Shock Help - Do I really need adjustable?

[Phljeeper]

I have searched threads and see a few on the shock topic but no real clarity on adjustable vs fixed shocks. I am running a 2.5" EVO stage 3 lift and am using the stock fox shocks with extension adapters. I am looking to move into better fit shocks and want to get a high quality shock. I think I am sold on the EVO tuned King 2.5 remote reservoir but have also looked at the Falcons and Fox to compare. In the kings you can choose their fixed shock or with their comp adjuster. My JT is used mostly highway driving but I do tow a 5000 lb travel trailer and wheel it (mostly mud and rocks) about once a month. Anyone have personal experience with adjustable shocks (especially the Kings) and feel I will use it enough to justify the added $500? These things are super expensive already but the adjustable knob adds 25% more to the price and changes them from being in stock now to waiting 6-8 weeks for them from King.

Sponsored

 

[hjdca]

I have the Falcon SP2 3.3 adjustable shocks with my Clayton 3.5" overland plus kit. I bought adjustable shocks because of the varied terrain we have on the west coast. Sand Dunes and desert driving require a stiffer shock setting than rock crawling. With the Rubicon stock suspension, around 15 mph, it is easy to hit the bump stops in Desert Terrain, the adjustable shock fixes that... But, we also have big rocks, so, softer settings are also required at slow speeds.

Weight is also a factor. If you increase weight on the front or back, ie. winch, steel bumper, overland gear in the back, then, your tuned shocks are not tuned anymore to the proper weight. Adjustable shocks help resolve those situations.

Adjustable Kings are great shocks, you cannot go wrong with those. I also really like my adjustable Falcons, I am glad I bought them. I read on this forum that the Falcons are stiffer, but, I cannot verify that since I have never tried Kings.

The Kings tuned for your EVO suspension will be great, so, that is a great choice. Since you went with EVO, Kings seem the obvious great choice.

Regarding adjustment, the only thing I heard from a Casey 250 video is that Kings require you to do many clicks for adjustment, while the Falcons are quick adjust with one click.

Note: I have 3 favorite settings right now - one for the street, one for rock crawling, and one for desert running at 15-20 mph. With the Falcons, it only takes seconds to change these settings.

Here are some pics:

 

[CrazyCooter]

I wouldn't consider anything but adjustable for my truck, but I'm a suspension junky that can feel the minute differences. Many can't tell good from bad.......

That said, if you want the truck to ride nice unloaded and also feel controlled when towing with a serious lean toward street driving, I'd go adjustable with digressive valving......Falcon or Icon. Digressive will give that controlled feeling when the suspension is only moving 1-2" like on the road. More rigid on the small chop though.

Leaning toward Falcon for the simple lever adjustments so you can easily make the changes in seconds when loaded/unloaded.

Icon shocks are also digressive with more infinite adjustments, but take a little more time to adjust. They also have a built in "Bump stage" that would be more helpful during aggressive dual-sport driving

You mentioned Kings..... King and Fox generally have linear valving with may feel soft in the 1-2" travel on the road especially while towing, but perform better off road.......Softer in the small chop, but take the bigger hits better.

I'm on the fence as to which way I'll go for the Gladiator as I tend to drive aggressively off road in the desert for hours on end, but still daily drive towing occasionally. I did a build on a gladiator with 2.5 Kings with Evo Spec valving and I feel its a bit soft and wobbly with his rooftop tent for my tastes. I did increase nitrogen pressures substantially for him and he feels it made a decent improvement, but I suspect it will be a little more rigid in the chop. I took my wife on the roadtest and she mentioned getting car sick if our Gladiator drove like this one.......

 

[aldo98229]

Do you need adjustable shock?

No. No one “needs” adjustable shocks.

 

[CrazyCooter]

Do you need adjustable shock?

No. No one “needs” adjustable shocks.

That's kind of subjective.......

I NEED them to enjoy the driving experience under the varied conditions I drive in and varied loads I will be carrying!

Some cant tell a difference in driving experience unless they turn the key and the car don't go.......

 

[Phljeeper]

Thanks for all the replies. It sounds like group thinking is I will notice the difference and with varied terrain I should get the adjustable.

 

[Phljeeper]

Ok so I ordered the Falcon SP2 3.3s. They are adjustable and I cant wait to install them. Will update and provide feedback shortly. Thanks for the help and feedback.

