Are the shocks on a deluxe the same as the rest of the softails?

 

Yes they are.

 

The deluxe shocks are an inch lower I believe

 

One said yes and one said no, need more input

 

Don't know the year of your ride, but a quick look at Progressive's site shows same part number for FLSTC and FXST. Hope this helps some.

 

Deluxe shocks lower the rear of the bike 1" compared to Fatboy, Heritage... Deluxe shocks are different but interchangeable with other softails. I put them on my Fatboy to lower it.

 

I recently modified a brothers Deluxe. He complained that his Deluxe sat to low for the environment we ride in and want his bike raised if possible. I've never been asked to raise a bike before! As an experiment, I removed his Deluxe shocks and compared them to a spare set of Fatboy shocks. The Shocks in the attached photo marked (Rod) are off the Deluxe.

The Fatboy shocks measured 3/8th of an inch shorted. Due to the fact that the swingarm moves in an arc, the 3/8th shorter Fatboy shocks, once mounted, raised the bike an additional 1 inch from ground to frame. I was concerned that these Fatboy shocks would have a different spring rate and possible cause the bike to handle improperly but after a few test rides and tweaking the pre-load to 60% the bike rode and handled perfectly and the owner now has the ground clearance needed.

The deluxe was a 2008 and the Fatboy shocks were stock 2003.

 

This is correct.

 

One thing to consider, because Fatboy/Heritage shocks raise the bike one inch higher, they provide 1 inch more of travel. It does not sound like much but it is noticeable as you do get a better ride with Fatboy/Heritage shocks.

 

This helped , think I'm doing away with my deluxe shocks so I can raise it an inch .