fox bypass shocks 2.0 or 2.5?

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:31 pm

new to high end shocks is the first thing you need to know! will be purchasing some fox shocks for my 1970 ford 4wd crewcab. lookin at the bypass shocks. my truck has 14" travel rear on 66" leafs rear. 12" frt travel on coilsprings long radius arms around 30". truck 5500lbs. i want something better than smooth body shocks and want to learn about these shocks, bypass. my truck will be driven daily and run up and down the mountains of wyoming and lots of dirt time on dirt roads as needed. this truck will tow light trailors on occasions but not its main purpose. any input is welcome. wanting to learn the high end shocks and tuning. lookin at the 2.0 and 2.5 bypass shocks dual and triples and don't really know what this does for a shock and have no experience yet! just read about is all i know. thanks guys and talk soon.

economig · Post by **economig** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:59 pm

This question will bring about a lot of debate *sometimes* in online forums. I'll keep it simple and say for what you described, vehicle weight and type of use, 2.5 would be minimum.

Again, people's personal perspectives on what a baseline for Daily Driven with consistent trail use means will also be subject to varied opinions...

IMO 2.0 would be pretty small for much more than a lifted truck that rarely sees trails. Larger diameter shocks will generally have lower operating temps, stronger internals, more tunability and extended performance. Good luck! Post some pics soon, truck sounds cool!

300 · Post by **300** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:43 am

I have a couple of thoughts for you regarding shocks:

1. Shocks are the single biggest improvement you can make to a vehicle and cost accordingly.

2. Off road shocks are like a commodity and retain their value. If you don't like what you buy the first time, you can offer them up for sale and get your money back.

3. Bypass shocks are designed for each application according to travel and ride height. The idea is that you introduce progressive or different damping at different parts of the shock travel. Or if you are like the rest of us, you buy what is avaialble used and try to make them work for your application. It is likely you could acheive 90% of your improvements in your application with smooth body shocks, and another 5% with bump stops.

4. These high end shocks are completely adjustable and not hard to work on, but it takes some patience and a tremendous amount of work and time to learn and tune yourself. Certainly doable though.

5. Distance is working against you. You don't have the luxury of walking into the shock shop, cornering the shock guru and making him concentrate on your project. It will be cost prohibitive (but still doable) for you to go to Barstow for a shock tuning session with these guys where they will dial them in.

6. In my own experience, Fox was the hardest company to work with. Quality was good, but distance was working against me and even with multiple SCORE championships I couldn't get their tech guys to return my calls. The parts I did get had to be bought retail from other vendors. My other first hand experience is 12 years with King, and it is still far from chummy. I did a Barstow tuning session with them and it was very productive. The guys from Bilstein seem to be very approachable.

7. In this case bigger is better for the reasons already mentioned. You will have to decide whether the extra cost is worth the packaging and mounting difficulties as the shock gets bigger. 2.5's are not that big. When you start gettting into the 3" and 4" sizes it really gets tough.

8. See #1 above.

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:14 pm

thanks guys for the input. this truck is a cool truck and some effort put into it. i want old iron with a modern twist. yes shocks are one of the biggest upgrades, agree 100%. 1970 crew 4wd about 400 hrspwr engine and overdrive tranny. Their are lots of rough mountain roads and long dirt roads in wyoming and i run them often. will look into the 2.5 bypass stuff. also lookin into building a dezert truck next and these shocks on this truck will help me get educated on the dezert truck. yellowstone off road racing (YORR) is our off road racing group near me. Need to build something.

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:18 pm

forgot to ask who is the best to deal with? i know of fox and king for hi end shocks. yes i'm on my own in wyoming and not afraid to tinker/tune. thanks guys for assistance. will figure out how to get pictures of my truck. glass is going in and all new rubber and window kits this weekend.

economig · Post by **economig** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:38 pm

Truck sounds very cool, can't wait to see it

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:55 pm

wyoming4x4 wrote: 1970 crew 4wd .

I know a guy that would give his right nut for that truck.

PaulW · Post by **PaulW** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:55 am

FYI
IMO based on my experience 2" is way to small. I run 3" CO and they have been on there since when the truck was stock except for the suspension upgrade. Now the truck has gained 2k lbs and I still have the same shocks (Yes they run hot in the whoops). These fronts are Kings and have not been touched since the original install, but the had the wrong shims from King and we fixed that before using. I have Fox in the rear and I like the Kings best. Fox's had to go back several times.
PaulW

BajaF250 · Post by **BajaF250** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:46 am

Hey Robert,

I'd like to throw just my 2¢ in for what that's worth. First and foremost, I most humbly concur with Don on all his 8 points... he's spot on. One thing you should consider is how you use your truck. If you're going to cycle through all 16" of suspension travel routinely and use it hard and fast, then bypass' will be the way to go. But, if you're not, then I'd seriously consider going smooth bodies. You really won't get your monies worth if you invest in all that tuneability but won't use it.

