- First Name
- Caleb
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2021
- Threads
- 59
- Messages
- 1,513
- Reaction score
- 5,027
- Location
- Sacramento
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 Bronco/1996 Jeep XJ/1957 FC-150
- Your Bronco Model
- Big Bend
- Thread starter
- #1
Hey y’all,
I’ve now been running the Ride shocks on my Bronco for several months and have put at least 8,000 miles on them. In that time I’ve taken them on the following trips:
Snow wheeling in 3 feet of snow
Drove into the frozen tundra of the Mono Basin and camped in 6 degree weather
Mobbed through the desert putting at least 100 Offroad miles on the suspension at KOH
Overloaded the suspension with tools and went to Baja to chase Team 301 for the San Felipe 250. At this race, I pre-ran 40 miles of course with RJ and Austin and then during the race I put on at least another 100 off-road miles including running some of the roughest sections of the course chasing the race going in to recover the race vehicle and run some other logistics.
I came from King’s prior to going with Ride. I ran em out of the box from King and then went with a tune on them from Accutune. I decided it had been enough time with them that I could write a little synopsis of my experience with Ride and some notes on how they compare to King.
For you TLDR folks that have been ruined by algorithms and info now lifestyles, I like the shocks, I recommend them strongly, get them. For everyone else, here is why..
I ran the King shocks for 50,000 miles roughly. Here are some bullet point takeaways:
-Stock tune sucked for me, I had too much weight. Accutune changed the spring rates and redid the piston for a linear piston. Much better, soft ride yet enough firmness to hit mild trails fast (ish). I loved the ride post tune as a daily and mild trails. Not great for hitting whoops.
-Adjuster felt good but was only a single, mid-compression adjuster. It had 24 clicks of adjustment and I had to go through a ton of clicks to feel any change in handling. It still didn’t feel like it did much.
-Quality was cheap, the mounts, bearings and internals were seized up and had a TON of play after 40,000 miles. They needed a full rebuild with a ton of new parts when I took them off.
-King’s have a touch to much travel to where they can over extend your cv axles. Accutune offers a limiter for this to fix that. King’s also just always seemed to sit a tad too high for me. Even fully dropped down on preload.
All in all, Kings were nice, not great, but nice. I highly recommend tuning them but I recommend that anyways for most shocks. Shocks are like a suit, you gotta tailor a suit to your body type. Well you gotta tune a shock to your build as well.
Now for Ride:
-Pre-tuned to your weight range. I have range 1 up front and range 2 in the back.
-Offered in adventure tune and dual-sport tune. I have dual-sport tune because I like to smash whoops! (Insert pic).
-Offer patented dual-piston adjusters for both low speed and high speed. 12 clicks each.
-Offer a 3 year, 50,000 mile warranty (register mileage online).
-Do not over extend the cv axle and sit at a much better position for your tie rods. I noticed my axle and tie rod angles are much flatter now! I am very stoked on that.
-The adjusters are mushy in feel and you have to pay close attention when you adjust them, on the flip side, I notice a big difference in ride feel between single clicks now which I love.
For most folks, I would recommend the adventure tune, it is literally a plush ride but if you dial up those compression settings, you can still party enough for most people. If you really want to hit whoops though, it will get a bit bouncy. I rode in an adventure tuned Bronco on cobblestone streets in Mexico… it was crazy nice!
For me, I opted for dual-sport. I daily the bronco and honestly, the ride is pretty good! No bad jitters, washboards are fine and pot holes aren’t an issue. It is stiff, but very manageable for me. It rides more like a truck is how I put it. You can go full soft on the compression settings and it softens up quite a bit too. The only place where I was bothered by the tune was on razor chop… but that stuff kills anything it touches, its like overkill washboards on steroids.
I sent that Bronco through 1-2 foot whoops at 60 mph, I plowed through silt, I drifted in the snowy tundra. That tune is amazing! It’s not as high tech as the 8112’s but honestly, it comes close in feel when hitting stuff hard.
