*Fox Shocks* Need help please.

[VVVJDMVVV]

Hey fellas,

I owned 2 cummins' before this and had 6" long arm lifts and a block leveling kit and decided not to go back to work so Im lookin at getting back into a diesel and want a duramax. Im tired of the big lift look thats all to common here in Alberta, Canada. I would like to have a really nice riding and functional (rough pothole gravel roads for work) truck. Originally I wanted to do a long travel pre runner type kit but theres not a lot of bolt on options and the one i found was 5200 just for the kit, not including new wheels and tires and fiberglass quarter panels. Anyway, cutting to the point. I was curious with the fox shocks it says 3-5" of lift. If i leave it on the 3" setting will it have a slight rake to the back like a pre runner style ? Are there any better kits ? Id like to stay around the stock height with a slight rake back (I know its not everyones cup o tea). Any other suggestions for a nice riding reservoir shock thats adjustable. Also as far as install or mounting ? Any info really, im still researching as well but hoping you guys with some experience with then could point me in the right direction.

Thanks a lot !

 

[VVVJDMVVV]

This is the kit I was looking at.

http://www.ocdiesel.com/Cognito-Remote-Reservoir-Shocks-Fox-p/cog fox-4f-gm8l.htm

 

[carter_44]

Contact Nick at NorCal truck. I'm sure he has a kit that will fit your needs. Great products and great customer service from those guys.

 

[Chevy1925]

Hey fellas,

I owned 2 cummins' before this and had 6" long arm lifts and a block leveling kit and decided not to go back to work so Im lookin at getting back into a diesel and want a duramax. Im tired of the big lift look thats all to common here in Alberta, Canada. I would like to have a really nice riding and functional (rough pothole gravel roads for work) truck. Originally I wanted to do a long travel pre runner type kit but theres not a lot of bolt on options and the one i found was 5200 just for the kit, not including new wheels and tires and fiberglass quarter panels. Anyway, cutting to the point. I was curious with the fox shocks it says 3-5" of lift. If i leave it on the 3" setting will it have a slight rake to the back like a pre runner style ? Are there any better kits ? Id like to stay around the stock height with a slight rake back (I know its not everyones cup o tea). Any other suggestions for a nice riding reservoir shock thats adjustable. Also as far as install or mounting ? Any info really, im still researching as well but hoping you guys with some experience with then could point me in the right direction.

Thanks a lot !

what size lift are you gunna run? you have alot to figure out before shock decision

 

[VVVJDMVVV]

Contact Nick at NorCal truck. I'm sure he has a kit that will fit your needs. Great products and great customer service from those guys.

Thanks, ill check it out. Im from Canada so hopefully shipping isnt a problem for him.

what size lift are you gunna run? you have alot to figure out before shock decision

Well the kit in the link above says there adjustable 3-5" so I would be hoping to leave the front at 3" and the rear stock height.

 

[TeaBagger2006]

I think you're a little confused. It also says not for leveled trucks. So let me get this straight, you want to keep the truck stock height and run those shocks? It ain't happening, you need a lift kit to run those shocks and to gain some clearance and keep good ride quality

 

[VVVJDMVVV]

Ohhhh roger, I gotcha. Maybe ill just have to fork over the bucks for a long travel kit. I dont want to just lift the front but im really not wanting to do just another lift kit. Im going for that pre runner style. Maybe a 4" with those shocks and raise the front an extra inch or two ? Id prefer to stay lower. Any ideas ?

Thanks for the help

 

[Chevy1925]

jsut FYI, long travel is gunna hinder your turning radius something fierce. been there done that. Not to metion the uni-ball and hiem joints are not long lasting and will need replacing after 10-20k depending on how rough of road your consistanly driving on and so on. Not to metion salt will rust the ball on either heim or uni-ball and really kill it. stay with ball joints if you can.

