Been wondering what would work best so I only have to buy shocks once instead of upgrading. Would the king 2.5 reservoir shocks that Evo sells be worth the money? Or would I be better off going with the 2.0 internal reservoirs they also sell or even just some fox 2.0 reservoirs.
I am building up my rig for mainly desert driving/ minor prerunning until I get more upgrades. Also do trails and crawling.
Would I actually see a performance difference with the bigger kings

 

No shock experts out there?

 

Just bought teraflex tuned fox, 2.0 w reservatoir and made a 3000 km trip. Couldnt imagine better shocks... This is my DD... On and off road are perfect!! At the first time I was thinking about upgrade my shocks with a selectable kit from fox, now I cant see me changing teraflex setup! If you like prerunner, check theier prerunner kit!
Think about teraflex tuned fox... I would do this from the first time for sure!!
Look at youtube...

 

To the OP what lift do you plan on running, more specifically what springs are you planning to use? The advantage of Kings, or Fox is that they are fully rebuildable and can be valved specifically to your needs and your spring rates. (which I personally think is a big plus)

If you do a lot of desert running remote res shocks could be useful as they tend to not heat up as quickly, or at least thats how they are marketed. I've been debating between King and Fox heavily the past few months, but ultimately I ended up ordering to EVO bolt on king coilovers, for me its a future proof set up.

 

I have run Teraflex, Old Man Emu, Bilstein and Fox on one vehicle or another, each one is a good shock. But Kings are great shocks, and the Kings that are spec'd by EVO are incredibly great. Make no mistake about it, if you are serious about how your jeep handles on and off road the EVO spec'd Kings are worth the money. Off Road Evolution worked directly with King Racing shocks to get proprietary valving and spring rates that directly translate to how a JK will handle best in the rocks at crawl speeds or blasting thru desert at highway speeds. The EVO's are not just off the shelf Kings that are untuned, but are tuned shocks that would take days of testing like a race team would do to squeeze the highest performance out of for specific rig in multitudes of terrain. They are not cheap, but the guess work has been done for you

 

I didn't know that the non coil over kings EVo sells are valved specifically to. Im not 100% on sprigs yet but I'm thinking rock krawler 2.5s to keep the CG low then go long arm upgrade kit. I'll be running air bumps to

 

if your shocks come from Off Road Evolution and they have the "Off Road Evolution" logo etched into the blue anodized top mounting eye, then they are EVO spec'd. See my pic

 

Idk if they have them or not. Maybe someone fromORE will comment to clarify if there OEM 2.5s are king spec'd as well. It doesn't say on the web page, it just has the info straight from the king site

 

I run the fox 2.0 with resi and do so cal type terrain. Also my DD. I find it works great unless you hit big stuff or cross wash. Avg speeds I run is 20-40 mph. But that shock is only part of the equation. spring rates are very important. Make sure you get both from a source that has done the home work. My stuff is from ORW which is in our area. I'm sure the OrE stuff is great too. All a matter of budget and what your terrain and driving style is. FYI I use the front bump stops from fox / ORW. That helps if you really push if hard. But they are welded in mounts so it's a lot of labor.

 

I know coilovers would be way better for pre running with adjustable spring rates but they are a bit more expensive to do all at once. Hopefully regular springs will do a decent job with some air bumps and good shocks.
I know teraflex makes the pre runner kit. Not sure if it has specific springs just for the kit or not though.
So far my plan is for full traction long arm upgrade kit and the RK 2.5 stock mod system for the springs and track bar brackets.
Unless evo comes out with the 3" long arm kit