Fox 2.0 Front Shocks and Tower Relocation

freeskier93

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Finally doing some much-needed upgrades to the front shocks and am looking at using the Fox 2.0 shocks and relocating the towers with the Ford towers. My main question is about finding the right shocks that will work. I know Savvy sells these, but the lengths aren't quite what I'm looking for. I'm more interested in the 985-24-042, which are Tj specific, and have a collapsed length of 16.650" and extended length of 26.750". I have Currie 3" springs and the extended length is pretty much perfect, and they would give me a full 10" of travel split just about 50/50. The problem is these are stem mount. Does anyone know an alternate part number for these that will work with the Ford shock towers? Also, is Savvy/Blaine/whoever still doing the custom TJ tune for these?
 
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Finally doing some much-needed upgrades to the front shocks and am looking at using the Fox 2.0 shocks and relocating the towers with the Ford towers. My main question is about finding the right shocks that will work. I know Savvy sells these, but the lengths aren't quite what I'm looking for. I'm more interested in the 985-24-042, which are Tj specific, and have a collapsed length of 16.650" and extended length of 26.750". I have Currie 3" springs and the extended length is pretty much perfect, and they would give me a full 10" of travel split just about 50/50. The problem is these are stem mount. Does anyone know an alternate part number for these that will work with the Ford shock towers? Also, is Savvy/Blaine/whoever still doing the custom TJ tune for these?

What is your travel right now? This seems like an awful lot of work to gain 0.4" travel (assuming you have balanced existing shock travel), especially on standard shocks. I did mine to get to 11" and used remote reservoirs (which is a much better shock that folks will tune, the non RR's aren't as common to find a tuner anymore).
 
@starkey480 did an extension recently on his stem mounts - that might be the best approach I have seen (basically adding ~1" to the tower height using stock towers). It would be worth reading his thread (it was within the last few pages).
 
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What is your travel right now? This seems like an awful lot of work to gain 0.4" travel (assuming you have balanced existing shock travel), especially on standard shocks. I did mine to get to 11" and used remote reservoirs (which is a much better shock that folks will tune, the non RR's aren't as common to find a tuner anymore).

Current shocks are 20 year old Procomp ES3000s. I honestly don't know what their travel is right now off the top of my head (guess is very limited/unbalanced). Front end is already apart, cutting off and welding in the Ford towers would probably be a day worth of work at this point.
 
I guess that is the point...why change the tower? If the shocks he wants to use are set up for a stem mount and they give him 50/50 distribution, there isn't any reason to change the tower.

Probably should have been more clear in the OP, would be using the ford towers to extend the towers up so I can run with no bumpstops. Stock mounting points only allow for about 14.5" collapsed.
 
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Probably should have been more clear in the OP, would be using the ford towers to extend the towers up so I can run with no bumpstops. Stock mounting points only allow for about 14.5" collapsed.
The Ford tower (or poly performance) are one way to get there. You could also just cut a hole in the existing tower, big enough for the shock body, and extend the shock mount up. There have been a couple guys who have extended the upper front mount in similar ways (with a piece of pipe or a boxed section). I believe @jjvw has done it and so has @bobthetj03
 
The Ford tower (or poly performance) are one way to get there. You could also just cut a hole in the existing tower, big enough for the shock body, and extend the shock mount up. There have been a couple guys who have extended the upper front mount in similar ways (with a piece of pipe or a boxed section). I believe @jjvw has done it and so has @bobthetj03

I think I remember seeing those (or similar) ages ago. I was also thinking about cutting off the top of the factory mount then raising it with plate steel. Honestly, that might not be any harder than the ford towers.
 
Probably should have been more clear in the OP, would be using the ford towers to extend the towers up so I can run with no bumpstops. Stock mounting points only allow for about 14.5" collapsed.

You're still going to need to run bump stops, I assume you mean just as minimal as you can go?
 
I think I remember seeing those (or similar) ages ago. I was also thinking about cutting off the top of the factory mount then raising it with plate steel. Honestly, that might not be any harder than the ford towers.

lots of ways to skin the cat. If the shocks you can get have a stem mount, I’d focus on how to make that work
 
@starkey480 did an extension recently on his stem mounts - that might be the best approach I have seen (basically adding ~1" to the tower height using stock towers). It would be worth reading his thread (it was within the last few pages).

Found it in his build thread, I like that method a lot, but finding cut off factory mounts isn't going to be easy, unless Blaine has a pile of them sitting around.

Am also looking at the remote reservoir version now... fwiw the Jeep isn't a daily driver, so on road comfort isn't a big concern. From an off-road perspective what are the benefits of the RRs? Although I say that there is still the wife factor when driving 6 hours to Ouray or Moab.
 
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Found it in his build thread, I like that method a lot, but finding cut off factory mounts isn't going to be easy, unless Blaine has a pile of them sitting around.

Am also looking at the remote reservoir version now... fwiw the Jeep isn't a daily driver, so on road comfort isn't a big concern. From an off-road perspective what are the benefits of the RRs? Although I say that there is still the wife factor when driving 6 hours to Ouray or Moab.

Adjustability, also more fluid so they don’t get as hot so they’ll have a more consistent feel through various conditions.
 
@starkey480 did an extension recently on his stem mounts - that might be the best approach I have seen (basically adding ~1" to the tower height using stock towers). It would be worth reading his thread (it was within the last few pages).

Freeskier likely saw my extended front shock mounts when I did them back in 2018ish for the 5000xes. Garrett did a much better job on his.
 
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Alright, I think I decided on the remote reservoir shocks, but now I'm going back and forth between the Fox 2.0 Performance and Factory series. Also looking at buying from AccuTune since they custom tune them. I'm leaning towards the Factory series, but it looks like they use a lower flow piston, so I'm worried even with custom tune they are going to be super stiff on-road. Factory series are also standard eyelets both ends, so for the top I'd probably go back to the original idea of using the Ford shock towers. Not sure what to do with the lower bar pin mounts, can the lower eyelet pretty easily be converted to bushing with bar pin?