WANTED WTB: Carli Backcountry 2.5" for 7.3L with Fox shocks

gsea · Nov 9, 2023

I went to order a backcountry kit shortly after Carli announced they'd be moving to a house brand shock. At the time there were a few retailers thinking they were still going to get a last shipment with the Fox shocks from a backorder, but that hasn't panned out.

I much prefer the Fox shocks over the Carli house brand, so figured I'd take a long shot and see if anyone happens to have an older Fox kit laying around their garage they're not going to end up installing.

This would be for a gas trucks, so SKU is CS-FLVL-BC-CS-17-GAS.

Thanks.

healthyrx · Nov 13, 2023

Don't know if you saw it or not yet but @FathomBlueSS is selling some fox 2.0 accutune shocks that may match up to a carli back country kit

valeWLF · Nov 13, 2023

what do you mean by "house brand"? icon makes em, and it's the same situation as when fox made em, just with a different company. icon/fox builds the shocks to carli specs. according to carli there were upgrades along with the change. but if you like the fox name you can get some stickers to put on there.

1FORDy3rd · Nov 13, 2023

Order some Fox with custom valving from Accutune.

1FORDy3rd · Nov 13, 2023

Just as I say that….I then see this post here.

SOLD - NIB Accutune Adventure Tune 0-1.5” Fox 2.0 Reservoir Shocks

Brand new in box Accutune OffRoad custom valved Fox 2.0 Reservoir Shocks. I had these customized to accept a 16” hose on the front for a Carli spring perch mount. (Same length as Backcountry shocks) One shock was removed for mockup and has minor scratches on the reservoir stickers. (mounting...

www.fordtremor.com

Mister Bevilaqua · Nov 13, 2023

You can them here without the reservoirs. These are the last of Fox branded they are clearing out.

https://shop.carlisuspension.com/shop/garage-sale/cs-fc20spkg-lvl-17/

gsea · Nov 13, 2023

1FORDy3rd said:
Just as I say that….I then see this post here.

SOLD - NIB Accutune Adventure Tune 0-1.5” Fox 2.0 Reservoir Shocks

Brand new in box Accutune OffRoad custom valved Fox 2.0 Reservoir Shocks. I had these customized to accept a 16” hose on the front for a Carli spring perch mount. (Same length as Backcountry shocks) One shock was removed for mockup and has minor scratches on the reservoir stickers. (mounting...

www.fordtremor.com

Yes, sent a note to the poster on this one. Thanks!

gsea · Nov 13, 2023

valeWLF said:
what do you mean by "house brand"? icon makes em, and it's the same situation as when fox made em, just with a different company. icon/fox builds the shocks to carli specs. according to carli there were upgrades along with the change. but if you like the fox name you can get some stickers to put on there.

"House brand" meaning private labeled shocks with a Carli sticker on them. I called Carli and they wouldn't divulge who the OEM was, nor any specifics about why they'd be better than the outgoing Fox units. Seemed odd to me, considering they have no problems being co-branded with Fox or King in the pintop setups (plus selling the rebuild parts).

I'm not so much concerned with a Fox vs Carli sticker, but this led me to wonder about future parts availability and re-buildability if the shocks were more proprietary of built from a lesser-known company. Good to know they're made by Icon, so perhaps that alleviates some of the concern.

gsea · Nov 13, 2023

Mister Bevilaqua said:
You can them here without the reservoirs. These are the last of Fox branded they are clearing out.

https://shop.carlisuspension.com/shop/garage-sale/cs-fc20spkg-lvl-17/

Thanks for the link. Essentially, these would be the shocks that would have previously come with the Diesel Commuter kit, right?

Mister Bevilaqua · Nov 13, 2023

gsea said:
Thanks for the link. Essentially, these would be the shocks that would have previously come with the Commuter kit, right?

Yes, those are them, Backcountry I believe are the same but with reservoirs.

gsea · Nov 13, 2023

Mister Bevilaqua said:
Yes, those are them, Backcountry I believe are the same but with reservoirs.

Thanks all for the suggestion/info. Carli shows two different part numbers for Gas vs Diesel, so next step is to figure out how much of a difference (if any) there is in the tune/valving.

Same with the accutune's listed right now.

