Hodges 2016 Bilstein Build

[hodge-xj]

We want pics of the parts before install too, good comparison pics of stock strut vs 6112 size etc

Gladly. 6112s are damn unicorns man. I swear I've googled and you tubed every which way possible and it's the same like 6 results. Hardly any pics or anything comparable with oem stuff. No specs, nothing. Just the same advertising riff raff or the same 6 Toyota threads I've already gone through. I'm gonna give the ram guys the love they deserve and the pics they want!

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[hodge-xj]

Some goodies finally arrived. For reference that's a 2 litre bottle of soda. These are hefty.

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[hodge-xj]

Over All dimensions

Front Coils are 16" free length

Struts are
21.5" center of bolt hole to top of exposed shaft
6 3/8" stroke

Still waiting on the rear suspension bits. Gonna drop these off to get assembled tomorrow


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[JB1]

Nice, congrats

 

[mike19950]

They look awesome!

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[hodge-xj]

Thanks, they better be awesome for what they cost lol. They are actually really nice units and the machined aluminum spring seat and coil are both very nice and have what I hope is a durable finish. I'm surprised how big these things are.

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[ram1500rsm]

Looking good Hodge, what are your measuremts ground to fender now?

And can you measure fender to tire top with the truck resting normally, then fender to tire top with the front lifted and tires in the air? That will give you an idea of how many inches of droop you have now
Then you can repeat post install. You know your travel is 6” on the new struts.

I just don’t know how to measure up travel, guess we can lift from the lca on one side with the sway bar disconnected until both tires are in the air, then fender to top tire measurement should be how many inches the shock was able to compress from resting.

 

[hodge-xj]

Looking good Hodge, what are your measuremts ground to fender now?

And can you measure fender to tire top with the truck resting normally, then fender to tire top with the front lifted and tires in the air? That will give you an idea of how many inches of droop you have now
Then you can repeat post install. You know your travel is 6” on the new struts.

I just don’t know how to measure up travel, guess we can lift from the lca on one side with the sway bar disconnected until both tires are in the air, then fender to top tire measurement should be how many inches the shock was able to compress from resting.

Haven't gotten them installed yet. Dropped them off at the 4wd shop bout 15 mins ago. They are ordering me new oem strut top mounts and stuff so everything will be brand new I install. I really don't wanna touch the suspension once I'm done with this for a while, aside from upper control arms and normal maintenance.

No worries tho I'll be sure to check the measurements right after install and once I get some miles on it. Interested to see how much height I net after they settle under the diesel. As for full bump numbers, it's a pain. If I had my own shop I'd just bolt the strut in assembled without the coil, and run the suspension to full compression under the trucks full weight with bump stops in place. Without a shop I can get us "close". I'll put a Jack under the suspension empty, start at the full extended length of the strut assembly, and than I'll compress it the 6" of stroke the shock has, and I'll measure the difference at the hub center. Should give us an example of what our wheel cycles vs shock stroke. I'm curious myself, as this is my first IFS truck I've modified. Unfortunately it'll be next weekend before I can get these numbers most likely. My 2.5 ton floor Jack just doesn't have the nuts to lift my truck off the ground, and I'm not using the stock Jack, so I need to find some help as my Jack budget got spent putting this kit together. The eibach setup was 575$ this kits gonna be about 1200 with all the new parts. I could have done it with cheaper strut hats etc but I like using local shops and business so I end up paying a little more. Oh well. Should make for a nice pavement queen!

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[joshuaeb09]

Haven't gotten them installed yet. Dropped them off at the 4wd shop bout 15 mins ago. They are ordering me new oem strut top mounts and stuff so everything will be brand new I install. I really don't wanna touch the suspension once I'm done with this for a while, aside from upper control arms and normal maintenance.

No worries tho I'll be sure to check the measurements right after install and once I get some miles on it. Interested to see how much height I net after they settle under the diesel. As for full bump numbers, it's a pain. If I had my own shop I'd just bolt the strut in assembled without the coil, and run the suspension to full compression under the trucks full weight with bump stops in place. Without a shop I can get us "close". I'll put a Jack under the suspension empty, start at the full extended length of the strut assembly, and than I'll compress it the 6" of stroke the shock has, and I'll measure the difference at the hub center. Should give us an example of what our wheel cycles vs shock stroke. I'm curious myself, as this is my first IFS truck I've modified. Unfortunately it'll be next weekend before I can get these numbers most likely. My 2.5 ton floor Jack just doesn't have the nuts to lift my truck off the ground, and I'm not using the stock Jack, so I need to find some help as my Jack budget got spent putting this kit together. The eibach setup was 575$ this kits gonna be about 1200 with all the new parts. I could have done it with cheaper strut hats etc but I like using local shops and business so I end up paying a little more. Oh well. Should make for a nice pavement queen!

