I recently bought a 2013 f150 fx4 and was thinking of either getting king 2.5s or doing just a raptor coilover and rear shock swap, I have read I need different upper control arms if I do king 2.5s but I haven’t seen anything about new ones with raptor coilovers, what would be a better bang for my buck

 

If you’re choosing between the two, it really comes down to how far you want to go with suspension performance versus cost.

King 2.5s are a big step up in damping control and heat management, but on a 2013 F150 they often require aftermarket upper control arms to correct geometry and avoid top-out issues. It’s more of a “do it right, do it once” setup, but it gets expensive quickly.

The Raptor coilover and rear shock swap is usually the better bang for buck. It gives a noticeable improvement in travel and ride quality roobet without needing upper control arms in most setups, as long as you’re not pushing extreme lift or articulation. For a daily-driven FX4, that’s usually the more balanced option.

 

Raptor coilovers will never fit any f150 without the lower and upper control arms, cv axles, brake lines, fender flares, sway bars and links, etc..... None of that includes the wider track you'll need to match for the back. Raptors are almost 6" wider than an F150.

You can use Raptor shocks for the back but the front is a complete make over to get it to work.

As one who's put 100K on Fox 2.5dsc's all the way around on a 2018, I'd recommend just going the Bilstein route for cost effective really nice suspension, and that's as far as these trucks really like to go before it gets way more expensive and mostly a worse ride.

Don't get me wrong the Fox 2.5's are awesome, but it's a luxury that doesn't pay that much dividends relatively speaking. The higher you go in stance the worse things get on these trucks as far as plushness goes.

Just my $0.02 after 145K miles trying super soft suspension setups.

Cheers, Pete