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Kings are stiff...?

Discussion in 'Suspension' started by Rick6, Jun 3, 2019.

  1. Jun 4, 2019 at 12:33 PM
    #61
    Sunnier

    Sunnier Pity the warrior that slays all his foes

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    Yes, the bit in your edit. Due to the requirement you max out preload, the angles of the UCA's etc.
     
  2. Jun 5, 2019 at 5:26 AM
    #62
    Stig

    Stig New Member

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    Woops, I was late to the party amd didn't realize
     
    Sunnier[QUOTED] likes this.
  3. Jun 5, 2019 at 5:55 AM
    #63
    Sunnier

    Sunnier Pity the warrior that slays all his foes

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    No worries. Anyway, I enjoy threads that go sideways :rolleyes::boink:. But this one may wind up a pretty good resource, so I thought I'd 'give peace a chance'. :)
     
  4. Jun 5, 2019 at 6:14 AM
    #64
    PLC721

    PLC721 New Member

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    3rd vehicle/ set of kings, these are at 80k miles (with rebuilds) I wouldn't say they are OEM street ride plush, but they do have their own style of plushness, specially when you hit the dirt and get some speed!

     
    shapinoweno likes this.
  5. Jun 5, 2019 at 6:30 AM
    #65
    LEKS

    LEKS Truck name “Sancha”

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    8FBE1829-2A15-4CA1-A7F2-EE34CDBEC35F.jpg 49248E9C-77E5-4965-9B0C-2DFFDB9FD875.jpg Shock tuning will absolutely improve your ride. They are set up from factory more on the performance side than “street plush” side. If you’re not doing much off roading and prefer ride comfort have your local shop play with the valving for you, just tell them what your looking for. You could also do it yourself and learn shock valving so you can tune it perfectly to your needs. I took mine apart and it wasn’t hard at all.
     
    shapinoweno likes this.
  6. Jun 5, 2019 at 8:21 AM
    #66
    Rick6

    Rick6 [OP] New Member

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    Thank you for chiming in! I really wanted to hear from someone who has revalved. I was pretty sure I'd heard other people say the same thing, that out-of-the-box is designed for big desert hits. But I also knew these shocks are highly customizable so I wanted to explore options. I just didn't want to get sold on a revalve service if it ends up making no difference (kind of like adjusting the knob on the reservoir). Between running a business and having 2 babies I don't have the time to tinker (wish I did), but I'm not afraid to spend money if it gets me closer to what I'm looking for. Especially because I plan on having the truck a long time. Thank you again!
     
  7. Jun 5, 2019 at 8:50 AM
    #67
    Hbjeff

    Hbjeff New Member

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    Revalving can completely change the ride. You can us the same shock for a 2500lb race car as our 7000lb truck. The difference is valving and spring rate.

    You can make them soft as stock on street, just know that they will be too soft for big hits in dirt. You’ll get to know the feel
     
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  8. Jun 5, 2019 at 9:04 AM
    #68
    Rick6

    Rick6 [OP] New Member

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    Understood! I'm great with that tradeoff. Being able to go fast would be a perk, but if I have to delete that capability to get what I really care about, then it's an easy decision.

    Off-road wise, what I really needed was clearance (but not a spacer lift). I usually have a bunch of gear loaded up (guns, coolers, other stuff I don't want bouncing around anyway). So getting there is mostly slow, in and out of washes, rock gardens etc..

    A softer valving is starting to sound ideal.
     
    Sunnier likes this.
  9. Jun 10, 2019 at 1:58 PM
    #69
    Rick6

    Rick6 [OP] New Member

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    Update: appointment booked with Accutune in 2 weeks to revalve all four Kings with a flutter stack. My understanding is that from the King factory, we get a "straight stack", whereas a flutter stack is softer at the bottom and firmer at the top. It's not for everyone, but it does sound like what I'm looking for.

    Side note: @ColoradoTJ they also suggested removing the shims (and instead adding some preload), so those will come off as well.

