Shocks & Traction for our Project Ford F150

06. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of our stock F-150 unit and the Fox coilover. The Fox assembly uses industry standard 3-inch coil springs and is a bit more compact than the stock unit. The coilovers utilize an internal floating piston (IFP) design. Oil resides on the shock rod side of the internal piston and high-pressure nitrogen resides on the other side. Since the Fox coilovers come completely assembled, there’s no need to bother with swapping springs around.

07. The top of the coilover mates to the top strut mount with three studs; same as the factory unit. New hardware is included. Below, the shock eye is positioned and new hardware installed. It is usually necessary to pry downward a bit on the upper A-arm to install the bolt in the lower end.

08. Here’s the finished assembly with the new Fox coilover in place. We should also mention that the shocks can be rebuilt and revalved as needed by Fox or by off-road shops that service Fox shocks. The front Performance Series IFP coilovers for the 2WD F-150 use a slightly stiffer spring than the stock strut. The new spring rate is 650 pounds per inch versus 600 for the stock springs.

09. The rear shocks took only a few minutes to install and fit perfectly. Both front and rear shocks use redundant seal packs, and wiper and scraper seals to best keep dirt out and oil inside the shocks. The shock rods are 5/8-inch hard chrome plated and the assemblies are designed for good longevity for the street driver and weekend warrior off-roader.

10.0 We added a set of Interco Vortrac tires in a 33x12.50R17LT size. Interco is known for making some of the most aggressive dirt tires ever. But, they also manufacture the all-terrain Vortrac in sizes ranging from about 33 to 37 inches to fit wheel diameters from 16 to 22 inches.

10.5 The tread of the Vortracs uses a fairly tight lug pattern to keep the noise down and offer good tread life. It’s enhanced with some side-biter tread at the outer edges and the tread is siped to increase traction in wet and snowy conditions.