Coilover Choices

[RCman]

Ok, so the time has come to choose some coilovers for the rear. I need to make a decision on which ones to get by this Wednesday so I can get them ordered and at my house. I’ll only be ordering the coilovers now. No springs as I need to get some mockup done and weights measured in order to determine the spring rates.

I’ve listed some pros and cons for each of the candidates in my mind below. I’ve thrown out F-O-A, SAW, and King for reasons that don’t need to be listed (not all bad), but there’s no point in really talking about them in my case.

Anyway, these would all be 2.0, 14” travel, remote reservoir, and dual rate kits. They all seem to be pretty close in price.

FOX Racing:
Pros: Match my front shocks, lots of dealers, lots of other people run them.
Cons: Extra $50ea for nickel coating

Ballistic Fabrication:
Pros: Electro-Nickel plating standard, great reviews
Cons: Only one place to get parts (so I think), slightly odd 2.125” size, new to coilover market.

Bilstein:
Pros: Digressive valuing option, lots of dealers, good customer support
Cons: Digressive valuing (never dealt with it, could be hard to get right)


So shoot me some opinions! Thanks!


PS: "Other" won't be an option in the poll, for reasons above.

 

[xjcody]

Voted for bilstein because I never heard of ballistic fab and isn't fox racing for dirtbikes? Never dealt with coilover since I am a poor college student. I would suggest going for the best deal unless you find one to be superior. Bilstein shocks seem to be good quality so I assume that thier coilovers would be similar. good luck

 

[hot_rod_hooligans]

Voted for bilstein because I never heard of ballistic fab and isn't fox racing for dirtbikes? Never dealt with coilover since I am a poor college student. I would suggest going for the best deal unless you find one to be superior. Bilstein shocks seem to be good quality so I assume that thier coilovers would be similar. good luck

There are two companies named
Fox Racing:

but the company in question is
Fox Racing Shox:

I'd go Fox Shox, once I recover from this next round of mods to Project Silverback, I'll probably be looking into things like Fox Shox and full hydro steering.

 

[RCman]

Yup, that is what I was afraid off with the poll, voting based on name recognition and nothing else. Oh well, no biggie.

The Ballistic Fab coilovers would be about $40ea less than the Fox's as pricing I've come across now has told me. No decisions let though.

I still got a few days to think about it.

 

[vetteboy]

Fox, because I've liked them in the rigs I've driven. However they do require you to remove the Schrader valve to change out the springs, which means you need to have them recharged at that point.

Ballistic I've got no personal experience with, and they're fairly new to the market so they don't have much longevity testing either. However the company itself has a decent reputation with hardware parts.

Bilstein seems to have a pretty small presence in the coilover market for what we do. I'm not implying that the quality is bad - I love the hell outta my 5125s - but it seems like very few people choose to go with them over the more popular brands.

My personal top 3 would be Fox, SAW, and FOA...not necessarily in that order.

 

[RCman]

Ya, vetteboy pretty much nailed my thoughts as I think about it more.

I'm really leaning toward either Ballistic or Fox right now. Bilstein is pretty much out now, solely for the fact that they only seem to be on higher end rigs that need the digressive valving, not a hacked up XJ. The only thing now the scares me about Ballistic is the lack of time on the market and the one dealer, if it wasn't for that I'd already have made a choice.

I guess I'll have to shop around some more and see if I can get decent prices on the Fox to bring the cost down to Ballistic range. Also waiting on a response from Ballistic on a few questions.

 

[RCman]

Well, I just did a complete 180 (maybe 540) degree turn from where I was heading. I called around a few places today and got a KILLER deal on some 2.0 14" remote resi SAW coilovers, dual rate kits, and a spanner (no springs yet got to figure out weights/travel first). I orginally didn't want to go with them due to their higher cost then most, but at the price I just got there is no way I'm passing them up.

They should be shipping today. I'm pumped to get them in.
arty:

 

[Goatman]

Fox, because I've liked them in the rigs I've driven. However they do require you to remove the Schrader valve to change out the springs, which means you need to have them recharged at that point.

Hmmm........you take the springs off the bottom of the shaft, not over the shock body.

????

