So have new fluid 3 and need and want and plan to upgrade XCM shock. I have ordered the new Judy gold 2018 but I’m worried not enough. Notice that it has a 30 mm stanchions the only other shock worth looking at my price range is the recon which has 32 mm stanchions. I know bigger stiffer not worried about weight. Just something that will last. I don’t do huge huge jumps but it large enough drops. 4 to even 5 feet at times. Would the judy gold handle this is have set up correctly. I bought bike with what had at time not enough money to upgrade fork just wanna make sure its enough only choice is recon or Judy and not even sure I can get the recon with specs I need as my bike is a 27.5 plus with 51 mm offset needed.
Sorry not reading appreciate help advice from you experience fellas. Scott.
P. S ride single track mostly with few large jumps
The answer ultimately is, it depends… it depends on how smooth you are, your weight, how hard you are on gear/ how often you do maintenance and ultimately what fits your budget. If you’re hard on stuff and never do any maintenance both forks will probably last about the same. If you’re jumping a lot you want something reliable, small stanchions are easier to break and in many cases jumping voids the warranty on these lower end forks.
In my opinion, the Recon is the better fork of what you have mentioned and would be the minimum I would consider for any serious mountain bike riding, but on the XC side of things and not the freeride or jumping side of things. The 51mm offset requirement is debatable.
I don’t have experience with either fork. I have a very old Judy, but it’s a different beast than this newer one.
Both the Judy and Recon seem to be XC forks, which aren’t meant for jumping or dropping. To me 5 feet seems like a pretty significant drop, but like @bent6543 says, it depends. Dropping to a transition puts a lot less stress on gear than dropping to flat. A lighter rider will put less stress on a bike, and a skilled rider that lands lightly and properly will do better than a controlled crasher. I wouldn’t push either fork too hard, and expect them to last.
Sounds like a Pike DJ, Lyrik or Yari might be better suited to your riding style, but the price of those forks probably approach the price of your bike, so I understand why they would be out of the question.
I notice that the Norco Torrent, which Norco calls an “All Mountain” bike (a little more aggressive than “Trail”) runs a Recon, so maybe that would be the better choice than the Judy.
Okay maybe 5 foot little much. But I ordered the judy the recon hard to get with the specs I need and boost. Kinda ebay deal got the judy gold. Ordered from Canada bicycle parts and got nervous if was enough of a shock so called them talked man guy talked my ear off was great he made me feel good about purchase. He said unless I was 200 plus lbs and a really stupid rider and tried to break it he said be a good fork. Said these forks are way better then one’s years ago and they could handle a lot of properly looked after and maintained.
Also just ordered some new oneup composite pedals. Next weekend gonna be a fun weekend.
P.s. Notice a few 1500 to 2500 trail bikes that are really slack and they have the judy in them and there trail bikes such as mine so I think I’ll be okay as long as I don’t try to abuse it.
If it wasnt for the need of 27.5 id say grab a 10yr old Marz with 130-150mm travel and youd never break it or eat it all up in travel unless you hucked a 20footer
I’m 200 plus and a stupid rider. 
But I probably don’t ride hard enough that the Judy would be OK for me too.
DUDE. now I feel bad 
wasn’t trying to insult heavier riders nor even stupid riders as I’m actually one. Cause I try to hit everything to make it a jump lol.
No prob. No offence taken. I was just kidding around.
Really if you look at the specs the Judy isn’t really all that different from the XCM that’s on your bike currently. I mean there are differences but to me they mostly cancel each other out. The Suntour forks are POS fork given a choice I’d ride the Judy over it any day but I don’t really see the value in getting the Judy as an upgrade. I’d be riding the Suntour until it blows up and I saved up enough money to get something with real performance gains vs replacing it with a marginally better/different fork like the Judy.
http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/components/fork/XCM-32-27-5-5778.html
Not sure how respond to this I think Judy is a vast improvement over XCM. Vast. Even rockshock low-end stuff the 30.better then XCM or xcrs. But the judy vs XCM. No comparison first the weight second coil vs air. Motion control that’s tbd lol and the rebound. I had 30rl on a storm 1 and that was ten times better then the XCM not only that but the rebound very very slifish on XCM.