Fox Slinky install... Finally begins!!

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Right,

So after having a set of custom valved 12" Fox 2.0 Remote reservior shocks sitting in my shed gathering dust for the best part of six months, I'm finally on a position to start getting these bad boys fitted along with the Slinky's I ordered from Overlandcruisers.

Now just to clear up a bit of background info, I decided to order the Slinky coils from Julian and then order the Fox shocks from Downsouth motorsports in the US. The primary reason for this was cost. I couldn't quite swallow the price of getting the Fox shocks as part of the slinky kit that is offered by ATS4x4 available through overland cruisers (Circa £2.5K).

For those that are interested costs came up as:
Slinky coils - £610
Fox Shocks Landed - £800
Total so far= £1410
There will be other costs which I'll document as I go along ie: extended brake lines, materials to fab up drop blocks for my bumpstops and swat bays etc...

So here are a few pics of the install, I only have the rears on at the moment. I still need to drop my bumpstops and extend my swaybay mounts.

Slinkies Vs OME

Fox Vs OME

Fitted:

I few things I have noted so far:
Measurement from Wheel arch to Rim both DS and PS - 400mm.
DS up travel availabe - 100mm
PS up travel available - 90mm.

This is where I'm a little confused, I don't know where I'm loosing 10mm om the PS side

Also the travel available - 4 up and 8 down is not really where I want to be, I'm going to need to look at extending my shock mounts by and inch or two so I can be closer to a 40/60 or 50/50 setup (% compression/ % Droop). Not really what I wanted to be having to do... The idea was to have a bolt in setup. I did run the shocks compressed and extended lengths via JV @ overland cruiser before I bought them but I feel I don't have enough compression with the way it is currently.

Next weekends mission is to get the fronts on, after I service the Front axle.

Either way I'll be rolling on the fab works.

This is going to be a bit of a slow process so bear with me ya'll

Now a few questions for the gallery:

How much compression do you have available with an OME 2" lift setup fo you have?
What is the distance from rim to wheel arch with that setup? (I know I should have measured before I pulled it off... )

 

[warrenpfo]

Very nice and very jealous

I would love to go down the king or Radflo route but the cost is just too much for me to swallow.

 

[nlbyrne]

Would the 10mm your loosing the PS side be anything to do with the panhard arm

 

[Matt Wright]

Verrrrry nice.... Droooool
FOX ROCKS!

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Would the 10mm your loosing the PS side be anything to do with the panhard arm

I think you're onto something there. The inside edge of the PS wheel is approx 30mm closer to the chassis rail that the DS... I think that explains the difference.

 

[Olazz]

Looks good Ryan. I assume they just bolted into the rear? How much too long are they for the fronts and is that caused by the fitting kit supplied?

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Looks good Ryan. I assume they just bolted into the rear? How much too long are they for the fronts and is that caused by the fitting kit supplied?

Hey Olazz,

Yes rears bolted straight in. The fronts will bolt straight in too. I wont know how much too long the fronts are until I get them in. I didn't go for the fitting kit from JV.

Either way I think I'll end up having to extend them as well as the rears.

 

[Rob]

Will the shiny polished pistons stay exposed like that?

 

[mike54]

Unless you've put the drivers side spring on the passenger side and vice versa

Also why the remote reservoir shocks? Is the plan to race or rally it?

 

[Allchin]

They look good Ryan as long as you aren't taking on dirt/gravel roads, I don't think the exposed piston rods will stand up to the barrage stones and the occasional larger stone they will receive.

stephen

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Unless you've put the drivers side spring on the passenger side and vice versa

Also why the remote reservoir shocks? Is the plan to race or rally it?

Hey mike,

Remote resi's because once this truck is back in SA I'll be using it for travelling around southern africa with a hell of a lot of washed out and corrugated dirt roads. I want the best setup I can get for what I'm prepared to spend.

They look good Ryan as long as you aren't taking on dirt/gravel roads, I don't think the exposed piston rods will stand up to the barrage stones and the occasional larger stone they will receive.

stephen

Once I have my setupe dialled in then I plan to fit rubber boots to the shocks as well as make a set of stone deflectors that will bolt onto the lower control arms.

 

[Roger Fairclough]

I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I feel that that is the way this is going to appear.

Fox shocks are designed for racing, i.e. lots of movement, quickly, this being the reason for the remote reservoir, the extra oil helping to soak up and get rid of all the heat generated. I assume that you mean to travel slowly over these wash outs etc., in which case you would be better of with a decent shock like OME. The fox has a mono tube layout. This means that any damage from stones etc. to the main body tube will quickly destroy the internal piston seal. If you fit a boot to protect the rod, the ventilation holes that allow the bellows to work without bursting will attract dust and water like flies round s**t. The fox shocks are built as light as possible because weight, or lack of it, is a premium commodity in racing. This kind of thinking is not a good idea under the arches of an 80 series. A quick look at the dia. of those piston rods gives the game away. OME shocks are twin tube, so the outer protects the vulnerable inner. Also the rod is protected by the metal shroud.

