FOA shock opinions

[Kel Fab Creations]

I'm not a shock master by any means but the oil needs to be changed according to amount of use. Then while you have the shock apart you can inspect seals and wear bands. Sure you shouldn't replace seals just because but you should be looking at them periodically. I guarantee if you took your shocks apart and looked inside you will find BLACK oil and wear bands over worn or very close with the amount of use your talking about.

[Agui-E7TE]

Frequent maintenance is what keeps them working like they're supposed to. That goes for engines and transmissions too. There's a big difference in a 100K mile transmission that more than likely has worn out internals but still works as compared to one that has been gone over and rebuilt to withstand off road stresses. The shocks might be working fine but after a constant pounding from say a long trip through the desert, they might start to fade from the lack of maintenance.

Oh, and I should mention I'm not a shock expert by any means either. I understand a little bit about how they work and what needs to be done to them over time but that's as far as my knowledge on them goes.

[shockseals.com]

Care to explain why? If there is nothing wrong with something why would you rebuild it? If your trans hits 100k miles but works fine you don't rebuild it just because you should.

You change your fluid don't you? Maybe not if you don't prep your shocks but most people change there trans fluid before 100k. And if you wait to prep shit till it fails what kind of racer are you?

Offroad use is 1000 miles between rebuilds as good rule of thumb if you want to stretch it especially depending on heat the shocks get to.

50/50 dirt street is 10k miles and road use is 40k miles but I still suggest yearly if you spent money on good shocks for your daily driver.

[PaulW]

My Fronts are fat King COs (no bypass) and no adjustment or any kind on maint since they were installed. Lost track of how many years its been, but probably around 7 years?. My driving is 80-90% on the whoops and washboard around San Felipe and to LaPaz on the track every other year. The rears are Fox and they had a bad start going back twice. Now its been several years with no maint. Fronts have areund 40k and the rears have around 15k.
Its true buy quality and make sure the shocks are oversized and success is the result.
Fox Valving was correct out of the box. Kings were revised by Chris day one. No iteration has been required for either.
When I had leaf springs and King bypass in the rear the valving never was correct. I think Yikes has them correct now for his rig?
The Fox air COs have had one pressure change.
PW

[Daves Offroad Supply]

I said the shocks had not been rebuilt. Not that we haven't been inside of them. They are apart constantly for tuning which means fluid changes and such. We are in and out of them both all the time but the FOA's have been rebuilt because they HAD to be not because of maintenance.

Since we are using the transmission as an example, you change the tranny fluid and pan gasket to keep it maintained. Not rebuild the transmission constantly. Same with the shocks, they are maintained regularly, not rebuilt.

When I say shock rebuilds I mean stuff like fittings need replacing, hoses replaced cause they are leaking at the resi, eyelets being worn out....all the little parts in a shock.

[Joxracing]

I bought two 2.5" 12" stroke for my 88 F-150 in about 2011, and they are great! I havent done anything to the poor shocks and they dont leak, still have charge in them and handle awesome...

BUT...
I went with 4 brand new 2.0" 14" Stroke FOA's for my race truck this summer. They gave me a great racer deal, and I was excited since my 2.5's were so good. I talked to JD, had them valved meduim/firm on two, and firm/firm on two...

They showed up, one was leaking straight up out of the box. We felt them, and they felt extremely light. We called FOA back, and they screwed up valving, and valved them all light/light. They overnighted us shims, and we revalved all the shocks (2 weeks before a race, kinda sucked). During revalving, we found a lot of machining burrs and metal in the shock itself. After on the truck and a test run, another 2 started to leak...

After our 6 lap "race" if you would call it (bad weekend) we had one endcap-eyelet on the end of the shaft loose. Overall, not happy. Im talking with them currently about working out a better deal because I want to run these shocks, because I like the guys that work there. I hope they can get there shtuff together soon.
Seems like after there shop burnt down, quality kind of went out the door...