Stage3Motorsports

For the final chapter in our 2015 F150 coilover reviews series, we have the 2014-2015 F150 F150Lifts BOSS Coilovers. F150Lift's coilovers are designed to provide a full inch of extra ride height over the Fox 2.0s while being less expensive than 2.5 coilover kits, including the ICON 2.5s that were on our truck. With that in mind, what kind of ride do they provide both on and off the road on the 2015 F150s? We were pretty determined to find out, so we took a quick drive up to Lake Pleasant, Arizona, to thrash our 2015 F150 3.5L EcoBoost Project Truck around with the F150Lifts BOSS coilovers installed. The coilovers worked as advertised, with a great, 3" of front lift that made our truck look a heck of a lot better with its 3" rear block that came paired with a street ride that was a hint smoother and more refined than the Fox 2.0s. As expected, the BOSS coilovers didn't perform as well off-road as the ICONs, but they were more than adequate below 35mph on light to medium trails. 2015 F150Lifts BOSS Coilovers Pros:

• Flawless Street Ride: the street ride quality of the BOSS coilovers is just ridiculously good. Smoother than the Fox 2.0s while at the same time soaking up bumps and bad roads with less body roll and wallowing around.
• 3" of Extra Height: the 0-3" range of adjustment is a full inch taller than stock and a good third taller than highest settings of the ICON 2.5s, which gives some extra room for larger tires and more ground clearance.
• Improved Off-Road Performance than the Fox 2.0s: the F150Lifts coilovers do a bit better than the Fox system off-road, handling higher speeds and more aggressive trails without much fuss. The extra potential ground clearance also helps.

F150Lifts Coilovers Cons:

• Fairly Stiff Off-Road Ride: while better than the Fox 2.0s in light off-road conditions, the F150Lifts BOSS Coilovers just don't quite absorb really violent impacts in the same way that the ICON 2.5 Coilovers do.
• Not great for high-speed trail runs: whether it was fade or just their valving, the BOSS Coilovers didn't provide the same performance at 35mph on a moderate trail as the ICONs. Granted, we're stupid enough to drive that fast, which means we should be using a 2.5 coilover, anyway.
• UCA Highly Recommended: with 3" of ride height throwing off the stock UCA angles, even a moderate amount of articulation can either cause the UCA to hit the coilovers' springs or cause some binding in the factory arm's ball joint fairly quickly. For any decent off-road application at the full 3" of height, we'd strongly recommend getting yourself an aftermarket uniball UCA along with these coilovers.

Overall, the F150Lifts front coilovers make for a great upgrade over stock, and while they can't quite match the brutal off-road performance of 2.5 coilovers, they have an excellent street ride and just enough extra off-road oomph to get the job done on the vast majority of truck's out their. Their 3" ride height capability also gives your 2015 F150 the potential to get an aggressive, awesome stance, especially when its combined with a larger rear block. More ride height also means extra clearance for larger tires, which meas more ground clearance, which is never a bad thing.




Feel free to ask question on any of our suspension installs.

Mark_604

How's the materials/build of the Boss compared to the Fox and Icons? Are they more prone to rusting or anything else?

Stage3Motorsports

We ran the Boss coil overs for over a year with no issues on our 12 ecoboost. To be honest we dont really worry about rust down here. Maybe someone on here has them in a rust prone area and can comment.

uscsig51

Is it fair to say that the Fox 2.0 are a much better shock than stock and the Boss F150 appear to be another step-up from the Fox 2.0? Is there any reason one would choose the Fox 2.0 over the Boss F150?

Fox 2.0:

"So we grabbed our 2015 F150 EcoBoost Project Truck a Fox Stage 1 Suspension Package, which included a pair of awesome Fox 2.0 Front Coilovers. The coilovers look awesome and provide a huge performance improvement over the stock struts, all while providing a smooth on-road ride. The Fox 2.0 Coilovers can even add 2" of front ride height, and effectively leveled out our truck."


2015 F150Lifts BOSS Coilovers Pros:

Flawless Street Ride: the street ride quality of the BOSS coilovers is just ridiculously good. Smoother than the Fox 2.0s while at the same time soaking up bumps and bad roads with less body roll and wallowing around.

3" of Extra Height: the 0-3" range of adjustment is a full inch taller than stock and a good third taller than highest settings of the ICON 2.5s, which gives some extra room for larger tires and more ground clearance.

Improved Off-Road Performance than the Fox 2.0s: the F150Lifts coilovers do a bit better than the Fox system off-road, handling higher speeds and more aggressive trails without much fuss. The extra potential ground clearance also helps.

Stage3Motorsports

[QUOTE=uscsig51;4350859]Is it fair to say that the Fox 2.0 are a much better shock than stock and the Boss F150 appear to be another step-up from the Fox 2.0? Is there any reason one would choose the Fox 2.0 over the Boss F150?

Yes taht is correct. Our pricing on the fox brand can get pretty good at times, so I think some guys save a couple bucks and go with FOX. But yes you are correct, at the current pricing the Boss wins all the way.

baxzilla

iTrader: (2)

I know the general consensus is if you don't offroad at all to just get the spacer level because it will maintain a nice plush on road ride. What's your thoughts? If you were putting on 285/65r20 bfg ko2s would you stick with a spacer or go BOSS?

Johnnymossville

Can I use something like this Boss set up to just go to the point of level, so I can run slightly larger tires? Would the benefits of these even be worth it in such a modest scenario, or would it be best to go the full 3" and block the rear to reach their full potential?

I love the idea of these, I just want to be slightly less aggressive in how high I go?

Excellent Review by the way, and thanks for posting it.

Rob O

I've been running the Boss Ultimate kit for a couple of weeks now. My fronts were pre-adjusted to just about 3" of lift and I went with Boss's Raptor-style tapered rear blocks. I've not taken the truck on any trails with this set up yet, but can speak to on road performance with about 500 miles driven so far.

First, I agree this is a great kit ... excellent quality, even better service from Alex at F150 kits and a fairly well balanced set up (spring rates, damping, etc). In general, the ride is very compliant and matches the stock suspension in most cases.

The one area it falls short is over acute bumps, such as pot holes, speed bumps, etc. Rebound damping is very sharp and abrupt, in a bad way. It's almost like it has no travel after compression due to spring preload. So while it absorbs the initial impact (compression) it just drops off a cliff as you go over the bump.

I *think* this is due to being near max height -- i.e., 3" of lift. And, honestly, it doesn't need to be that high. I plan on backing off the height to 2.75" and see how that changes rebound characteristics. If it's still harsh, I'll go a little lower. At near 3" now, the truck is almost too level anyway with very little payload rake. Plus, with 285/65s I could go to 2.5" and still clear without rubbing.

Eventually I plan to use 2.5" remote reservoir rears as well. I ran Icon Stage 3 with 2.5" RR rears on my FJ cruiser and it was an outstanding set up; best lift I've ever had.

Anyway, thanks to Stage 3 for posting up their reviews, comparos and thoughts.

Stage3Motorsports

I think the safe answer is to do a basic leveling kit first (its 100.00) and see what you think. Most likely the larger tire is going to wear on the factory coil over and you will need an upgrade down the road.

Stage3Motorsports

Here is the install video of the boss kit on our 2015 Ecoboost.