TRD pro fox vs 2.5” king for what it’s worth

So before I made the swap to kings I tried to do lots of searching on the difference between the TRD Pro fox setup and 2.5” king remote reservoir setup with little to no luck. I was mainly curious about difference in quality and ride on and off road. Well after 90k on my stock TRD fox shocks I made the swap to 2.5” extended length kings in all for corners. I figured I’d pass along the following opinion for what it’s worth for the next guy considering rebuilding fox vs swapping out to something else like king...

First off let me start by saying how happy I had been with the stock TRD pro Fox shocks. Not only did these things go strong through 70k great miles, they limped on to 90k before I really started to notice a solid fade and softness. Granted I’m in Texas so I’m not hurling myself across any deserts at 80 mph but I work in pipeline construction so my truck was off the beaten path quite a bit of the time. Obviously I would hammer on it anytime I was out on the right-of-ways without anyone around which are rough to say the least. I pulled many overloaded trailers with no issue down these “roads” as well. Still I wondered about King shocks. After 90k miles it was time to swap. Side note: my brother is rebuilding and buying my fox setup from me so no I’m not throwing them away. After getting my extended length kings from Accutune with Icon delta joint UCA’s last week the first thing I noticed was how soft yet planted it was. The TRD fox shocks were much stiffer when new than these kings. The fox did a wonderful job of softening up when going faster and harder off road while king remains soft on and off road. I feel like it is a bit floatier but not annoying if that makes sense. My truck doesn’t wonder on the road but feels more like what you would imagine a trophy truck feels like as they roll around corners..
I guess the long and short of it is: after having both, the TRD fox setup deserves more credit than it gets. The kings are great and I don’t regret it one bit, but it is definitely softer when at slower speeds. Fox and Toyota have nailed it for the truck as a “do it all” package no doubt. King has taken it a step further in what feels like a slightly more comfortable and softer ride.

I’ll end with saying I’m by no means any suspension expert but I have read quite a bit about these trucks. I just wanted to offer an opinion for someone who may be in my shoes in the future with deciding whether to rebuild the fox or replace with something else. FYI fox quoted me roughly $135 per shock rebuild but they were about a month turn around and as my daily driver I couldn’t have my truck down for that long which is why I ultimately went the route I did. Shout out to Accutune for hooking me up with great custom valving and a solid package. Hopefully I can make it out to Big Bend sometime soon to put these Kings through their paces!

 

I just sent a pair to fox it’s been 5 weeks and still waiting

 

I assume you had the Kings tuned for your Tundra through Accutune. Do your Kings have clickers? I have a 17 TRD Pro with 1st generation Bilstein pro shocks. I do find the ride to be ridged at times especially when it's cold. Like you said they do get softer the faster I go. Pro Bilstein's I believe are digressive shock, not progressive like Fox, and King. When It's time to replace them I thought about going with new Fox Pro suspension but Kings are on my radar. I will wait for the Covid madness to pass. I hear Fox and King and etc. are months out.

 

Don't the king shocks need to be rebuilt as well about every 50k miles?

 

No clickers on mine and yes accutune tuned them for their “adventure” tune

 

I believe that is about the standard for all these rebuildable shocks but obviously it depends on your driving. I’ve always watched for oil leaking or when I start to feel more bounces to recover from bumps in the road. For example when you go over a speed bump it shouldn’t take more than two bounces before your truck returns to normal. If you start feeling more bounces that’s an easy sign that you may be due for a rebuild. It’s all very scientific ha. You’ll start to feel when these shocks start fading and getting to their limit though as far as needing to be rebuilt

 

how long did it take to get your kings? i've been waiting for mine 3 months now.

 

Took about 3 months. Not an easy wait but worth it

 

Did you order kings direct or thru a dealer? Just curious

 

I went through Accutune. It took right at 12 weeks which is what they told me initially when I placed the order.

 

Thank you for the great feedback!
By no means do I want to step on any toes, but a bit of clarification is needed for your the King Shocks you have from us.

King makes a great product, but that ride quality you are experiencing is coming straight from our valving, not the standard valving King has in their shocks. Our Adventure Tune is more of a soft/street friendly tune and usually works out great based on the customers needs. We actually swapped out the pistons in your shocks as well to go from Digressive to Linear. We do have stiffer tunes for more aggressive off-road driving, however that can be a little too rough for a daily driver/weekend warrior application. That is one benefit when getting compression adjusters on the shocks, you can fine tune as needed. Of course we still offer a free revalve if you would like the shocks to be more firm. Happy to help you out with that if needed.