My experience with Fox is that they are really focused on the racers and high end customers that are here in SoCal and/or travel down here. They are out in the desert 3-4 times per week tuning, but you have to be here... (which is what makes it difficult for Don I suspect). But, they know their stuff. They do not deal with the general public well and won't sell parts directly, they sell to their dealers and the dealers work with the customers. With that said, there are some very good dealers that know their stuff and can get you anything and everything you need... great customer support.

The same goes with the Kings... they have a great tuning program but you have to be here... so it'll be tough to get the tuning help you need way up there. When you can get your truck down here for a tuning session, they are very good at what they do and will tune your truck very nicely! Don, I don't want to speak for you here, but Don's race truck was tuned and they saw incredible performance increases as a result of their tuning session.

Bilstein shocks are fantastic pieces of machinery! But, their racing shock program overall and their shock tuning program and customer support is going through some major changes (policy and personnel) and I'm not sure where they are going.

Sway-A-Ways... I've not had the best of luck with customer service and tuning advice... they are a great value, bang for the buck, especially now, they have really upgraded their internals and work quite well... But I must say, I have both Foxs' and Sway-A-Ways and the Foxs' outperform the Sway-A-Ways hands down!

Here's the deal... you can get any of the 4 major off road shocks to work for you, but you'll have to tune them accordingly. It comes down to application, use, personal preference and your customer service preferences.

Ok, size. with a truck like yours, like Don and Paul suggest, do not get 2.0's... they are way too small for your application. Depending on how hard you use your truck and how hard you cycle your suspension, you need 3.0's at least... but 2.5's will suffice if you're not that hard on the suspension. Weight and use are the biggest contributing factors on size determination. I'm running dual 3.0's in the rear of my 7,000lb pig... I just couldn't get a single 3.0 to work. I do carry gear in the back prerunning and chasing and thus it's a little heavier than a dedicated prerunner/racer. I'm soon to upgrade to dual 3.0's in the front as well as my front is under shocked. I'm certainly not suggesting that's the way you go, but just using it as a comparison.

Hope that helps some... just my opinion.

PaulW · Post by **PaulW** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 4:14 pm

dual 3" in rear and single 3" if front. Works for me. Another 7k rig, but the front weight is nearly stock weight.
PaulW

hobbyturnedobsession · Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:28 pm

Ive got swayaways and as mentioned theyre customer support sucks. It took them two months to return an email and the only reply i got was how do you use your rig? Now ive been running swayaways front and rear for over 3 years gone through alot of oops suspension setups before i got it right and beat the crap out of them. They still work perfect. If i were to do it again though id probably go with bilsteins. Just my .02 cents

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 3:26 pm

hello guys checkin back in. sounds like 3.0's is the way to go. rather have some overkill than underkill. like mentioned not really gonna run hard but you never know. hate for them to give up in the worst case scenerio. I will figure out something to show photos of truck. did send john photos at autofab and has his lowered hood and raised fenders on this truck. trucks main purpose is to run up and down highway and mountians and a capable dual purpose truck and haul stuff. cycling the suspension to the max isn't gonna be the norm but nice having the ability to do it is nice. this truck now has 66" leaf on rear 3/4 ton ford 2011. pulled leafs out and custom radius arm and coil suspension deavers. overdrive tranny behind well built cobrajet headed ford 400. Wanted for towing of trailor with a car or truck as max load on trailor. need some photos.

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Sat Nov 24, 2012 11:10 pm

hey guys checkin back in. busted my elbow bad! surgery to reattach my tricep to elbow. just now getting back into truck mode again. about 8 weeks since surgery. working my rear disc brakes today and brackets. will be lookin at 3.0's for this application. thanks for the input and will get some photos. been snowing here in wyoming a little. got about 8" of snow about a week ago and now due for some smaller stuff tonight.

economig · Post by **economig** » Sun Nov 25, 2012 4:00 am

Can't wait to see more! Good luck with the busted wing, sucks to be motivated when you can't physically work on a project then too busy when you can!?

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 5:23 pm

got my 4 link installed just before christmas. It has 16" of suspension travel up front. actually about 14" usuable to be safe. everything 1" QA chromoly 1.5" dom. Very pleased with setup. cycled the suspension christmas eve. Got a few minor tweaks but its done. 3.0 shocks is now on the agenda. Built up some rear disc brake with all ford parts dana 60 caliper from newer ford bolt on style, custom bracket. catch you guys later and talk soon and photo's on the way. my bum elbow is getting better. Atleast i can do stuff. my friend jason gave me a hand on setup and was glad to have him.

wyoming4x4 · Post by **wyoming4x4** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 6:53 pm

RADFLO shocks. good bad or whatever. website was easy to get through and wondering about tech support. thanks from wyoming. looks like a good product but i don't really know anything yet.