail.

You answered a question I didn't realize I was converging on, that the adjusters can span enough range to feel like 2 different trucks.

Cheers.

 

Anyone else find rocks inside your shocks?



Fortunately I didn't see any damage from this. Guessing I need some kind of a sock or boot or something to cover the springs with... What are some ideas?


.

 

https://accutuneoffroad.com/product/proseries-coil-savers-2/

 

There are 200 pages of content so it's a little hard to go through it all. I looked for what I'm after but didn't find it so I'll just ask...
I bought a set of used fox 2.0 coilovers for the front, im told they have 35k miles but i dunno if i trust that, so im planning to rebuild them. On foxes website it says

$977 2.0 ifp Fox 2.0 Performance Coil-Over Front Pair compatible with 2005-2016 Toyota Tacoma

2.0 ifp are $90 each plus shipping, but when i reached out they said 125 - 150 each plus shipping. Now I'm thinking about checking with other companies, but I'd rather have them rebuilt by the manufacturer. Does anyone have any experience sending them into fox for rebuild? Are there other companies people highly recommend?

 

Accutune, of course.

https://accutuneoffroad.com/

 

Oh Ive seen them referenced a lot but didn't realize they did rebuilds.

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm new to this. Everything I've owned in the past was a car and generally lowered. This is the first thing I've ever wanted to lift, so I'm not overly familiar in this area.

 

Was about to reach out to accutune, and their website says they do not offer rebuilds for ifp shocks or ifp coilovers.

Other highly recommended companies?

 

Good catch, my bad, I'll try to remember that in future.

 

It's strange, they offer honing for ifp shocks.... which you would only do as part of a rebuild... but don't offer rebuilds.

 

They got back to me and said they don't offer honing either, it was accidentally left on their website.

With that, im looking for any highly recommended rebuild companies if anyone has any.

 

I asked about this to accutune a while back too. they said IFP shocks are much more difficult to rebuild so only way to rebuild is to send to manufacturer. so Fox. none of the local shops here touch IFP either. at 150each plus parts?? you can buy a new snapring 2.0 from fox that reuses top hat and spring for 230$ each. depends on how cheap you picked them up for. Maybe move them on to someone else whos shocks are clapped and are happy with a minor upgrade with 35k shocks. I just gave my uncle my factory takeoffs 2020 OR and he was stoked since his had 250000 miles on them! one mans trash

 

Has anyone changed the piston/shims on their Factory Race series coilovers?
i had my coilovers rebuild and tuned with the softest tune but i still feel the front end is too stiff. I drove my friend’s taco with ADS and it feels softer.
I found a video online were they compare the piston of Fox vs king and king’s piston had bigger holes similar to an option Fox offers but not the one installed on factory race series. Which leads me to believe that maybe ADS also uses a bigger piston.

21” from top of the hat to bottom eyelet, C load tires, 14” 600 coils to compensate for the bumper and winch and no swaybar

 

Did you get them tuned by us? If so, we can certainly look into a different tune. We do offer free revalve service.

Comparing to your friends truck with ADS can be a tough since they are very different. Yes, to most they are almost identical, but they have their own unique designs for pistons, valving and compression adjusters. I'd also be curious to know how similar the trucks are built, tire size & rating etc.

Anyway, if we can help, let us know!

 

yes, they were tuned by you guys, back in June 2022. I didn’t buy the coilovers from accutune but I did sent them to get rebuild and tuned, would the free revalve service apply?

the trucks are similar but there’s some differences, he doesn’t have a winch and he’s running 35s. They shocks were also tuned by ADS