nothing earth-shattering to report here, but just thought i'd share:

sold off my mudders last night and put my 33x12.5x16.5 BFG ATs on the new truck. while I had the tires off, I replaced the front shocks with a set of bilsteins I had bought a few weeks back.

man, what a difference on the way into work this morning!

everyone always says an F350 rides better than a F250. I was unconvinced after several months with the new truck. figuring it had to be shocks on this 350k mile vehicle, I bucked up for the new ones and the old girl rides like a caddy now!

and yes, the old shocks were completely dead. the right side had no gas left in it all and was so easy to move by hand there was no way it was doing anything. the other side was slightly better, but still super easy to move by hand, no matter the speed. I was afraid the new ones would be too stiff, but they're perfect.

thanks again FTE for another great recommendation!

 

just stay away from washboard roads...

Richard

 

^^^This. I'm hoping that was just a fluke because that was brutal.

 

i was kinda hoping fox made a remote reservoir shock that rides as well as the bilsteins are reported to.

right now I don't know of any other option.

richard

 

Well, I'll be hitting my fair share up the mountains for hunting season - are bilsteins particularly bad on dirt roads or something? Too stiff?

 

Idk where I saw the thread but it had shown that the bilsteins failed. I think it was in the NBS one, it was gnarly.

 

there was a thread about a guy who put on a set of new bilsteins and after drivimg on some washboard roads they overheated and melted the boots and seals (failed).

when he went to bilstein to get them warrantied they said that he abused the shocks by going on rough roads and they refused to waranty them.

richard

 

What bilsteins are u running? I have yet to run a set up heard very good report on them. I have a set to go on my jeep when I lift it. Truck may get a set too.

 

i'm just running the ones that summit showed fit my truck - which is at stock suspension height. they are 4600's

the rubber boot cover and wire tie holding it on looks a little cheap, but that's just for show/dirt protection anyway. the shock body and end mount look well-made. and supposedly its actually made in Germany - I didn't see a made in china sticker anywhere on the box or shock - and I always look closely!

I guess we'll see how they hold up in the mountains. it'll only be 2 months since purchase date, and summit has been pretty good to me with taking stuff back.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...k-failure.html

after much toil I found the thread I was talking about. Although this is extreme, and I'm not saying this will happen to you, just wanted to find it cause I knew it was there and it was driving me nuts!

 

thanks for the thread link - I read through the first page and will have to follow it all later tonight. as mine are already on my truck, we'll just have to see how they do. i'll definitely be feeling them for heat after my ride home tonight - I have some pretty bad roads around me.

one thing I did notice in that guy's pictures, though is that he had his shocks installed upside-down. I do a lot of work with some pretty high tech shocks at work and have been told by our suppliers that whenever possible, shocks should be installed with the rod-end down, so as to keep the rod seals properly lubricated. it also helps in open-gas systems or in cases where the air bladder/seal within the shock ruptures. in that case, the air (usually N2) would rise to the top of an up-side-down shock displacing all lubricant from the shaft seals.

now, it seems that our stock shocks (at least the ones on my two trucks) are oriented with the rod upwards, but i'm guessing this is due to the fixed dust cone so that it does not collect dirt if it were facing upward. i'd bet there's some internal provisions to allow the shock to operate well in this orientation, though. for the bilsteins, that I just installed, with the rubber boot over the rod, it didn't matter.

...plus the writing was right-side-up this way. its tough to tell from the half-melted label in the 2nd picture of the linked thread, but it looks like the writing on that shock is upside down.

I was curious why the shock box or shock itself didn't indicate an up or down. I guess the manufacturer doesn't see it as a big deal either way, but i'll always go rod-down just to be safe.

 

IIRC it's rod-down in the front, rod-up in the rear. May be vice-versa. That's on our '95 F250 4x4s, stock height. SDs may be completely different. Bilstein's "indicator" is that their logo/lettering should be right-side-up.

Edit - label appears to read right-side-up in the second pic in the linked thread; you can just make out the "EIN".

 

You either have better eyes or a better screen than I do!

With my 4600's it was definitely rod down by the label orientation. Based on the rod seal lubrication logic, I can't see how rod up would ever be beneficial. The only argument that I can think of would be that rod-up would keep the oil in when the seals do blow, but who cares at that point? Once the seals blow the shocks are dead anyway. At least rod-down gives you a nice indicator when the seal goes - a wet spot on the ground!

 

I still love my 5125s a year and a half later.no looking back.

 

Ctrl-+ zooms the browser; had to do it about five times....

Makes you wonder what Ford's logic was for boot-up in the rear ('course, this is assuming there _is_ any logic to it...).