Mountain Biking - Drop Off Triple Vs. Junior T

I just picked up a used 2005 Kona Stinky today and cant decide if I should swap the fork with my fork on my other bike. The Stinky came with a 2005 Drop Off Triple, and my other bike has a 2005 Junior T. The Kona is going to be my main bike, and Ill probably end up selling my other bike. I know the Drop Off Triple is an OEM fork, and my Junior T is not. The problem is, the Drop Off is air and can be adjusted so that it is stiffer, but I believe it is considered to be not as good of a freeride/downhill fork than the Junior T. I am 200 lbs and would like my Junior T to be a little stiffer, but it cant be adjusted. Which fork is considered "better" for all around freeride and some downhill?

I would go with the Junior T. I have no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, but here is why...
The dropoffs were made by SR Suntour in their factory in Taiwan. The Junior T is an Italian made fork. For anyone following the decline of Marzocchi, they know that it started with a few forks being made in Taiwan (originally in 2003 I think?) and has hit rock bottom (I hope) this year with all forks being made in Asia. Plain and simple... the Italian made stuff is better.
Also... you should be able to unscrew one of the preload caps off of the Junior T and swap it with an air cap on the Drop off. That will give the Junior the ability to be aired up on one leg. No other changes to the fork are needed.

Wow, I never even thought of that. So I can unscrew the air cap on one of the sides of the Drop Off and unscrew one of the pre-load cap and swap them?

You can play around with them quite a bit. Stick the preload air cap onto the nicer fork, as said. They both have similar damping, Marzocchi's lower end stuff so that shouldn't make much difference.

IMO: try to sell both for enough scratch to pick up a used 888 or one of the nicer used 66 models if you want to stick with Marzocchi. Lotsa' those hitting the market.

I am running a Drop Off Triple right now and I am fairly satisfied with it. But when I have enough money I will upgrade it to a 66 or similar. The Drop Off is a lower end fork that will work fine until you really start pushing it you can notice it's flaws. It isn't super stiff in the lowers and vibrates under hard braking and has trouble staying stable through rock gardens. And from what I have heard about the Jr. T it isn't to much of a step up. I would have to agree with the guy above me. Sell them both and try to get a higher end fork.

I switched out one of the air caps off the Drop Off onto the Junior T and put some air into it. I dialed the preload with the air perfect and was initially very satisfied. But then riding it down the hall and hopping on it a little bit I noticed a metal to metal clinking noise right at the very beginning of the stroke. So I took it apart again and investigated. I found that the air cap is shorter in height than the preload cap that came on the Junior T. I looked inside and noticed that because it is shorter, the washer on top of the spring inside the fork, is not in contact with the bottom of the air cap until compressed a little but. I estimate that the gap is about 1/2 of an inch. The noise is the washer coming into contact with the cap. I decided to switch it back. Would this cause any problems? Is there a part I need? Would it be bad to rig up a spacer to fill the space?

Don't know if you did anything already, but just thought I'd give you a little info. It's no problem to put a spacer in there. Marzoccchi actually uses a small plastic PVC like spacer on the top of the springs with some of their air/coil forks. It looks like a half inch long piece of PVC pipe. It prevents anything from damaging the bottom of the air cap.
Another solution is to remove that spring all together and run air in one side and coil in the other. I did this for a while with great success in several of their forks. I loved the feel of it as it didn't feel sticky like a pure air fork, but was more adjustable than a coil.

Thanks CGoose, my friend actually told me a same thing a few days later. I could not find any PVC small enough, so instead I used a nut. I new I had to protect the car up top, so I used a nut with a washer build in. The washer is the same size as the washer that was in between the cap and spring anyways, so I figured it wouldent hurt anything. I have one nut in each side, and the nut is about 5/8 of and inch thick. Tell me if you think Im wrong for using a metal nut, but everything seems fine. The coils do not max out before my fork does, and it rides grreat.