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Old 10-31-2019, 10:24 AM   #11
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FWIW On previous van, wore out rear bilsteins that had boots over ~80K....they were lifetime warranty...All shocks were shaft down orientation. Those bilsteins come with boots standard and lasted another ~50K before I sold it: on current van are doing well after a couple years.

Leaks should be visible at the bottom of the boot if one looked, but the evidence on the previous van was excessive bounce. In that case I had sent back the rears, and they sent me both front and backs...Pretty nice service.

I would think boot protection is prudent. Think of the rock and particulate blasting in that area. Look at the surrounding metal surfaces.....

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Old 11-01-2019, 08:59 AM   #12
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Have you checked the travel of the shock? Maybe you are bottoming out? Take a zip tie and wrap it on the shaft all the way up the shaft. Take a drive thru your dailey drive area and check it after. If the tie is mid way then take a drive off road thru a fairly rough area and put it thru what you normally do speed wise and ride quality. Check the tie again every few miles off road. If it is gone or smashed you are bottoming out!
Remember that the articulation of the axle increases when one side drops and the other raises, so if your bump stop is good when your axle goes evenly up and down it may not be the case for when the driver side drops and the passenger side rises therefore increasing the clearance of the bump stop but reducing the clearance of the shock by increasing the insertion of the shaft into the body of the shock. I hope you get what I mean!
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Old 11-02-2019, 08:07 AM   #13
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arctictraveller,
I'm curious & interested your up-coming trips.
I'm local so cal guy.
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Old 11-02-2019, 11:01 AM   #14
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arctictraveller,
I'm curious & interested your up-coming trips.
I'm local so cal guy.
Sounds good. Let's move this conversation to this thread

http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...e-s-21091.html
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Old 04-24-2020, 06:13 PM   #15
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WELL here I am OMG 6 moths later annnnnd the price on Fox went up. AGAIN!


Quote:
Originally Posted by moorefc View Post
FWIW On previous van, wore out rear bilsteins that had boots over ~80K....they were lifetime warranty...All shocks were shaft down orientation. Those bilsteins come with boots standard and lasted another ~50K before I sold it: on current van are doing well after a couple years.

Leaks should be visible at the bottom of the boot if one looked, but the evidence on the previous van was excessive bounce. In that case I had sent back the rears, and they sent me both front and backs...Pretty nice service.

I would think boot protection is prudent. Think of the rock and particulate blasting in that area. Look at the surrounding metal surfaces.....

Moorefc- Thank you I will troubleshoot this.

And so if I shop Bilsteins what is your source - straight to Bilstein?
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Old 04-24-2020, 06:16 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by Vanimal View Post
Have you checked the travel of the shock? Maybe you are bottoming out? Take a zip tie and wrap it on the shaft all the way up the shaft. Take a drive thru your dailey drive area and check it after. If the tie is mid way then take a drive off road thru a fairly rough area and put it thru what you normally do speed wise and ride quality. Check the tie again every few miles off road. If it is gone or smashed you are bottoming out!
Remember that the articulation of the axle increases when one side drops and the other raises, so if your bump stop is good when your axle goes evenly up and down it may not be the case for when the driver side drops and the passenger side rises therefore increasing the clearance of the bump stop but reducing the clearance of the shock by increasing the insertion of the shaft into the body of the shock. I hope you get what I mean!

Vanimal- good stuff, thanks I follow and will run through this suggestion
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Old 04-24-2020, 06:19 PM   #17
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That was my first thought too. You might also consider adding shock boots to protect the shaft that is subject to pitting from being assaulted by gravel, rocks, road salt etc. One little pit will tear up the seal and cause a leak. I've had my rear set for several years with no sign of leakage, but I've run boots from the beginning. Good luck, nice to see you around again. Care to join us for a trip to Death valley, the Mojave trail, the hammers race, and then Baja? Beginning in Feb.................
WOW Thanks for the invitation! Is it over yet not my year to drive XC in HellBetty but I am going to check the thread you started for this to see what I am missing!
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Old 04-25-2020, 11:25 AM   #18
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WOW Thanks for the invitation! Is it over yet not my year to drive XC in HellBetty but I am going to check the thread you started for this to see what I am missing!
Sadly, that trip came to a premature halt due to the virus, but I did get out for about 10 weeks and had a great time exploring with friends. We were in the middle of checking out old mine ruins and ghost towns in the Nevada desert when we briefly detoured to California to visit with Rally Panam, and to get some maintenance done. We fully intended to return to the desert, but as the days continued on, the whole virus thing made it clear it was time to head home. Sadly, I don't foresee any group trips for quite some time. Stay well
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Old 05-21-2020, 09:41 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanimal View Post
Have you checked the travel of the shock? Maybe you are bottoming out? Take a zip tie and wrap it on the shaft all the way up the shaft. Take a drive thru your dailey drive area and check it after. If the tie is mid way then take a drive off road thru a fairly rough area and put it thru what you normally do speed wise and ride quality. Check the tie again every few miles off road. If it is gone or smashed you are bottoming out!
Remember that the articulation of the axle increases when one side drops and the other raises, so if your bump stop is good when your axle goes evenly up and down it may not be the case for when the driver side drops and the passenger side rises therefore increasing the clearance of the bump stop but reducing the clearance of the shock by increasing the insertion of the shaft into the body of the shock. I hope you get what I mean!

Thats what the black rubber grommet on the fox shocks is for. If you look at his photo... the black grommet is completely pushed down against the eyelet for mounting. That indicates #1 he pushed it down there himself. #2 the shock is bottoming out. Just push that grommet back up against the bottom of the shock body, go for a drive, hit some bumps, come back and see where the grommet moved to. Of course your grommet is now saturated with oil so you might have to snug it around the shaft somehow to keep it from slipping under its own weight. If its bottoming out it would indicate the shock part# is to long for your application or you dont have bump stops on your truck or the bump stops are to short for your application.
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Old 05-21-2020, 10:46 AM   #20
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Late to this convo but I went through several sets of Fox 2.0 IFP before upgrading to 2.5" shocks. I bent shafts on some and blew seals on others. My contact at Fox indicated these are mostly an upgrade for street use related vehicles rather than offroad use vehicles. I replaced a broken one at some point with a bilstein and melted the stickers/paint on the bodies and the boot in one relatively light trip (at least for us). Big heavy vehicles = big shocks....that's my $0.02

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