Opinions on Forged Offroad shock rebuild

[Forged Offroad]

I like forged Offroad a lot. They make some cool parts no one else makes.

But I wasn’t too happy with my exchange program. After only barley 20k of only street driving (kids are back in school and no time to Offroad) all my shocks were leaking fluid badly and the rear shock shaft came out of the mount, the threads looked way worn out. I had to drive from AZ to SoCal with the shock dragging on the freeway every time I hit a bump. I paid for all the best options you could get and it didn’t really feel any different. I’m guessing a lot of the shocks they get are wayyy abused and worn out to the point they probably should be thrown out. If you look at their Instagram page they post pics of peoples shocks they send in that look totally trashed and rusted out that they are refurbishing. Probably stuff that I ended up getting.

TK421, I like you a lot as well, but doing things like blasting us on a forum without contacting us about the above issues makes me think you don't like us.

Please take the time to reach out to me at [email protected] and explain all of this and add pictures so we can get to the bottom of it. Leaking shocks aside, a rear shaft coming out of the mount is a HUGE concern to us because that is a possible safety issue to you and your family.

As far as questioning our quality and what we send out is careless at best as you have no idea what our processes and procedures are for quality. I suppose we should post more pictures of the all the bodies and internal components we DO THROW AWAY on a weekly basis that do no meet our quality assurance standards.

I can absolutely guarantee no other company that rebuilds raptor shocks has our standards or quality.

 

[TK421]

TK421, I like you a lot as well, but doing things like blasting us on a forum without contacting us about the above issues makes me think you don't like us.

Please take the time to reach out to me at [email protected] and explain all of this and add pictures so we can get to the bottom of it. Leaking shocks aside, a rear shaft coming out of the mount is a HUGE concern to us because that is a possible safety issue to you and your family.

As far as questioning our quality and what we send out is careless at best as you have no idea what our processes and procedures are for quality. I suppose we should post more pictures of the all the bodies and internal components we DO THROW AWAY on a weekly basis that do no meet our quality assurance standards.

I can absolutely guarantee no other company that rebuilds raptor shocks has our standards or quality.

Sorry not trying to bash you. You guys are highly liked by the community and have good rating and reviews. Just sharing my experience as this is what the thread was asking and bummed out about my shocks all leaking in such a short amount of easy street driving. And I recall reading something along the lines of there’s no warranty, and I wouldn’t assume there would be after 20k miles. Just sharing my experience.

I was driving through a Walmart parking lot with speed bumps and heard a loud clunk and continue to clunk as I drove away only to get out and see this. But I have since put Kings on. The susp is all sitting in the box if youde like me to send pics. But I’m not looking for anything in return or expecting anything. I was planning on upgrading the suspension anyways once I saw the fronts with messy oil coming out and this happened so it made it an easier for me to have a reason to upgrade

 

[breauxjam]

I'm not the least bit surprised at the response you got from Forged Offroad, TK421. You don't owe them an apology for jumping down your throat, their exchange program is extremely poorly run, and their response to the customer via email or phone (where it matters, rather than the forums, where they advertise) has been the worst service I have had from any company, hands down.

Here is a list of the problems I have experienced with Forged Offroad:

1. The retaining clips for the coil perch mounts were stretched out from being removed and put back on, and do not reliably seat in the grooves. They came from Forged Offroad not properly seated and set-screwed, and required a good bit of PITA work to seat. They put their new aluminum wrap (which looks great) right over the perch grooves and do not trim it away, further reducing the chance of a good seat. WTF

2. 1 rear shock lost nitrogen first day. 1 front shock lost nitrogen first week. I have currently swapped back my 90K+ miles shocks in their place, which work. Pretty funny, but not fun. Less funny when I have to swap new ones in a third time.

3. After the rear shock went out on the first day, I started calling and emailing for a solution. 5 days later after 5 calls and 2 emails, I was able to get a tech to answer the shop phone after bombing it for 17 calls in a row. He was apologetic and said he would relay my problem. I finally received an email from Mike 2 days later, which has been my only contact from him at any point, despite reporting the 2nd blown shock and sending multiple emails over 5 weeks.

4. In Mike's only email, he claimed to have never seen the retaining clip problem before, and questioned my installation without looking for any further detail and clearly without looking at the photos I sent him of the problem. He promised to send a new rear shock, but did not address damage to the graphics on one shock due to the clip slipping out and the perch dropping down. 5 weeks later I have had no response, no new shock, no attempt to address the second blown shock, no word on the damage to the graphics.

I ordered this set of rebuilt shocks with almost all of the options 9 weeks before a bike trip to Moab, thinking that would give me plenty of time to install and even work out any kinks. Took that trip last week and had to stay off of the 4WD trails, thanks Mike. Forged Offroad still has over $1700 of my money at this time. Would you choose to order your rebuilt shocks from these guys? You bet your ass I would never do it again.

