Remove un-leveling kit

[thecastle]

The un-leveling is gone! I know people like the looks of leveling kits on trucks. It’s a truck thing. But to me if you actually use a truck to do work, it’s not helpful When you tow. Especially since I tow >95% of the time with my truck. Those rear leafs begin to sag and what started as level quickly becomes very nose high.

The sulastic shackles made a very noticeable difference and improvement on the rear. Now the front is harsh compared to the rear…

ive been searching for better shocks. what I really want is bi-valved shocks like Öhlins or KONI special active. But there dosent seems to be anything like that for pickups. Just single valves shocks that are always compromised between ride and handling.

I’ve ordered a set of bilstein 4600s that I plan to install Sunday. If there is something actually better I’ll go for it. But the trux people said, the 5100 are for lifted trucks but valves the same as the 4600 but have a better exterior. The fox 2.0 look better but basically are the same as the 4600/5100 for more money. Their real advantage is the silver exterior that is less rust prone for better bling on the Highway. They would know since most of their truck work is cosmetic. But I’d really like to upgrade the shocks for less head toss and repeated bouncing on big dips, and better rounding of initial impact harness. The sulastic shackles really helped reduce small impact harshness. Less squat, dive and lean is also nice. I’ve done KONI FSDs and Öhlins on my bmw and they really are better. But I’m not sure other than a less worn set of shocks, that the bilstiens are an actual improvement.

 

[thecastle]

P.s. I’m planning on driving dozens of miles of unsaved roads and some light unmaintained roads. Plus towing and highway driving. So something good for washboards and towing is what I’m angling at. I don’t daily drive this truck.

 

[Gondul]

ive been searching for better shocks. what I really want is bi-valved shocks like Öhlins or KONI special active. But there dosent seems to be anything like that for pickups. Just single valves shocks that are always compromised between ride and handling.

From what I've been able to find (and someone please feel free to correct me), is that the Bilstein's are digressive valving and Fox has progressive valving.
And that's pretty much it for truck shocks... not sure you can get passenger car comfort and still retain the the point behind having a truck.

 

[thecastle]

Thanks for the info! On Fox vs Bilstein. I've actually self installed bilstien 4600's on the front, and will do the rears tomorrow. It's so easy to install shocks on these trucks, if I don't like the Bilsteins I'lll just swap to the foxes. The bilsteins were only $330 for a set of 4, which seems to cheap to me. I think the rears will take me 40 minutes to swap if that, without power tools.

I disagree that a truck can't ride as well as a car, handling on the other hand will never be as good (poor weight distribution, high center of gravity and flexy frame). As an engineer my motto is given enough time and money anything is possible. On the ride side, the problem is the very primitive suspension on many trucks. Its circa roman empire levels of tech. Trucks should be capable of a good ride because of their mass and long wheel base works in their favor. Heck greyhounds ride better. The weak link is solid axles, lots of unsprung weight, and springs that can't adapt to load, but have to be set for a reasonable deflection at max load. Semi's abandoned leafs years ago for air ride.. Spring stiffness exactly matches load. I suspect if I added air ride or liquid springs I could easily get there (but the cost would be high)

My goal is not getting my truck to sports car ride quality, mainly due to the expense, and trucks aren't my thing (yet) for modding. But bi-vavled shocks that go soft on quick initial impacts, and hard on slow impacts (dips) would go a long way to improving the ride/handling. I'm just surprised they don't exist for trucks, was all. My observation is seems like most dampers for trucks are designed for looks/lifts rather than actually improving ride quality or handling.

I've been very impressed with the sulastic shackles and getting back to stock ride height. Getting rid of that un-leveling kit and sulastics have done for the truck what Koni FSD/Active would do, but taking the harshness out of small impacts, with no compromise on big dips. I've been very impressed with what they've done. If I could get some good bi-vavled shocks I'd be done, with modding the suspension. Its truly fine for me as a truck. But I like to tweak, and we'll be doing some off roading and truck campers in the future. So my goals will change.

I've not driven yet on the 4600s since I'm still installing them to give an opinion.

 

[AH64ID]

4600’s and 5100’s are not valved the same, at least not in my research. Lots of people claim
they are, but I have found otherwise.

4600’s are valves around stock suspension, wheels and tires for mostly on-road use.

5100’s are generally for lifted trucks with heavier wheel/tire combos.

I’ve had great luck with 5100’s in the past, but there isn’t an option for the rear of my auto-level truck. Not sure what I’ll run when the time comes.

 

[thecastle]

Since I'm learning the swap is really quite easy I may try multiple setups. The biggest thing I wish I had was a self ratcheting 19mm wrench for the top shock bolts. Something like this. https://www.amazon.com/Jetech-Indus...t=&hvlocphy=9027800&hvtargid=pla-896433829846

I just use a breaker bar and and a 13/16 on the bottom stud. I tried an impact for putting on the bolts but its not ideal as it spins the shock shaft. So doing the rachet and an alen to keep it from spinning is more ideal.

If I do this again I'll probably go for fox 2.0 instead of 5100s. I think I can swap all 4 in my drive way in under 2 hours.

 

[thecastle]

Suspension mods are done. Returned truck to stock height, sulastic shackles rear, and bilstein 4600s installed. returning to stock ride height and the sulatic shakkles made a big difference and a major improvement in ride quality. I drove very briefly with the new shocks, verdict is out on them. I can't say I notice any postive difference, but I hardly drove it, more than 3 minutes through the neighborhood. Doing other mods to the truck, h9 conversion, and etc.

 

[dieselscout80]

From what I've been able to find (and someone please feel free to correct me), is that the Bilstein's are digressive valving and Fox has progressive valving.
And that's pretty much it for truck shocks... not sure you can get passenger car comfort and still retain the the point behind having a truck.

"Bilstein uses a digressive piston, while Rancho uses a linear piston. Bilstein's digressive piston restricts oil flow more than Rancho's linear piston, which means a firmer response from the piston (and shock)."

Bilstein vs Rancho Shocks - Comparisons and Real World Advice

The Debate Continues We cover the

www.shocksurplus.com

 

[thecastle]

I did see that there are some dual valved shocks available that give the best of both worlds, soft on harsh impacts and hard on slow transitions like cornering, sway, and etc. I'll have to find them again. Personally not impressed with the Bilstein shocks. Very happy to get rid of the leveling kit as it significantly reduced the front end bounce on dips and transitions. Also the truck no longer looks dumb with its butt sagging and nose high. It helped a ton when driving un-maintained roads... I guess people who do leveling kits that are just spacers aren't terribly sensitive to the bouncy nature of the mod when driving on road/fairly smooth roads. Plus the headlights work a ton better while towing without the leveling kit. I also did the H11 to H9 conversion and the lighting was excellent in totally dark places.

 

[thecastle]

P.S. I have a 3" front lift kit for sale.

 

[flan]

P.S. I have a 3" front lift kit for sale.

U are supposed to say all the bad stuff about the kit AFTER you sell it!

 

[thecastle]

Lol, you're right! Guilty as charged! I need to lighten up! I'm just not a big fan of modifications on any vehicle to turn it into a costume or are there purely for looks.

I do like the sulastic shackles however, there was a big improvement in unloaded ride with those. The removal of the leveling kit made a big difference at high speeds on the highway when I hit ground/bridge transitions on the interestate. The front end would bob up and down about 3 times when hitting those transitions. All of that bad behavior is gone now back at stock.