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

Shocks are personal preference asf
That’s why there is no universal brand dominance across dirt sports
Pick what fits YOUR needs best
As far as corrosion specifically
If you’re that concerned I’d be planning to Cerakote any shock you get regardless of brand
And expect to be doing constant cleaning throughout the rough weather seasons and your shocks will survive just fine

 

Just went and looked through, seems everything is pretty close in price nowadays.

 

Kings will do great out of the box if configured correctly for your applications
They do better if tuned/valved (duh)
And the life of your kings will be rewarded by doing regular service

fox will come out of the box and usually the complaint is “soft”
They will survive longer without service but when service is due
It’s either a fulllllll rebuild
Or just an issue of custom or unique tools

ads and others fall inbetween imo

this is all my personal opinion and knowledge from years of listening to the smarter folks in here

 

The best shocks for corrosion resistance are aluminum bodied shocks like the fox performance elite series. They should cool better as well, but I don't know about long term durability, as maybe the bodies wear out quicker with the softer metal. Next up for corrosion resistance would be getting any shock cerakoted. In my experience, regular fox rust quicker than king, but they both will rust especially if not kept clean. Same goes for bilstein, though I'm unsure of their newer coating they are using, as it hasn't been out long enough.

King are the easiest to work on and rebuild by far, at least from my experience. Also I like how easy it is to call them up and order whatever part you need. Fox can be difficult in this regard. Bilstein is a bit similar to fox in that they are a bit trickier to get parts from.

If you order fox, or any shock, through a shop that tunes shocks before sending them out, such as Wheel Every Weekend, or Accutune, or us, then the assembly issues are dealt with. Fox is just such a huge corporate company, it can be hard to deal with them, especially for me up in Canada.

I've only rebuilt one set of ads, as they aren't super popular up here yet, but they look and feel quality.

As far as quality of parts, standard fox uses high quality parts. I believe they've switched to a higher flow piston design. They used to run a low flow piston that rode like shit without drilling a bunch of bleed into it. King uses a standard high flow piston, but they do also have a digressive piston design. Bilstein always uses a digressive piston, but typically tunes their shocks linear out of the box on their higher end suspension. A digressive piston gives tons of options, as it can be tuned anywhere from digressive to linear to progressive. With a standard piston you don't have the option to tune digressive.

The race series king shocks use high quality seals, but their performance series are pretty run of the mill. Their seal design and seal head design, as well as their shaft design all make rebuilding them easier.

They all use the same

$15 com10 aurora bearing spherical bearing, COM series, 0.625 in ID, 1.187 in OD, 0.625 in thick, steel, each

com10 bearings, at least on the Toyota stuff. Some companies try to seal the bearings, like Elka, but I find that it just packs more crud in the bearing and doesn't let you keep them clean. Though on install maybe if you pack them full of grease, that would help keep dirt and water out.

Elka otherwise is pretty trash as far as quality goes. I've seen more snapped Elka than anything else, and they use a stupid seal head design. That's why I'm curious about the dirt king shocks that are basically rebranded Elka.

As far as out of the box performance, at least on a Tacoma, king and bilstein were the clear winners in our blind test series shock value. The 8112 bilstein for mid travel are insanely cool. They use similar technology in their Blackhawk UTV shocks. Wish they would bring those to the truck world. I also like bilsteins tool-less bypass adjusters.

Obviously tuning any shock to your specific vehicle is going to give the best results.

Anyway, that's pretty well all I got for ya.

 

From what I recall, ADS clear cerekotes their shock body out of the box. But I'd call and confirm that, companies change their finishing processes all the time and ADS is under Holley performance now. Components are all high quality across the board from the big three (four or five, if you include icon and carbon). Other than that, pick a color. Can't really go wrong.

 

Make sure the aluminum bodies are " hard anodized" this 100% insures long term corrosion resistance.

 

You and your Canadian facts and extensive testing results GTFO here with that proven science stuff we're looking for keyboard warrior opinions here

 

Just not forget. As we all look to move to more performance orientated products with that comes a higher level of maintenance and service regardless of brand.

 

Speaking of kings digressive piston...

 

While we're talking shocks: what're some modern options for performance bypass shocks that don't use check valves (or have less noise, more accurately, I suppose).

I was chatting to Phil @ Liberty Mountain and he mentioned that ADS has a new 5 tube series that doesn't have audible clicks and that Fox has a series that is pretty quiet but I was distracted (driving) and didn't catch the details. I guess ADS say their MBR IBP are equivalent to 7 tube in terms of tunability but Phil made it sound like they had some bypass stuff in the works.

I'm pretty curious in high performance options that don't end up with me with a headset on in my truck. I know, I know, clicking isn't bad enough to wear a headset and I'm a huge baby, but hey, if there's options.

 

I am a where of the Fox single tube Gold Valve and the Kings single tube Freebleed (may just be a JDFab thing) but JDFab does both.

 

The most up to date used kit courtesy of JDFabs excellent customers service..



Bling Bling Hardware..

 

Is that the new jd joint?

 

definitely looks to be much different than the one I received end of 2023.

 

Those are what replaced my EMF ball joints on my LCA’s. These are what I got yesterday to replace my uppers.

 

yours came in quick. Ordered mine over the weekend. I’ll probably knock those out same time I do the towers.

 

I’m 35 miles from them. But still too lazy to drive there.

 

Hahaha....im closer and still hate driving that far.....but to drive to the desert im gone!

 

110mi from JD but only trust them to work on products they make and install. Got my new pins swapped today along with a coil spring swap. Was talking to Jesse about the possibility of adding a Deaver leaf to the HD pack. I think there’s a guy in this thread (maybe TWTaco?) who had Deaver customize his HD pack. Gonna give the new coils some time to settle and break in before I go down that route. The front sits noticeably lower but I did not take before/after measurements. Poop.