FathomBlueSS · Nov 13, 2023

gsea said:
"House brand" meaning private labeled shocks with a Carli sticker on them. I called Carli and they wouldn't divulge who the OEM was, nor any specifics about why they'd be better than the outgoing Fox units. Seemed odd to me, considering they have no problems being co-branded with Fox or King in the pintop setups (plus selling the rebuild parts).

I'm not so much concerned with a Fox vs Carli sticker, but this led me to wonder about future parts availability and re-buildability if the shocks were more proprietary of built from a lesser-known company. Good to know they're made by Icon, so perhaps that alleviates some of the concern.

Randy’s Worldwide purchased Carli, Dynatrac, and Icon in 2022. Icon is who makes the Carli shocks for many reasons to include turnaround time on their valving. They said Fox took longer than they preferred to produce to their specs.

From a business standpoint this makes logical and financial sense.

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RANDYS Worldwide is the manufacturer and distributor of top drivetrain brands like Yukon Gear & Axle, USA Standard, Zumbrota Drivetrain, and others.

www.randysworldwide.com

Mister Bevilaqua · Nov 13, 2023

Except for the fact that Icon shocks are crap. Who doesn't love leaking seals and rebuilds every six months!?

valeWLF · Nov 14, 2023

gsea said:
"House brand" meaning private labeled shocks with a Carli sticker on them. I called Carli and they wouldn't divulge who the OEM was, nor any specifics about why they'd be better than the outgoing Fox units. Seemed odd to me, considering they have no problems being co-branded with Fox or King in the pintop setups (plus selling the rebuild parts).

I'm not so much concerned with a Fox vs Carli sticker, but this led me to wonder about future parts availability and re-buildability if the shocks were more proprietary of built from a lesser-known company. Good to know they're made by Icon, so perhaps that alleviates some of the concern.

interesting, wonder why the change in mindset. when they first announced the swap they were pretty open about icon making the shock. and explained all the why's of the change. either way, it's no different than before, just icon instead of fox making them for carli. i'm not sure how icon compares to fox tho.

gsea · Nov 14, 2023

valeWLF said:
interesting, wonder why the change in mindset. when they first announced the swap they were pretty open about icon making the shock. and explained all the why's of the change. either way, it's no different than before, just icon instead of fox making them for carli. i'm not sure how icon compares to fox tho.

Yeah, I didn't necessarily have a bias against Icon, so I'm not sure why. Coming from the F150 world, had regarded them as fairly good stuff because they're among the most well-represented common for coil over kits for the IFS trucks, whereas you only see Fox shocks in traditional subframe lift kits.

Ironically, it's not until I started looking at them as an alternative to Carli that I started seeing lackluster reviews among the Super Duty crowd.

Regardless, most folks would have been just as happy with Icon-branded shocks as they were with Fox (although Fox has the bigger name recognition among the casual non-enthusiast), so it's odd to me why they'd want to white-label those instead of co-branding as they had done with Fox and King.

@FathomBlueSS pointed out that they're under the same parent company, so perhaps there was less of a strategic demand from Icon to co-brand as there was from King and Fox who weren't sibling companies under the same parent and were therefore more inclined to keep their own brand name more prominent. Either way, given the fact that Carlie and Icon are portfolio companies together, the relationship makes a ton of sense to me.

FathomBlueSS · Nov 14, 2023

gsea said:
Yeah, I didn't necessarily have a bias against Icon, so I'm not sure why. Coming from the F150 world, had regarded them as fairly good stuff because they're among the most well-represented common for coil over kits for the IFS trucks, whereas you only see Fox shocks in traditional subframe lift kits.

Ironically, it's not until I started looking at them as an alternative to Carli that I started seeing lackluster reviews among the Super Duty crowd.

Regardless, most folks would have been just as happy with Icon-branded shocks as they were with Fox (although Fox has the bigger name recognition among the casual non-enthusiast), so it's odd to me why they'd want to white-label those instead of co-branding as they had done with Fox and King.

@FathomBlueSS pointed out that they're under the same parent company, so perhaps there was less of a strategic demand from Icon to co-brand as there was from King and Fox who weren't sibling companies under the same parent and were therefore more inclined to keep their own brand name more prominent. Either way, given the fact that Carlie and Icon are portfolio companies together, the relationship makes a ton of sense to me.