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Do you happen to have the part numbers for the strut top bits ? I was gonna order 6112's pre-assembled, but those seem to be out of stock indefinitely. Seems to be you can find nu-assembled 6112's in small quantities every couple of weeks so I'll just suck it up and assemble them myself when the time comes. Really don't want to tear apart my 5100s and then rebuild with the 6112's while having my truck all torn apart.

 

[hodge-xj]

Do you happen to have the part numbers for the strut top bits ? I was gonna order 6112's pre-assembled, but those seem to be out of stock indefinitely. Seems to be you can find nu-assembled 6112's in small quantities every couple of weeks so I'll just suck it up and assemble them myself when the time comes. Really don't want to tear apart my 5100s and then rebuild with the 6112's while having my truck all torn apart.

Exactly why I went and just bought new parts. They're not cheap, but oem has always out lasted cheaper replacements when it comes to things like this, in my experience anyway. Keep your eye peeled and jump on them when you see them in stock! Bilstein lifts and car Id had them when I was looking.

I used moparpartscorp.com for this list. They seem to use factory PNs so it should cross reference for you.

Spring seat- 55366975AB (x2) - 24.40 ea
Mounts- 55398091AF (x2) - 36.45ea
Isolators- 55366387AA (x2) - 6.77 ea

So yea, its not cheap, but oem is my choice unless I find a proven upgrade, which I haven't for these. No reason to cheap out on these parts when they're goin on a slick set of $700 shocks.

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[joshuaeb09]

Exactly why I went and just bought new parts. They're not cheap, but oem has always out lasted cheaper replacements when it comes to things like this, in my experience anyway. Keep your eye peeled and jump on them when you see them in stock! Bilstein lifts and car Id had them when I was looking.

I used moparpartscorp.com for this list. They seem to use factory PNs so it should cross reference for you.

Spring seat- 55366975AB (x2) - 24.40 ea
Mounts- 55398091AF (x2) - 36.45ea
Isolators- 55366387AA (x2) - 6.77 ea

So yea, its not cheap, but oem is my choice unless I find a proven upgrade, which I haven't for these. No reason to cheap out on these parts when they're goin on a slick set of $700 shocks.

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Thanks! I probably won't pick up the 6112's until after my old house sells... already had two buyers fall through on their financing so who knows when that's going to be at this point. Got these added to my list of parts. Still trying to figure out what UCA's I want to run when the time comes. While I'd like a set of those Icon Delta Joint unit's the price of JBA or Zone is a lot more palatable for a guy that just wants to be able to run a little faster/more controlled on washed out county roads/private roads rather than going all out in the desert.

 

[hodge-xj]

Thanks! I probably won't pick up the 6112's until after my old house sells... already had two buyers fall through on their financing so who knows when that's going to be at this point. Got these added to my list of parts. Still trying to figure out what UCA's I want to run when the time comes. While I'd like a set of those Icon Delta Joint unit's the price of JBA or Zone is a lot more palatable for a guy that just wants to be able to run a little faster/more controlled on washed out county roads/private roads rather than going all out in the desert.

You're speaking my language. I'm slowly working on my house to flip, paying off debt, saving for a ring for the girl etc. But my struts literally punched through themselves and are self destructing with the spacer on them so while I tear into it I'm doin it once, how I want, the right way.

Upper control arms will be next. I like the JBAs and he's local to me so I may call him and see if I can go see them in person. Plus I like to try different setups than most guys normally run, there's a ton of good aftermarket choices out there that don't get attention because nobody has run them so I'll be the one to give it a go.

My truck is what I consider a pavement queen but I like to know my truck will perform when I want it to. I'll crawl around the offroad parks a bit, but nothing worth really talking about. It's gonna be my camping, road trip overland rig one day I can afford those trips and time off. Till than its a work and DD, parking lot, pot hole eater.

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[joshuaeb09]

You're speaking my language. I'm slowly working on my house to flip, paying off debt, saving for a ring for the girl etc. But my struts literally punched through themselves and are self destructing with the spacer on them so while I tear into it I'm doin it once, how I want, the right way.

Upper control arms will be next. I like the JBAs and he's local to me so I may call him and see if I can go see them in person. Plus I like to try different setups than most guys normally run, there's a ton of good aftermarket choices out there that don't get attention because nobody has run them so I'll be the one to give it a go.

My truck is what I consider a pavement queen but I like to know my truck will perform when I want it to. I'll crawl around the offroad parks a bit, but nothing worth really talking about. It's gonna be my camping, road trip overland rig one day I can afford those trips and time off. Till than its a work and DD, parking lot, pot hole eater.

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Yea that sucks I've had spacer setups totally destroy suspension on older trucks of mine leading to total rebuilds. My 5100's are starting to disappoint now that I'm back out where I grew up on a lot of unpaved roads, but they work for now thankfully. With the wet winter a lot of people have been asking me if I've been hitting trails or something since the Ram is more brown than Red... nope just driving down my muddy driveway and through the wet creek bed's that the local roads happen to run through. I'm also going to have to do something about wheels and rubber since I'm finding the KO2's suck in the black mud we have and the 34" load range E1's are slowly bending my stock 20"s running on said "roads".

