Hotchkis Fox shocks

[DenRS]

Does anyone have them and how do you like them? My 69 Camaro has Hotchkis 2 inch drop springs and Hotchkis sway bar up front along with Hotchkis 1.5 leafs out back. When I rebuilt the suspension 12 years ago I installed KYB shocks. Looking back I should have installed steel bars instead of those shocks. Anyway, my Camaro is a street car and I'm looking to replace the shocks. The combo of stiff springs and shocks are wearing on me.

[stab6902]

Sounds like you are running the KYB Gas-A-Just shocks. These shocks were designed to "firm up" stock vehicles with stock springs/sway-bars/tires, so they have a lot of compression damping and relatively little rebound damping. When you run them with stiff springs, they will ride very harshly as you're noticing. People who run them on otherwise stock vehicles love them (makes sense since this is the intended use), but they're a poor match for stiffer springs and sway-bars, where you need more rebound damping.

I don't have any direct experience with the Hotchkis Fox shocks, but my buddy has them on his car and he likes them, except for the fact that one of them starting leaking a couple months after being installed. I think it makes sense to stick with the the Hotchkis shocks since they were hopefully designed as a system along with the other Hotchkis suspension components.

[DenRS]

That is kind of what I was thinking. Originally, I bought the kybs as a temporary solution since they were inexpensive back then. I was in the process of restoring my car, so I saved money where I could. Now that the restoration has been done for a few years, I'm slowly making performance improvements.

[eville]

I had KYB for a while, they were horrible. Then went to the Edelbrocks before I put the hotchkis kit on. They were OK, but then went Bilstein. They were great. I can only imagine Hotchkis feels the Fox are even better....

[CarlC]

The latest Hotchkis/Fox shock package is very good. Just before One Lap of America in 2018 the Camaro received the latest version of the Fox design. It was an immediate improvement and the best the car has ever been.

[DenRS]

Carl,

Were they the nonadjustable or single adjustable shocks?

[CarlC]

Non-adjustable.

[DenRS]

Thanks Carl. I ended up ordering the non-adjustable hotchkis fox 1.5 shocks. They seem very nice. I can’t wait to try them out in the spring.