Sway A-Away 2.5 Suspension

[Wheelz96]

Hey folks. I'm due to replace/rebuild my wore out Fox 2.5's on my gen 1 and I'm seeing Sway-A-Away 2.5's for a price in between new Fox 2.5's and 3.0's.

Have others gone this route? There is very little information online with these and just curious to hear if these shocks would be an improvement over the factory 2.5's or if Sway-A-Away actually does stand for Stay-A-Away...

Anyone with actual experience? How is the valving? Durability? Leaks?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TrailWhale]

I got a set of 2.5” Sway-A-Way shocks for my 2018 F-150 and they were a huge improvement over stock. Been running them since just before Christmas and a little over 10,000 miles. Mostly highway and a little off-road, I am very happy with them, as far as ride they are a bit stiffer than my stock shocks at slower speeds, but at highway it rides nearly as good as my 2012 Raptor did with the Fox shocks.
Attached are some Pics

 

[Wheelz96]

Thanks for replying! I haven't seen any posts where people put some miles on them. I'm wondering if the Fox 2.5's are better or worse then the AFE 2.5's. I know most upgrade to a 3.0 but that is also twice the cost. My truck will see the occasional dirt road and can be found at the obx playing in the sand.

Did you need them revalved? Appreciate the response and is that the AFE Rebel exhaust? I'm looking to put that on my truck as well because I like the unique mid side exit.

 

[TrailWhale]

No problem!
I couldn’t find a lot of reviews either, especially for the F-150 so I figured I’d give them a try. It’s a good price point for 2.5” and can be better when they have sales.
Personally I would say the SAW are about equal to or maybe a bit better, than the fox (mostly because of price point), but my only comparison is my brothers F-250 with Fox 2.0 and it rode awful. We just put a set of King coilovers and damn those are smooth LOL

I have not revalved mine yet, just running them right out of the box. When it does come time for a rebuild I would likely soften up the initial 2” or so of uptravel just to make it even smother on the road. It isn’t bad as they come, 2 weeks after I installed them I drove from Florida to New Hampshire and was very happy with them. My wife commented on how well it rode as well.

my exhaust is a Borla muffler and custom bent to a side exit. It’s a 3” all the way from the turbo adapters to the muffler and then out to dual tips. Zero drone on the highway, a decent rumble at idle, and we all know how these trucks sound at WOT, so we will just leave it at that LOL

 

[Wheelz96]

No problem!
I couldn’t find a lot of reviews either, especially for the F-150 so I figured I’d give them a try. It’s a good price point for 2.5” and can be better when they have sales.
Personally I would say the SAW are about equal to or maybe a bit better, than the fox (mostly because of price point), but my only comparison is my brothers F-250 with Fox 2.0 and it rode awful. We just put a set of King coilovers and damn those are smooth LOL

I have not revalved mine yet, just running them right out of the box. When it does come time for a rebuild I would likely soften up the initial 2” or so of uptravel just to make it even smother on the road. It isn’t bad as they come, 2 weeks after I installed them I drove from Florida to New Hampshire and was very happy with them. My wife commented on how well it rode as well.

my exhaust is a Borla muffler and custom bent to a side exit. It’s a 3” all the way from the turbo adapters to the muffler and then out to dual tips. Zero drone on the highway, a decent rumble at idle, and we all know how these trucks sound at WOT, so we will just leave it at that LOL

Going to King would be my first choice if it wasnt going to cost almost $5K..

This is the best feedback I have seen yet on these shocks and I think I will pull the trigger on them. I have a good shock guy who can revalve if necessary. Plus the reservoirs look cool and that matters!

I think I also read that the AFE comes with a 700lb spring which is over 100lbs higher then the Fox 2.5 spring (550lb?) which may be why it seems so stiff.. I'm curious to hear how many miles you get out of them before a rebuild is needed.

I think I would need to install some form of a vibrating seat if I spend over $4K in shocks for my wife to be happy with the purchase lol..

Cool truck man!

 

[TrailWhale]

Going to King would be my first choice if it wasnt going to cost almost $5K..

This is the best feedback I have seen yet on these shocks and I think I will pull the trigger on them. I have a good shock guy who can revalve if necessary. Plus the reservoirs look cool and that matters!

I think I also read that the AFE comes with a 700lb spring which is over 100lbs higher then the Fox 2.5 spring (550lb?) which may be why it seems so stiff.. I'm curious to hear how many miles you get out of them before a rebuild is needed.

I think I would need to install some form of a vibrating seat if I spend over $4K in shocks for my wife to be happy with the purchase lol..