Roger

 

[Julian]

I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I feel that that is the way this is going to appear.

Fox shocks are designed for racing, i.e. lots of movement, quickly, this being the reason for the remote reservoir, the extra oil helping to soak up and get rid of all the heat generated. I assume that you mean to travel slowly over these wash outs etc., in which case you would be better of with a decent shock like OME. The fox has a mono tube layout. This means that any damage from stones etc. to the main body tube will quickly destroy the internal piston seal. If you fit a boot to protect the rod, the ventilation holes that allow the bellows to work without bursting will attract dust and water like flies round s**t. The fox shocks are built as light as possible because weight, or lack of it, is a premium commodity in racing. This kind of thinking is not a good idea under the arches of an 80 series. A quick look at the dia. of those piston rods gives the game away. OME shocks are twin tube, so the outer protects the vulnerable inner. Also the rod is protected by the metal shroud.

Roger

Roger, sorry to ask, but what experience do you have of running Fox shocks?

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I feel that that is the way this is going to appear.

Fox shocks are designed for racing, i.e. lots of movement, quickly, this being the reason for the remote reservoir, the extra oil helping to soak up and get rid of all the heat generated. I assume that you mean to travel slowly over these wash outs etc., in which case you would be better of with a decent shock like OME. The fox has a mono tube layout. This means that any damage from stones etc. to the main body tube will quickly destroy the internal piston seal. If you fit a boot to protect the rod, the ventilation holes that allow the bellows to work without bursting will attract dust and water like flies round s**t. The fox shocks are built as light as possible because weight, or lack of it, is a premium commodity in racing. This kind of thinking is not a good idea under the arches of an 80 series. A quick look at the dia. of those piston rods gives the game away. OME shocks are twin tube, so the outer protects the vulnerable inner. Also the rod is protected by the metal shroud.

Roger

Roger, I have to respectfully disagree with you.

OME are a budget replacement shock. Yes they have great marketing, but as a shock absorber are no more quality than your typical manroe shock.

The Fox shocks offer an arrray of advantages over OME, they are fully tunable, rebuildable and servicable (in the field too if need be). I can therefore tune these shocks to suite my type of wheeling and my needs, and yes I would like to be able to drive on dirt raods and through washouts at speed...

Lets face facts, the 80 is a heavy vehicle, so when loaded up on rough roads OME shocks, as well as a host of others, tend to suffer from shock fade due to over heating (I believe Rob suffered from similar issues on his mongolia trip), so the added oil volume that the Fox shock body and remote resi offers as well as the better heat dissapating properties of the monotube design (the twin tube design of the the OME's insulates the shock and prevents heat from dissapting effectivley) the Fox's will out perform the OME in terms of perfomance.

The most succesful thing about the OME's is the marketing.

 

[Rob]

Lets face facts, the 80 is a heavy vehicle, so when loaded up on rough roads OME shocks, as well as a host of others, tend to suffer from shock fade due to over heating (I believe Rob suffered from similar issues on his mongolia trip)

I did indeed, but I am running B Ironman coils with OME lighter shocks. Not a great selection, softish coils with lighter damping for 400km of constant corrugations in a 3 ton 80 but it was an ebay deal so cheap. Should of bought a better kit but price was a major factor back then seeing as I was a still a student. And trust me, it handled like a boat and was quite a handful when you got back on paved roads without a break. 2 hours after we had stopped the shocks were toasty, god knows how hot they were just after driving.

Another thing I noticed was at speed the wheels lost contact with the road, especially scary when overtaking in Russia. The truck would not respond to steering when doing about 70+mph on dreadful paved roads. No potholes just very uneven melted then set surface. Would this setup solve this issue or has the 80 got too much unsprung weight?

I understand that these will preform much better in demanding conditions in terms of removing heat but what about the protection. Will the rubber boot be any good at keeping water, salt, sand, mud etc. out? And is it easy to tear/rip?

 

[Roger Fairclough]

I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I feel that that is the way this is going to appear.

Fox shocks are designed for racing, i.e. lots of movement, quickly, this being the reason for the remote reservoir, the extra oil helping to soak up and get rid of all the heat generated. I assume that you mean to travel slowly over these wash outs etc., in which case you would be better of with a decent shock like OME. The fox has a mono tube layout. This means that any damage from stones etc. to the main body tube will quickly destroy the internal piston seal. If you fit a boot to protect the rod, the ventilation holes that allow the bellows to work without bursting will attract dust and water like flies round s**t. The fox shocks are built as light as possible because weight, or lack of it, is a premium commodity in racing. This kind of thinking is not a good idea under the arches of an 80 series. A quick look at the dia. of those piston rods gives the game away. OME shocks are twin tube, so the outer protects the vulnerable inner. Also the rod is protected by the metal shroud.

