Fox Live Valve rear shocks on Gen 1??

[allinon72]

All electronically controlled shocks, any make and model, will go full stiff when not hooked up as a safety measure to prevent physical damage to the shock.

 

[Canuck714]

Why would you want to do that? Full stiffness is going to be a terrible experience

Wont full stiff just be the Baja Mode on a Gen 2??
It cant get stiffer than the base valve stack with full compression like a DSC clicker..
I am surprised that someone has not figured out how to open and close the live valve adjuster with a simple rheostat or position switch
@nate mcmillin did you try these on your truck? What is the real world experience?

EDIT... Looks like you can buy the Live valve controller for the bik and wire it up..lol Dout that works just plug and play, but the technology is there.
https://www.ridefox.com/content.php?c=livevalve-bike

I also see a stand alone Quick Switch optio for Live Valve with 3 settings
https://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=truck&t=shocks&p=44

 

[FordTechOne]

Wont full stiff just be the Baja Mode on a Gen 2??
It cant get stiffer than the base valve stack with full compression like a DSC clicker..
I am surprised that someone has not figured out how to open and close the live valve adjuster with a simple rheostat or position switch

EDIT... Looks like you can buy the Live valve controller for the bik and wire it up..lol

https://www.ridefox.com/content.php?c=livevalve-bike

The shocks will not go to full stiffness unless the height sensors indicate that the vehicle is airborne. In Baja mode the shocks are switched to the “Off-Road” setting, which is most likely softer to prevent a loss of control when traversing bumps at high speed.

 

[eastreich]

Wont full stiff just be the Baja Mode on a Gen 2??
It cant get stiffer than the base valve stack with full compression like a DSC clicker..
I am surprised that someone has not figured out how to open and close the live valve adjuster with a simple rheostat or position switch
@nate mcmillin did you try these on your truck? What is the real world experience?

EDIT... Looks like you can buy the Live valve controller for the bik and wire it up..lol Dout that works just plug and play, but the technology is there.
https://www.ridefox.com/content.php?c=livevalve-bike

I also see a stand alone Quick Switch optio for Live Valve with 3 settings
https://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=truck&t=shocks&p=44

I've got a set coming later this week and was planning to try exactly that: get a poteniometer and figure out what current levels move the valves accordingly. With that, pretty easy to get a three position switch to set up a soft/medium/hard valving scenario with a bunch of inline resistors.

If that fails, my local dirt bike suspension guy has a full machine shop and we will be adapting them for manual clickers, but the goal is to make the live valves work!

Would be a lot easier if Fox would just sell us the controller for the UTV upgrade kits: https://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=utv&t=shocks&partnumber=803-01-450-KIT

 

[Canuck714]

I've got a set coming later this week and was planning to try exactly that: get a poteniometer and figure out what current levels move the valves accordingly. With that, pretty easy to get a three position switch to set up a soft/medium/hard valving scenario with a bunch of inline resistors.

If that fails, my local dirt bike suspension guy has a full machine shop and we will be adapting them for manual clickers, but the goal is to make the live valves work!

Would be a lot easier if Fox would just sell us the controller for the UTV upgrade kits: https://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=utv&t=shocks&partnumber=803-01-450-KIT

Keep us posted on this, a 3 position switch would be ideal.

I reached out to my contact at Fox and was told that the QS3 and IQS are not compatible with the Ford Live Valve shock.
Also, I'm not spending $2k on the controller and potentiometer for a base 3.0.. Be smarter to spend that on some 3.5 bypasses

 

[Canuck714]

The shocks will not go to full stiffness unless the height sensors indicate that the vehicle is airborne. In Baja mode the shocks are switched to the “Off-Road” setting, which is most likely softer to prevent a loss of control when traversing bumps at high speed.

The height sensor would only work with the control module....So if the live valve is unplugged it would not get input from any sensors, and would therefore go into a default setting.
That default setting should be the full stiff compression setting right?

 

[Raptor911]

So I assume the goal is to save money and try to modify a live shock (which you got cheap) and make it work on a gen1 truck or a 2017/18 truck. This should be interesting as you may spend more money trying to modify it. And what happens when you have a failure like full lost of compression and rebound as you have modified the electronics in the shock?

 

[FordTechOne]

The height sensor would only work with the control module....So if the live valve is unplugged it would not get input from any sensors, and would therefore go into a default setting.
That default setting should be the full stiff compression setting right?

Yes. With the solenoid unplugged, the shocks are in the stiffest setting.

 

[eastreich]

So I assume the goal is to save money and try to modify a live shock (which you got cheap) and make it work on a gen1 truck or a 2017/18 truck. This should be interesting as you may spend more money trying to modify it. And what happens when you have a failure like full lost of compression and rebound as you have modified the electronics in the shock?

Going to run them on my Gen1 using the KHC front buckets: a late November project when my last dirt bike race for the year is done. Have a few months to get the electronics figured out while I get the rest of the parts I'm throwing on (leafs, bumps, etc...). Parts for all of the electronics are cheap, the "expense" will be in the time involved to get it adjusted and working smoothly.

I program process logic controllers and high level control systems as part of my day job. The live valve control on the level I'm going to do is very simple by comparison.

You will never lose the full compression/rebound as the live valve really only controls the bleed/HSC between the main body/reservoir the same as it does in a motorcycle shock: I've been inside a 100 of those or more as I've been revalving/rebuilding dirt bike shocks for decades. The main piston valving will always be present and is not controlled by the live valve. Can it get soft if it fails in a certain way? Sure, but with leaving the system intact on the shock and just working to control the current (the same way it works on the stock Gen2s), the worst case scenario is that you smoke a wire or the electromagnet and the shock fails to full stiff by default same as it would in a stock new Gen2.

I've gotten to drive/play with the Dynamix system in a RZR, and frankly I love the technology/adjustability aspect of it so I really want to give the Live Valves a go on my Gen1.

 

[eastreich]

Keep us posted on this, a 3 position switch would be ideal.

I reached out to my contact at Fox and was told that the QS3 and IQS are not compatible with the Ford Live Valve shock.
Also, I'm not spending $2k on the controller and potentiometer for a base 3.0.. Be smarter to spend that on some 3.5 bypasses

The $ that I would spend on 3.5 bypasses for the Raptor will be going into the build of my '74 Bronco!

I also haul way too much stuff in the bed to go with a rack/bypass set up (although I would LOVE to be able to do that).