Made the investment to rebuild my shocks.

[Betarocker]

I've been humming and hawing a while now about getting the special tools to rebuild my Fox shocks. Two styles of inflators that have retractable needles, nitrogen tank and manifold, various shaft and body clamps, IFP depth setter and a few rebuild kits and bushings.

I considered shipping the shocks back to Fox for the regular service, but the cost of shipping from Canada to California and the truck being down for week or two while the shock were away. Rebuilt the rears which was super simple once you have all the parts and tools.

 

[paranoid56]

nobody near you do rebuilds?
I just had my rears revalved for 40 bucks lol

 

[Betarocker]

nobody near you do rebuilds?
I just had my rears revalved for 40 bucks lol

Nope. Lots of mountainbike and motorbike, but truck is nothing. If someone does it, they don't advertise.

 

[rayra]

How does the cost of all that specialty tooling compare to the shipping costs? I mean do the tools pay for themselves in 1-2 shipments?
Doesn't seem like shipping to El Cajon CA would be that terribly pricey. Is there some sort of import or duty charge on bringing your own property back into Canada? Or is it just the distance involved? Or are you requiring faster / costlier shipping?

Would it make any sense to buy some plain normal cheap shocks that fit while your Foxes are away being serviced. That way your vehicle isn't down and much less costly ground shipping could be used?

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'm considering do the same for the same reasons as the OP. And if you ship them to FOX it'll probably be more like 3 or 4 weeks total truck downtime. Depends on how fast FOX turns them around.

 

[Betarocker]

I've got 6 pieces total at $75USD each. The rebuild kits are about $20, so $330 of labour, plus applicable shipping. I figure breakeven is about 2 services. I can use the nitrogen to recharge my moto shock too.

I could even do a few rebuilds on the side if someone needed it.

 

[blubullett]

There was some shop or person over on RaptorForum that would ship you a rebuilt set and charge you a core and you would get it back when you sent yours back to him. That way your truck is only down long enough to swap them.

 

[Buliwyf]

If remote res, often shop air works fine. We did shocks so often, we gave up on getting nitrogen refilled. I don't recall anything sensitive it the res, maybe just the comp adjuster, but that's been corrosion free.

It's fun, ya'll are missing out, sending your shocks out. It ain't rocket science. Just a matter of more or less damping shims.

The problem with shocks is, it's not profitable to fine tune them. Takes too long. But if it's your own truck, you can take your time.

https://www.crawlpedia.com/shock_tuning.htm

 

[chris_the_wrench]

I rebuild and valve Kings. I usually buy the rebuild kits from kartek for about 20-25 per shock and I have a small nitro tank for filling. Takes maybe 30 minutes a shock once they are out of the vehicle(depending on how clean you want the exteriors). Thats replacing all the seals, fresh oil and new nitrogen. I think between my clamps and tank/regulator I have maybe $250 into specialized shock tools.

Do it yourself.
Chris