I hit whoops I have no business hitting on a mid-travel suspension at KOH and Moonrocks and the suspension kept everything in check, it felt like I was never loosing control and it inspired confidence. While filming a review video (linked below). People came over to watch and I gave several folks a ride, they were blown away with what the Bronco was able to do and how controlled it felt. Its not plush by any means, its controlled though. I hit 2 foot whoops at 60 mph and I was defiantly blowing through the available travel on the shocks. It didn’t loose control, experience shock fade or have any issues. I hit the whoop section again and again and again for several hours while filming. My brakes overheated and became toast… The shocks didn’t blink.
Ride has been crazy good with support. It says a lot about the company when the people that answer the phone can also give you tech support and are super knowledgable about the Bronco and their product.
Now I know Ride has a ton of tech articles on their website breaking down their product if you want to geek out. They dive into their adjusters, their fluid they use (its race grade basically haha), their larger hoses and fittings that allow better fluid flow, their materials, their travel numbers, etc. They are also developed through Accutune that has been tuning King’s and Fox’s for years. In fact, Accutune and Ride are literally the same people.. under the same roof. They took one of the bays from Accutune’s tuning desks and turned it into Ride shocks. Accutune also has a ton of articles on shocks, tuning, how to set up your vehicle, etc.
Ride shocks is one of the only companies I know of that provides that level of break down on their suspension. They know customer service, they know shocks and they know Broncos. Heck, they have their own shop Bronco! Accutune basically took everything they learned from tuning shocks for years and realized they could do it better so they created Ride shocks.
I have been super happy with mine, switching from King’s was the best decision I could make. To top it off, Ride was also developed on the Bronco with 37’s in mind. That way if you have 37’s or one day want to switch to 37’s, you won’t have to worry about fitting them. I could keep going but I bet most people have stopped reading by now
I’m happy to edit this with more info as people ask questions. Feel free to watch my video showing these puppies work. I wish I had more stuff from Baja, we did some crazy wheeling and those silt beds were no joke. We pulled a trophy truck out of one. At the end of the day, I’m super stoked on my Ride’s and will continue to sing their praises! If you’re looking for a shock that doesn’t break the bank but offers exceptional performance, look no further! They are cheaper then Fox and King but also offer a warranty and better construction! They took every detail into consideration including the resi placement. The King’s resi placement on front and back had issues. Ride does it right with theirs. No conflict with tires.
https://rideshocks.com/suspension-tech/articles/
https://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/#ford-bronco
I’ve now been running the Ride shocks on my Bronco for several months and have put at least 8,000 miles on them. In that time I’ve taken them on the following trips:
Snow wheeling in 3 feet of snow
Drove into the frozen tundra of the Mono Basin and camped in 6 degree weather
Mobbed through the desert putting at least 100 Offroad miles on the suspension at KOH
Overloaded the suspension with tools and went to Baja to chase Team 301 for the San Felipe 250. At this race, I pre-ran 40 miles of course with RJ and Austin and then during the race I put on at least another 100 off-road miles including running some of the roughest sections of the course chasing the race going in to recover the race vehicle and run some other logistics.
I came from King’s prior to going with Ride. I ran em out of the box from King and then went with a tune on them from Accutune. I decided it had been enough time with them that I could write a little synopsis of my experience with Ride and some notes on how they compare to King.
For you TLDR folks that have been ruined by algorithms and info now lifestyles, I like the shocks, I recommend them strongly, get them. For everyone else, here is why..
I ran the King shocks for 50,000 miles roughly. Here are some bullet point takeaways:
-Stock tune sucked for me, I had too much weight. Accutune changed the spring rates and redid the piston for a linear piston. Much better, soft ride yet enough firmness to hit mild trails fast (ish). I loved the ride post tune as a daily and mild trails. Not great for hitting whoops.
-Adjuster felt good but was only a single, mid-compression adjuster. It had 24 clicks of adjustment and I had to go through a ton of clicks to feel any change in handling. It still didn’t feel like it did much.
-Quality was cheap, the mounts, bearings and internals were seized up and had a TON of play after 40,000 miles. They needed a full rebuild with a ton of new parts when I took them off.
-King’s have a touch to much travel to where they can over extend your cv axles. Accutune offers a limiter for this to fix that. King’s also just always seemed to sit a tad too high for me. Even fully dropped down on preload.
