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What shock setup would you purchase?


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the.jl.adventure

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Hey everyone,

Looking for some opinions and personal experiences in the great wide world of shocks. Currently I am running a Synergy 3" lift (softer progressive spring rates), paired with Fox 2.0 [3.5" - 4"] shocks. The ride has been great thus far, but the shocks are starting to show their age and use, so seems like its time to start thinking about what the next set is going to be. My set up is on the lighter side of heavy, a 4 dr JL - steel front bumper with winch, on board air, duel battery, aluminum skids, aluminum rear bumper, tire carrier, trussed axles, 37" tires with spare (likely sitting right around 5000 pounds total). Trying to stay within a budget of around 3k for the new set of shocks.

Overall I love the price point and the adjustability of the Falcon, along with the design and colors since my Jeep has a red color scheme (but of course would want to focus on performance over appearance) I want to be able to maintain a good road ride for daily use because it is my daily driver, but be able to tackle the trails all day long without concern and get some body roll control for long highway drives. I am 100% up for a more stable/sport/controlled/stiff shock, but do not want it to feel like I'm being shaken apart on washboard roads and rough pot-hole filled streets. Any insight into the following brands would be great, along with if you have any other brands in mind that you've enjoyed and had good success with.




Falcon 3.3: I have had my eyes on the Falcon 3.3 shock for a while now and hear that people either hate them or love them. The general dislike statements seem to be that they are too stiff, but others say they ride like a dream. The SP2 feature that was just added seems to have helped fix the issue of a stiff ride, can anyone contest to that?
$1600-ish
https://www.falconshocks.com/3-3-fast-adjust-piggyback-shocks
Jeep Wrangler JL ↕ The Great Shock Debate ↕ 1663426747579


Bilstein: Bilstein gets a ton of love, along with my preferred shop swears by them. Also a digressive shock but I have not heard any dislike of them or any rough ride experiences. the 8100 looks AMAZING but is a hair over my price range, i also hear great things about their monotube 5100's. the 8100 really is the one I would lean to but not sure I can justify the extra $1000.
$4000-ish
https://offroad.bilstein.com/en-us/products/bilstein-b8-8100/
Jeep Wrangler JL ↕ The Great Shock Debate ↕ 1663427032495


Fox: Also have had my positive experience with Fox shocks, and hear nothing but love for the 2.5" DSC setup. Seems that these shocks set a lot of standards for the industry and they have quite a bit of technology built in.
$3000-ish
https://www.ridefox.com/product.php...ep&model=Wrangler+JL&year=2020&position=Front
Jeep Wrangler JL ↕ The Great Shock Debate ↕ 1663427327143
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GATORB8

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To throw a couple options in the middle. The Bilstein 5165s are RR versions of the 5100, that’s what I run. I believe Fox recently brought out a 2.0 RR and 2.5 Mono.
 

snapper692

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Ive been happy with my Falcons. I have the non-SP2 version and run and E rated tire and am still happy. I would love to upgrade to the SP2 version, but they keep getting pushed further down my list. lol
 

Punkn89

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fourseasons1621

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No better adjustability than the fox 2.5 for all future mods made. Ride comfort is never going to be an issue because of the very large scope of adjustability. You can either be too soft for your liking or to hard and everything in between. The position of the adjusters make actually using that adjustment something you'll actually do instead of saying ahh screw it, it'll be good enough where its at. Love mine but did wait 3 months for them to deliver.
 

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firedude

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If your shock gets a lot of high speed work (washboards and whoops or most higher speed stuff) and you are in high temps, a reservoir shocks makes a very big difference. Where I live and the terrain I drive you can not touch a shock after a short time. Shock fade you can feel. With the resi you get more time before this happens. If you are just slow going or rock crawling only, you probably won't notice as much if at all. To the op. you sound like you will use adjustability. I would and did go with the Fox 2.5's by Accutune. Good guys to deal with.
 

entropy

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If your offroading is low speed, monotube shocks are more than sufficient. The Rubi shocks are good enough for street/low speed offroad.

