My 2020 f150 STX 4wd is a great truck, but there was some sway and a tad bit of rear end hop on rough roads, railroad tracks, etc.

So, after reading literally hundreds of reviews on several Ford forums, I decided to take the $97 plunge for the pretty 5100s. Install took less than an hour. They looked super!!! Folks said they ride great but are a little firm. For me they were far more than a little firm. I had them on the truck for about 400 miles, and drove over every conceivable road I could find. Ugh.

On the hiway they were great. The truck had a noticeably more stable ride. At slow speeds, under 20 mph, everything was nice.

Once I got around 35-60 mph on a rough road, I could not stand the jarring. Every little ripple in the road felt terrible. Twice it actually made my teeth bang. Expansion joints that weren’t perfectly level Jammed my back with the rear of the truck.

My wife asked me what the heck I did to my nice riding truck.

I’m fully aware that many folks will totally disagree with me, as these are extremely popular with all brands of truck owners. I hated to replace them with the original ford factory shocks because the oem units are so boring compared to the Bilsteins.

But the wife is now happy, I’m so much more comfortable and the jarring is gone. Yep, I’m back to a little more less stability but it’s a “no brainer” trade off for me.

Fortunately, I bought them on Amazon and can return them.

 

My '17 starts to get sideways on straight, flat dirt roads with stutter bumps or ripples. At low speeds.

So I have been thinking about Bilsteins. I guess I'll keep thinking, as your experience is what I am afraid of--trade off one issue for another.

 

My son put Monroe reflex on his Ram. He’s very happy with them.

 

I have used the KYB GR2's/Excel series for several years, they have an auto dampening valve that keeps the shock/strut a little firmer than oem but if you get into it, it stiffens the valving up where the stiffness then shows itself.

 

I don't have any intentions of replacing my Ford shocks, if I bought shocks that made the truck stiffer riding I'd just can the 150 and get a SD that can actually do some work.

 

KYB is a great shock. I’ve read enough posts that tell of 5100s being very stiff on the highest perch. Bilstein 6112s look interesting though.

 

If I was buying Bilstein's for a stock truck, it would be the 4600 series.

They won't necessarily ride better, but they will keep the tire on the road better.
That will result in better control.

 

That's the fronts, OP replaced the rear.

Not sure what is wrong with the shocks he got but mine aren't stiff at all.
The E rated tires made more of a difference that the shocks did/

 

I don't find the problems the OP has suggested with the 5100's I put on the rear of my 2015 XLT SCAB. My commute consists of a 20 minute drive down 2 lane FM roads until I get on the freeway for another 20 minutes then side streets to the office, about 10 minutes. So I see a variety of roads and conditions. My wife even commented the other day how much better the truck rode than before.

OP, what tires are you running?

 

I’ve got the oem Hancook tires and they seem ok. I tried lowering the pressure to 30 psi just to see...no difference I could tell.

I thought about going to 18” wheels and tires or even 17s, but that’s over $1,000 on a new truck.

It was just easier and cheaper to return them to Amazon and reinstall the oem shocks. I guess I’ll have to figure something else out when I hit the 50,000 mile mark when these shocks are totally gone. Will probably look at Monroe or kyb.

 

FWIW the Hankook's that came with mine were toast at ~36K miles. I then did a level and tried the Falken WildPeak AT tire, 275/70R18 and after about 30K on those they got real slippery in the rain. Still had plenty of tread. I then put a set of 20" Platinum wheels on fitted with Cooper Discoverer HT Plus, 275/60R20, and haven't looked back. I'm on my second set of the Coopers and think they are a great tire.

Just some back history on my particular truck. I installed the Bilstein's around the first of the year since they were a present from Santa.

 

Did you ever get around to putting the 5100’s on the front?

I’m thinking about going to 5100’s all around for my replacements.

Right now I’m still on the OEM ones.

On a side note and if anyone is interested, I changed my brakes from the OEM setup all the way around which included new rotors and pads to Raybestos S Rotors and Element 3 pads and I couldn’t be happier.

 

The fronts are still OEM. I'm not sure what I will do with the fronts at this time as I have the level. The ride as it stands is great IMO. But with 104K on the clock they will need attention fairly soon. Maybe I can talk Santa into a set for the front. From what I've read hear and elsewhere, if I were to go with the 5100's I'd set them to the stock height postilion and continue to use the spacers due to the harsh ride they supposedly have when set to full height.

 

That’s something I thought about as well. The highest setting is 2.1” and it’ll probably settle some over time. Another though I had was going with a 1” spacer and setting it somewhere in the middle so that I would get 2.5-2.75” or so.

 

I had the OE shocks with spacer to level and switched to the front 5100 at highest position. I thought mine rode good before, then after the switch it was like night and day difference. Wish I would have done it sooner than 80k miles.