All in all, Kings were nice, not great, but nice. I highly recommend tuning them but I recommend that anyways for most shocks. Shocks are like a suit, you gotta tailor a suit to your body type. Well you gotta tune a shock to your build as well.
Now for Ride:
-Pre-tuned to your weight range. I have range 1 up front and range 2 in the back.
-Offered in adventure tune and dual-sport tune. I have dual-sport tune because I like to smash whoops! (Insert pic).
-Offer patented dual-piston adjusters for both low speed and high speed. 12 clicks each.
-Offer a 3 year, 50,000 mile warranty (register mileage online).
-Do not over extend the cv axle and sit at a much better position for your tie rods. I noticed my axle and tie rod angles are much flatter now! I am very stoked on that.
-The adjusters are mushy in feel and you have to pay close attention when you adjust them, on the flip side, I notice a big difference in ride feel between single clicks now which I love.
For most folks, I would recommend the adventure tune, it is literally a plush ride but if you dial up those compression settings, you can still party enough for most people. If you really want to hit whoops though, it will get a bit bouncy. I rode in an adventure tuned Bronco on cobblestone streets in Mexico… it was crazy nice!
For me, I opted for dual-sport. I daily the bronco and honestly, the ride is pretty good! No bad jitters, washboards are fine and pot holes aren’t an issue. It is stiff, but very manageable for me. It rides more like a truck is how I put it. You can go full soft on the compression settings and it softens up quite a bit too. The only place where I was bothered by the tune was on razor chop… but that stuff kills anything it touches, its like overkill washboards on steroids.
I sent that Bronco through 1-2 foot whoops at 60 mph, I plowed through silt, I drifted in the snowy tundra. That tune is amazing! It’s not as high tech as the 8112’s but honestly, it comes close in feel when hitting stuff hard.
I hit whoops I have no business hitting on a mid-travel suspension at KOH and Moonrocks and the suspension kept everything in check, it felt like I was never loosing control and it inspired confidence. While filming a review video (linked below). People came over to watch and I gave several folks a ride, they were blown away with what the Bronco was able to do and how controlled it felt. Its not plush by any means, its controlled though. I hit 2 foot whoops at 60 mph and I was defiantly blowing through the available travel on the shocks. It didn’t loose control, experience shock fade or have any issues. I hit the whoop section again and again and again for several hours while filming. My brakes overheated and became toast… The shocks didn’t blink.
Ride has been crazy good with support. It says a lot about the company when the people that answer the phone can also give you tech support and are super knowledgable about the Bronco and their product.
Now I know Ride has a ton of tech articles on their website breaking down their product if you want to geek out. They dive into their adjusters, their fluid they use (its race grade basically haha), their larger hoses and fittings that allow better fluid flow, their materials, their travel numbers, etc. They are also developed through Accutune that has been tuning King’s and Fox’s for years. In fact, Accutune and Ride are literally the same people.. under the same roof. They took one of the bays from Accutune’s tuning desks and turned it into Ride shocks. Accutune also has a ton of articles on shocks, tuning, how to set up your vehicle, etc.
Ride shocks is one of the only companies I know of that provides that level of break down on their suspension. They know customer service, they know shocks and they know Broncos. Heck, they have their own shop Bronco! Accutune basically took everything they learned from tuning shocks for years and realized they could do it better so they created Ride shocks.
I have been super happy with mine, switching from King’s was the best decision I could make. To top it off, Ride was also developed on the Bronco with 37’s in mind. That way if you have 37’s or one day want to switch to 37’s, you won’t have to worry about fitting them. I could keep going but I bet most people have stopped reading by now
I’m happy to edit this with more info as people ask questions. Feel free to watch my video showing these puppies work. I wish I had more stuff from Baja, we did some crazy wheeling and those silt beds were no joke. We pulled a trophy truck out of one. At the end of the day, I’m super stoked on my Ride’s and will continue to sing their praises! If you’re looking for a shock that doesn’t break the bank but offers exceptional performance, look no further! They are cheaper then Fox and King but also offer a warranty and better construction! They took every detail into consideration including the resi placement. The King’s resi placement on front and back had issues. Ride does it right with theirs. No conflict with tires.
https://rideshocks.com/suspension-tech/articles/
https://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/#ford-bronco
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