King builds a race shock you can drive every day and rebuild forever. We are an authorized dealer and we install and service them here in Argyle.
King Shock Technology opened its doors in 1996 in Garden Grove, California. It is a family business — founded by Lance King, with sons Ross and Brett on the fabrication and sales sides. King’s own history page notes that to get the company off the ground, Ross and Brett worked a full year without drawing a paycheck. The original designs go back to drawings Lance made in the early 1980s.
King claims to have pioneered several features that are now standard across the industry — bypass tubes, seal technology, shaft diameters and tube construction. That is their claim, and we pass it along as theirs. What is not in dispute is that King shocks show up under a very large share of the trucks that finish desert races.
We are an authorized King dealer. We spec, install and service them at 4020 Trey Ln in Argyle at our $150 per hour door rate.
Three independent choices, not a product ladder. This is the part most shops explain badly.
| Choice | Options | What It Buys You |
|---|---|---|
| Body diameter | 2.0″ · 2.5″ · 3.0″ | Oil volume, and oil volume is endurance. 2.0 for lighter and slower use, 2.5 as the do-everything size, 3.0 for sustained high-speed work. |
| Reservoir | Emulsion · Piggyback · Remote | Emulsion shares oil and nitrogen in one body. Piggyback and remote separate them and add heat capacity. King’s own copy: the external reservoir allows a larger volume of oil and gas and lower operating pressures for improved consistency. |
| Options | Compression adjuster · 2-tube or 3-tube bypass · coilover vs smooth body | Adjusters on 2.5″ and larger let you tune after the build. Bypass adds position-sensitive damping. |
King also builds air shocks, bump stops, screw jacks and springs in 2.5, 3.0, 3.75 and 4.25 inch diameters. The bolt-on truck line is the OEM Performance Series, organized by make.
King lists OEM Performance applications for Chevrolet and GMC, Ford, Jeep, Ram, Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Isuzu, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Ineos. The ones we build most:
Coverage runs roughly 2003 to current depending on the platform. If you are on a Ram 2500 or 3500, ask us before you set your heart on King — that is a gap we check with our rep case by case rather than guess at.
A sealed monotube from a parts store is a disposable item. When it fades, you throw it away and buy another one. A King is the opposite: it is designed to come apart on the bench with hand tools, get new seals and fresh oil, and go back on the truck performing like new. More importantly it can be re-valved. Add a steel bumper and a winch, drop in a flatbed, start towing a fifth wheel — the shock that was right for the old truck can be re-tuned for the new one instead of replaced.
That is the math that makes King make sense. The sticker is higher. The cost per year over a decade often is not.
No, and this trips people up. There is no King equivalent of “Performance vs Elite vs Factory Race.” You step up three separate ways: shock body diameter (2.0, 2.5, 3.0), reservoir type (emulsion, piggyback, remote), and options (compression adjuster, 2-tube or 3-tube bypass). Anyone quoting you a “King Stage 2” is making it up.
In their words: “All parts used in our products are machined in house at our Garden Grove, California facility from billet alloy materials on precision equipment to exacting standards and hand assembled by our trained technicians.” That is a stronger and more specific manufacturing claim than most of the industry makes, and it is theirs, not ours.
Ninety days from date of purchase against manufacturing defects. That number looks alarming next to brands offering a year or a lifetime, so here is the honest context: King is not built as a consumable with a long defect warranty. It is built as a serviceable race product designed to be rebuilt indefinitely. Seal kits, rebuild parts and the tools are all sold to you directly. The warranty is short because the ownership model is rebuild, not replace. Coatings are guaranteed only at the time of sale, and abuse, crash damage, modification and neglect void it.
Yes, and King says so plainly: their shocks are “serviced using simple hand tools when the time comes. You can order a seal kit and return them to factory fresh condition yourself or send them to the factory for service.” They sell the tools. If you would rather not, we do it here, or the shocks go back to the factory. King does not publish a rebuild price list, so we quote it when we see the shock.
Yes, but know what you are buying. King’s front application for the 2005-and-up F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 4WD is a 2.5 coilover conversion, not a drop-in shock swap. That is a materially bigger install than bolting on a replacement shock, and the labor number reflects it. We will show you the difference on paper before you commit.
A bypass shock is position-sensitive. Oil routes around the piston through external tubes over part of the stroke, so the shock is soft through the middle of its travel where you spend most of your driving, and progressively firmer near full compression where you need it to stop the truck from bottoming. One shock does two jobs with no electronics. King offers 2-tube and 3-tube versions.
Both are excellent and we sell both. Broadly: FOX has wider platform coverage, published rebuild pricing and a longer defect warranty, and its entry tiers cost less. King is a smaller, family-run, race-first operation that machines everything in-house and builds a shock meant to be torn down and re-valved as many times as you want. If you want a bolt-on that rides better on the way to work, FOX is usually the answer. If you want a serviceable race damper you will keep and re-tune through several trucks, King earns it. We will not push you either way — tell us what the truck does and we will tell you what fits.