ChrisCosta416
Well-known member
Below is a write-up on my experience with purchasing and installing the King shocks. Once my issues are resolved I will be doing a review on how they perform on and off-road.
Why Kings?
I have been running Old Man Emu shocks for the past year and they are a great setup for the money. The OMEs were great off-road but did suffer from shock fade when traveling on trails for a long period. On road they are pretty stiff. I wanted something that is smooth on and off-road, and adjustable. and cool. and unique. Long story short I narrowed it down to the Koni RAID shocks and the 2.5 King OEM Upgrade kit. After some discussion with a now good friend I decided on King shocks due to availability and popularity. Unfortunately Koni RAIDs need to be ordered from Germany, have little to no reviews , and will need to be sent to Denmark to be rebuilt every 3-5 years.
I watched the following videos to educate myself on suspension and King shocks in general
The purchase/ordering process...
Let me start off by saying I paid for the shocks with my own money and I am not a sponsor, brand ambassador, or anything of that nature. There are a few distributors that sell King shocks, I decided to purchase from https://accutuneoffroad.com/ due to their location and their reviews on tuning equations. I purchased the the coilover/shock set with adjusters.
Product numbers - the following sets are available - http://www.kingshocks.com/products/oem/mitsubishi/
Price - Montero King shocks can range from 2,500$ to over 3,500$ depending on how you spec them. You have options to add reservoirs, finned reservoirs, custom lengths, and much more.
Lead time - Since not many Montero shocks are sold stateside a lead time for the shocks are expected. Expect to wait about 4-6 weeks. (Note: I purchased from Accutune and received them within 2 weeks)
Tuning - (optional)
Great, now your shocks are on order. Hopefully you decided to tune them! If not you can ignore this part.
Motion Ratio - https://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/how-to-perform-accutune-measurements/ - Some companies might ask for some measurements to determine motion ratio.
Listed below are the measurements I supplied to Accutune. The vehicle was on level ground and not jacked up. (Please note motion ratio might vary)
Front
Unloaded weight - 5420 lbs
Loaded weight - 5720
Unboxing
Awesome! You ordered, measured, and weighed! Take a moment to admire the beauty of these beefy things...
Install/Fitment
Well you unboxed it and now they are ready to install. This is where things get interesting. To keep it short I will outline some install issues I have encountered. These issues are not yet resolved and I will be updating once they are. I contacted King and I will be bringing my vehicle into their shop to see if we can resolve these fitment issues. I want to say, King customer service has been nothing short of outstanding! They have been helpful every step of the way during this install and I look forward to meeting the King folks personally.
Install Price
For these Kings install price will vary shop by shop. Fitment issues aside the coil over bolts in like any strut and the rear shocks bolt in like any rear shock BUT they are a pain to get in there as they are VERY VERY hard to compress. Once the coilover/shocks are installed you will need to mount the remote reservoirs. The reservoirs come with brackets and you will need to tack weld them to the body. I will post pictures below. The install for the shocks was done with the help Leo and Chai at C&A Auto, for those familiar with Chai, this is the first set of Kings installed and it took us the whole day. Chai will most likely not be willing to install these for Gen3 owners unless King resolves the issues.
(NOTE: I did not tack weld yet, as I might have to take the whole thing out, as a temp solution we bent the brackets and drilled them into the body)
Pictures!
MAN, THEY LOOK GOOD! Okay... now onto the fitment issues...
I WANT TO CLARIFY ONCE AGAIN, THAT KING HAS BEEN AMAZING DURING THIS INSTALL. They have been addressing the install issues as best they could through email and phone conversation. There customer service is truly outstanding.
Alright, here are the following fitment issues I have occurred. Pictures will be below...
The Ride!
Alrighty, so we went over Kings, the purchase, the tuning, the install and issues... Now it's time to discuss the ride!
Accutune did an amazing job valving these shocks! I set the shocks to the softest setting and they soaked up potholes nicely. Granted I still do hit my control arms and I will not be taking the Montero off-road until it is resolved. On my 60 mile ride home the combo of independent suspension and tuned Kings make for a nice compliant and controlled ride. I am messing around with the compression adjusters a bit to find the perfect setting. I find myself taking turns faster due to the confident feel of the Montero.
I will be updating in the coming weeks to give a full review of the ride quality on and off-road, with hopefully some video!
Update - 4/13/19
Okay, as of this date a majority of the fitment issues have been resolved. I worked with Chris from Killer Off-road in Simi Valley, CA who helped me get squared away and fixed up my upper control arms and mounted my reservoirs properly. I would have loved to have King solve the issue but I am told it would take around 6 weeks until they can see me due to race season. I have a trip next month and felt it was cutting it close. I will still be meeting with King in the coming months to produce instructions and solve fitment issues so future buyers won't have to go through this. I have maxed out images posted on this post so I will be posting more down below!
I have been driving around for a week and I continue to be blown away but how smooth these shocks are. Dirt review coming soon.
Why Kings?
