3rd Gen FOA Mid-travel -- Interest Thread

[kevro2000]

Absalom. After ur txt thr other day I started chrcking this out. I'm out at this point. 100 extra for reservoirs isn't a deal breaker for me to go to kings. It seems to me the foa people suddenly think it's time to cash in. Excuses as to why the 6" Co off the shelf do not work. Even if they do not then why does the one that will work suddenly double the price?
It seems to me now that there is a reason foa searches produce nothing and it appears the owner of the company is determined to remain unknown in the Toyota community. Maybe if he begins to understand the value of having 20 customers lined up to buy and assistance in getting parts to develop his product so that he can confidently market a 4runner/tscoma kit he will adjust his pricing to be more in line with the prices on his own Web pages. Until then I would simply prefer to buy a tested and proven product thst doesn't require any wait time or development. I feel like we are all losing here, particularly foa.

 

[TCMach]

It seems to me the foa people suddenly think it's time to cash in. Excuses as to why the 6" Co off the shelf do not work. Even if they do not then why does the one that will work suddenly double the price?

Just food for thought
2 FOA 6" 2.5 Coilovers with resis - $400
Camburg top plates - $100
Raised lower spring plates - $92
14" 3" ID 600lb Eibach coils - $250
Spanner wrench, nitrogen charge, mounting bolts ~ $50

Total Cost: $892

Three things to consider however. A raised lower spring plate is a free option from King, FOA does not have this info on their website and referred to them as custom earlier in this thread so I included the cost. This also does not include some form of custom valving like you would get on a vehicle specific coilover. Some shops do custom valving for free, some don't. Lastly, FOA has to make some money on this deal.

 

[orbot]

finished my installation friday with FOA shocks, only issue i see is that i ordered 8" travel shocks and the ones that i got are a tad over 9" they are a bit long for what i wanted..

 

[TCMach]

finished my installation friday with FOA shocks, only issue i see is that i ordered 8" travel shocks and the ones that i got are a tad over 9" they are a bit long for what i wanted..

What LT kit is that?

 

[orbot]

camburg

 

[TCMach]

camburg

That's what I want. I'm super jelly haha. How do you like it?

 

[oscar.martin.7923]

Havent driven it yet, need to mount reservoirs, alignment and figure out the trucks height

 

[D Farms]

Just thought Id post these here for anyone that hasnt done any research.

If you read through all of these threads, you will find a few things in common: Sometimes they leak at first and then they are fine if you rebuild them yourself, which you will have to do at some point anyways. it also seems pretty common to find aluminum shavings within the oil. all of these high performance coilovers will require more maintenance than your normal bilstein 5100 or oem setup. The general consensus of people that have had problem is that the FOA shocks just don't seem to get checked over before they leave, but they are a good design in general.

I know that I personally wouldn't trust something like this out on the trail, or driving around everyday. That being said if you dont mind tinkering and taking your truck apart a lot to fix it im sure they will be fine for you.

http://www.ultimateyota.com/showthread.php?10586-FOA-shock-review-real-talk/page3

FOA Shocks - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

f o a shocks r garbage - Trucks Gone Wild Classifieds, Event Information and Mud News

FOA shock opinions - GoFastBroncos.com

Tore the second shock down this morning. Shock oil was nasty and a few metal shavings, which I doubt is normal but considering it's a brand new shock I wouldn't say it's unexpected but I don't know :noidea:

Cleaned all the parts (didn't take the reservoir apart on this one), and cleaned up the uniballs with a dremel and wire wheel since they were pretty dirty from sitting outside for so long. The valving was the same as the other coilover, all 10s (again, supposed to be 15s on compression and 10/15s on rebound). So I just left the valving how it was. There was an extra spacer between the nut and the piston compared to the other side so I removed it to make both sides the same.

I think this is where FOA falls short of the expensive brands is just the quality control: the valving was wrong, one shock had an extra useless spacer compared to the other, the nut definitely was over torqued, etc. But I don't think they're bad shocks, it's just little things that are different and once gone over I don't see how these would perform much differently compared to a king or other brand outside a couple percent performance difference associated with tighter tolerances and stuff. I don't know, obviously I've never run fancier shocks or had a direct comparison with someone else's but that's my observation.

