Fox or icon??!!

Do the normal Fox shocks work in both mid travel and long travel applications?

 

No LT won’t work with MT. LT is different all the way around. LT shocks, UCA’s and LCA’s are specific and purpose built and not interchangeable with MT stuff.

 

+1

 

+1

 

That response sounds similar to one you would get between eyes rolls if you told a Ford or Chevy guy you were considering a Tundra. Hahaha
ADS is a much smaller company but their build quality is very high. It’s at the very least on par with Fox/King/Icon. Look at a list of build parts for each and decide for yourself if they measure up.

 

I agree with that. Fox,king,Icon all large probably multi million dollar companies. Yes ads may not be on that level but I dont think it should take away from their quality. From what I've read on here over the last few days, they do a fine job on these trucks. Apparently alot of guys are removing their icons fox and kings and replacing with ads, and seem to be very happy with them.

 

for your viewing pleasure

 

There arent different "series" with ADS, everyone gets the best.

Their shock finish seems to be the best, seems to resist the elements much better. I have so far not seen the same corrosion as with the Fox on my Tacoma.
Need something special? They will get it taken care of. I used to be a Fox guy, that changed when shopping for my Tundra suspension.

https://www.adsshocks.com/ads_versus_competitors

@KevinK
Not sure, but id imagine it to be the same - when j bought my ADS basically directly from Brian, talked with him about valving. Fronts on mine are a dual stage flutter.

 

When I was shopping for King or ADS shocks, I ran a bunch of questions through my suspension guy who is an authorized King and Fox dealer. He agreed that I should go with ADS because of the quality over King. Up front I have ADS coil-overs w/reservoirs and King bypass shocks that I added later, the King's are a bit older and show some age but I don't think ADS will age like King and I have no complaints over either.

 

I've had both Fox and ADS shocks. Granted I know very little about the internals, but they both appear to be very high quality. IMO, the ADS stood out in a few small ways based on appearance. Like @14burrito said, the finish appears to be better with ADS. Also, the ADS reservoir hoses appear to be better. I switched my rear suspension from Fox to ADS recently, not because of any quality differences between Fox/ADS, but because I was also going with a Deaver leaf pack and @M C M sells custom ADS shocks that work better with the Deavers.

 

Different stroke lengths.

 

... for different...

 

Matt was really busy for King of Hammers and the Mint 400. Not a lot of Tundras in those events. All of the 4 are producing some nice shocks. Alex, @osidepunker, has one of the most bad ass trucks on the forum and he's running Fox. Of the 4, you could (almost) select the shocks you want by color only and be pretty happy with your ride. It's the other parts that really require research. UCAs are all different and provide different geometry/ alignment #s, not all of the UCAs actually work on the Tundra IMO. Leaf packs make a huge difference and you can spend a lot of money only to be disappointed with the end result,,,,, research and know what you want or you'll be spending even more...... so I've heard

 

Man, I'm trying. When research = trying to lap up water from a high pressure hose, it's no easy task. #blushes Did that sound not like I meant it?

 

Fox uses higher quality materials than the others. The shaft is hardened stainless steel. Much stronger than carbon steel and less likely to get nicks from rocks. They use higher quality seals that last much longer than the others. Real high pressure hydraulic hose for the resi, rated to 2000 psi. And the valving is much easier to understand. The have valve stacks laid out in a chart. Just pick a stack. If you need more or less, just go up or down on the chart

I've seen three kings blow up on the trail, two ADS's, and a toytec. My fox's have 50k hard dirt miles on them and so far so good

 

Who would you recommend getting advice and purchasing from?

 

Oh and I've also seen an Icon lose all its nitrogen

 

Blasphemy!!!

 

Well I wouldn't recommend getting advice from any installer or vendor. They all have their biases and you'll get a different answer from each one.

Buy from Kartek. They are awesome, very helpful and usually have what you need in stock with good prices.

These articles were helpful to me:

http://www.offroad-engineering.com/foxvsking.html

http://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/fox-vs-king-2-0-coilover-shock-comparison/

 

Looks BA

 

Just got this exact same setup quoted. How do you like it?

 

I really like it. It works great for a mid-travel setup. I have over 70k on my coilovers with no issues and I haven’t even rebuilt them yet (I have all the stuff just need to make time). The bypasses and Deavers I picked up last summer and were a huge improvement.
So far this setup has done everything I have asked of it. Loaded down for some overlanding and empty on day trips it’s been great.

 

Where did you buy the Fox 2.5’s from? The only place I see with rear piggyback dsc is Bilsteinlifts.

 

I have a set of 2.5s with r/r for sale...

#shamelessplug

 

Running a mix of digressive and progressive fronts and rears was a joke, I'm sure. you'd almost never be able to get them balanced with each other. From what I'm seeing you want to do, digressive valving looks like it would keep you most comfortable. If you can, go shoot some video out of the windshield while you drive on a common trail for yourself. Then we'll see what you see and can say for sure which is better (we'll still all disagree, but we'll be 100% sure of ourselves).

Warranty on any of the major manufacturers is usually pretty good. They all have good reasons to stand behind their products.

Ah, the Other Other adjuster.... I love the DSC on Fox. Coming from motorcycle shock tuning, even factory shocks on my bikes had high and low speed compression adjustments. Being able to open up the high speed and close off the low speed makes for a very linear-to-digressive curve on the shock. Running a mountain curve at 150 mph, you don't want a small divot to upset the rear end, so you let the rear move pretty quick for small high speed shaft inputs, and resist the larger inputs. That helps the rear settle quickly after you hit a lane marker while leaned over 60 degrees, dragging a knee and praying for traction. My ass made diamonds that day, but I lived to tell you about it.

TL;DR - DSC on Fox is awesome.

 

I dis-agree with most everything said. I have seen all of then break/fail. Some of those failures were user error and some were just shitty luck but all of them were easily fixed. That is the great thing - all the parts can be replaced. I disagree with Kevin on the setup - why would I want a shock that couldn't take the big ohhhh shit hits. Cause that always happens. Haha

 

I get what you're saying about the oh shit moments, but those happen far less often than me just driving along some bumpy trail. That bumpy fucker we ran on Saturday of T2S would be a bit more comfy on digressive shocks - they take some of the jounce out of the little stuff.

I want to be more comfy for more of the trail. Those oh shit moments will come and go. As long as they don't break the truck, I'm ok with managing them more carefully.

 

One more point of clarification.

Any tunable shock, which is all four of the majors, can be made to lean more progressive or digressive than they come stock. Icon can move towards a linear curve and be less digressive, and Fox, ADS, King can all be made more linear and less progressive.

Getting a truly prog or dig shock to go to the other side of the curve is more involved than just shim stack changes though. the piston will have to be replaced or ported to flip to the other side of the chart.

 

I was about to ask about the linear valving, as I’ve read a few of the “valving 101” type articles that mention it. But all of the discussions on here involve digressive vs progressive, but never mention linear.

 

The only bumpy fucker we ran was Schnebly Hill and that one section coming down the mountain. I don't normally run those types unless we get caught on one like that. So yeah not really setup to run that type of terrain but would love to drive your truck down the same section to compare.