Roger

Roger, sorry to ask, but what experience do you have of running Fox shocks?

None at all, please see below.

Roger

 

[Roger Fairclough]

[quote="Roger Fairclough":3ro5b0e8]I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I feel that that is the way this is going to appear.

Fox shocks are designed for racing, i.e. lots of movement, quickly, this being the reason for the remote reservoir, the extra oil helping to soak up and get rid of all the heat generated. I assume that you mean to travel slowly over these wash outs etc., in which case you would be better of with a decent shock like OME. The fox has a mono tube layout. This means that any damage from stones etc. to the main body tube will quickly destroy the internal piston seal. If you fit a boot to protect the rod, the ventilation holes that allow the bellows to work without bursting will attract dust and water like flies round s**t. The fox shocks are built as light as possible because weight, or lack of it, is a premium commodity in racing. This kind of thinking is not a good idea under the arches of an 80 series. A quick look at the dia. of those piston rods gives the game away. OME shocks are twin tube, so the outer protects the vulnerable inner. Also the rod is protected by the metal shroud.

Roger

Roger, I have to respectfully disagree with you.

OME are a budget replacement shock. Yes they have great marketing, but as a shock absorber are no more quality than your typical manroe shock.

The Fox shocks offer an arrray of advantages over OME, they are fully tunable, rebuildable and servicable (in the field too if need be). I can therefore tune these shocks to suite my type of wheeling and my needs, and yes I would like to be able to drive on dirt raods and through washouts at speed...

Lets face facts, the 80 is a heavy vehicle, so when loaded up on rough roads OME shocks, as well as a host of others, tend to suffer from shock fade due to over heating (I believe Rob suffered from similar issues on his mongolia trip), so the added oil volume that the Fox shock body and remote resi offers as well as the better heat dissapating properties of the monotube design (the twin tube design of the the OME's insulates the shock and prevents heat from dissapting effectivley) the Fox's will out perform the OME in terms of perfomance.

The most succesful thing about the OME's is the marketing.[/quote:3ro5b0e8]

I have been running OME shocks on my 70 series for approx. 120,000 miles. They are still doing the job. I don't dispute that the Fox shocks are extremely good at what they do, my views are based on the design, which in my opinion, makes them vulnerable to the environment they will be working in. A Safari racer will do maybe 50-60 miles during an event, and then can be thoroughly checked over in a w/shop. In the real world this is not an option. Yes, I know you said you can re-build them in the field, but that field could well be a dust laden environment and not a closed in w/shop.

Ultimately the choice is yours, and by the sound of it you have thought it through, although the idea of travelling at speed over wash-outs in a fully loaded 80 series, I find a little disconcerting. I would suggest that some form of protection to the main body to counter stones would be in order, as well as something for the rod.

Roger

 

[Roger Fairclough]

Just another thought comes to mind.

3 Tons of 80 series would inevitably destroy most shocks through overheating, if the car is driven fast over rough roads, so wouldn't doubling up on the shocks be better? In effect you are reducing the load per shock by 50% and increasing the oil capacity by 100%.

Roger

 

[adrianr]

Double shocks i think would be a better choice as well. isn't that what they do on the paris dakar trucks where they are going at a fair lick?

 

[Julian]

Having done some work on a rallyraid dakar truck, yes they double up, but they use 2 external resi dampers per corner
Also a simple plastic guard is used to save the stones from hitting the exposed shafts

I have been running OME shocks on my 70 series for approx. 120,000 miles. They are still doing the job. I don't dispute that the Fox shocks are extremely good at what they do, my views are based on the design, which in my opinion, makes them vulnerable to the environment they will be working in. A Safari racer will do maybe 50-60 miles during an event, and then can be thoroughly checked over in a w/shop. In the real world this is not an option. Yes, I know you said you can re-build them in the field, but that field could well be a dust laden environment and not a closed in w/shop.

Ultimately the choice is yours, and by the sound of it you have thought it through, although the idea of travelling at speed over wash-outs in a fully loaded 80 series, I find a little disconcerting. I would suggest that some form of protection to the main body to counter stones would be in order, as well as something for the rod.

Roger

Roger during a trip to Morocco I was lucky enough to do 3 days pretty much exclusively from an old Dakar road book, we certainly covered more than 50-60 miles per day.
I would agree with Ryan, one of the benefits of this style of damper is the ability to rebuild it in the field, I have done a fair bit of work on all sorts of dampers, they are not so hard to work on. A bit of sand in them although not ideal is better than a non functioning damper. During a desert race it would only be the top teams with a fancy workshop set up, the guys at the back do what they can in some pretty harsh environments in camp over night, I have seen both extremes from VW having a full spray shop to make sure the race cars look perfect to a guy making a top swivel for a land rover axel out of a wheel nut taken of a passing race lorry