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Fox Air Shocks

M

Matt S.

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Fresno, CA
I have been thinking about these in design alot. Any one here use them? My only real question is, are they good on road?

MATT
 
Our Mini-Baja team at WIT uses them, and we love them. Although, the mini-baja is alot lighter than a rock crawler, they are pretty simple to use, set-up and rebuild. We used the 2.0 nitro shock in the 4.5" and 5.5" travel flavours. The only bad thing about them is when you let air out to adjust the pressure, sometimes damping fluid also comes with it. So, you have to keep an eye on the fluid level.
 
UnknownScrap said:
I have been thinking about these in design alot. Any one here use them? My only real question is, are they good on road?

MATT
Click to expand...

You know Matt .. go for it.

I raced moto-x in the 70's and had Fox Air Shox on my Wheelsmith Maico and it was the best damn suspension setup I ever raced ...

When I first started scoping out my lift 6-months ago I was seriously considering going with Fox Air Shox ... ORGS recomended it ... and I was convinced this would have been the trick setup. Then I asked the same question you did and got nothing but crap about polishing my turd (no pun intended).

Since I was in a hurry to get my new suspension installed ... I wound up going with the Rancho's primarily due to time, logistics and the requirement to alter the shock mounts. But as I tweak my XJ and get the lift the way I want it .. I'm going down to ORGS and having a set of Fox Air Shox installed.

I realize this isn't an answer ... but your question is based on a very subjective point of view---the only real way to find out is to install and test them yourself.
 
I should not read those posts :doh: you guys make me thinking again. :D

The benefit of those seems to be that you need no more coils or use really soft ones. Is that right? How to you set up ride height and dampening? Anyone with experience in that? CartsXJ?
 
Interesting article. And I thought tuning coil rates was difficult. The XJ is probably over the max. weight of airshox however, as Bill states here:

"Best suited to vehicles under about 3500 lbs, but fairing well on my 4700 lb trail-only rig - if a little firm in the ride department"

Especially if you have a winch & a real front bumper.
 
vintagespeed said:
Interesting article. And I thought tuning coil rates was difficult. The XJ is probably over the max. weight of airshox however, as Bill states here:

"Best suited to vehicles under about 3500 lbs, but fairing well on my 4700 lb trail-only rig - if a little firm in the ride department"

Especially if you have a winch & a real front bumper.
Click to expand...

I think Bill estimated his rig to be roughly 950 lbs per corner and I think Fox only recommends those for rigs with 1k or less per corner. However, I believe that is for "sprung" weight only. What is the XJs stock "sprung" weight?

These are something I'd like to know more about for sure because at only $225 each, they're very appealing. I assume the mounts on the unibody would resemble those of true coilover mounts so that would take some unique fabwork, but you and Richard seem to have taken care of that with good success.
 
Yea I have done some research. ANd for what I have planned, those are most positivly out of the question. I think I will be lucky if I hit 5500lbs. UNLESS....I can run two at each corner. Or do you think that is a no-no?? :nono:

MATT
(still the poor bastard without a membership)
 
Well there WAS a full-size dualie in one of the 4xrags that was running Nitrogen shocks. They weren't Fox however. He ran duals in the front & it showed by the total lack of front flex. Anything can be dialed if you tweak on it enough. If the AirShox was a threaded body you could run a lighter weight single coil & nitrogen, but getting that to perform right would be pretty tough.

The GVWR on my '89 door sticker says 4900 lbs. Add a heavy set of bumpers & rock rails, winch & tools you're pushing 5500 lbs or more. Deduct stock axles/tires/wheels 600-700 lbs for about 4800 lbs. Under braking that's probably 65/35 weight distribution (at the least) that's 3150 on the front suspension or 1575 per corner.

What happens when you blow an o-ring?
 
Last edited:
Vintage, you're saying that the "sprung" weight of the XJ would be too heavy to run the Airshox only under the front?
 
Economos said:
Vintage, you're saying that the "sprung" weight of the XJ would be too heavy to run the Airshox only under the front?
Click to expand...

Based off what I've READ, yes. These are a great option for light-weight buggies like Ron's but for a street-driven XJ? BTW, Fox coilover aren't any more expensive & coils are cheap. I'll be changing to Fox in a month or so.
 
Ha, well flex is nessecary. I am just not sure if I coilovers are what I want. Mainly because of the LIFT hieght I plan on going with. If I am only going to be sitting at about 3" MAYBE 4" of lift. I dont think coil-overs are going to work. Unless someone knows something I dont. I am fine with coils and shocks in the front, where my mind is busy, is the rear. 1/4 eliptic is good and all, but honestly, it is too traditional. :laugh3: Got any ideas?

MATT
 
vintagespeed said:
Based off what I've READ, yes. These are a great option for light-weight buggies like Ron's but for a street-driven XJ? BTW, Fox coilover aren't any more expensive & coils are cheap. I'll be changing to Fox in a month or so.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks, I wanted to atleast consider these as an option at some point. I've got no experience with coilovers and will probably just run coils/shocks anyways but the Airshox still look cool.:D

Why switch from SAWs (?) to Fox's? And what are ya gonna do with the ones under your rig now? :greensmok
 
With some creative mounting you could run 12" coilovers on a short lift. Mine are mounted on top of the axle and the tabs gusset the inner knuckle but if you mounted them to the control arm or otherwise off the axle you might be able to make them work. They DO make 10" coilovers I believe.
 
Economos said:
Why switch from SAWs (?) to Fox's? And what are ya gonna do with the ones under your rig now? :greensmok
Click to expand...

The SAWs I have are too short. I built all the mounts for a 14" travel coilover and flex testing shows that a 14 will be just right. The 12s are 2.5" dia and coils are about 3 times as much as 2" dia coils. So when I sell mine I'll get some brand new Fox's with a 2" dia. I'll also do away with the reservoirs, they are totally un-necessary in my rig (but they look cool).
 
Wonder why the 2.5" coils are that much more than the 2" coils? Do you already have them "dialed" in, relatively speaking? Oh, and whats the collapsed/extended measurements of the 12s? Aren't they something like 19.xx / 31.xx?
 
The thing is that the collapsed measurements on the website(s) are without coil pockets on the end of the shock eye. This adds at least 3/8" to the collapsed length. Since mine are bolted on I can only estimate the fully collapsed length. When I flex it I dont bottom the shock before coil bind stops the stuff.
 
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