Does anyone have any experience with Fox shocks?

dxbtj

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Aug 24, 2018
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
So i finally swapped out my worn out rancho rs9000xl shocks for the fox 2.0 Adjustable shocks. The ride improved slightly however on my softest settings i still find the ride to be really firm (riding around 4 inches of lifts, tires are aroudn 30 Inch tall and on 25 psi. driving on the highway i get a lot of bouncing/hopping depending on the conditions of the road. I am at around 4 inches of lift right now with what i beleive to be teraflex coils

Many people have told me that fox shocks tend to be stiffer than other similarly specced shocks. In order to improve my ride comfort i was thinkig of either re shimming the shocks, or trying out some dual rate coils in specific the JKS 3inch coils.

Does anyone have any experience with Fox shocks? I know there are conflciting views with shocks Vs Springs affecting ride quality but with my limited knowledge i feel like both affect the ride quality.
 
Have the shocks been tuned for your Jeep?

Being in Dubai I'd guess you have a few local tuners?
 
You may want to try changing out your shocks before changing out springs. Within reason, springs have very little effect on ride quality. A full set of Rancho RS5000X shocks will be cheaper than a full set of dual rate coils. You can always sell the fox, or sell the rancho's if you don't (or do) like them. Off the shelf fox shocks are not generally valved very well for a lightweight TJ with 30" tall tires
 
Thanks for the replies! I have not had the shocks tuned yet. But i feel it might ne the way to go, im scared to try tge harder settings haha. There isa go to guy based in dubai to tune shocks otherwise we are quite limited here.

Selling the shocks isnt really an option market is not so good here for TJs. Its impossible to find rs5000x here and would be quite costly to ship them here negating the whole cheap aspect.
 
Are they Performance series or Factory series? And what do you mean by adjustable? Do they have a comp adjuster on them?

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Its not cheap to tune them, but i will definitely give it a go next season. The shocks are Performance Series 2.0 Reservoir - Adjustable (compression i believe). So far they were installed and kept on the softest setting and i feel its still too firm. When driving on highway i sort of get little hops, which didnt happen with the old worn out ranchos

I am still thinking of possibly getting some coils to drop from 4 to 3 inch of lift which hopefully can improve the ride quality, mainly thinking of center of gravity. I originally wanted to go lower but previous owners mods wont allow (rear trackbar relocation bracket and i believe a dropped pitman arm).
 
Lower springs mean less uptravel which means firmer shock valving. Throw on those old shocks until you are ready to re-valve the Fox.
 
Measure the length of exposed shafts at ride height and share that with us. It would help to know the model number of shocks installed. If you don't know the model numbers, measure the lengths of exposed shafts at full extension.

At ride height, measure the distance between upper bump stop cups and lower bump stops.

Also measure the distances between lower spring perches and upper spring hats at ride height.

A single compression adjustment knob will also effect rebound somewhat. I recommend adjusting the knob to full stop the opposite direction from current setting, test ride, then rotate the knob to the middle position, and test ride.

Without more information than "too firm", my guess is the shock body is too long or too short, for spring length and/or bump stop height. Images are helpful.
 
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Are you sticking with the 30's or going larger? you may find a larger wheel/tire package gives a softer ride with the setup you have.
This is a good point. My TJ with 2" of body+2" of spring lift, running 33x12.5 KO2 (much heavier than stock) run pretty well on Fox 2.0 non-adjustable. It maybe that your ride gets better as you get the unsprung weight closer to the sprung weight so the shocks can do a better job dampening the two (or keeping it more balanced).

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Where did you buy the shocks? How much shaft is exposed on shock at normal ride height? Could have got the wrong shocks. If they are too long and dont allow for proper up travel that can cause some poor ride characteristics.
 
For refernce the style of driving we do is desert driving, crossing dunes, "hill (or dune)" drives and only a minimal amount of baja style whoops

@pcoplin Performance series with comression adjuster

@Daz7 & @ftwhite3 My tires are still good for a while and it might be hard to sell. I made an error my tires are Yokohoma Geolander ATS 275/70R16 (Roughly 31.2X10.8R16? ). I would consider going to 32 or max 33 but dont want to lose power or need to regear. Also the car has spacers about 1 inch

@k-huevo & @Gollywomper : I bought them from a local distributor. front 985-26-108 (3-4.5"), Rear 985-26-112 (2.5-3.5"). They were marketed as XJ shocks, but according to Fox website they are the same as TJ (resulting in an inch lower Lift),

The range of height of the shocks is another reason i am considering dropping to a 3 inch lift. Next time i take it for a service i will ask the garage if they can lift up the jeep so i can get proper measurement of the shafts at full droop + ride height.
 
...Next time i take it for a service i will ask the garage if they can lift up the jeep so i can get proper measurement of the shafts at full droop + ride height.
With the part number we know stroke length. Measuring the shock's exposed shaft at ride height is an easy task, no garage necessary.
 
Looks like the fronts are 15.1” collapsed length, that will need close to 3” of front bump stop.
Measure distance of shock shaft left at ride height and distance between bump stop cup and pad in the front.
Make the same measurements in the rear as well.

This the rear, but same concept for the front too.


93967
 
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I just wanted to give an update on my situation. I havent had a chance to do a proper measurement of my shocks at full droop and sitting.

However I did install a smittybilt rear storage box (rattles like hell lol but nice to organize), I lost abit of my acceleration however on the plus side I did notice my ride quality imrpvoed slightly. That hoppy affect when riding on the highway has reduced quite abit which makes me happy. Still hoping to optimize the set up and will post if I managed to figure out anything else