Fox makes a bolt in replacement for a stock truck but i dont recommend cranking the front end for a "smooth ride". at very least you would need a Cognito upper control arm (UCA) if you did that to help with ride.

i suggest you buy a 4-6" kit, keep the rear end stock height, lower the front as low as stock torsion keys will let you and run your fox shocks you want. this will give you your look and work VERY well out there. id also suggest a limit strap on the lower control arm (LCA) to help save your upper ball joint on those rough roads since there is a bumpstop that hits the UCA to stop the suspension down travel from going too far and popping cv's out or damaging ball joints. teh ball joint is very small to hold all that weight stock, not to metion if you add bigger tires and what not.

i know what your going after and ive been building my truck down these same lines. check out my garage for any pics. the plan after shes back together is 2.5" 10" stroke resi shocks up front, lower the front as much as possible with my lift while keeping a 50% up or down travel, run hydrulic bumpstops that hit the UCA to stop up travel and give me a 1:1 ratio with the suspension travel, mount my limit straps and ditch the whole factory bumpstop bracketry. at this point i only need the shocks to start on the idea. it will work VERY well when its done as ive already put this lift kit through its paces so i know it will hold together. im looking to pull about 12-13" of travel.

 

[VVVJDMVVV]

jsut FYI, long travel is gunna hinder your turning radius something fierce. been there done that. Not to metion the uni-ball and hiem joints are not long lasting and will need replacing after 10-20k depending on how rough of road your consistanly driving on and so on. Not to metion salt will rust the ball on either heim or uni-ball and really kill it. stay with ball joints if you can.

Fox makes a bolt in replacement for a stock truck but i dont recommend cranking the front end for a "smooth ride". at very least you would need a Cognito upper control arm (UCA) if you did that to help with ride.

i suggest you buy a 4-6" kit, keep the rear end stock height, lower the front as low as stock torsion keys will let you and run your fox shocks you want. this will give you your look and work VERY well out there. id also suggest a limit strap on the lower control arm (LCA) to help save your upper ball joint on those rough roads since there is a bumpstop that hits the UCA to stop the suspension down travel from going too far and popping cv's out or damaging ball joints. teh ball joint is very small to hold all that weight stock, not to metion if you add bigger tires and what not.

i know what your going after and ive been building my truck down these same lines. check out my garage for any pics. the plan after shes back together is 2.5" 10" stroke resi shocks up front, lower the front as much as possible with my lift while keeping a 50% up or down travel, run hydrulic bumpstops that hit the UCA to stop up travel and give me a 1:1 ratio with the suspension travel, mount my limit straps and ditch the whole factory bumpstop bracketry. at this point i only need the shocks to start on the idea. it will work VERY well when its done as ive already put this lift kit through its paces so i know it will hold together. im looking to pull about 12-13" of travel.

Dude hell yeah. Your truck is tits. Even the same engine/drivetrain mods I want. Thanks for the info as well. So if I got a 4" how much can I crank the front down ?

 

[Chevy1925]

thank you. It depends on the kit. a cognito 4-6 decranked all the way would put you around 3-3.5" of lift. and that would go the same for most 4-6" lifts. if you get a straight 4" lift (tough country), it may go lower than 3" when decranked. your goal is to get suspension travel so both up travel and down travel is about 50% but it will depend on your terrain once you get it on for final ride height/travel. i definitly suggest a lift one way or the other

 

[VVVJDMVVV]

Right on man. Thanks for the info, I think I have a plan now. This forums has good members and info. Cummins forum was full of hillbillys who think stack size has something to do with penis size.

