I just talked to a rep at Bilstein today (2-25-09) about shocks for my 01 screw. He told me to hold off on buying them for a week because they are going to be on sale, buy 3 get one free, soon. He told my to keep checking 4wheelparts.com for the sale. Just thought i would give any in the market for shocks a heads up.

 

bilstein is the best i hear, i wouldnt pay the extra 100 a shock or so for them but i hear theres no comparison for them.... what they saying for pice?

 

For the random 2001 F-150 supercab 4.6 2wd no lift I put in their lookup the 5100's are $67.00 so x3 plus one free $201. Pretty damn good deal

 

the rep at bilstien told me that the shocks they sell are valved specifically for the vehicle application where as some other adjustable or self adjusting shocks are generically valved for a wide range of vehicles. don't know for sure if the ranchos are or not. They were my second choice. the rs9000xl, 9 position adjustable. How ever i have never heard of any one complaining about the bilstien. also not sure how long a little *** on the ranchos for adjusting them will hold up in the mud and Wisconsin winters? or for that mater how often i would actually get out and change them. lol.

 

I have a set of their HDs on my 02 F150 4x4. They were pretty stiff when new, and took a little while to break in, but now... The rides great, the handling is comfortable, and it sticks to the road infinitely better than it did on the stockers.

Theyre great shocks.

 

Thanks for the info man, i need some shocks for my truck the stockers with 106,xxx on em are pretty worn out haha. Ill keep an eye out on there and topgunscustomz or what ever that site is

 

I just looked today and the bilsteins on now on sale for buy 3 get 1 free at several online stores. I f you don't like the look of the yellow and blue, which i am not fond of, they do offer rear shocks for a 3 inch lift that are zink plated with black boots. I think the part number is BE5-6095-H5. The rep at bilsteins told me the will work just fine for a stock 4X4 suspension. the have the same mounts and the same compressed length just extra over all travel. Also at 4wheelparts you can get the zink plated ones for the back and the BE5-2574-HO for the front and still get the deal.

 

awesome thanks for the info i hate the blue/yellow this is what ill be doing

 

So i finally got my shocks in after waiting 8 days! for shipping from 4wheelparts.com, and they don't firkin fit!!! Word of advice. If you have the torsion bars cranked up all the way, at least on the 01 screw, the BE5-2574-HO for the front will not fit! On my truck they are about 3/4 to 1 inch short! I am soo mad! I even called Bilstein and told him the extended length that i needed and he said "oh yea man these will work perfect". Yea right. any way of corse they were closed by the time i got done work and started on my shocks and found out they are too short. Oh and buy the way my old shocks were completely junk! by cranking up the torsion bars my front suspension was actually hanging buy the shocks! the top bolt and the top rubber grommet was almost pulled threw the top mounting hole! Should have checked this when i put the bigger tiers on and cranked em up huh. lol.

 

If you havent figured out your shock issue yet, I work at 4wheelParts and will figure out what front Bilstein shocks you need to run with the torsions adjusted. Give me a call at the store tomorrow, 1-800-517-0989 and ask for Ryan.

 

I will call. I don't understand why the guy at Bilstein told me they would work? any way so i guess i have to pay to ship them back huh? I think the rears that i bought will work but didn't try to put them on after the issue with the front ones. The ones for the back are listed above that i bought. I am also concerned because fully extended i need 27.250. The Bilsteins i bought are at 27.5 fully extended. I think that if the rear drops fast that i might over extend them. not sure bout that but kinda concerns me.

 

They may say that, but there is a definite difference in a 4.2 F-150 regular cab short-bed and, say, my truck (below) in weights and weight distributions, but I bet they don't make a separate set of shocks just for my F-150.

 

so i called 4wheel parts today and got some guy that was willing and ready to help me so i didnt ask for you ryan. any way he was saposed to call me back and never did yet today. maybe he needs more time. I called back a second time and i didnt know that other guys name so i asked for you(ryan) and theat guy told me no one by that name works there. so here i sit with new shocks that dont fit and no answers, bummer.

 

Couple of things for you guys' knowledge that seems to be misunderstood here. I've heard of several issues with the Bilstein shocks for stock (non-lifted) trucks being too short on the front...but it's a Bilstein shock design issue and has absolutely ZERO to do with the fact your bars are cranked up. You would have this same issue if your bars were in the stock setting or elsewhere.

Cranking your torsion bars DOES NOT "lift" your truck and does not cause your truck to automatically need longer shocks. Cranking the torsion bars does not change the distance between the shock mounting points at full drop or full compression of the suspension, does not change the amount of suspension travel, and does not change the geometry...a "lift" kit does all or some of these. The only thing cranking the torsion bars does is "pre-loads" the bone stock suspension and alters where the truck comes to rest under weight in the range of suspension travel. That's why you still require a stock shock.

Bilstein needs to address this issue with thier shock length for this application as the one they list currently is fully extending before the suspension on your truck reaches full extension.

 

I am sorta following what you're saying until your last paragraph/line - it sort of contradicts what you said earlier (seemingly that the regular Bilstein shocks will be fine because the truck isn't lifted ... but then they're not fine and they need to address something?).

Just asking for a little clarification here.