Fox vs Bilstein shocks

Ibayne

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Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Location
Fletcher
Evening...just like the title says. Let’s here the good an the bad of each. Reservoir or emulsions. Looking at putting them on a SAS Toyota that will see very little hard core stuff if any... more of a Daily driver/hunting trail rig.... thanks in advance
 
I've owned both. Either is fine. I very much doubt you'll ever get a set of emulsions hot enough to need reservoirs.
 
Fox are cheaper to tune and easier to get parts for.

Most bilstein valving is backwards for the type of off-roading around here.

Get fox rebuildable and get them valved. Night and day difference over off the shelf stuff.


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So I sent Fox an email 2 weeks ago asking shock questions an still ain’t heard bac from them. I don’t know anyone in my area that sells either one that I could go an talk too so I made a few calls to some shock places that sell both. One place I spent an hour on the phone an the guy was very helpful. His recommendations were Bilstein 5160 or 7100 both reservoir shocks. Both tunable he said they been selling Bilstein for years an Fox not as long. He said they just don’t have a lot of info on them. Another place was in California Downsouth Motorsport...told me the only shock Fox sells now that’s tuneble is there 2.0 reservoir..... so looks like if I want tunable gonna be reses
 
You won’t need resi shocks unless you are racing, but many will try to sell them to you as they are an upgrade and higher price.

And it is a decent idea to go ahead and get a threaded body shock with 7/8 shaft so if you ever upgrade and link it, you won’t have to buy new shocks. Just take the hardware off and keep in a safe place.


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Yes the coil over is rebuildable an tuneable but we are not going coilovers way over kill....

This is from Wayne at Alltech I sent him an email an this was his reply ::
I woudl not ever use a shock that did not have a way to
separate the oil from the nitrogen. so that rules out emulsion shocks.
if it were mine I would get the fox 2.0" factory series remote res.
 
Ibayne said:
Yes the coil over is rebuildable an tuneable but we are not going coilovers way over kill....
Click to expand...

It's the same thing, but one comes with a threaded body and coil adapters, the other doesn't.

If you're serious about dropping that sort of cash on a shock, I wouldn't bother with a smooth body. The coilovers will be more desirable if you resell them, too.
 
I’ve talked to wayne about this, him and many others will always sell a resi shock over an emulsion.

But I promise you 100% you won’t out drive an emulsion shock around here unless you are racing like ecors or another woods racing season.

Again I would buy a 7/8 shaft threaded body shock and just save the hardware for later use, or to resell.

Much more bang for the buck this way,


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Steering Rockwells front and rear with ORI struts!
Problem solved.
 
Fox is a linear piston and much more tuneable.

Reservoirs aren't about racing, or heat. Reservoirs are there to lower the gas pressure, which gives you less friction, which makes the shock ride better and last longer.

Every shock is like an air shock, as the shaft goes in the pressure goes up. This lifts your vehicle and results in softer spring rates (to get it back down again). Softer springs have more body roll.

So in the perfect world you would get a remote reservoir shock with the smallest diameter shaft you could.

For that reason I'd recommend a Fox 2.0, 5/8" shaft, Remote Reservoir Shock. We can tune them to provide amazing comfort right out of the box.

We keep common sizes of both of these in stock, and tune them for free:
2.0 Fox Smoothie, 5/8" Shaft - Remote | AccuTune Off-Road
Pre-Tuned Fox 2.0 Smoothie PS R/R Bushing Shock | AccuTune Off-Road
 
Here's my .02 on the matter.

Both are good quality, what brand/logo do you like more?

Are you going to be cycling it through its stroke/really working on it for an extended period of time? If so, I'd go remote resi. If not, I wouldn't worry with it unless you want that bling/panty dropper look.

Remote resi gives you more oil/capacity to help separate out the jumbled up air/oil mix and dissipate heat a little better. Seems mostly if it's working really hard. If it's not going to be cycled and such a lot in a fast manner, I wouldn't worry about it.

As far as threaded and shaft size, that's up to you. Doing as the others have said, I agree it's more bang for buck plus the re-sale ability. And I think most all r/r shocks are rebuildable to an extent. Therefore, you want them on something else later, re-valve etc. but that's going up into King and maybe Fox territory.
 
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