King 2.0 Shocks Install & Review - 2019 Jeep Wrangler JLU Rubicon
Posted by Sean Reyes on
Fox or King? Orange or Blue?? Fast or faster???
There’s a shock for every driver. Dont get too caught up in the same options and opinions that everyone else is hucking on the internet (when they’ve likely only tried one or the other).
Despite similarities in strengths of high speed off-road racing, these two Shock technology powerhouses vary in their shock design and valving approaches to the light truck, heavy duty truck, and Jeep market. We’ve experienced first hand the ride quality differences between these two popular 2.0 (2 inch shock body) options.
Disclosure: Shock dyno charts are not provided by the manufacturer on these 2.0 options for the Wrangler. We also paid for and installed the shocks on this Wrangler ourselves, no promotional credit or preference exist here.
The Fox 2.0 IFP Performance shocks were the first upgrade for the 2019 Jeep Wrangler JLU on a 3.5” Metal Cloak kit, and performed well and as expected from previous Fox upgrades on other vehicles. Eric, who is the daily driver of the Wrangler, stated it felt more planted and a lot better road manners compared to the Rock Sport shocks that came with the metal cloak kit. Off-road handling also improved in the fast stuff, rock crawling didn’t change too much in terms of feel, but body roll reduction improved.
After being on the Fox 2.0 for approximately 15k miles of daily driving and numerous off-road trips and trail runs, it was time to move over to the competition, King. The 2.0 King shocks were installed recently in order to get a direct head-to-head comparison in both daily driving scenarios and off-road environments of all kinds. Lots of expectations based on the constant internet buzz.
Eric, JLU Owner
“I noticed a big difference in (lack of) confidence on the trails and washboard, there was a lot more motion and jittery feeling, a lot more (unwanted) feedback from the road, not what I wanted. If I’m going to choose a shock for the daily driver that can also handle my usual trails, I definitely want the Fox back on.”
Sean, Shock Boss
“The front end was significantly more washy out here in the desert, a lot more body roll and dive. With the Fox, the body roll was significantly less in the day to day and easy trail manners. We didn’t get into the high speed handling of the whoops in Johnson Valley, the Jeep isn’t setup for that kind of driving, and that’s not what this Jeep is meant for either. Going at a pretty fast clip through the normal desert terrain felt good, and the bumps were soaked up very well.”
Surprisingly, there is such a thing as too much comfort and plushy feeling, the King 2.0 are just too soft for our driving styles.
In the end, Eric and Sean both prefer the Fox 2.0 over the King 2.0 for this JLU. While we may not be re-installing the Fox 2.0 back on the JLU, we’ll be getting into the adjustable shock game with some Falcons 3.X, Fox (2.5 or 3.0) DSC, and Bilstein 8100 External Bypasses to further our knowledge base on how different size shocks and features contribute to both daily driver comfort and off-road performance.