 

[darkhorse13]

Ok so I ordered the Falcon SP2 3.3s. They are adjustable and I cant wait to install them. Will update and provide feedback shortly. Thanks for the help and feedback.

Remember to twist the shaft to "soft" before installing. I believe that Falcon also recommends the "soft" setting over performance for daily driven vehicles.

 

[hjdca]

Remember to twist the shaft to "soft" before installing. I believe that Falcon also recommends the "soft" setting over performance for daily driven vehicles.

After almost 1K miles, and approx. 6 off-road trips, my springs are worked in. With my JTR weight - winch, steel bumper, RSE Steps with Armor; Tools in bed; 37x12.5x17 Goodyear MTRs (30 psi); Method 703 rims; Clayton 3.5" Overland Plus Lift Kit -- so far, on the Falcon SP2 3.3, adjustable shocks, I like the number 2 setting with the 8 adjustable modes. So, 2.1 is the softest for the street with minimal sway, and I am liking 2.4 and 2.5 for higher speed off-roading, ie. 15 mph. Setting "1" has too much sway for my truck weight and springs on the terrain I have tried so far (street and moderate off road. (note: I have not tried the performance setting on the SP2 shaft. I installed the shocks with the shaft set to the "soft/cold" setting.) I have not done any Rock Crawling yet. Great Shocks, Fantastic so far.

 

[darkhorse13]

After almost 1K miles, and approx. 6 off-road trips, my springs are worked in. With my JTR weight - winch, steel bumper, RSE Steps with Armor; Tools in bed; 37x12.5x17 Goodyear MTRs (30 psi); Method 703 rims; Clayton 3.5" Overland Plus Lift Kit -- so far, on the Falcon SP2 3.3, adjustable shocks, I like the number 2 setting with the 8 adjustable modes. So, 2.1 is the softest for the street with minimal sway, and I am liking 2.4 and 2.5 for higher speed off-roading, ie. 15 mph. Setting "1" has too much sway for my truck weight and springs on the terrain I have tried so far (street and moderate off road. (note: I have not tried the performance setting on the SP2 shaft. I installed the shocks with the shaft set to the "soft/cold" setting.) I have not done any Rock Crawling yet. Great Shocks, Fantastic so far.

Good synapsis and I love hearing other's thoughts

I personally run "1" on the street and "2.4-2.5" when playing in the rocks to eliminate the "slinky effect" side to side when coming off larger rocks. Last year we hit 27miles of washboard road @ 40mph when we did Hole in the Rock Road in Escalante UT. It was brutal washboard and you either had to stay under 25mph or over 35mph to keep your teeth from rattling... I took the approach to go faster and stay "on top" of the wash board. I originally had setting "1" going at the higher 35mph+ speed then tried "2.4"... I ended up going back to "1". I wanted as much softness as I could get over the washboard as the suspension was no where near bottoming out over the chatter. I think high speed stuff combined with larger whoops or bigger rollers would warrant a setting higher than "2". Again, I'm trying to learn as I go along and I'm no expert. I just think that Falcon could do away with setting "3" and tune "1" and "2+ 8 clicks" more accordingly. Like I said before, I don't personally live a world where I see myself using the "Performance" shaft setting or number "3" on the dial. It is fun to see the difference in rebound speed though if you compress your shocks before installing them and watch how much faster the shaft rebounds in Performance vs Soft... like 10x faster. I have no other experience other than the super $hitty OEM Fox's that came on my Rubicon. I really want to try some Fox 2.5 adjustables or King 2.5 adjustables though to see how the Falcon's stack up.

 

[LostWoods]

You very rarely will need adjustable on a Fox, King, or other linear/progressive shock. Largely the adjustable shocks are to soften up the harshness that comes with a digressively valved shock like Falcon, Icon, or lower/mid Bilstein.

Digressive shocks are excellent for daily driven or rock basher Jeeps because they are more aggressive off the bat, making them good for big hits (like dropping your Jeep of a shelf) and tighter on road. However, this makes them harsh over bumpy roads, whoops, and washboard fire roads. To combat this, the adjuster will soften the compression valving when you are off road and tighten it up when you drive on road.

Fox/King are linear which are your softer riding go-fast off-road shocks that are basically the inverse - they do very well on washboards and whoops but are more at risk of a G-out on big hits and have more roll on road. Here the adjuster is more for fine tuning and you'll see much less difference than you will on a digressive shock. If you valve them appropriately, you really don't need adjusters on these kinds of shock but they are nice to have.

