Id' recommend any race shock, once you have them you have them, they can be rebuilt for ever, and adjusted to your liking. I have been building and prepping race buggies / trucks and chase trucks for the better part of half my life. There is no better money spent then on quality shocks, 10" of quality travel is better then 20" of sloppy travel.
here is a quick brake down,
sway-a-way are great shocks and only offer high quality shocks and are priced in the mid range, they are top notch and work awesome, but customer service is lacking a bit ( okay a lot), great if you know what your doing, not so much if you don't.
King has great customer service if your not up on valving and rebuilding your self, but its really not hard. They have 2 series of shocks, Pre-runner shocks, these are great shocks and lower price, and pure race shocks (which is the same as standard sway-a-ways) for a lot higher price, King shocks preform wonderful, and the techs at king will help you dial your truck to perfection, and they have so much experience that the shocks come almost perfect from the factory. There is nothing bad to say about King, their products are great, and service is top notch. If there is anything bad to say it would be pricing, and that's pretty fair for the service you get.
Bilstein also has great service. Joel and Shane really have the motorsports division sewed up. they know what they are doing, and few can argue anything different. Bilsteins claim to fame is manufacturing tolerances, some of the best shocks,and the tightest tolerances, and they are backed by most major OEM's so they have tons of research and development time that is priceless for best performance at a factory oem and at many factory race team levels, the 7100 resi bilstein is a great shock for everything, is rebuildable and will last a life time.
I do not have much experence with fox shocks, but I hear good things, however I have not had good luck with them for the price, I sorta expected more, but I have not messed with them for a few years now, and hear they have made leaps and bounds improvement over prior models. The Ford SVT Raptor program has really helped out fox.
FOA or "First over all" as the acronym stands for, is a great shock for little cost. they service is good and prices are very fair. Id recommend them to anyone that gets sticker shock at any of the other shock manufactures, also their products are up to par with most of the other shock on the market. While most company's use billet and cnc machined parts, FOA has used vacuum drawn castings to save money, and maintain strength, they do offer billet caps and viton seals ( for high speed ), but really are not needed and then the cost goes up so your back at the other manufactures costs.
Also race shocks, unless physically damaged don't go bad, except seals and such which is why they are rebuildable, and most all parts are replaceable if they are damaged.
Try checking out
www.race-dezert.com check the classifieds section,under parts, and search for "shocks". There are always great deals there.
last pair of king 2.0x10" shocks I got used from a guy that did not know how to rebuild them for 150 bucks, another 30 in rebuild parts and I had new shocks.
Spend your money once, dollar for dollar a good quality race shock will change your opinion on what a shock can do, for the rest of your life, its simply one of the best mods you can ever make to your truck no matter what you drive.
My wife's s-10 blazer has 2.0x6" king resi shocks front and 2.0x8" resi shocks on the back.( which I bought used from a listing on race-dezert, and rebuilt) that thing handles great. got right at about 400.00 in all 4, that's about the same or less as 5100 bilsteins and or some rancho 5000/ 9000's,
On another note, in regards to some one else post,
I run 2.5" 3 tube Bypass shocks on my daily driver and unless your charging hard through the whoops you don't hear the bypass tubes clicking,( which is where these shocks really shine ) on daily driving duties, they open and close so softly due to the speeds that they are operating at you really don't hear them if ever, since your not really even in the bypass range. and when you are charging hard your thinking about many other things then the clicking, In a race truck they are loud, but in a insulated daily driver, you may never even notice them.
With that said, a properly tuned resi shock will work just a good as Most bypass, its just harder as you have to brake them down to make valve stack changes.
Bypass shocks are wonderful as they are external adjustable, which makes fine tuning easier, but also makes one a bit lazy, as you don't need to get the valve stacks just correct, as you can fudge it in with the bypass tubes. but if you take the time and get the valve stack right and have bypass tubes then there is no other shock that will out preform regardless who makes it or how much it cost... Nothing will out preform proper valving...
just my 2 cents, sorry for the long post. its a habit...
