How do you like the fox 2.5 compared to stock for on road and off road?
day and night difference.
i would say stock was at 7/10 on road and 5/10 off pavement with my driving style.
Fox 2.5 would be 10/10 on road and 8/10 off pavement.
For on road i don't feel anything (bump, dip, cracks, etc) and I can send it through those continuous horizontal dips doing speed limit or more like they're not there. I can also take it through canyons to get to trailhead quicker than other trucks and all weekend drivers. And my truck is always loading with full camping/ overlanding gears (full fridge, multiple power stations, roof tent, starlink, full kitchen set, food, full tool set, etc) I achieve that with maxed out low speed adjustment to firm up suspension and did not do any testing with low speed at other levels due to prior experiences.
For off-road i ranked it 8/10 because it's not 100% the way I want. The good: high speed off road run suspension is more compliant and able to keep up with the compression and rebounding on things up to mid size whoops. Any larger sized whoops will need 3.0 or even LT. With 2.5 dia and resi shock fade due to heat is not Low speed off road run like crawling through rocks suspension is very supportive and firm, not bobbing you left and right because they're too stiff. Of course, all these will depend on how you set up your adjusters.
The bad (and why it's not 100% for me): at the end of the day, it's still off-the-shelf shocks. Of course, you can get them revalved to your spec if you so choose to. In addition, even at the Fox factory setting in the front to retain droop, the droop is still limited by my standard but still better than stock or any other brands that I've installed. It's no 3.0 and even with the EXT version that requires UCA, it's still not touching the bare minimum of LT. For me, it is a compromise I made - readily available but not 100% the performance I am looking for, and I knew that before I ordered it.
I have three options to choose from for my truck's future:
-Long Travel and deal with the horrible on pavement posture
-Custom King shock body and valving, paired with dual speed resi from King or Fox (yes, Fox DSC resi fits on King's hose)
-Custom valving/ shock tuning on the Fox 2.5 and see where it goes
-The ultimate build: power wagon with Carli Dominator kit or Thuren kit
But let me give you another option if you're seriously considering Fox 2.5 DSC. As H2OMAN mentioned, Fox 2.5 DSC is pricy. And you still have to add support parts like UCA, rear springs, and rear end links. If you copy my homework and do Carli everything (UCA, rear spring, and end link) that will put you really close to Carli's Performance Package that retails around $5k or so.
But for that price, you will get a Carli tuned King shocks front and rear, Carli rear springs, Carli brake lines, and Carli rear end links. The advantage here is that Carli's shock tuning allows for more suspension travel, and it's not your off-the-shelf generically tuned race shock from King. If King's lead time was shorter when I was ordering shocks, I'd gone Carli Performance Pack instead. That's how good they are.
Another option if you're spending that much is Thuren Kings. They also do their custom tuning as well. I'd say both of them are head-to-head but if you want more technical support in regards to the specific application and your driving style, Don @ Thuren is the guy to talk to.
2019-2023 Dodge Ram 1500 King 2.5 Shocks