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Air shocks?

zachandandy

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Patterson, Ca
Does anybody have first hand experience with air shocks in an xj? I love the packaging aspect, need new shocks anyway, and my coils are seriously bowed. I'm a ballet on a budget, so I'm looking at fox 2.0's probably 14" travel version. Pros, cons, performance? For the price they seem like the way to go?
 
From what I hear, they like to unload on steep climbs and off camber situations.. Especially with radius arm setups and "one and a half" radius arm setups like yours.

Add a front suck own winch and I'm sure you'd be fine.
 
The 1 and a half radius arm will probably be an actual 3 link sooner than later. May just buy some shocks and get her back on the trails sooner.
 
Along with the shocks, wouldn't you also have to add in some front cage work to support hoops for them?
 
I wouldn't go with anything less then a 2.5 up front. Unless its a very lightwieght buggy, the weight of a XJ front will build up heat and cause shock fade. Once you get rid of the upper coil bucket and surrounding inner fenders, there's a good amount of room to do some shock hoops and tie them together across the top of the engine.
 
Heat up and fade from high speed use or normal trail use? At double the cost, 2.5's are not in the budget. Found 1 example on pirate of a guy running 18" 2.0's on an xj and he seemed happy with them. Anybody else who's done it?
 
My buddy was running 2.0s on a TJ style buggy with long arms and had a miserable time with constant unloading on hill climbs. We referred to it as "shark jawing" - as soon as he'd start uphill and transfer weight to the rear axle, the front would drop out to near full suspension droop. Had to use the front winch to suck down almost all the suspension travel - even so they didn't work that great. While it's not the same, it's a similar weight and front suspension to the XJ.

He switched to 2.5's and it's like night and day, hooking up with ease on stuff where he was previously denied.

I considered air shocks on the build I've been collecting parts for, had the opportunity to get his old 2.0's at about 1/2 cost and passed. For what it's worth, I think the 2.0s are a waste of money for anything other than a rail buggy / super light weight rig.
 
I asked about it being a trail toy because I was under the impression that airshocks couldn't easily be valved for both on road and off road safely.
 
I think there was a guy in SoCal who was selling/sold his rig with airshocks up font. Said it was driven on the road regularly.
 
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