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Best shocks for Rock Krawler X- Factor Lift?

Owenage

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So I recently installed an RK 2.5" X-Factor lift on my 2018 Rubicon Unlimited. Prior to picking up the lift I actually purchased Terraflex's Falcon 2.1 shocks for my build. I heard from a few people as well as Rock Krawler directly this combination would not work out well. I was, of course, skeptical and did the install anyway (mostly due to not being able to return the shocks). I can report that this combo is not great and my rig now drives like a tank. So I am now left with living with the poor ride quality or selling the shocks as used and picking up something else. I am going to keep the X-Factor lift as I think it is a fantastic setup.

My question is what is the best shock setup for this lift? I plan on keeping the stock front bumper with winch and possibly going with a swing arm tire carrier down the road, so weight shouldn't be a problem. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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OffRoadWarehouse

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King or Fox 2.5 with adjusters will tune in nicely to their kit. If you need help with specific lengths to match their kit, let me know.
 

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So I recently installed an RK 2.5" X-Factor lift on my 2018 Rubicon Unlimited. Prior to picking up the lift I actually purchased Terraflex's Falcon 2.1 shocks for my build. I heard from a few people as well as Rock Krawler directly this combination would not work out well. I was, of course, skeptical and did the install anyway (mostly due to not being able to return the shocks). I can report that this combo is not great and my rig now drives like a tank. So I am now left with living with the poor ride quality or selling the shocks as used and picking up something else. I am going to keep the X-Factor lift as I think it is a fantastic setup.

My question is what is the best shock setup for this lift? I plan on keeping the stock front bumper with winch and possibly going with a swing arm tire carrier down the road, so weight shouldn't be a problem. Any help is greatly appreciated.
My buddy has the rk 2.5 adventure series, and he’s running fox 2.0’s and it rides really well.... :)
 

bumpit

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I ran their rrd shocks on my jk and was very happy with them. I'll likely go that route or fox if I get another xfactor kit.
 

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Owenage

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If Rock Krawler recommended NOT using the Terraflex Falcons 2.1, and you tried them anyway and agreed with their assessment, why not ask Rock Krawler what Rock Krawler recommends?
The main reason was I was looking for something other than what RK sells. I think I will want something with adjustable settings. Looks like King or Fox might be the way to go. To be honest, I wasn't trying to not listen to the recommendation of RK, it was more that I already had the shocks and at the time had nothing to do with them other than seeing how bad it was.
 
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Owenage

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I am curious does anyone know why these shocks would cause the ride to be so bad? With other lifts, these shocks seem to work great.
 

Kaliks&Bones

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Let's hope the Falcon 3.3s are a good combination since I found a good deal on them and plan to use them with the RK 2.5" kit.
 

OffRoadWarehouse

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I am curious does anyone know why these shocks would cause the ride to be so bad? With other lifts, these shocks seem to work great.
Different types of springs (multi-rate versus linear) work differently with certain shock valving styles. Falcon is a Digressive while Fox and King are Linear. Same reason why a Bilstein shock may not work well with that kit, but they work perfectly fine with others.

Having adjusters (like with the Falcon 3.3 Series) will definitely help, but a non-adjustable digressive shock is going to to require some changes to the internal valving to make it work right with that setup. Proof of this is ICON being able to run their Digressive shocks on their kits with great results, because they designed their shocks in conjunction with their own kits.
 

Rock Krawler Suspension

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I am curious does anyone know why these shocks would cause the ride to be so bad? With other lifts, these shocks seem to work great.
There's a large combination of factors, the most likely is that those shocks were tuned with a spring rate that is drastically different than ours or that they were tuned on single rates instead of triple rates. We have posted our spring rates on this forum in the past, I'm sure they can be found in our user profile, at the same time we posted what the stock rates are and the differences between our rates and stock rates.

People have reported tons of positive feedback on a multitude of other shocks out there including Falcon 3.3's, the only shock we hear is a bad mis-match is the Falcon 2.1's. I want to be clear though, they are not a bad shock, and I don't want to appear that this is a negative comment towards them, that particular shock just doesn't match well to our coils.
 

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There's a large combination of factors, the most likely is that those shocks were tuned with a spring rate that is drastically different than ours or that they were tuned on single rates instead of triple rates. We have posted our spring rates on this forum in the past, I'm sure they can be found in our user profile, at the same time we posted what the stock rates are and the differences between our rates and stock rates.

People have reported tons of positive feedback on a multitude of other shocks out there including Falcon 3.3's, the only shock we hear is a bad mis-match is the Falcon 2.1's. I want to be clear though, they are not a bad shock, and I don't want to appear that this is a negative comment towards them, that particular shock just doesn't match well to our coils.

I plan on purchasing the 2.5" X-Factor for my JLU Sport S very soon. With that being said ... I see River City Offroad offers Bilstein 5100 shocks with their packages. Is this a good match for on road ride quality and off road performance? Is there an "optimal" shock set up i should be considering? This will be my first lifted Jeep and i want to follow the buy once cry once mantra. Thanks for any feedback
 

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I plan on purchasing the 2.5" X-Factor for my JLU Sport S very soon. With that being said ... I see River City Offroad offers Bilstein 5100 shocks with their packages. Is this a good match for on road ride quality and off road performance? Is there an "optimal" shock set up i should be considering? This will be my first lifted Jeep and i want to follow the buy once cry once mantra. Thanks for any feedback
Get the Rock Krawler RRD 2.25. You won't be disappointed.
 

rustyshakelford

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I plan on purchasing the 2.5" X-Factor for my JLU Sport S very soon. With that being said ... I see River City Offroad offers Bilstein 5100 shocks with their packages. Is this a good match for on road ride quality and off road performance? Is there an "optimal" shock set up i should be considering? This will be my first lifted Jeep and i want to follow the buy once cry once mantra. Thanks for any feedback
Depending on your budget for an RK lift, I’d suggest sticking with RK shocks or getting custom valved ones. We tend to stay with radflo 2.5 resi shocks. I wouldn’t encourage a customer to get falcons or bilsteins.

Brett
 

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I have the Falcon 3.3 SP2s on mine with the 2.5 lift. No complaints after a few trail rides and nearly 1k miles. To be honest, I think it rides fairly stock but I didn't drive mine back to back from stock.

Other shocks I looked at where the Radflo Remote Resi and Fox 2.0 Remote Resi (w/ LSC).
 

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So has anyone tried the Fox 2.0, off the shelf shocks with Rock Krawler springs? I've seen RK kits in the past with Fox shocks but I'm sure those were specifically tuned to the springs by Fox or RK.
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