So, again, I find it ironic the Mike jumped your ass for not emailing him first, since FO probably would not have responded anyway, and if they did it would be to blame it on you, not the abused and worn out shocks they are sending to paying customers. I warned Mike via email I would be on this forum airing my experience with FO in detail if I did not get action on my shocks. Also ironic that the warning did not elicit a response. I suspect Mike will have a response now...

If anyone has suggestions for a better route under $2000 or a better company to rebuild, please share. Thank you.

 

[breauxjam]

 

[Jonny V]

Fox will rebuild your shocks for $600. You have to send them in though. No exchange so your truck will be on blocks for the 2-3 weeks it takes to get them back.

It is the original manufacturer though, so I guess there’s points for that. Better option than cramming Gen 2 shocks into your truck.

 

[tales_from_the_crimp]

I'm not the least bit surprised at the response you got from Forged Offroad, TK421. You don't owe them an apology for jumping down your throat, their exchange program is extremely poorly run, and their response to the customer via email or phone (where it matters, rather than the forums, where they advertise) has been the worst service I have had from any company, hands down.

Here is a list of the problems I have experienced with Forged Offroad:

1. The retaining clips for the coil perch mounts were stretched out from being removed and put back on, and do not reliably seat in the grooves. They came from Forged Offroad not properly seated and set-screwed, and required a good bit of PITA work to seat. They put their new aluminum wrap (which looks great) right over the perch grooves and do not trim it away, further reducing the chance of a good seat. WTF

2. 1 rear shock lost nitrogen first day. 1 front shock lost nitrogen first week. I have currently swapped back my 90K+ miles shocks in their place, which work. Pretty funny, but not fun. Less funny when I have to swap new ones in a third time.

3. After the rear shock went out on the first day, I started calling and emailing for a solution. 5 days later after 5 calls and 2 emails, I was able to get a tech to answer the shop phone after bombing it for 17 calls in a row. He was apologetic and said he would relay my problem. I finally received an email from Mike 2 days later, which has been my only contact from him at any point, despite reporting the 2nd blown shock and sending multiple emails over 5 weeks.

4. In Mike's only email, he claimed to have never seen the retaining clip problem before, and questioned my installation without looking for any further detail and clearly without looking at the photos I sent him of the problem. He promised to send a new rear shock, but did not address damage to the graphics on one shock due to the clip slipping out and the perch dropping down. 5 weeks later I have had no response, no new shock, no attempt to address the second blown shock, no word on the damage to the graphics.

I ordered this set of rebuilt shocks with almost all of the options 9 weeks before a bike trip to Moab, thinking that would give me plenty of time to install and even work out any kinks. Took that trip last week and had to stay off of the 4WD trails, thanks Mike. Forged Offroad still has over $1700 of my money at this time. Would you choose to order your rebuilt shocks from these guys? You bet your ass I would never do it again.

So, again, I find it ironic the Mike jumped your ass for not emailing him first, since FO probably would not have responded anyway, and if they did it would be to blame it on you, not the abused and worn out shocks they are sending to paying customers. I warned Mike via email I would be on this forum airing my experience with FO in detail if I did not get action on my shocks. Also ironic that the warning did not elicit a response. I suspect Mike will have a response now...

If anyone has suggestions for a better route under $2000 or a better company to rebuild, please share. Thank you.

Thank you and the last guy for the honest responses. My 2013 raptor needs 4 new shocks and struts and I don’t need much more than stock performance for my usage so I hooped on here to find out my options.

I talked to FO on the phone (don’t remember who) about 2-3 weeks ago and asked if 30 days would be the estimated time and he gave me a, “well yeah we can’t do it any faster but 30 is normally what it takes”. I asked him if I ordered them the first week of July if they would be there the first week of August and he said they could make that happen. I was skeptical and didn’t pull the trigger because I hadn’t seen many reviews on this and the other raptor forum about FO’s shock rebuild program.

~$1200 seemed reasonable to me to have all 4 shocks rebuilt to better-than-OEM-spec and 30 days to rebuild seemed reasonable but I was nervous that having them rebuilt would be a mistake. I can’t really afford to drop $5k on a suspension setup I’ll never take even 50% advantage of so I was hoping to spend around $12-$2000 tops.


I called RPG Offroad in SoCal and they quoted me almost $8,000 installed for their and some Fox 3.0’s.

I told them I wanted slightly better than stock performance. Is our only option to risk going with FO, or spend 5-7 thousand on an aftermarket option?

What the actual ****.

 

[tales_from_the_crimp]

So I got lucky and found a pair of brand new rear OEM Fox shocks on eBay for $750. I figured my rear shocks were complete shot from how terrible the ride was. Installed the rears tonight after work and took it for a test drive.

More than satisfied to say the least. It’s a completely different truck and actually is pleasant to drive now.

My plan for the fronts is to source some used fronts and send them directly to Fox to be rebuilt. Not ******* around with anywhere else but the source. Thanks for the info gentleman.

