How To: Adjust the Fox Shock Perch / Height / Level the Front

Supporting Vendor SDHQ Offroad (click here) has put together perhaps the most comprehensive "how to" regarding adjusting the Raptor's Fox Shock perch setting. All material below is courtesy of Ryan and SDHQ, and all credit belongs to them. Great writeup guys and thanks for letting us host it here!

A couple quick notes before the writeup:
-The net result is approx 2.5" lift in the front, bringing the nose level with the rear.
-Yes, you will need an alignment done after this adjustment
-According to an SVT engineer, the factory warranty on the Fox Shock is 3 year/36k miles (click here)
-According to an SVT engineer: "[Leveling the nose via the perch adjustment described below...] It all depends on what you want to do with it. Using the detents would raise the front ride height of the truck and would give you more jounce travel, but take away rebound travel. This would really change how the truck rides and handles on and offroad especially when taking in consideration how we tuned the bypass shocks and how they ramp up damping force. This would also potentially void the warranty." (click here)

And here's SDHQ's writeup!

Here are a couple pics we snapped while we were leveling out the Raptor. Hope this helps...

Stock height before tire removal


Stock height bottom of fender


Remove tire/wheel


Disconnect sway bay link


Disconnect tie rod


Remove nut on upper ball joint to remove upper control arm


Remove upper shock bolt and lower shock bolt


Remove shock assembly from tuck






Place shock in spring compressor & remove coil spring


Remove set screw to move lower mount




We moved the snap ring to 3rd notch for the most lift


Reassemble shock


Reinstall shock & reconnect upper control arm


Reconnect tie rod


Reconnect sway bar linkage


Double check all hardware, brakelines, etc.




Back on the ground 2.5” higher
Check over & road test then to alignment


Stock




After adjustment

Do these guys understand the concept of internal bypass shocks? They have a range in the middle where some of the oil bypasses the valving, but all of the oil must go through the valving outside of that range. In other words, they're soft in the middle of their range of travel, but stiffen up at extremes.

Doing what they've done here puts that soft range in the wrong part of the shock's travel.

If it was that easy to make the truck handle better, I think the SVT engineers would have done it. This may make the truck look better to their eyes, but I think it would be bad for the high-speed handling on rough surfaces. That handling is why I'm buying one, not its looks.

chartguy said:

Do these guys understand the concept of internal bypass shocks? They have a range in the middle where some of the oil bypasses the valving, but all of the oil must go through the valving outside of that range. In other words, they're soft in the middle of their range of travel, but stiffen up at extremes.

Doing what they've done here puts that soft range in the wrong part of the shock's travel.

If it was that easy to make the truck handle better, I think the SVT engineers would have done it. This may make the truck look better to their eyes, but I think it would be bad for the high-speed handling on rough surfaces. That handling is why I'm buying one, not its looks.

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That is not quite right... The soft part is when the wheel is at full droop and stiffens as the wheel compresses. There have been some reports that the engineers at Ford wanted the middle position but were not allowed to due to other restrictions.

Who sells a decent spring compressor that works but won't rob the bank?

I'm having mine moved to the middle on Wednesday. Was quoted about $200 (incl alignment). We'll see how accurate that will be then.

Raptoyd11 said:

Who sells a decent spring compressor that works but won't rob the bank?

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just rent 2 of the MacPherson strut spring compressors from Auto Zone - for free.

BIRDMAN said:

just rent 2 of the MacPherson strut spring compressors from Auto Zone - for free.

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Really? They have them. I did not know that thanks

RaptorSCrew said:

I'm having mine moved to the middle on Wednesday. Was quoted about $200 (incl alignment). We'll see how accurate that will be then.

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Is that the dealer? That's a good price.

If that is from a mod friendly dealer that is a great price!

-Greg

Madcowranch said:

Is that the dealer? That's a good price.

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No, this is from a small auto care shop. He handles all sorts of aftermarket suspension, wheels, exhausts etc. Great Reputation for quality work.