So if you mostly drive on road and do slower crawly stuff, Falcon is where it's at IMO. If you want to cruise the desert or fire roads, look into Fox/King.

edit: totally just realized @CrazyCooter pretty much covered this haha.

 

[Phljeeper]

You very rarely will need adjustable on a Fox, King, or other linear/progressive shock. Largely the adjustable shocks are to soften up the harshness that comes with a digressively valved shock like Falcon, Icon, or lower/mid Bilstein.

Digressive shocks are excellent for daily driven or rock basher Jeeps because they are more aggressive off the bat, making them good for big hits (like dropping your Jeep of a shelf) and tighter on road. However, this makes them harsh over bumpy roads, whoops, and washboard fire roads. To combat this, the adjuster will soften the compression valving when you are off road and tighten it up when you drive on road.

Fox/King are linear which are your softer riding go-fast off-road shocks that are basically the inverse - they do very well on washboards and whoops but are more at risk of a G-out on big hits and have more roll on road. Here the adjuster is more for fine tuning and you'll see much less difference than you will on a digressive shock. If you valve them appropriately, you really don't need adjusters on these kinds of shock but they are nice to have.

So if you mostly drive on road and do slower crawly stuff, Falcon is where it's at IMO. If you want to cruise the desert or fire roads, look into Fox/King.

edit: totally just realized @CrazyCooter pretty much covered this haha.

Thanks for the perspective. I guess that I made the right choice then with Falcon. I am on road with a once a month rock crawl at Rausch Creek. No desert and high speed off road in the mid Atlantic. All off roading is 5mph max.

 

[21RG]

I prefer the fine adjustment on King. They remind me of my dirt bike shocks where you can fine tune them based on what you are doing. I map them out and have a log for the type of terrain/speed I am going on.

The others where it is three clicks are great as well. Simplicity.

One thing to consider, all shocks wear out. Which ones can be rebuilt and what is the cost if you are unable to rebuild them.

Along with rebuilding, there is revalving. With Kings and Fox, you can revalve. I am not sure on the others, probably can, I just haven't messed with them.

 

[hjdca]

Good synapsis and I love hearing other's thoughts

I personally run "1" on the street and "2.4-2.5" when playing in the rocks to eliminate the "slinky effect" side to side when coming off larger rocks. Last year we hit 27miles of washboard road @ 40mph when we did Hole in the Rock Road in Escalante UT. It was brutal washboard and you either had to stay under 25mph or over 35mph to keep your teeth from rattling... I took the approach to go faster and stay "on top" of the wash board. I originally had setting "1" going at the higher 35mph+ speed then tried "2.4"... I ended up going back to "1". I wanted as much softness as I could get over the washboard as the suspension was no where near bottoming out over the chatter. I think high speed stuff combined with larger whoops or bigger rollers would warrant a setting higher than "2". Again, I'm trying to learn as I go along and I'm no expert. I just think that Falcon could do away with setting "3" and tune "1" and "2+ 8 clicks" more accordingly. Like I said before, I don't personally live a world where I see myself using the "Performance" shaft setting or number "3" on the dial. It is fun to see the difference in rebound speed though if you compress your shocks before installing them and watch how much faster the shaft rebounds in Performance vs Soft... like 10x faster. I have no other experience other than the super $hitty OEM Fox's that came on my Rubicon. I really want to try some Fox 2.5 adjustables or King 2.5 adjustables though to see how the Falcon's stack up.

Thanks for the input. I also like to hear people's experiences. I guess at that speed, you had the front sway bar connected over the washboard ? As you probably already know, using the Tazer to disconnect the sway bar over that kind of terrain really softens the suspension and changes the ride completely.

 

[darkhorse13]

Thanks for the input. I also like to hear people's experiences. I guess at that speed, you had the front sway bar connected over the washboard ? As you probably already know, using the Tazer to disconnect the sway bar over that kind of terrain really softens the suspension and changes the ride completely.

Yes I did have the sway bar connected... unfortunately. I also have the Tazer but I think it reconnects at 30mph? or is it 25mph? It makes a HUGE difference having it disconnected as you mention. I just couldn't stay out of the skinny pedal to keep it disconnected in 2HI

Sponsored