 

[MattSVTM3]

I just installed the rebuilt shocks through FO's replacement program, and I could not be happier! After I placed my order, the shocks showed up on my porch in less than a week. Their communication was quick and effective. So far the shocks are significantly better than my original setup. My truck just hit 50k miles, but it was definitely not babied. I went with pretty much all the upgrades, including stage 1 and flutter. The hop is completed eliminated and rides really smooth. I'll be putting them through their paces off-road soon, and I'm very curious how the truck will feel.

I would hands down recommend this option for anyone looking to not only rebuild their shocks, but also add some nice upgrades to them as well.

 

[Trick.Raptor]

My Raptor is currently at Forged Offroad for a shock rebuild and they are the only ones who will do shock work for me. *FULL DISCLAIMER* Forged Offroad is a sponsor for the Raptor Offroad Community and my Raptor has seen a lot of Forged Offroad's early builds for testing.

My first shock rebuild was done at 40k (OEM 2.5) when ROC was doing staff/member shock rebuilds out of a barn of a ROC staff member in December 2015. This is where Paul the co-owner of Forged started it all... I had zero issues over the next 2 years and 23k with the shocks and was an early tester of the Flutter Stack that would become a much desired option when Forged Offroad opened shop in 2017.

I went to 3.0 shocks in June 2017 at 63k on my Raptor and I went with used rear 3.0 shocks because I was having a hard time finding new ones and I knew Forged could rebuild those as well! This is the rebuilt shock that was installed...



My Raptor is now at 106k with 42k on the 3.0 shocks. In July 2017 we did 820+ miles off-road on the ROC Pony Express run from Salt Lake City, UT to Carson, NV and the rear 3.0's did great on the run.

The same for 2018 and 2019 no issues with the shocks. We did replace the rear shock boots in 2018 as they got beat up pretty bad and while the shock was off Forged inspected the shock fluid. It looked new after 15k with lots of off-road abuse.

The finish on the rear shocks was looking pretty bad and I challenge anyone to go 42k with a lot of off-road action and not have tired looking shocks on the outside! So Forged will powdercoat the shocks and I'm sure they will look new when done.

OEM Raptor shocks are still the core business for Forged. They can rebuild Fox/King shocks and only use the best hardware while doing the rebuild.


--

 

[B-C]

I'm not the least bit surprised at the response you got from Forged Offroad, TK421. You don't owe them an apology for jumping down your throat, their exchange program is extremely poorly run, and their response to the customer via email or phone (where it matters, rather than the forums, where they advertise) has been the worst service I have had from any company, hands down.

Here is a list of the problems I have experienced with Forged Offroad:

1. The retaining clips for the coil perch mounts were stretched out from being removed and put back on, and do not reliably seat in the grooves. They came from Forged Offroad not properly seated and set-screwed, and required a good bit of PITA work to seat. They put their new aluminum wrap (which looks great) right over the perch grooves and do not trim it away, further reducing the chance of a good seat. WTF

2. 1 rear shock lost nitrogen first day. 1 front shock lost nitrogen first week. I have currently swapped back my 90K+ miles shocks in their place, which work. Pretty funny, but not fun. Less funny when I have to swap new ones in a third time.

3. After the rear shock went out on the first day, I started calling and emailing for a solution. 5 days later after 5 calls and 2 emails, I was able to get a tech to answer the shop phone after bombing it for 17 calls in a row. He was apologetic and said he would relay my problem. I finally received an email from Mike 2 days later, which has been my only contact from him at any point, despite reporting the 2nd blown shock and sending multiple emails over 5 weeks.

4. In Mike's only email, he claimed to have never seen the retaining clip problem before, and questioned my installation without looking for any further detail and clearly without looking at the photos I sent him of the problem. He promised to send a new rear shock, but did not address damage to the graphics on one shock due to the clip slipping out and the perch dropping down. 5 weeks later I have had no response, no new shock, no attempt to address the second blown shock, no word on the damage to the graphics.

I ordered this set of rebuilt shocks with almost all of the options 9 weeks before a bike trip to Moab, thinking that would give me plenty of time to install and even work out any kinks. Took that trip last week and had to stay off of the 4WD trails, thanks Mike. Forged Offroad still has over $1700 of my money at this time. Would you choose to order your rebuilt shocks from these guys? You bet your ass I would never do it again.

So, again, I find it ironic the Mike jumped your ass for not emailing him first, since FO probably would not have responded anyway, and if they did it would be to blame it on you, not the abused and worn out shocks they are sending to paying customers. I warned Mike via email I would be on this forum airing my experience with FO in detail if I did not get action on my shocks. Also ironic that the warning did not elicit a response. I suspect Mike will have a response now...

If anyone has suggestions for a better route under $2000 or a better company to rebuild, please share. Thank you.

similar Experience
less Details
Just will not Call - Email Only
will only quote their Policy
Had to do a Charge Dispute with CC due to FO basically saying they'd refund
"...According to policy....within 30 days...."

Didn't enjoy my interaction with them.