I have been running Old Man Emu shocks for the past year and they are a great setup for the money. The OMEs were great off-road but did suffer from shock fade when traveling on trails for a long period. On road they are pretty stiff. I wanted something that is smooth on and off-road, and adjustable. and cool. and unique. Long story short I narrowed it down to the Koni RAID shocks and the 2.5 King OEM Upgrade kit. After some discussion with a now good friend I decided on King shocks due to availability and popularity. Unfortunately Koni RAIDs need to be ordered from Germany, have little to no reviews , and will need to be sent to Denmark to be rebuilt every 3-5 years.
I watched the following videos to educate myself on suspension and King shocks in general
- - King Off-Road racing shocks overview
- - Performance shock reservoirs explained
- - How King compression adjusters work
The purchase/ordering process...
Let me start off by saying I paid for the shocks with my own money and I am not a sponsor, brand ambassador, or anything of that nature. There are a few distributors that sell King shocks, I decided to purchase from https://accutuneoffroad.com/ due to their location and their reviews on tuning equations. I purchased the the coilover/shock set with adjusters.
Product numbers - the following sets are available - http://www.kingshocks.com/products/oem/mitsubishi/
- 25001-264a - Front coilovers with compression adjusters
- 25001-264 - Front coilover without compression adjusters
- 25001-265a - Rear shocks with compression adjusters
- 25001-265 - Rear shocks without compression adjusters
Lead time - Since not many Montero shocks are sold stateside a lead time for the shocks are expected. Expect to wait about 4-6 weeks. (Note: I purchased from Accutune and received them within 2 weeks)
Tuning - (optional)
Great, now your shocks are on order. Hopefully you decided to tune them! If not you can ignore this part.
Motion Ratio - https://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/how-to-perform-accutune-measurements/ - Some companies might ask for some measurements to determine motion ratio.
Listed below are the measurements I supplied to Accutune. The vehicle was on level ground and not jacked up. (Please note motion ratio might vary)
Front
- Lower control arm mount to lower ball joint - 15 inches
- Lower control arm mount to strut mount - 9-10 inches
- Strut angle - 7 degrees in
- Lower control arm mount to lower ball joint - 21 inches
- Lower control arm mount to shock mount - 17 inches
- Shock angle - 0 degrees
Unloaded weight - 5420 lbs
Loaded weight - 5720
Unboxing
Awesome! You ordered, measured, and weighed! Take a moment to admire the beauty of these beefy things...
Install/Fitment
Well you unboxed it and now they are ready to install. This is where things get interesting. To keep it short I will outline some install issues I have encountered. These issues are not yet resolved and I will be updating once they are. I contacted King and I will be bringing my vehicle into their shop to see if we can resolve these fitment issues. I want to say, King customer service has been nothing short of outstanding! They have been helpful every step of the way during this install and I look forward to meeting the King folks personally.
Install Price
For these Kings install price will vary shop by shop. Fitment issues aside the coil over bolts in like any strut and the rear shocks bolt in like any rear shock BUT they are a pain to get in there as they are VERY VERY hard to compress. Once the coilover/shocks are installed you will need to mount the remote reservoirs. The reservoirs come with brackets and you will need to tack weld them to the body. I will post pictures below. The install for the shocks was done with the help Leo and Chai at C&A Auto, for those familiar with Chai, this is the first set of Kings installed and it took us the whole day. Chai will most likely not be willing to install these for Gen3 owners unless King resolves the issues.
(NOTE: I did not tack weld yet, as I might have to take the whole thing out, as a temp solution we bent the brackets and drilled them into the body)
Pictures!
MAN, THEY LOOK GOOD! Okay... now onto the fitment issues...
I WANT TO CLARIFY ONCE AGAIN, THAT KING HAS BEEN AMAZING DURING THIS INSTALL. They have been addressing the install issues as best they could through email and phone conversation. There customer service is truly outstanding.
Alright, here are the following fitment issues I have occurred. Pictures will be below...
- Top of the coilover hits the strut mount and does not allow for the coilover to fully enter the strut mount.
- Reservoir hoses are too long and come in contact with strut "cup" on the inner fender
- Upper control arm mount makes contact with coilover on compression and extension.
The Ride!
Alrighty, so we went over Kings, the purchase, the tuning, the install and issues... Now it's time to discuss the ride!
Accutune did an amazing job valving these shocks! I set the shocks to the softest setting and they soaked up potholes nicely. Granted I still do hit my control arms and I will not be taking the Montero off-road until it is resolved. On my 60 mile ride home the combo of independent suspension and tuned Kings make for a nice compliant and controlled ride. I am messing around with the compression adjusters a bit to find the perfect setting. I find myself taking turns faster due to the confident feel of the Montero.
I will be updating in the coming weeks to give a full review of the ride quality on and off-road, with hopefully some video!
Update - 4/13/19
Okay, as of this date a majority of the fitment issues have been resolved. I worked with Chris from Killer Off-road in Simi Valley, CA who helped me get squared away and fixed up my upper control arms and mounted my reservoirs properly. I would have loved to have King solve the issue but I am told it would take around 6 weeks until they can see me due to race season. I have a trip next month and felt it was cutting it close. I will still be meeting with King in the coming months to produce instructions and solve fitment issues so future buyers won't have to go through this. I have maxed out images posted on this post so I will be posting more down below!
I have been driving around for a week and I continue to be blown away but how smooth these shocks are. Dirt review coming soon.
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