Yep and from a business standpoint to add more complexity and clarity of the situation SportTruck USA is a division of Fox Factory. Sport Truck USA is the parent company of BDS Suspension, Zone OffRoad, JKS Manufacturing, Crawltek Revolution, RT Pro UTV and 4x4 Posi-Lok.

So if you look from the surface, BDS is owned by Fox and they sell suspension. Icon and Carli are owned by the same company and sell suspension. These partnerships make sense especially when Carli was experiencing production delays on their specific valving. Now I trust that Dan and Carli are still focused on quality and having a parent company can help in areas they need help with.

Ironically enough, if you go to Randy’s Worlwide website, they only have Icon listed for SuperDuty applications.

@gsea sorry to muddy up your wanted ad, I hope you find what your looking for.

gsea · Nov 15, 2023

FathomBlueSS said:
Yep and from a business standpoint to add more complexity and clarity of the situation SportTruck USA is a division of Fox Factory. Sport Truck USA is the parent company of BDS Suspension, Zone OffRoad, JKS Manufacturing, Crawltek Revolution, RT Pro UTV and 4x4 Posi-Lok.

So if you look from the surface, BDS is owned by Fox and they sell suspension. Icon and Carli are owned by the same company and sell suspension. These partnerships make sense especially when Carli was experiencing production delays on their specific valving. Now I trust that Dan and Carli are still focused on quality and having a parent company can help in areas they need help with.

Ironically enough, if you go to Randy’s Worlwide website, they only have Icon listed for SuperDuty applications.

@gsea sorry to muddy up your wanted ad, I hope you find what your looking for.

No apology needed. This is interesting and appreciated info!

Tex_Hunter · Nov 15, 2023

gsea said:
I called Carli and they wouldn't divulge who the OEM was, nor any specifics about why they'd be better than the outgoing Fox units.

Well, you obviously werent trying very hard, given there was literally a post on their website (and here) about it specifically stating why they went away from Fox.

https://www.carlisuspension.com/carli-spec-2-0-ifp-and-reservoir-shocks/

Carli says goodbye to Fox.

Interesting... I like the fact the new Carli shocks are aluminum bodied and anodized. I wonder if they are made by the same manufacturer who builds their steering stabilizers. https://carlisuspension.com/carli-spec-2-0-ifp-and-reservoir-shocks/

www.fordtremor.com

gsea · Nov 15, 2023

Tex_Hunter said:
Well, you obviously werent trying very hard, given there was literally a post on their website (and here) about it specifically stating why they went away from Fox.

https://www.carlisuspension.com/carli-spec-2-0-ifp-and-reservoir-shocks/

Carli says goodbye to Fox.

Interesting... I like the fact the new Carli shocks are aluminum bodied and anodized. I wonder if they are made by the same manufacturer who builds their steering stabilizers. https://carlisuspension.com/carli-spec-2-0-ifp-and-reservoir-shocks/

www.fordtremor.com

I'll never understand why people feel the need to undermine their helpfulness by being critical in the process, but since you've gone there:

It was the very thread you're citing here that caused me to call Carli back in January the day it was posted. At that point there was speculation in the thread that it may be Eibach, so I called to find out for sure. I spoke with 2 different individuals who both decline to answer who the OEM was, only that it was to "Carli Specs", of high quality, and most importantly available.

I had, in fact, visited the page on their site, which outlines the reasons for the switch and the details on the new shocks... but does not mention who the manufacturer is, and even side steps that very question in their response in the comments section (only dispelling the speculation that it may be Bilstein).

To your point, however, I didn't follow the thread thereafter, reasonably assuming that a direct inquiry to the manufacturer would be an authoritative non-answer, and then spent my time trying to find a retailer who still had a Fox set sitting on the shelf. I didn't want to get the first batch of what, for all I knew at the time, would be some brand new shock that may or may not having some kinks to work out over an already-proven set.

At any rate, thanks for contributing to the discussion and the invitation to revisit the initial thread beyond where I stopped following it. It does help clarify things, and thanks to @BLACKCHERRY for the transparency here within the forum, even if Carli isn't as eager to advertise that info as plainly and publicly.