 

[Chevy1925]

lol sounds about right. Just FYI, since most of the guys here are drag race guys, there are very few here who are into the kinda things you and i are into. If you jump on dieselplace.com (very bad word here) and do a little searching there is a ton of good info there from both me, norcal nick, and a few others who have done lots of research on our suspension. jsut gotta weed through the "cranked truck, rides like shit" and "lets see your lift on ever fricken body style out there" lol

 

[TeaBagger2006]

Well if that's the case on stack sizes

 

[VVVJDMVVV]

lol sounds about right. Just FYI, since most of the guys here are drag race guys, there are very few here who are into the kinda things you and i are into. If you jump on dieselplace.com (very bad word here) and do a little searching there is a ton of good info there from both me, norcal nick, and a few others who have done lots of research on our suspension. jsut gotta weed through the "cranked truck, rides like shit" and "lets see your lift on ever fricken body style out there" lol

Haha right on ill check it out. Im James, ill prob have a few Q's for ya over there once I start ordering parts.

Well if that's the case on stack sizes

...then I feel sorry for the guys with hood stacks.

 

[Chevy1925]

Haha right on ill check it out. Im James, ill prob have a few Q's for ya over there once I start ordering parts.



...then I feel sorry for the guys with hood stacks.

lol dont expect me to post back over there. Tech has gone down the pooper and its all the same crap day in and day out. Dont hesitate to post here or PM me.

 

[Tank222]

So for instance on my truck, I have been running my fab-tech kit with out torsion bar bolts, so I could run it as low as possible.Truck rode like shit. I have not been running front bump stops until this week. So I put the front bump stop's in and put my torsion bar bolts in and cranked them in about 3 turns. The truck ride's much better now. But ride's front high. If I pull the torsion bar bolts back out it will be ridding on the front bump stops, and they already look super squished.

 

[Chevy1925]

So for instance on my truck, I have been running my fab-tech kit with out torsion bar bolts, so I could run it as low as possible.Truck rode like shit. I have not been running front bump stops until this week. So I put the front bump stop's in and put my torsion bar bolts in and cranked them in about 3 turns. The truck ride's much better now. But ride's front high. If I pull the torsion bar bolts back out it will be ridding on the front bump stops, and they already look super squished.

how is riding like crap? i need more info on that. is it bottoming out? just plain riding rough? floating feeling? ect. i have the same kit as you and ran it that low and its never rode better, only reason i had it cranked up some was to give me a little backward rake

 

[Tank222]

Well until about a week ago, I've never ran bump stops.When I bought the truck they just were not there.So maybe that was the problem. With out them the truck felt like it would just bounce in the front end end you would hit bumps.
With them now the truck feels much better but I have the torsion bar bolts in and cranked up a bit. Not sure how much they are supposed to be touching but I think If I crank it back down it's going to smash the bump stops up quick.

 

[madmatt]

I run a 6" tuff country lowered to 4 and run Fox Shocks. love them.

 

[Chevy1925]

Well until about a week ago, I've never ran bump stops.When I bought the truck they just were not there.So maybe that was the problem. With out them the truck felt like it would just bounce in the front end end you would hit bumps.
With them now the truck feels much better but I have the torsion bar bolts in and cranked up a bit. Not sure how much they are supposed to be touching but I think If I crank it back down it's going to smash the bump stops up quick.

so "floaty" would be the best way to put it right? in a stock truck the bumpstops play a big roll in the suspension and how it rides. its part of how GM designed the suspension to work. Now that you've lifted it, i dont care what the lift kit manufacture says, they have altered the facotry suspension from what it was designed for.

Now with that said, if you gunna run without bumpstops, you need a stiffer valved shock for your truck. most kits that incorperate the factory yellow/red bumpstop have a shock setup with the use of that bumpstop inmind and keep compression light. With it gone, your shock is doing more work than it was designed for and blows through the valving inside easier, giving you that floaty ride. What type of shock you run also makes a difference. the cheap fabtech white shocks, cheap pro-comp 1000 or 3000s and others like it are plain junk. they are either overly valved for the application or will blow out the seals in a matter of 10k or so. not to metion the oil inside is thin and does not hold up well to heat.

So, i suggest one of two things. cut the bumpstop drop bracket 3/4" and reweld the bumpstop plate back on, then lower your front end all the way like you want to keep the shocks you already have OR take out the bumpstop and put some different shocks on with heavier valving in them.