Driving fast offroad

[elliottw]

Question, I do a lot of driving on bad gravel roads and I'm always in a rush (ie. late for work, cows out, get to the field whatever) my current ride is a stock height, stock shock, ccsb lbz with 22s and 420s.
Obviously the wheels and tires aren't the best for my prerunner habits but shock and suspension wise what would you do if it was your pickup? Definitely no lift or level kit. Just looking to get it setup to better absorb the washboards and natural dips and stuff in the road. Thanks for any opinions!

 

[melms23]

smaller wheels would be better I'm sure. My 33's on 17's ride awesome compared to my 31.5" on 18's. Both are terragrapplers if it matters.

 

[OregonDMAX]

How many miles on shocks, you'd be surprised how quick a low mile shock gets destroyed on washboard or just rough roads.

 

[elliottw]

60k on shocks, I plan to change them out just don't know what to, go big $ and get remote reservoirs or what

 

[Chevy1925]

A set of properly valved resi shocks would make a nice difference. Removing the overload and one rear bottom leaf as well as resi shocks helps the rear end out quite a bit or a set of deaver leafs for a 1500. A block and axle wrap bars would be needed for the remove leaf method.

I have a friend out there running a setup close to this that bombs the hell out of his truck out on forest roads and some of the bumps he comes up to makes you grab the roof preparing for a hard hit only to have it soak it up smooth.

 

[malibu795]

Kings/fox shocks top end.. Can't really go wrong with some good belisten silver shocks... got said belisten shock on my hotshot..
Gasuout runs kings on his 05 Kodiak.. Has a habit of prerunning it on dunes in socal..

 

[bmc1025]

Fox 2.0 without resi can be had for 225.00 a piece and are easy to rebuild. I haven't bought a set yet so I have no feedback, but is most likely what I will be buying soon.

I'm guilty of doing the same but in both of my CC Duallys. Both trucks smash the upper front shock bushings quickly. The road into my property is a 1 mile gravel right of way.

 

[hondarider552]

Coilovers

 

[elliottw]

Yea my house is 6 miles from pavement in both directions and when were farming some of the fields are down some pretty busted trails. If money was no object I'd take it to kibbetech and have it built like the dunewhore haha

 

[Chevy1925]

you want a resi shock at min. the issue you will run into is "what valving do i need". i have no answer for you there though as im not playing the torsion bar game anymore. i would suggest a decent compression stack (in fox terms, a 60-70 on compression) and a fairly heavy rebound stack (50ish to start). then expect to revalve if its not up to your standards (thats front end only).

if you dont run a resi and go with the cheaper $225 2.0 shock, might as well buy bilsteins cause either one will get hot and loose dampening

going fast on or off road isnt cheap

i have a setup ive been working on for quite some time but at this point im not even sure it will be up to my standards. ill know more in a few weeks

 

[elliottw]

you want a resi shock at min. the issue you will run into is "what valving do i need". i have no answer for you there though as im not playing the torsion bar game anymore. i would suggest a decent compression stack (in fox terms, a 60-70 on compression) and a fairly heavy rebound stack (50ish to start). then expect to revalve if its not up to your standards (thats front end only).

if you dont run a resi and go with the cheaper $225 2.0 shock, might as well buy bilsteins cause either one will get hot and loose dampening

going fast on or off road isnt cheap

i have a setup ive been working on for quite some time but at this point im not even sure it will be up to my standards. ill know more in a few weeks

So kings or fox with the res is the real choice here? I also do not speak the language of valving haha

 

[Chevy1925]

look at it like this.

EFI Live is the best setup for our trucks to get the most out of it but if you want to tune it yourself, you have much to learn if you have never played with it. Same deal with Fox/King shocks and valving. there are companys out there that have a fox shock that is already valved for your truck but it may not be 100% tuned in for you (just like a boxed tuner). the valving is a little more generalized to get the most out of the street AND dirt. i have seen that most are offering adjustable compression (both high and low speed from Fox) which will let you dial it up for off road and back down for on road.

I would suggest buying the off the shelf king shocks specific for our trucks or going to norcal truck and getting buying their fox shock setup. they would be the best bet for off the shelf type setup.

 

[elliottw]

Yea that's a good analogy, am I correct in saying a 2.0 or 2.5 shock is far superior in ride and absorption to a stock style shock but is it really worth the scratch for king 2.5s because idk if they even make like king kong 4.0s or whatever size they are for our trucks? And i'd probably have to get a loan for them haha. Would the fox 2.0 probably be fine for me? I'm not going like 100 mph down gravel, very often anyways..

 

[Chevy1925]

A 2.0 or 2.5 is only as good as its valving but when dialed in, FAAAAAAR superior than stock shocks.

for back road semi graded stuff, a 2.0 resi will work but if you try running the road like your at baja racing for more than 30+ min, your going to heat it up. you dont need a 4.0 shock. either setup you go with is going to be over 1000 bucks all said and done for front and rear. And thats assuming you buy direct from fox with just their general 60/40 valving as you dont know where you want to be.

 

[DPC]

Why not just run a set of rancho RS9000? They are adjustable, much better then the stock stuff, and cheaper then the FOX stuff. I run them on both my trucks and it made a big difference over stock, both trucks are stock suspension.

 

[Chevy1925]

Why not just run a set of rancho RS9000? They are adjustable, much better then the stock stuff, and cheaper then the FOX stuff. I run them on both my trucks and it made a big difference over stock, both trucks are stock suspension.

because its like going from a PPE Hot +2 (ranchos) to EFI Live (fox/king).

 

[elliottw]

A 2.0 or 2.5 is only as good as its valving but when dialed in, FAAAAAAR superior than stock shocks.

for back road semi graded stuff, a 2.0 resi will work but if you try running the road like your at baja racing for more than 30+ min, your going to heat it up. you dont need a 4.0 shock. either setup you go with is going to be over 1000 bucks all said and done for front and rear. And thats assuming you buy direct from fox with just their general 60/40 valving as you dont know where you want to be.

Would that be a good benchmark to go off of (stock fox) or what would you buy if you were me? Anytime I'm hauling stuff it's like a bed full of seed or pulling tanks or what have you and then I'm not going to be hauling ass because I don't want to flip an NH3 tank

 

[DPC]

Running FOX/KING without a lift is like running EFILive on a stock transmission:thumb:.

 

[Burn Down]

Running FOX/KING without a lift is like running EFILive on a stock transmission:thumb:.

Not really... If you don't run a long travel Lift Kit, the shock stroke length doesn't change, just the length of the shock body for the lift. Rancho's are fine but I think the OP is going to need a stouter shock set up.

 

[elliottw]

Yea long travel or bust if its higher than stock, and I'm not gonna long travel this pickup unless someone wants to donate a healthy stack of money to me haha