Shock Porn - Kings landed today

[HoustonRider]

so, an update... I'm half done. lol.

This am I got up and because I've swapped shocks on this and my other F250 several times, I didn't think it would be a big deal, so I thought I would knock em out.

As I mentioned, all the shocks are marked "driver" or "passenger". I originally thought for tuning, but apparently for clearances, etc. I took off the passenger shock (near the exhaust) in about a minute, and grabbed the King rear markef "passenger". Simple.

The way I THOUGHT it should go, put the hose too close to the frame, so I turned it around. Nothing getting in the way, so I mounted it up, BAM! easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Flopped over to the other side (driver) and pulled the Rancho and grabbed the King. I mounted it same as other one, with the hose away from the frame (if I mounted it the other way, the hose squeezed between the shock body and the frame.

e·piph·a·ny   [ih-pif-uh-nee]
noun, plural -nies.

a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

these damn things are on the wrong sides, and why? King marked em wrong. Happy Thanksgiving to me !!!

(heres a pick of the passenger side, mounted with the drivers side shock. you can see if I turned it around, the hose would compress between the frame and the shock body.)

I take a break, go have lunch with my family and get back into it later today. Swapped em OPPOSITE of what the tags said (thanks King) and they fit perfect, look great.

I start on the front shocks. I know with the OEMs you can literally unbolt and push em together with your hands and pull em out of the mount. Simple. I bolted the top of the new King to the mount, and the shock appears to be too long. I know they are already extended, but if I compress em and get em into the mount and the suspension goes back to the height it WAS, I literally am gonna have 2 inches of travel until the shock body compresses 100%.

Before I tackle the front, I gotta call the King guys and see if they have actually installed one of these on a 2011 F250, lol.

**Does anyone know if these shocks are gonna lift that front at all? I'm doubting they can lift that 1,000lb diesel engine, but I'm not getting into that front until I hear from these guys.

 

[SSpeeDEMONSS]

i wouldnt be surprised if they lift the front slightly compared to those ranchos.

Garrett

 

[Spatel23]

If they did, would they settle after a couple miles of driving?

 

[HoustonRider]

I doubt they would settle. On the softest settings, I couldn't compress that King a bit. seriously. Even with a towel on the bottom and a jack to compress it a bit, you could feel the resistance.

The Ranchos its was effortless to compress them by hand.

I hope someone is working at King tomorrow. If its like the customer service I've experienced so far, I'm screwed. lol.

 

[TxFireman1972]

Exactly why I wasn't comfortable when I talked to King. They didn't seem too sure about fitment. They told me that the shortest OEM series shock they had for a Superduty was to be used with a leveling kit. I was wanting mine at stock height. I gave them measurements and they said they could build me some custom. Is yours stock height or does it have a leveling kit?

 

[Spatel23]

Txfireman...could you Pm details of your icon shock setup as far as part numbers, lift height if any, and price.
Thanks

 

[HoustonRider]

Its stock height right now, but I have a 2" kit I can throw on.... but they were very clear to me that it was for stock height (even says that on their site). Also on their site, says they can "custom make" these for lifted trucks.

It won't surprise me either way, their customer service is for ****. We will see either way.

I'll use a lift tomorrow am and bolt up the level kit, and the shocks. But still only gonna have 4-5 inches of travel before the shock bottoms out.

I just don't see that being enough. I'm betting they also tell me its "not recommended for the diesel" .lol..

 

[TxFireman1972]

If you have 4.5-5" of compression from where it's sitting at ride height, that will be plent. Climb under there and measure, there probably isn't 3" between your axle and your bump stops right now.

 

[TxFireman1972]

Txfireman...could you Pm details of your icon shock setup as far as part numbers, lift height if any, and price.
Thanks

I never got them. Canceled my order the other day. They told me two weeks to build and 4 days to ship. Five weeks later, they were still saying next week, next week, next week.

 

[Spatel23]

Well crap.
Back to the drawing board I guess.

 

[TxFireman1972]

Well crap.
Back to the drawing board I guess.

Tell me about. I just got tired of having $1600 of my money tied up. I went with ICON because I wasn't feeling too comfortable with my conversations with King.

 

[Jesse@MBRP]

.

This is exactly the difference in length I had between my ICON shocks and the stockers. I promise they are not too long for a leveling kit. However, I wouldn't be comfortable throwing them on a truck without a leveling kit.

 

[TxFireman1972]

This is exactly the difference in length I had between my ICON shocks and the stockers. I promise they are not too long for a leveling kit. However, I wouldn't be comfortable throwing them on a truck without a leveling kit.

Yeah I think they would be fine with a leveling kit, but like you said, I wouldn't put them on factory height without some careful measurements.

 

[Jesse@MBRP]

If you purchase a set of 5100's for a stock height 05-C truck they're an inch longer than the factory shocks right out of the box. Reason being trucks fluctuate so much from the factory with varying equipment like plow prep packages, fx4 packages, etc...

I just threw a set of 5100's on my old mans truck recently and they were 1.125" longer than the OE Ranchos that came off.

 

[HoustonRider]

thanks for all the replies guys. the fabtechs I had on my other SD were much longer, I just don't remember how long the shock body was... I'll have to find a pic, see if I can tell.

Tx Fireman - I did measure the gap between the bump stop and the pad on the axle, and I wish it was 3 inches. lol..

Found a pic of my Fabtechs on my 09, but can't see how much I got left (BUT IT LOOKS LIKE the body goes below the arm)...the second pic is all 4 fabtechs, left ones are of course the fronts. They don't look too much longer than the Kings.

tomorrow I'm gonna throw it on the lift and put the Kings on "as is" and lower it back down, to see whats what. no big deal to do it when I have it up in the air.

The issue for me right now is I invested some bank in this monkeys largely due to the information King supplied me, and is on their website. Everywhere I look, it doesn't say anything about "lift/level required", etc. I'm even looking at dealer websites (basically anywhere I can find em) and I can't find any of them they say anything about "lift/level required"...

 

[ProjecT 9]

Bumping along for updates.

 

[O2ShootTheJ]

Those are sweet!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[HoustonRider]

Sorry for the delay, King has been closed for like 5 straight days and finally decided to join the rest of the world today and open their doors.

After a call to King, my suspicions were confirmed, and they shipped the fronts made for a lifted/leveled truck (1.5-2.0"). King also confirmed that the Kings wouldn't compress enough to hit the bump stops (not sure about that), but at any rate, its better to give it a bit more room than I have now.

so.........my rig is 1.5" higher in rear than front, so I ordered a 1.5" level kit from ReadyLift and I'll have it tomorrow, and get it hooked up with the front Kings Wed or Thursday.

I'll post up when its ready.

 

[HoustonRider]

I got the ReadyLift 1.5" today and had some time to get on the lift and knock it out. I started about 5, and by 6:20 or so, it was all done, wheels back on truck.

I pulled the wheels, unbolted the shocks, disconnected the lower end link bolt and the axle dropped enough to pull the spring out, unbolt the spring perch and install the lift with the new bolt.

Before I jacked the axle back up, I installed the Kings, and they actually needed more space than I had with the front axle lowered as far as it would go, so I had a friend step on the axle and force it down another inch or so. Damn shocks. lol

Anyway, these are down and dirty from my iPhone, I'll get some of the road dirt off and clean it up a bit and get some better pics.

 

[TxFireman1972]

So how do they ride?