 

[absalom]

Thanks for this info. David, aka D farms, feels that I've been acting "scummy" and that I haven't been forthcoming with what he sees as the full story with FOA shocks. The truth is, I'm a new father working hard to support a young family so my wife can stay home with our son. I have to be careful with my resources so I don't end up in the poorhouse, and more importantly so I can support my love for 4runners! So, I've become somewhat of a careful shopper, and will leave no stone unturned in the search for maximum performance on my meager budget. I respect that cheaper products may not be for everyone, but for me if I can save a few dollars here and there, while not compromising safety, my wallet is much better off! I suppose I figured buyers in this thread, just like any other, are adults and capable of doing their own research and making their own decisions. I'd never allow myself to make an expensive decision based solely on the words of a single stranger over the Internet, and I trust buyers on this thread would avoid making the same mistake.

I've been trying to share as much as I can from my own limited experience with the company and it's employees. If a member feels that I haven't fully disclosed the pros and cons of FOA, I'd love to hear so. If there's anything I can improve upon for future buys, I'd love to learn! This group buy has been a lot of fun so far (and also a lot of work), and I really want to make sure nobody feels misled. I think one of our greatest abilities as a forum, is to come together and increase our buying power.

Looking forward to feedback, and as I mentioned in OP, please do some research and decide if FOA is for you!

finished my installation friday with FOA shocks, only issue i see is that i ordered 8" travel shocks and the ones that i got are a tad over 9" they are a bit long for what i wanted..

Orbot, your setup looks incredible. I'm half tempted to drive to Chula Vista for a ride shotgun. Please, please keep us posted with your impressions of the Camburg setup.

 

[orbot]

Here goes.

finally got the truck on the road...drove it a couple of days, did alignment
my main issues are:

shocks are a bit longer wich gave me hardly no travel, i had to crank the coils down to lift the truck in order to get travel, wich i dont ming truck looks nice.

now i have to fab a custom upper shock mount.. im thinking on getting the upper uniball bushing through the shock cup hole and fab a mount on top wich will give a couple more inches, so this plus the height and bump stops should be ok, i dont plan on racing this thing.

As for the ride it feels nice. im using 500 hypercoils i had from another set of shocks i bought.

Anyone got questions feel free ill do my best.

 

[turbo8]

Don't be jumping your 4runner anytime soon. Your shocks and shock mounts will be used as a bump stop.

Did Camburg recommend a 8" travel shock? FOA shocks are taller than other brands.

 

[orbot]

i know, im afraid ill have to cut the bucket..
the kit is suppose to be brand specific either fox or race-runner

 

[TCMach]

Don't be jumping your 4runner anytime soon. Your shocks and shock mounts will be used as a bump stop.

Did Camburg recommend a 8" travel shock? FOA shocks are taller than other brands.

Both camburg and total chaos recommend 8" travel coilovers. Solo motorsports too for that matter.

 

[orbot]

You can work around it just have to invest more time on it

 

[JeepKiller]

Are the front coil overs going to be able to take the weight of an aftermarket bumper without sagging much? Sorry if it was already discussed I didn't see it

 

[TCMach]

Are the front coil overs going to be able to take the weight of an aftermarket bumper without sagging much? Sorry if it was already discussed I didn't see it

That more has to do with spring rate than the coilover itself. You can get different spring rates for different weight capacities. I want to say FOA was talking about a 650lb spring which would be easily hold up to a bumper.

 

[JeepKiller]

That more has to do with spring rate than the coilover itself. You can get different spring rates for different weight capacities. I want to say FOA was talking about a 650lb spring which would be easily hold up to a bumper.

Well I'm definitely interested, but I won't be in the position to buy for a while.

 

[orbot]

UPDATE.

Finally got a chance to hit the dirt.. not a complicated trail, just an access road a few bumps and holes in the way, truck did good i really liked the suspension.

i have med compression and firm rebound with 500 Lbs hypercoils coils. 265/75/16 and custom front bumper. 180 Lbs of gas in them.

 

[DanKendall6]

Any update from foa

 

[DanKendall6]

? I need something for my front end bad!