Thinking about King shocks

Hi all!

My current setup is a relatively heavy 4 door Rubicon (see sig) with an AEV 3.5" lift and Bilstein 5160s. I am looking to smooth out the ride a bit and the more I have been reading, the more I hear about the stiff ride the 5160s provide. I know the springs factor into the equation too, but I am real happy with stance and the way the springs handle additional weight when loaded up for camping.

I am looking at swapping the 5160s to adjustable King Remote Reservoir shocks. Has anyone made a similar swap and able to share their experience? How about just general thoughts on the Kings? I know they are pricey, but hey, what isn't when it comes to jeeps!?

Thanks and Merry Christmas everyone!

Morgan

First off, how much air are you running in your tires? If you're not already running down in the 30-32 psi range, I would give that a try before you go spending money on shocks that you probably don't need.

Second, a majority of ride comfort come from your coils - NOT your shocks. AEV coils are designed to hold up a lot of weight without allowing your Jeep to sag too much if at all. How do you think they can do that? If you really are as heavy as you say you are, you are most likely using up the soft side of the dual rate coil and are primarily riding on the stiffer end and that is giving you your harsh ride.

I'd change the springs before the shocks.

As mentioned I would check tire pressure then sprigs before shocks.......

The 35" BFG MTs are at 28psi cold to achieve a good looking chalk test.

The reason I say heavy is it is a 4 door with front and rear AEV bumpers and tire carrier and a Warn 9.5cti-s winch. Maybe that isn't that too heavy?

If I were to change out to say 4" EVO Plush Rides, how would they compare to the AEV 3.5s? Similar height? How would they do when I load up the back for camping?

Thanks everyone for chiming in!

I recently installed King 2.5 res shocks and the ride is much stiffer than I expected. I'm beginning to think I should have ordered them with the compression adjustment. Fed-ex delivered the plush rides today (thanks ORE! fast shipping!) and hope it's not raining on Sunday so I can swap out the coils.

I really enjoy my EVO plush ride coils paired with the king 2.5s. Zero complaints.

Eddie already mentioned a few things I'd look at such as tire pressure and coils.

Just thought I'd chime in as I now have a little over 13k on my enforcer lift set up. Done a decent amount off-road and more as a DD.

I would also look at your coils. The 5160's are not that stiff of a shock, if anything I would say they're on the softer side. I run the EVO 3" plush rides with the King 2.5's with adjusters and I love the set up. I have about 14k on this set up.

ERAUGrad04 said:

The 35" BFG MTs are at 28psi cold to achieve a good looking chalk test.

The reason I say heavy is it is a 4 door with front and rear AEV bumpers and tire carrier and a Warn 9.5cti-s winch. Maybe that isn't that too heavy?

If I were to change out to say 4" EVO Plush Rides, how would they compare to the AEV 3.5s? Similar height? How would they do when I load up the back for camping?

Thanks everyone for chiming in!

Click to expand...

Without question, the Plush Ride coils are softer and will provide a much nicer ride. However, when loaded up, they will sag. It just goes with the territory and you need to decide what's more important to you - a nice ride 90% of the time or a Jeep that won't sag when loaded up for your camping trip here and there. Back when I was still testing out coils, I enjoyed the Plush Ride the most and just ran then with coil spacers in the rear to help hold up the tons of gear I always have with me.

Another option would be to look at coil overs. You can get a set of bolt on coil overs from EVO with spring rates that will help support your weigh and still give you a nice ride.

jeeeep said:

I recently installed King 2.5 res shocks and the ride is much stiffer than I expected. I'm beginning to think I should have ordered them with the compression adjustment. Fed-ex delivered the plush rides today (thanks ORE! fast shipping!) and hope it's not raining on Sunday so I can swap out the coils.

Click to expand...

Did you get these installed? wondering on how the ride is now.

CJW said:

Did you get these installed? wondering on how the ride is now.

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not yet, I hope to get the coils on Monday or Tuesday when it's warmer. I really need to get my garage cleaned out :icon_crazy:

I went with the 4" coils to allow for sag when loaded.

I'll post back up once I get them on and tested

Kings

Well not to make anyone too jealous... I am an e-bay shopper, I ended up winning a bid on a full set of kings NIB set up for a 4 inch lift, and they are the adjustables with resovior. the sick thing is I got all for for 400 dollars. Never opened. The shipping ticket inside said the guy paid around 1900 dollars for them. I was shocked to have won the bid, I turned around and sold my adjustable rancho rs 9000s for 200.oo dollars- upgraded to the Kings for 200 bucks! I have had good luck on e-bay thus far with my jeep.

I have Currie Dual rate coils that provide a 4 inch lift. So that is a varible that makes the question kind of unknown if you use them with your springs.

Having run the Kings now for about a year, I would say they are great shocks. They eat up washboards and whoops really nice. But I would not have added them to the jeep for 1900 dollars.... and if I had, I would understand that I paid for performance and hopefully durabuility that I can't get with another shock.... but it not a tremendous difference. Seeing that I bought my old lift and shocks for 460 dollars... I was say the ride around town is very similar. Only in really high speed washboard and potholes do I see a noticable difference.

Well and possibly in one other area, when the Jeep is loaded really heavy, I turn the shocks up, to get rid of sway... but the ride doesn't really give you anything you would call plush.

I do load heavy at times as well, and for me... I have decided that this is a compromise. Springs that hold the weight are stiffer, and shocks that are adjustable help in very small ways. When crawlign in rocks I set them on the softest setting, and it is a compliant ride, but not cushy. Now perhaps with other coils you can reach cushy, but the shocks only change up a few of the varients a little bit.