I've changed the springs on my Fox c/o's many times, and will many more. Didn't remove the schrader valve.

 

[RCman]

Hmmm........you take the springs off the bottom of the shaft, not over the shock body.

????

I've changed the springs on my Fox c/o's many times, and will many more. Didn't remove the schrader valve.

You do need to remove it if you install a tender coil. The third rate slider won't go over the stop ring. Thus, only can be installed from the top.

From what I've read and heard today, this is not true of SAW shocks. They do not require the top cap to be removed to install a tender or new slider.

 

[Matt S.]

You do need to remove it if you install a tender coil. The third rate slider won't go over the stop ring. Thus, only can be installed from the top.

From what I've read and heard today, this is not true of SAW shocks. They do not require the top cap to be removed to install a tender or new slider.

:huh:
Wrong. I have installed MANY MANY fox coil overs on customer rigs. Set up many many shocks. That schrader valve never ever needs to come out of the shock. Ever.

 

[RCman]

:huh:
Wrong. I have installed MANY MANY fox coil overs on customer rigs. Set up many many shocks. That schrader valve never ever needs to come out of the shock. Ever.

Hey... before I go off defending myself any further let me first say that I havn't dealt with them first hand. This is only the information I've gotten in the last few days.

According to Fox the top cap needs to be removed in order to install a tender and third rate slider. You are right that the schrader valve itself doesn't have to come off of the end of the reservoir, but the cap has to come off of the shock, and you'll still need to charge it again.

If I'm wrong... I apologize. This is only the information I've gotten directly from Fox and from a dealer of their parts.

Heck, doesn't matter to me anyway... I went SAW. :looney:

 

[Goatman]

Mine have tender coils.

:dunno:

The coils come off down over the shaft, they do not come off over the top of the shock body. The tender coils themselves must go off over the top of the shock body, because they are on top of the transition adjusting collar and the collar won't thread off the bottom of the shock body. However, once the shocks are assembled with the tender coils, they never have to come off, and there's no real reason to take them off. Both the primary and secondary coils come off the bottom.

 

[vetteboy]

The tender coil is what I was referring to. The guys I run with that have Fox c/o's aren't running tenders for that reason, because they didn't include them initially.

 

[RCman]

Mine have tender coils.

:dunno:

The coils come off down over the shaft, they do not come off over the top of the shock body. The tender coils themselves must go off over the top of the shock body, because they are on top of the transition adjusting collar and the collar won't thread off the bottom of the shock body. However, once the shocks are assembled with the tender coils, they never have to come off, and there's no real reason to take them off. Both the primary and secondary coils come off the bottom.

Good, so I was "right" and not just spewing garbage. I think there was just confusion on whether we we talking about all the coils, or just the tenders. Looks like Vette and I were talking about just tenders and yourself and scrappy were talking about the main springs as well.

You do make a good point though, once the tenders and triple rate slider is installed, there is not reason to have to remove the cap any other time (unless a rebuild). I don't think that reason alone should stop anyone from buying the Fox's. If you're going to be buying coilovers, my bet is you can remove the cap if the tender is needed. The only reason I didn't was grab a set of Fox's was cost.

 

[Matt S.]

Yay! Good solutions!

We use primarily Fox. Mostly because it is what "we" know and can get.

 

[FIREBLADE]

The Ballistic Shocks have actually been used for ~15-20 years. They've been made by a Tucson company called ADS precision machine and have been in the dirt industry for a while. They didn't have wide distribution, just built basically high shocks for race trucks and buggies. Ballistic now is distributing them. The coilovers are very nice. A bunch of Southern Arizona wheelers and dirt racers swear by them. Just not a huge name...yet.

 

[RCman]

The Ballistic Shocks have actually been used for ~15-20 years. They've been made by a Tucson company called ADS precision machine and have been in the dirt industry for a while. They didn't have wide distribution, just built basically high shocks for race trucks and buggies. Ballistic now is distributing them. The coilovers are very nice. A bunch of Southern Arizona wheelers and dirt racers swear by them. Just not a huge name...yet.

Yah, I did learn that from talking with Jeff @ Ballistic. No doubt they are probably great coilovers. I just couldn't get myself to limit parts coming from one sole place.