    Both guys I talked to were very confident in assuring me the ride quality will be a significant difference. They have great reviews and another member said he's heard good things, so I have high hopes this will get the ride I was looking for.

    Will post back in a couple weeks with the results.
     
    mtndds98, Newm, Sunnier and 2 others like this.
  10. Jun 10, 2019 at 2:49 PM
    #70
    TheBeast

    TheBeast The Beach

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    keep me posted on their work. I wouldn't mind stopping there to have them rebuild my bypasses.


    do you need to bring all 4 shocks off the truck or will they remove them and revalve while you wait ?
     
  11. Jun 11, 2019 at 9:28 AM
    #71
    Rick6

    Rick6 [OP] New Member

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    Will do - I'll give a report back once this is done, since I couldn't really find much info on revalving and definitely not something as specific as a flutter stack. Meanwhile, I did see several threads/comments of people saying they didn't really like Kings (or Icons, Fox, ADS, Radflo etc.) for on-road use because they felt too rough or stiff. I'm starting to think a lot of people go with these shocks expecting a Cadillac ride, but later learn that's just not how racing shocks are meant to perform out of the box. And that maybe, if this works out, that customization is important.

    They do everything except the alignment. Of course they charge a few hours of labor to remove, but I'm pretty okay with the quoted price ($750 for everything). After buying the truck and all the parts, I'm in this for about $45k so far. So if tuning my shocks for $750 gives me a ride I'm 50% happier with, it's a no brainer.
     
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  12. Jun 11, 2019 at 10:10 AM
    #72
    Sunnier

    Sunnier Pity the warrior that slays all his foes

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    Yeah, this my understanding, and why I'm not grumpy about stiffness and vibration on pavement. It helps that my Kings are on an old truck. No problem on my purpose-built 202, but I'm sure I'd feel different if it were my 2017.
     
  13. Jun 28, 2019 at 3:09 PM
    #73
    Rick6

    Rick6 [OP] New Member

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    I updated the OP with this info so anyone who comes from Google/search will know the result:

    I re-valved two days ago to what's called a Flutter Stack, and it made a significant difference difference in terms of ride comfort. I would say this is close to how I expected the truck to ride by putting Kings on them.

    Before the Flutter Stack (Kings straight from factory), the truck felt stiff and bouncy to the point it was uncomfortable. After the re-valve, it feels like it soaks up everything comfortably. I would say the ride is 25% smoother than stock. And it's 500% better than using a cheap spacer lift.

    To be clear, even after the Flutter Stack it's not a "Cadillac" kind of ride, but it's not far off. Having heavy duty tires still makes you feel the small stuff. But now, when I hit bigger bumps, I don't feel like my entire body is jolted. It's now just soaked up. So, I'm calling this a win and worth the money to re-valve.

    If you already have Kings on your ride, understandably it's a little more of a nuisance to take them off and get this done. If you don't have Kings yet, you should buy them from a place that does tuning beforehand. Tell them what you want and they'll set you up. I wish I'd done that, rather than run them as-is from the factory. They're so customizable, you're selling yourself short by not taking advantage of that.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2019
    DeesCrewMax, EDDO, Sunnier and 3 others like this.
  14. Nov 21, 2020 at 3:01 PM
    #74
    ultra1988

    ultra1988 New Member

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    I know this is an old bread but I might as well keep this one going instead of making a new one. I ordered oem 2.5 king coil overs for my tundra. I took them straight to King to get valved one step softer, I know I want a plush ride. The rep there said that they already had a flutter stack, and were already valved for the street and he suggested not wasting the free revalve without trying them first. I left them anyways, I know I want the softest ride possible. And I’m ok with learning how to valve shocks in the future to get it perfect. I just found it curious that they already had a flutter stack, maybe they made their valve stack more street friendly on the OEM shocks?
     
    DmoHtx15 and DeesCrewMax like this.

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