Bilstein 5100 Adjustable Leveling Shock Kit

Roy Johnson

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Alright guys I must be a fricken retart but I have some questions. And comments. As far as the viewing from the drivers seat are you not obstructing by raising the front of the truck placing the hood more in view. Is the fx4 suspension not designed to be softer to absorb the off road terrain. Why are you making it stiff. All of this pour handling on the road complaints I don’t get. I test drove my xlt extensively before purchasing and compare it to everything else in its class. I never have plans to alter the suspension. When I drove it home I knew exactly what I got for my thirty thousand dollars. I have added multiple other after market items mainly for prolonged maintenance and minor ascetics. I can see guys purchasing a bare bones vehicle back in the day transforming it into a performance machine. Most of the muscle cars of the past never got changed and they weren’t d te d as modern vehicles. All the power to you guys dropping big bucks into an already huge investment. Boys and there toys.
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Frenchy

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Alright guys I must be a fricken retart but I have some questions. And comments. As far as the viewing from the drivers seat are you not obstructing by raising the front of the truck placing the hood more in view. Is the fx4 suspension not designed to be softer to absorb the off road terrain. Why are you making it stiff. All of this pour handling on the road complaints I don’t get. I test drove my xlt extensively before purchasing and compare it to everything else in its class. I never have plans to alter the suspension. When I drove it home I knew exactly what I got for my thirty thousand dollars. I have added multiple other after market items mainly for prolonged maintenance and minor ascetics. I can see guys purchasing a bare bones vehicle back in the day transforming it into a performance machine. Most of the muscle cars of the past never got changed and they weren’t d te d as modern vehicles. All the power to you guys dropping big bucks into an already huge investment. Boys and there toys.
Hopefully I can answer your question in the best way possible here. Now I will start off by saying that I do not have the FX4 package on my truck. I don't know about you but for me I have to deal with a lot of high-speed Corners up here in the Colorado Rockies. Before I got my truck I had a 2016 Nissan Frontier. Was some of the terms I have to deal with I would be able to do 60 miles an hour through them with no problems with my Frontier I had. When I got the ranger it was a question to even do 50 miles an hour through the same turns. Mind you the conditions were all the same with no snow or ice. Ever since I swapped out my suspension for the old man emu which was my personal choice for the fact that I wanted a lift it improved the feel through those turns. I was able to do 60 through those turns without a problem. Now yes I am aware that I did raise my center of gravity but that's what you get when you do a lift. After changing my tires to the Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3 S I can say that probably helped out overall too. Also with my 2016 Frontier that I had it did Comstock equipped with the 4600 series Bilstein. It was part of the off-road package on both the desert Runner and the pro-4x. I myself had the desert Runner. Before the desert Runner I had another 2016 base model that had different shocks and I can tell you the difference between the two is phenomenal. No you yourself may not want to go with different shocks or a lift or even a leveling kit and that's okay. We're not saying you have to but for others including myself felt that these suspension really needed to be improved.

Also do remember that your truck is your truck. Make it your own. If you don't want to do a particular thing to your truck then don't do it because we're not going to force you to. Now doesn't mean some of us won't pester you about it but we're not able to force you to do it. Just enjoy your truck the way you want to enjoy your truck
 
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gobaylor

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Alright guys I must be a fricken retart but I have some questions. And comments. As far as the viewing from the drivers seat are you not obstructing by raising the front of the truck placing the hood more in view. Is the fx4 suspension not designed to be softer to absorb the off road terrain. Why are you making it stiff. All of this pour handling on the road complaints I don’t get. I test drove my xlt extensively before purchasing and compare it to everything else in its class. I never have plans to alter the suspension. When I drove it home I knew exactly what I got for my thirty thousand dollars. I have added multiple other after market items mainly for prolonged maintenance and minor ascetics. I can see guys purchasing a bare bones vehicle back in the day transforming it into a performance machine. Most of the muscle cars of the past never got changed and they weren’t d te d as modern vehicles. All the power to you guys dropping big bucks into an already huge investment. Boys and there toys.
This has yet to be personal experience for me with this kit but in addition to the better on road behavior the aftermarket kit adds improvement to off-road handling. I wouldn’t have done the upgrade if this was not the case. For the FX4 my feeling is that Ford chose to go for exclusively a better off-road experience while sacrificing on road performance. For the price point they wanted to spend this is what you get. A long long time ago I had a 1997 F150 2wd extended cab. Absolutely one of the best riding trucks I’ve ever experienced. My dad has always been a Chevy truck guy. If you’ve ever felt the difference in on road performance between these two brands you know what I am looking for. The Ranger now behaves on road much like my old ford truck and much less like a Chevy boat er I mean truck.
 

Porpoise Hork

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Alright guys I must be a fricken retart but I have some questions. And comments. As far as the viewing from the drivers seat are you not obstructing by raising the front of the truck placing the hood more in view. Is the fx4 suspension not designed to be softer to absorb the off road terrain. Why are you making it stiff. All of this pour handling on the road complaints I don’t get. I test drove my xlt extensively before purchasing and compare it to everything else in its class. I never have plans to alter the suspension. When I drove it home I knew exactly what I got for my thirty thousand dollars. I have added multiple other after market items mainly for prolonged maintenance and minor ascetics. I can see guys purchasing a bare bones vehicle back in the day transforming it into a performance machine. Most of the muscle cars of the past never got changed and they weren’t d te d as modern vehicles. All the power to you guys dropping big bucks into an already huge investment. Boys and there toys.

For me it's not really a want to just stiffen the suspension up. It's about bringing an end to the boat like ride many, myself included have noted about the Ranger that we want to change. Don't get me wrong the Ranger does have a very nice ride for a truck, but there's just one glaring issue with it. That would be how the factory dampers are under-metered for rebound. The rebound damping is far too soft and allows the springs to return to normal far too rapidly thus over extending them. The suspension then compresses due to it being above stock ride height (even with leveling kits) and then rebounds again and again. This causes the front end to bounce and/or roll leading to the 1970's caddy experience and a feeling that the front end is just a tad loose. The fix for this is to reduce the rate the springs and return the suspension to normal from a compression. This can be by adding softer springs or replace the shocks/struts with ones that have similar compression ratings, but have an increased damping rate on the rebound stroke. by increasing the rebound resistance, it prevents the suspension from over rebounding and nearly eliminates the "bounce" cause by the OEM dampers.

Another factor to consider is that there are different part numbers for the front coil springs and depending on the trim level of truck. Also the FX4 has different dampers and thicker springs than the 2wd variant. So by the part numbers someone with a 2wd Lariat will have likely have an entirely different handling truck than someone with a FX4, or XL, or XLT's. So while you may not have issues with the handling or ride, does not mean that many others don't as the variations in suspension configuration can make a significant difference in how the vehicle feels when driven.
 

Roy Johnson

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Like I said I must be e retart. It drives great.
 


Hirnlego

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...... I can give more details if anyone wants but driver side went much quicker as we determined that we needed to remove the axle nut and hub to ensure we didn't allow the bearing cartridge to slip past the c spring on the shaft.
....
Is there any difference in the 4wd and 2wd axle shafts. I would guess there is with the gearbox on the 4wd up front.

Anyone who has done a 2wd, did you also find it absolutely necessary to break the axle nut loose?
 

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Is there any difference in the 4wd and 2wd axle shafts. I would guess there is with the gearbox on the 4wd up front.

Anyone who has done a 2wd, did you also find it absolutely necessary to break the axle nut loose?
No axle nut in the front on a 2wd.
 

Porpoise Hork

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Like I said I must be e retart. It drives great.
And the wife says the same
Wouldn't say that. Not everyone has issues with the handling. My wife's like yours and likes the way it drives. She has specifically mandated that I don't make it ride like my last car (08 GTI) with coil-overs, larger sway bars, strut tower brace, polyurethane bushings, etc etc. So it had a very firm ride, that she absolutely hated it.

On a side note I dropped mine off yesterday to have them look at the brakes and I test drove an XLT (FX4) just to compare it to my 2wd Lariat and virtually no hint of the rolling boat, but still had a bounce but was significantly less than mine.
 

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Just installed the rears last night, fronts to show up possibly friday. Just with the rears the kidney kick is gone. I think Porpoise calls out the root cause, apparently the rebound damping is to fast. I might actually like this truck! Can't wait to install the fronts!
 

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I have some experience with the Bilstein 5100's, both adjustable and not. The Bilstein gives a little firmer, but not excessive, feel on compression, and a very nicely damped, well-controlled rebound. I work mostly off road and travel long distances by highway to get there, so I have a lot of exprience with both environments. I actually haven't taken delivery of my FX4 yet, so I can't speak to how it feels/handles yet. But I do see a set of Billies in my (very?) near future.

Regarding the "adjustable height" feature on the Bilstein struts, this is accomplished purely by spring preload, not by varying the length or travel of the strut. By moving a clip ring up or down into one of the 3 different grooves machined into the shock body, you change the position of the bottom spring land. The higher the clip position on the shock body, the greater the preload on the spring. The greater the preload, the less the truck sags, or settles into the shock travel. This is what controls how high the truck sits. On the lowest position the spring is lightly compressed, so the truck settles more into the travel, giving a lower height. Move the clip up and the preload increases, so the truck settles less, giving a taller ride height. In the highest position the preload is greatest, so the ride height is even higher.

The problem with using preload to adjust ride height is that with more preload comes stiffer spring action. You've taken out the softer part of the spring compression by preloading the shock, so the ride is stiffer.

In the Nissan Titan world (where I'm coming from now) the 5100 is quite popular, but most found that the highest position was simply too stiff for comfort. Too much preload. I actually mounted my Titan with the 5100s in the lowest (stock height) position and used a spacer to get the lift I wanted. I kept the softer ride, gained the famous Bilstien feel that I love, and got the lift I wanted.
 

Frenchy

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I have some experience with the Bilstein 5100's, both adjustable and not. The Bilstein gives a little firmer, but not excessive, feel on compression, and a very nicely damped, well-controlled rebound. I work mostly off road and travel long distances by highway to get there, so I have a lot of exprience with both environments. I actually haven't taken delivery of my FX4 yet, so I can't speak to how it feels/handles yet. But I do see a set of Billies in my (very?) near future.

Regarding the "adjustable height" feature on the Bilstein struts, this is accomplished purely by spring preload, not by varying the length or travel of the strut. By moving a clip ring up or down into one of the 3 different grooves machined into the shock body, you change the position of the bottom spring land. The higher the clip position on the shock body, the greater the preload on the spring. The greater the preload, the less the truck sags, or settles into the shock travel. This is what controls how high the truck sits. On the lowest position the spring is lightly compressed, so the truck settles more into the travel, giving a lower height. Move the clip up and the preload increases, so the truck settles less, giving a taller ride height. In the highest position the preload is greatest, so the ride height is even higher.

The problem with using preload to adjust ride height is that with more preload comes stiffer spring action. You've taken out the softer part of the spring compression by preloading the shock, so the ride is stiffer.

In the Nissan Titan world (where I'm coming from now) the 5100 is quite popular, but most found that the highest position was simply too stiff for comfort. Too much preload. I actually mounted my Titan with the 5100s in the lowest (stock height) position and used a spacer to get the lift I wanted. I kept the softer ride, gained the famous Bilstien feel that I love, and got the lift I wanted.
I do agree with you on the spring preload for setting height. If I'm not mistaken Fox does the same thing for setting height. I myself chose the old man emu and thankfully it's just a set deal from the manufacturer and you cannot change the height from what they said it to. Makes it nice for overall comfort.
 

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I do agree with you on the spring preload for setting height. If I'm not mistaken Fox does the same thing for setting height. I myself chose the old man emu and thankfully it's just a set deal from the manufacturer and you cannot change the height from what they said it to. Makes it nice for overall comfort.
OME is at the top of my list for my lift. Just spendy. And I just bought a new Ranger, so cash is kinda tight for a while...
 

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OME is at the top of my list for my lift. Just spendy. And I just bought a new Ranger, so cash is kinda tight for a while...
You wont be disappointed when you get the kit. I myself love it.
 

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Regarding the "adjustable height" feature on the Bilstein struts, this is accomplished purely by spring preload, not by varying the length or travel of the strut. By moving a clip ring up or down into one of the 3 different grooves machined into the shock body, you change the position of the bottom spring land. The higher the clip position on the shock body, the greater the preload on the spring. The greater the preload, the less the truck sags, or settles into the shock travel. This is what controls how high the truck sits. On the lowest position the spring is lightly compressed, so the truck settles more into the travel, giving a lower height. Move the clip up and the preload increases, so the truck settles less, giving a taller ride height. In the highest position the preload is greatest, so the ride height is even higher.

The problem with using preload to adjust ride height is that with more preload comes stiffer spring action. You've taken out the softer part of the spring compression by preloading the shock, so the ride is stiffer.
Well darn. This changes the ride quality and kind of 'fakes' the lift. I had hoped the Eibachs/Bilsteins changed the geometry to 'fix' the rake.

Does that mean different/longer springs (progressive rate) need to be considered too, or am I back to looking at spacers?
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