 

[hodge-xj]

Yea that sucks I've had spacer setups totally destroy suspension on older trucks of mine leading to total rebuilds. My 5100's are starting to disappoint now that I'm back out where I grew up on a lot of unpaved roads, but they work for now thankfully. With the wet winter a lot of people have been asking me if I've been hitting trails or something since the Ram is more brown than Red... nope just driving down my muddy driveway and through the wet creek bed's that the local roads happen to run through. I'm also going to have to do something about wheels and rubber since I'm finding the KO2's suck in the black mud we have and the 34" load range E1's are slowly bending my stock 20"s running on said "roads".

Mine was installed by previous owner, its definitely messed a lot up for sure. What are your 5100s set to?

As for tires, I'm not a fan of 20s on less than 37s. I have 285s on 17s now, but the e rated rides like ****. I'm eyeing up ridge grapplers in 285/75s they have a C rated version. The smaller 285/70s also come in SL and are like 45lbs. Might get them for DD use to keep some mileage with The diesel. Hard to not want to throw a 1.5 body lift on and some 37s with method nv's. But than I need gears, and it'll snowball like all my builds lol. Unless you run some pretty aggressive tires nothing will like the black goo, I've never been a bfg fan, ran KO's, KM2's, and KO2's and think they're super overrated. Still haven't found a tire im sold on honestly.

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[joshuaeb09]

Mine was installed by previous owner, its definitely messed a lot up for sure. What are your 5100s set to?

As for tires, I'm not a fan of 20s on less than 37s. I have 285s on 17s now, but the e rated rides like ****. I'm eyeing up ridge grapplers in 285/75s they have a C rated version. The smaller 285/70s also come in SL and are like 45lbs. Might get them for DD use to keep some mileage with The diesel. Hard to not want to throw a 1.5 body lift on and some 37s with method nv's. But than I need gears, and it'll snowball like all my builds lol. Unless you run some pretty aggressive tires nothing will like the black goo, I've never been a bfg fan, ran KO's, KM2's, and KO2's and think they're super overrated. Still haven't found a tire im sold on honestly.

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Right now mine are at 2.1 (Been there since about 500 miles) and when I go to 6112's I'll probably run 2.6 or whatever the max for the 5.7 is. Depending on what your rear Bilstein springs look like I might also swap out my TTC Rear spring + .75" spacer for those as well with 5160's. I've never been a huge of fan of this trend of 20"+ wheels on trucks, but the OE's keep doing it. I think I'm going to go with 315/70/17 STT Pro's on a -12 offset since I don't mind the highway noise and I know a few people running them that like them a lot out here. I'll also be getting some bumpers at some point (Deer, hogs, and Idiots) as well as some flares to deal with the offset on the 35"s.

 

[hodge-xj]

Right now mine are at 2.1 (Been there since about 500 miles) and when I go to 6112's I'll probably run 2.6 or whatever the max for the 5.7 is. Depending on what your rear Bilstein springs look like I might also swap out my TTC Rear spring + .75" spacer for those as well with 5160's. I've never been a huge of fan of this trend of 20"+ wheels on trucks, but the OE's keep doing it. I think I'm going to go with 315/70/17 STT Pro's on a -12 offset since I don't mind the highway noise and I know a few people running them that like them a lot out here. I'll also be getting some bumpers at some point (Deer, hogs, and Idiots) as well as some flares to deal with the offset on the 35"s.

I'm surprised, but I'm not. The 5100s are ok, especially at lower settings. When you preload that spring it doesn't change the rate, but it's ride becomes less than great. Especially in washboard stuff.

I'll keep this thread updated with everything I can. Hopefully these rear coils firm up the rear a bit and compliment the front and feel balanced. I'll be sure to rave or critique as openly as possible.

I don't mind road noise either, my **** cepek fun country's are noisy as most mud tires, but they perform awesome. I just don't normally run a tire twice. I like to sample the offerings. I'm really thinking about the Grabber x3s. But I need a delete and tune first so boring tires for me for now. My needs are a highway tire, my wants are boggers, so anything in between that's good for the snow is ok with me lol.

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[JB1]

When the rear coils come in, please measure each one, I’m curious if there’s a height difference since they are side specific

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[hodge-xj]

I saw you post in the other thread and I'll be sure to chime in. I have a visible lean when approaching the truck from the rear at a slight distance. But funny thing is all the measurements are all within say a 1/4". I'll be sure to check my oem coil stickers when I get home.

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[hodge-xj]

Waiting for parts sucks, that is all. [emoji854]

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[JB1]

Have the rear coils shipped yet?