king vs fox vs ???

[Snoopy]

ok, I'm not ready to buy shocks yet but soon, so a LIST of crap comes to mind. On this site I've read more than a few posts that say the following and more.
1. I have as much invested in these junk things as if I would have just bought the fox shocks to begin with.
2. Mike at king air is the only one to deal with, the rest are all idiots. ( so why would I wanna risk 1,000 bucks on hoping I get to deal with mike ? )
3. Doesn't ANYONE else make a shock like fox shocks that don't require I purchase an entire nitrogen tank, lines, regulator ( yeah as if the cost of the coilovers wasn't enough,  ok )
4. The list of options and shocks goes on and on, am I nuts to think I can buy a coilover, talk to a rep and get the right spring rate and just add or remove air as needed and check the pressure before each ride.  ORRRRRRR??
 I want a decent shock, not the best just decent. I could see up to 1200 bucks for all four. and I want or at least I THINK,    I want coilovers. Without being my own distributor, what or how can I do this ?   and please, back up the poop your gonna throw my way. Thanks, Snoopy     
small buggy, in the woods with no high speed runs and no intentional jumping. just chasing four wheelers through the woods and up and down some pretty steep hills

[dsrace]

the tank, guages ( i think are $125 with lines ) are not that expensive! pm transman and he can give you the hole story of his king experience so far in the last 2 plus years! versus fox which is the only way i will go!

[fabr]

Fox Airs. No proof.

[Doug Heim]

FOX... What else did you expect from me? 

[trans man]

King shocks are a good shock to run.  IMO The initial setup can vary so much from car to car and in what kind of a ride a person wants. My experience with air shocks are that King's need some modifications done to them. Kings run a solid aluminum puck to stop the shock then it fully extends. If that happens on a hard enough hit, there is a steel 3/16'' washer inside that will bend and the valve stack will become loose. Which loses the tension on the holding nut (nonlocking), causing it to back it's self off and the shock will fly apart. Fox runs an 80 pound spring instead of a aluminum puck and a locking nut for the valve stack. Then one of my kings blew apart the only thing that contained it was my 27'' limit strap, which be came 31'' long! In repairing my air shocks I got locking nuts and hardened steel washers from King and those 80# springs from fox. Installing the fox's spring in a king shock was a very easy change. After doing this to my front air shocks, I am very happy with them. The only man at King I will deal with from now after this experience is Brett. He spent a few hours on the phone helping me out!

As far as figuring out spring rates on coil overs, king will exchange your coil springs FREE of charge for different springs if you buy the springs for them. The only thing I had to pay for was the shipping both ways which was $35 total for me in Nebraska. This is just my .02 and you can decide from there.

[dsrace]

great info transman! but I would still go fox! far easier to tune (2.0 air)

[trans man]

great info transman! but I would still go fox! far easier to tune (2.0 air)

Kings are too, when you understand how there valving works which is way different from Fox

[dsrace]

I would go with a$$ backwards from fox!

[trans man]

Yes, I know your a fox guy and I'm a king guy.

[trans man]

Everybody is a little different.

[dsrace]

yep!    but they aren't a shit shock as long as you can learn to tune them!

[trans man]

Exactly.

[fabr]

How can the fox and kings valving be done so differently? Clue me in on this. I mean a shim stack is basically just that-a shim stack on a piston allowing varying amounts of fluid to pass from one side to the other of the piston in a controlled rate.

[trans man]

The valving is different in the way the piston's are designed to allow oil to go through them. On King air shocks the valving (6 shim washers on top and bottom of the piston) are different diameters, but the same thickness .008- .020" and that's the way they call the valving ( 8, 10, 12, 15, 18 and 20), by the thickness of one of the valves (washers). So 20 valving is six .020" thick washers for a total of .120". King always uses 6 valves on top and bottom of the piston. If you can't get the ride you what with these valving, then you change the piston which will have more or less holes and in different hole diameters for the oil to go through.

On the Fox they use different number of valves(washers) on top verses the bottom of the piston, different diameter and different thickness on the valving, for the different valving numbers. On top of that the way the pistons are designed from the number of holes, to the way the holes are ported on the piston are totally different. Hey DS you will have more info then what I know about the Fox air shocks,so he will have to elaborate far.

[dsrace]

what transman knows is from hours on the phone with I believe brett. now brett was a very nice guy and took the time to explain that there is no way to take fox valving rates and compare them to kings. I say this because I kept telling transman that he needed 60 - 90 for valving and king kept saying that means nothing to them.  they are simply built differently. this is not a bad thing just different for those of us who are used to a more standard or older rating system this is very confusing learnable if we wanted to. for example with the local race shop that sells bilstein and carrera shocks for imca etc etc  you might see choices like 30 - 70 rates etc etc but for off road you would rather go with more like a 50 -70 or 60 -90 etc etc. now with king well transman explained it better than I can or even want to understand it!  just for example my old valving ( washer ) were 50-70, now the 70 stack has 6 washer all different dia but equaling .070" all together and the 50 stack only 4 of different sizes equaling .050"s instead of .050" thick each. this is why I will stay with fox that and there 2.0's are $240 new and kings are $300!

 if you have 20/20 valving and need to slow the compression rate down but not the rebound does this mean you now 40/20 is it even possible? or should you just change pistons? does king end at 20 and then you have to change pistons? see these are the q's I don't understand. now with fox shocks I know I can go all the way to 2-1 valving maybe a step higher with out changing piston in fact I don't know if they offer different pistons.