What shocks? FOX VS. Rancho

[LazyJL]

I tried the Bilstein 5100s on one of my XJs and found them to be too stiff for my old back. Replaced them with Bilsteins 5160s, a great shock for both street and off-road with a much plusher ride.

Our 2020 JLR's shocks were stiff too and the rear shocks started leaking within a couple of thousand miles. After having Jeep replace the rear shocks once, they started leaking again. Into the recycling can they went.
Replaced them with Rancho 9000 adjustable and have been much happier. They are set on a soft setting for off-road and much stiffer for highway use or when towed. They will do fine until the budget permits buying a good reservoir shock.

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[guarnibl]

I had bilstein 5100’s on my gmc sierra. They are a great shock. They are indeed pretty stiff driving around, but they are soft when you need them to be soft, IE when you hit a large bump.

That being said, I am really happy with my oem rubicon shocks. They seem to be every bit as good as my bilsteins.

I personally would not change my oem rubi shocks to low-mid level stuff like fox 2.0 or bilstein 5100. I don’t think it would have a very good return on investment. If I was going to upgrade it would be to some higher end stuff with remote reservoir’s. I’d also do hydraulic bump stops.

It truly comes down to use case. If you want to go even a little bit faster off road quite comfortably without fade and being able to take bigger hits (i.e., actually on a trail), you just get to expensive territory pretty quickly. Otherwise, the only time I found shocks that came on a vehicle to be truly inadequate was my Gladiator. That damn thing would go straight to the bump stop even on the slightest dip in the road.

I mostly fault supply chain issues for the problems with my XR shocks (leaking) and as long as I'm slow and controlled on the trail, they do quite well. But the second you start gaining any speed it just goes to hell so fast. Decent shock for the street from a valving perspective, and probably fine for dirt roads or trails where you're just not really asking a lot out of the suspension.

 

[Bzinsky]

It truly comes down to use case. If you want to go even a little bit faster off road quite comfortably without fade and being able to take bigger hits (i.e., actually on a trail), you just get to expensive territory pretty quickly. Otherwise, the only time I found shocks that came on a vehicle to be truly inadequate was my Gladiator. That damn thing would go straight to the bump stop even on the slightest dip in the road.

Yeah I was increasing the speed on some really bumpy stuff in my rubi and it was handling it quite well. I never hit the dump stops until I was going like 35mph and didn’t see this 8” deep dip on one side.

The worst oem shocks are the ranchos on the 2014-2018 sierra/silverado. You can’t go over a speed bump without a loud thud.

 

[GATORB8]

I tried the Bilstein 5100s on one of my XJs and found them to be too stiff for my old back. Replaced them with Bilsteins 5160s, a great shock for both street and off-road with a much plusher ride.

I was really just looking for the extra travel when I swapped from 5100s to 5160s, but we were very impressed with the improvement in ride quality with the swap. Definitely worth the extra cost.

 

[guarnibl]

Yeah I was increasing the speed on some really bumpy stuff in my rubi and it was handling it quite well. I never hit the dump stops until I was going like 35mph and didn’t see this 8” deep dip on one side.

The worst oem shocks are the ranchos on the 2014-2018 sierra/silverado. You can’t go over a speed bump without a loud thud.

thats pretty solid then — from what I recall the stock shocks on my 2029 4 dr rubi were better than what was on my XR. Shocks were blown after 1 Moab trip.

Gladiator (when it was stock for about two weeks) hit the bumps immediately. Probably the worst shocks I’ve ever had period on any vehicle from the factory.

The XR in Moab could go fast ( fins n things ) for about…. 30 seconds and then they were essentially smoking. Granted I was trying to keep up with my Gladiator in front of me on Fox 3.0’s and air bumps lol. That thing can just haul— and you never really feel it. Even the huge hits. Keeps up with the side by sides pretty well until tight quarters.

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