Will I sell the kings? Errr... NO! Never will I hope to get a deal on them like that again. But should the jeep get totalled and I had to rebuild.... it would be a mod down the list. :idontknow:

jeeeep said:

not yet, I hope to get the coils on Monday or Tuesday when it's warmer. I really need to get my garage cleaned out :icon_crazy:

I went with the 4" coils to allow for sag when loaded.

I'll post back up once I get them on and tested

Click to expand...

Cool! Looking forward to hearing what you think.

wayoflife said:

Without question, the Plush Ride coils are softer and will provide a much nicer ride. However, when loaded up, they will sag. It just goes with the territory and you need to decide what's more important to you - a nice ride 90% of the time or a Jeep that won't sag when loaded up for your camping trip here and there. Back when I was still testing out coils, I enjoyed the Plush Ride the most and just ran then with coil spacers in the rear to help hold up the tons of gear I always have with me.

Another option would be to look at coil overs. You can get a set of bolt on coil overs from EVO with spring rates that will help support your weigh and still give you a nice ride.

Click to expand...

Thanks Eddie. After this past weekend in Mojave, I am pretty much sold on EVO coilovers. I spoke with Mel and he recommend the weld on DTD towers up front with the single coilover to allow for a bit of future proofing.

Now it's just time to save the pennies for the coilovers, PR44 and long arms!

Thanks again for a great weekend!

jeeeep said:

not yet, I hope to get the coils on Monday or Tuesday when it's warmer. I really need to get my garage cleaned out :icon_crazy:

I went with the 4" coils to allow for sag when loaded.

I'll post back up once I get them on and tested

Click to expand...

Any update?

CJW said:

Any update?

Click to expand...

ha! I was just thinking I needed to update.

I really didn't think new coils would make the difference they've made - I have been considering swapping to the EVO plush rides for some time.

as mentioned I got the 2.5 EVO tuned kings w/o the adjustment and they were much firmer than I thought they would be. Since installing the coils the combination is much better.

I haven't loaded the Jeep up to see how the ride changes but as it is now I'm happy with the changes - even my daughter mentioned the ride felt better.

My old coils with the Bilsteins were a good combination and actually gave a very comfortable ride when loaded down for the long trips (they were ordered for lots of heavy mods), but once the shocks lost their functionality the ride got pretty firm (I could easily compress the shocks by hand).

Looking back, I should've gone with my initial thought of just replacing the coils and getting another set of Bilsteins or Ranchos while saving for coilovers but... I've gone out on some old ranch roads and the Kings handled it so much better than the Bilsteins at the higher speeds so overall I'm happy with the changes :thumb:

JAGS said:

I really enjoy my EVO plush ride coils paired with the king 2.5s. Zero complaints.

Eddie already mentioned a few things I'd look at such as tire pressure and coils.

Just thought I'd chime in as I now have a little over 13k on my enforcer lift set up. Done a decent amount off-road and more as a DD.

Click to expand...

I agree, I have the same set-up as JAGS and I love it. Approx 10K on my suspension and couldn't be happier.

jeeeep said:

ha! I was just thinking I needed to update.

I really didn't think new coils would make the difference they've made - I have been considering swapping to the EVO plush rides for some time.

as mentioned I got the 2.5 EVO tuned kings w/o the adjustment and they were much firmer than I thought they would be. Since installing the coils the combination is much better.

I haven't loaded the Jeep up to see how the ride changes but as it is now I'm happy with the changes - even my daughter mentioned the ride felt better.

My old coils with the Bilsteins were a good combination and actually gave a very comfortable ride when loaded down for the long trips (they were ordered for lots of heavy mods), but once the shocks lost their functionality the ride got pretty firm (I could easily compress the shocks by hand).

Looking back, I should've gone with my initial thought of just replacing the coils and getting another set of Bilsteins or Ranchos while saving for coilovers but... I've gone out on some old ranch roads and the Kings handled it so much better than the Bilsteins at the higher speeds so overall I'm happy with the changes :thumb:

Click to expand...

That's really nice to hear since I'm considering going the same route. For daily driving and rock crawling would you say the Bilsteins and Kings feel the same? I've read posts where some think the kings feel stiffer and some say the bilsteins feel stiffer; on road that is.
I do like the adjustability of the Kings for when loaded down and offroad though.....

CJW said:

That's really nice to hear since I'm considering going the same route. For daily driving and rock crawling would you say the Bilsteins and Kings feel the same? I've read posts where some think the kings feel stiffer and some say the bilsteins feel stiffer; on road that is.
I do like the adjustability of the Kings for when loaded down and offroad though.....

Click to expand...

on the road both shocks are so close it's hard to tell, I can still corner hard, not feel like the shock is fading and control is great. overall ride with the plushride coils versus what I had before feels more comfortable. I do wish I had gotten the adjustable kings but mostly out of curiosity to see just how much difference it would make on the overall ride.

I'm happy with the setup as it is now and will be changing to coils in the near future anyway, I just want to get past the "doh!, I should've waited and gotten coilovers" moment :thumb:

Remember, all jeeps are not created equal. That being said, before you give up on any shock,find a competent shock tuner and chat with him. For instance, my shock tuner told me that regarding the 5100's that I used to run and thought were too firm said he reversed the shims and it made a big difference. Wish I would have known more about shock tuning at that time.

A good shock tuner can do more than you think in tuning them to your suspension and just might be worth the time :beer: