What is the brand of shock that seems quite popular among this forum for the SuperDuty? Bilstein 5100?

 

Are your shocks for maintenance purposes or are you upgrading? If you are just doing maintenance then I would suggest sticking with the OEM shocks. If you are upgrading Ford sells an Off-Road shock as well but quite a few people have talked about Bilstein on here. If you're interested in looking into the shocks we have available you can check here or I would be happy to look them up for you, just need to know which vehicle in your signature were working on.

 

A lot of folks around here (myself included) think the stock shocks are junk and never go back to OEM shocks. A popular replacement on these forums are indeed the Bilstein 4600 or 5100's. The key difference being the 4600's are more of a direct stock replacement and the 5100's are more for lifted trucks (and look prettier). I don't have personal experience with them yet, but I plan to drop in a set soon as everyone says they give a much better ride than stock.

 

No disrespect to Lakeland Ford.......but you couldn't pay me to run the stock shocks that came on my '16 F350 KR dually. I did my research and bought a set of Bilstein 4600's and had them waiting in the garage.

I changed them out the night I brought the truck home along with the 20" Eagle wheels and Michelin Defenders. As KCD says the 5100's are for lifted trucks and the 4600's for stock hieght. I bought my shocks from Summit Racing for $264, they will price match so do some shopping, find the best price with the company's info and call Summit.

 

Sounds good. I saw the 5100's for 0"-2" of lift so I figure that's stock too. Plus they're prettier. Haha. I also think my front end is higher for some reason than normal.

 

Funny you say that about your front end. I had a guy ask me about the "lift" on my truck. I told him it was stock.....must be the 20" wheels/tires. I will say that I drove the truck 20 miles from the dealer to my home before I changed them. Just in that amount of distance I was very concerned about how it rode, lots of little bumps felt on the highway that weren't being dampened. Much, much better with the 4600's.

 

I run rancho shocks on mine and I'm happy with the ride. It's much better then stock was.

 

I just ordered 4 4600's from 4WDParts, for $269.99.
I will let them install them, for $33 per shock.

 

It depends on what your intentions are, budget and how much research you're willing to do. If you strictly stick to FTE and take other posters advice without them knowing your uses, then you will either choose the Bilstein 4600 or 5100 models or a version of Ranchos. If you want to get better quality shocks, look at Fox 2.0 IFPs. If you want the absolute best, look at Kings. 99% will be "happy" with the canned answer received in most threads posted. Mostly, because they don't know anything else. It's up to you to decide if one of the most important moving components of your truck is worth putting more money into for your needs. Good luck

 

Yea. We'll be sticking with the "regular shock" category. Not a chance I'll be spending $150+ per shock for a stock vehicle. Truck has 61k and I think shocks are due. I know what you're saying but I can't imagine I'd care that much about the handling differences in an expensive shock. I'm not launching the truck off of a hill or racing on a washboard road. I'm dragging a 14k dump trailer around most of the time and when unhooked just cruisin in the highway.

 

I personally didn't have a problem with the OEM shocks that came with my FX4 suspension (Ford Rancho's) when the were new. I think that for the most part, shocks are shocks and any most people report "night and day" difference when replacing old, worn out shocks with new shocks.
I settled on the Rancho RS 9000's for various reasons. The tubes are large diameter, which implies more oil volume; the shafts are larger, which should be stronger; and they have an adjustable preload (nine positions). Finally, Rancho offers a factory rebate regularly, which made the price quite attractive.
I've had them on about seven months now and am quite happy with their performance.

 

Understandable, but I didn't spend anywhere near that much. Try $115 each. Much better quality ride too.

 

I can't speak for the stock shocks..

When I bought my truck used it had some sort of Ready lift leveling kit (spacer up front HUGE blocks in the rear) w/Pro Comp shocks....It was about the worst riding truck I have ever been in and it handled really really bad.....Not sure if the bad ride and handling was the Ready Lift, Pro Comp shocks, or a combo of both..

Now it sits on a Carli Back Country running Fox shocks...I have no complaints with ride or handling..

I understand everybody has different needs and budget, with that being posted, I would never recommend Ready Lift or Pro Comp shocks to any member.....YMMV

 

I got the Readylift Stage 3 SST lift. It has 2.5" spacers in the front with drop brackets for the track bar and swaybar. Then it has 5" blocks in the back, which is 3" bigger than my stock blocks, but only 1" bigger than stock F350 blocks. Ride is exactly the same as factory.

It does nothing to enhance the ride, but it also doesn't hurt it at all. I once had a Suburban (years ago) with Rough Country shocks and they were horrible, even brand new. I'd bet your problems came mostly from the Pro Comp shocks.

I do really want to get some Fox IPS 2.0s, and I will even call Carli and ask them how much for their custom tuned versions. I've never had really high end shocks and I would like to try a set at least once.

-J

 

I'm sure a good bit of it was the Pro Comp shocks, they went straight to the garbage...Never been a fan of spacers and adding huge blocks in the rear but thats just me.