I am running Bilstein 5100s and theyre better. Ride on the road is a bit firmer with no nose dive and much less body roll. Offroad if I am not going crazy speeds theyre great too.

I feel like when I go over a big bump on the road it is very smooth. Jeep rolls over bump, you feel the compression and then thats it. Theres no after-bounce or anything. It just comes back up and stays there. With the rubi shocks sometimes the Jeep would bounce more as they were softer and the spring would keep oscillating.

Just make sure theyre at the proper length based on your particular jeep riding height.

For street driving and low speed offroading it is better to spend your money someplace else.
 
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CNJLUR4xe

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I went with the Fox 2.5s from AccuTune, and absolutely love them. As they told me about my 4xe, the 2.0s just have a hard time controlling the weight of a heavier Jeep. You are almost as heavy as my 4xe. The 2.5s just snap everything back under control immediately after an impact.

I routinely jump the railroad tracks on my way home just because I can. They soak it up as smooth as anything I have ever experienced.
 

dcm80401

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I went with the Fox 2.5s from AccuTune, and absolutely love them. As they told me about my 4xe, the 2.0s just have a hard time controlling the weight of a heavier Jeep. You are almost as heavy as my 4xe. The 2.5s just snap everything back under control immediately after an impact.

I routinely jump the railroad tracks on my way home just because I can. They soak it up as smooth as anything I have ever experienced.
Absolutely love my Accutune Fox 2.5 Elite Performance Series Dual Sport Tune on my 4xe. Amazing ride on and off road.
 

4x4tographer

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I've been running the Fox 2.0 Mono's on a 2.5" Clayton lift for about 18 months now - approximately 3,000 miles offroad here in Arizona.

I can't really speak to the quality, my front passenger shock started leaking after about 7 months. In terms of ride quality - I feel like they're similar ride feel to the factory Rubicon shocks - maybe more on the stiff side.

My primary drivers to buy them were price ($169 each when I bought them) and shock travel. Eventually, I'd like to move to a reservoir shock, but it's tough to justify the cost when these are doing just fine.
 

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oceanblue2019

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Call AccuTune and talk it through with them. They are good guys. I love my 2.5 Fox's they tuned but I am sure the King's they tune are also excellent.

I prefer the bigger diameter as the Jeep is heavy and can use all piston area you can get.
 

mikem20

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I have Accutune’s 2.0 and I like them quite a bit. but I wished I had just gotten the 2.5’s to have adjustability with them and been done with it.

An option you didn’t list are the SDI E clicks. The thought of automatically adjusting shocks are cool but are crazy expensive.
 

hockeynut258

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I went synergy 3” front/4” rear and Bilstein 8100 bypass shocks. They’ve been amazing! I have 8000 miles on them, two Moab trips, one sand hollow trip and typically wheel locally 2-3 times a month. Absolutely no regrets with the price tag after our first outing.

I really enjoy going quicker off road and they have completely transformed the JLU. It feels very similar, yet much heavier, as a sport sxs. Obviously it’s not a sxs and never will be but was very impressed when going back and forth with a can-am X3 on faster runs in Moab.

The adjustments are very noticeable and makes dialing them in really easy. Having the bypass range helps to keep things more tame in normal conditions/on road but still soak up g-outs or bumps. And I haven’t been able to noticeably fade them, and they’ve gotten hot!

only annoying thing Is appropriate ride height is important for bypass shocks to function properly. It took some trial and error with springs and spacers to get it right at 50/50.

I need to make a more in-depth write up but happy to answer questions.
 
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3TV

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Bringing back this old thread hoping that someone has actually used the Bilstein B8 8100 External Bypass shocks on a JL. Has anyone used them? How well did they work? And do the valves for the external bypass click loud enough to be annoying?
 

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