I've been running the OME forever now. Prob on my 4th set maybe even 5 now in the 196k. I would def give them a try. Work great off road but the on road manners I feel are great. It gives the JK a great feeling and ARB is a great company to deal with if any problems come up.

 

How are you guys going through so many sets of shocks? My first set was crap Pro Comps (I had no clue back then) which didn't last hardly any time. Then I threw a set of low-end Fox 2.0 (I think expedition series at the time) on. I just replaced them with some Fox Performance Resis thinking it was probably time, but after 75k miles of pavement, wheeling, a lot of spirited driving down bumpy and washboard back roads, and about another 12k miles being yanked behind a motorhome, those Fox shocks seemed perfectly fine still. I think they had quite a bit of life left in them still.

 

OME made the list, I'm just looking at extended and compressed lengths....trying to maximize in the space I have.
Fox performance series? Roger dodger. I had factory, factory w/ extensions, Bilstein 5100's (bought blown from a member here years ago), then back to factory, Rancho 5000x's, and now looking for something else. The Rancho's are nice but they are tired after about 10 mins on the trail. Bilstein was nice too, even though they were blown, but I've been there and done that so I'd like to try something new. I think it's mileage and full power on poorly maintained roads that's killing me.

 

I really have to scrutinize lengths cuz my build is not typical. I didn't really want to pay for the resi shocks even though I got them at cost through my buddy, but the lengths were perfect for me. I don't think they are worth the extra money but my only other option was to run mismatched brands front/rear and I really didn't want to do that. The bodies on my old rear shocks were so long they limited uptravel (they were the 4-6" flavor of Fox's.....they were fine till I raised my axle side mounts with Evo Rock Stars). These resis have about the same travel but the body is a good bit shorter. I can't say I'm some Fox homer, they just have the perfect length for my build, but I was pretty impressed with how my old ones held up.

 

I'm in a similar boat- Metalcloak rear shock relo's and I've gone back to Artec shock mounts up front. What I'm finding is to get the 8"+ of travel that the factory had plus some, I've got to run a little bump in the rear and deal with 4.5" up and 5" down (depending on the shock). Up front I can get away with most any shock and only run 1" bump. The roads are rough and I'm usually hitting the trails once a month with them being so close. The old mining roads are giving the Rancho's a real workout.

 

I got a chance to look at the receipt and apparently it's been 5 years on these shocks so they're out. Fox shocks have been in and out of stock lately but I got a set coming for $500- a killer deal on the performance (rebuildable series) as opposed to the adventure series that are on the same level as the bilstein 5100's.

 

shhhhh. The adults are talking.

 

That situation has resolved itself, we can resume the topic without interruption.