FOA shock review real talk

[troyboy162]

Ok I've been putting off this for a bit until I got the feel for them and what not. If you read nothing more know that they work fine and have good enough materials(shock shaft chrome is suspect) and design, but there QC sucks and is possibly nonexistent. I went with FOA to save some money and because they are a big KOH supporter.

The shocks spec'ed for my Kit were custom ordered. This is something FOA openly advertises as available. Really its no big deal cause all the tubes and rods are cut for each shock. A custom one means they just have to slow down and do a one off set of cuts. All the guts are the same. The shocks ordered were speced to be 15" eye to eye compressed. This allows the MCM kit to cycle the upper uni ball to at its set angle and yield the best travel.

FOA accepted this order and drop shipped me two shocks at 15.5" compressed. Just a half inch off right? Well in this case a half inch meant about a inch and a half less wheel travel. Ok so I luckily notice something is not right and find the defect.

FOA is contacted and another set is sent out to my door in about 7 days. Props for FOA for getting it fixed in a timely manor right? We'll yes and no since the shocks they sent are now 15.25 inches compressed. These are hard for me to measure so I spend a day in disbelief, but alas they are defective. FOA is contacted and they inform MCM that they can not make a shock shorter then 15.25". I take the shock out and to my surprise they just squeeze out 13" of wheel travel with MCM top hats so I cant be mad. Now truly the more I learn about shocks the more I understand that they can in fact make a 15" shock. There is nothing internal preventing them from cutting the body and shaft shorter. Also the two shocks cant fully compress and are cut visibly different on the bodys. Basically they are a bit more then a 1/16th inch different in length at extension, but in reality thats no big deal(but another process indicator) since the shocks can extend beyond what the uniball can allow.

I bought some ADS top hats to bring the whole shock up .25 inches and regain the designed up travel since I was not afraid to beat my wheel wells. This ends up bringing the total wheel travel over 13" but i'm done measuring at this point and its time to wheel lol

next up is getting the shocks charged with nitro. Its not free and costs $15 per shock Right off the bat the suspension guru at a local race shop comes from out back to show me the shocks do not extend all the way on their own and explains whats probably wrong with the shocks and that I can run them but it should be addressed soon. What I've learned is during assembly one of three things happened. The IFP valve was improperly positioned, the shock was never filled with enough oil or the shock was never purged of air. All of these leave you with a glorified "emultion" shock meaning the point of having a resivour is completely nullified although they will still work.

Theres a couple more issue but ill just list them

-missing valve cover cap (not a big deal but a process indicator)
-lower hiem joint C-clips not seated on one shock
-improper shock length on custom order
-shocks assembled incorrectly and/or not enough shock fluid
-leaking pressure seal on one shock (other is fine by the way)
-loose bottom rod end. It twists about a quarter turn after being on the truck for a month.
-rusted shaft on one shock and obvious missing crome on the other oil soaked shock. (all after just one month and no I dont live near or have been driving near the ocean) I found this taking them off tonight and have not told FOA about it yet.

Now on to customer service....
I fixed the small issues and it was the shock leak that I finnaly contacted FOA about since the truck was really working beyond my needs. I'm not a racer so I did not notice any performance issues. Long story short they offered to fix the leak for me for free. Turns out one of the guys is stuck working this Saturday so I am just going there to have it fixed while I wait. That is pretty damn awesome if you ask me. I'll report back tomorrow with the results of the service visit. I have a feeling they will be reluctant to swap out the shafts for me since they are custom lengh.

Edit: read below posts...the customer service sucks.