Cool truck man!

Thanks, the new RTR truck is nice but I do miss my raptor, especially when I see another one on the road. Haven’t seen another RTR yet though.
I considered doing Kings as well, but didn’t want the blue colored springs and end caps, and don’t see a need to spend almost another $1000 to ave them changed out. The red looks nice, and has held up really well, it saw some snow and salt on the roads in the northeast over Christmas and New Years.

The spring rate probably is why they seem stiff, it’s by no means jarring or uncomfortable just noticeable.

One thing I really like about the SAW coil overs are how the height adjustment works. As The collar Turns, it actually lengthens the overall height of the shock instead of putting more preload on the spring. I’m sure that translates into some reduced down travel, but I haven’t had an issue yet. And I have been 4 tires off the ground a couple times....you know for testing purposes LOL. I do need a better set of upper control arms, Trumps economic stimulus will be paying for that

Since I live in Florida and don’t see harsh winter roads, SAW said that on street only I could do up to 75,000 miles between rebuilds. Half on and half off-road they said do 40-50,000 and full off-road 7-10,000 miles. A more northern environment might need slightly more servicing depending on how bad the salt is and how clean they are kept. I’m sure around the 50-60,000 mark I will pull them and see how they are. At the rate I drive, it’ll probably be end of summer for me.

Your profile says you’re in Augusta, I’m in Jacksonville, only about 4 hours away. If you want to meet up and take a ride in the truck just let me know. We can meet up somewhere half way if you’d like. Quality shocks are a decent monetary investment so I will help anyway I can.

 

[Wheelz96]

That is a very gracious offer and I will certainly keep that in mind. I'm happy to hear SAW claims the mileage is on par with the factory Fox 2.5's. I am in Augusta, Ga and I will not see any bad weather unless you consider over 100% humidity bad (I do). I think the stimulus package may be providing my truck with some candy red bling and I am grateful.

Once again I appreciate all your responses and this has been very helpful with my decision. Should you ever be in my neck of the woods feel free to reach out and we can go for a run! I'm only an hour from Durhamtown!

 

[TrailWhale]

That is a very gracious offer and I will certainly keep that in mind. I'm happy to hear SAW claims the mileage is on par with the factory Fox 2.5's. I am in Augusta, Ga and I will not see any bad weather unless you consider over 100% humidity bad (I do). I think the stimulus package may be providing my truck with some candy red bling and I am grateful.

Once again I appreciate all your responses and this has been very helpful with my decision. Should you ever be in my neck of the woods feel free to reach out and we can go for a run! I'm only an hour from Durhamtown!

not a problem at all! Happy to help!
If you want/need some help with install come on down and we can do it here. I have the coil over swaps down to about 30 minutes a side LOL. Don’t need to pull the CV axle out of the spindle or differential

That humidity should be consider extreme. LOL
I grew up in Orlando and know all too well how thick the air is 11.5 months out of the year. Jacksonville is considerably nicer weather wise.

will let you know next time I head up. I actually have a place in north Georgia (Hiawassee) we head to a few times a year. Some nice trails up that way too.

I will PM you my contact information.

 

[Wheelz96]

Hiawassee is beautiful! I had the opportunity to do some wakeboarding in a lake in the mountains out there years ago and I will never forget it! I also head to Blood Mtn at least once a summer to bring the race bike and ride some good twisty roads through the mountains.

Stay safe my friend!

 

[Christyle]

SAW got bought out by AFE and my friends at Accutune have been working to get lead times on shocks and parts, and it's been a bit difficult as they get the operation switched over and running smoothly. SAW used to be the budget quality shock, and I think they're moving towards being something similar here. I want to say they're a standard 2.5" shock, which is not the same as the 2.5" IBP Fox on a Gen 1. Anything IBP is generally a size down in actual piston size, so a 2.5" Fox IBP on the Gen 1 is basically a 2.0, which is pretty small for anything this size off-road, hence the need for rebuilds often. The 3.0 IBPs on a Gen 2 are nicer, being a larger piston, but they still benefit from having an external reservoir for fluid volume for cooling, wear, etc. I personally have some Fox 3.0s coming from AccuTune for my Gen 1, and will be getting some 2.5s with DSC adjusters when the time comes in the rear.

AccuTune has done some cool tech videos on the comparison of parts used, initial quality, build quality, etc of shocks, and that's what's driven me to sticking with Fox on my trucks Here's an interesting comparison on the Fox and King coilovers they did:
https://accutuneoffroad.com/articles/fox-vs-king-2-0-coilover-shock-comparison/