Thank you! We love to hear this kind of descriptive feedback

 

Couldn’t be happier with the setup from y’all. All I want to do is run over everything in my path at mach christ! Good to know how it all works and what y’all provided over the standard off the shelf item

 

600lb springs ?

 

does this mean it wobbles more on broken surface or that is gone?

 

No wobble at all. It does take bumps better than the Fox at slower speeds but going fast I'd say it's very similar to TRD Fox. Both take the big hits well IMO, King just does better when you're going slow.

 

I believe so

 

Nice comparison between the two! What part of Texas are you in? I live south of DFW and recently bought Fox 2.5s. I realize I'll have to get them rebuilt later on, so I had been asking around the DFW area. I forget the name, but there's a shop that focuses on Ford Raptors that rebuilds shocks. I've been thinking of tackling the job myself when the time comes, though.

 

i just put in the 6112 at 3rd setting after hearing a million reviews. Ride is stiff and not at all what i expected. Will be replacing soon. May try kings or foxs

 

This is super helpful. I was looking for info exactly like this when I was shopping for suspension. Ultimately I went 6112/5160 because I could not find a write up like this. I struggled to justify the 3k -4k for the pro setup vs kings(ads or fox) and ultimately settled. I can’t say I am disappointed with the 6112 at 1.9 (+shim), but the ride is stiffer than I would opt for around town on beat up roadways. I think accutuned adjustable kings or fox are in my future. I’ll save my current setup so I can toss them back on when I am rebuilding shocks so I can take my time or send them off. Thanks so much for sharing your experience.

 

yep same plan

 

https://www.tribe-16.com/ may be the one you're talking about, if not they do a lot of Raptor shocks also

 

Similar experience for me. The 6112s were a step up from stock, more planted ride, but firmer and stiff than what I’d hoped. Took bumps well but was looking for a bit smoother on-road ride, I don’t do a lot of off-roading. Can’t complain much though because it was a low cost upgrade.

 

will the stock TRD pro shocks bolt right in and be smoother?

 

This post inspired me to put in an order with @AccuTune Offroad. I'm all about that ride quality! Can't wait for those babies to come in. Unique situation in that I already have Kings installed in the front, so I'll get to really feel the difference in the AccuTune tuning.

Question: I'm wondering what else I need to take into account in my rear suspension. I currently have AirLift airbags (5810). I don't ever inflate them, but they seem to have some lift built in even while deflated. I can’t find any details on that online though. And my leaf springs... well they look a little tired in this photo. I'm sure the Kings will make it a much better ride right out of the gate, but I'm just wondering if there's anything I need to account for on the compatibility of all this stuff.

 

If you want a better ride and not limit your suspension droop with Kings, etc….Get some Daystar Craddles to allow max travel and not hindered by the air bag base mounted setup. Not to mentioned full leafs pack Deavers or comparable to replace the stockers will give best posssbile compliant ride. Especially with valved shock for your use of truck.

 

First time hearing about the Daystar Cradles. I should be able to install these myself, right? Seems pretty easy to remove the bottom connection and replace with this.

The leaf pack seems way more involved. I'm definitely interested in doing it. Just not sure if I want to wait and try out the new shocks first.

 

Daystar Cradles, or you can actually just unbolt the bottom which is what I did and it works fine too. Keep the seat on the leaf spring, but unbolt the seat from the air bag. I also fully disconnect my air lines and remove the compressor fuse so there's no pressure in the bags (if you run their compressor it always stays at 5psi on the lowest setting, and even if you fully air the bags out and don't have/disable the compressor then as the bag compresses it'll build pressure). Some people say running zero pressure in the bags is bad for some reason, I've seen no ill effects and the bags hold pressure just fine and haven't been beaten up by running them totally empty. On my bags they came with the shark bite quick connectors, so it takes all of 30 seconds to crawl under the truck and disconnect the air line or plug it back in. That's my process for running the bags (and I have Kings all around too), disconnect the compressor fuse, and disconnect the air line physically, and then have the bags disconnect from the leaf spring. Anything else was a horrible ride since the suspension is limited in either direction.

 

Thanks again! Sounds like your airbags are hooked up to a compressor. Mine are manual. I read the AirLift bags are meant to be run empty when not towing. I've deflated them but it still seems higher than stock. Haven't figured that out yet.

Great idea on just unbolting the bottom! I already ordered the cradles on Amazon, but I guess I can return them. The only risk I can think of not having the cradles would be if I was putting it under some huge articulation while airbags were inflated. Seems like an unlikely situation.

 

I don't remember them, but it's good to know they're local to me. Anyway, I found the shop I was referring to:

https://texasshockworks.com/services/