5100 too stiff on rear?

[Lampcont44]

Hi all, I installed 5100s on all four wheels and I love the way they look, especially when it's leveled with the back (give or take half an inch) but I can't get over how rough the rear shocks feel around sudden road imperfections like expansion joints or pot holes.

It feels like the shocks aren't dampening at all and all of the force goes to my neck. Even going over the "washboard" textures the shock doesnt react and I feel EVERYTHING. I don't tow and just daily drive my Ranger. How's everyone's experience with the 5100s?

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[RedDakooter05]

I have the 4600's so close enough. I felt the same experience, so I ended up throwing 300lbs of sand bags in the rear.

The extra weight does help, but won't be day and night.

 

[Big Blue]

Hi all, I installed 5100s on all four wheels and I love the way they look, especially when it's leveled with the back (give or take half an inch) but I can't get over how rough the rear shocks feel around sudden road imperfections like expansion joints or pot holes.

It feels like the shocks aren't dampening at all and all of the force goes to my neck. Even going over the "washboard" textures the shock doesnt react and I feel EVERYTHING. I don't tow and just daily drive my Ranger. How's everyone's experience with the 5100s?

Welcome to driving a pickup truck with nothing in the box. It is not the shocks, it is the rear springs. A truck is sprung to handle a load. Without a load the springs do not deflect. Small imperfections will not deflect the rear suspension so there is nothing for the shocks to dampen. The single leaf elliptical springs on our Rangers don't help the situation. The only thing you can do to soften the ride is to change the rear springs to multi-leaf progressive ones, like the Tremors have or the European Rangers have. May have to give up some payload capacity. There is a long thread about this. Or you can do like @RedDakooter05 said and drive around with extra weight in the back. It is kind of the nature of the beast, it is a truck which is tail end light by design, ment to carry a load. Physics can be a PIA sometimes.

 

[Lampcont44]

Welcome to driving a pickup truck with nothing in the box. It is not the shocks, it is the rear springs. A truck is sprung to handle a load. Without a load the springs do not deflect. Small imperfections will not deflect the rear suspension so there is nothing for the shocks to dampen. The single leaf elliptical springs on our Rangers don't help the situation. The only thing you can do to soften the ride is to change the rear springs to multi-leaf progressive ones, like the Tremors have or the European Rangers have. May have to give up some payload capacity. There is a long thread about this. Or you can do like @RedDakooter05 said and drive around with extra weight in the back. It is kind of the nature of the beast, it is a truck which is tail end light by design, ment to carry a load. Physics can be a PIA sometimes.

Yeah I put 200 lb of sand bags right over the rear axle but I'll add another 100 just to see what happens. Can you link me that thread about swapping the springs?

 

[NotBudule]

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...rear-spring-anybody-know-spring-design.14074/

Good info here...

 

[Big Blue]

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...rear-spring-anybody-know-spring-design.14074/

Good info here...

That's the one

 

[EJH]

5100s are on the stiffer side, as compared to the other popular options people here choose (Eibach and Fox being the main ones).

 

[Lampcont44]

Welcome to driving a pickup truck with nothing in the box. It is not the shocks, it is the rear springs. A truck is sprung to handle a load. Without a load the springs do not deflect. Small imperfections will not deflect the rear suspension so there is nothing for the shocks to dampen. The single leaf elliptical springs on our Rangers don't help the situation. The only thing you can do to soften the ride is to change the rear springs to multi-leaf progressive ones, like the Tremors have or the European Rangers have. May have to give up some payload capacity. There is a long thread about this. Or you can do like @RedDakooter05 said and drive around with extra weight in the back. It is kind of the nature of the beast, it is a truck which is tail end light by design, ment to carry a load. Physics can be a PIA sometimes.

I took a bit of everyones advice and did what @RedDakooter05 did by putting about 300 lb of weight in the form of 3 horse stall mats (about 95 pounds each). I trimmed them so they can fit long ways since our beds are short.

I also removed the shocks, primed them around 10 times (you can feel them getting softer the more I did it) and then reinstalled them with the weight on the wheels. When I originally installed them I had the truck jacked up and didn't prime them. I noticed people heavily disagree on whether that makes a difference but...

I took a ride through my town's ugliest roads (aka the whole damn place) and it feels so much better. The truck is firm but not stiff like it was earlier. You can feel the shocks actually dampening and got rid of the "shimmy" sensation from the rear wheels.

 

[ctechbob]

FWIW priming a single tube shock (Bilstein) isn't a thing regardless of what you might have felt.

A dual tube shock, maybe, but a single tube won't change at all.

 

[Dereku]

Put less weight right up against the tail gate. It will multiply the force due to hanging over rear of axle. Plus less weight means less of a performance hit.

 

[lazynorse]

While I can't empirically claim benefit of Eibach shocks (I added them along Icon multileafs), my suspension setup is 1) noticeably improved onroad and off, and 2) not the slightest bit more harsh than before, with stock FX4.

Few have had both Bilstein and Eibach to compare directly, but Eibach is known to be a softer response than Bilstein. This is a main reason I went Eibach all around, and I'm very happy with it.

 

[Nomadjohn]

I just installed 5100s on the back of my truck and I think they're a significant improvement over stock both on road and off. A little more about my situation.

• My truck is a FX4 and I only replaced the back shocks.
• I have a fiberglass topper, I suspect this adds about 200lbs.
• I keep a fair number of tools in one of those swing out cases, this adds maybe another 50lbs.

I think this adds some credence to the idea that some extra weight helps quite a bit with these shocks.

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