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Kyle McWilliams

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I have a 2014 Ram 1500 Sport, quad cab with prerunner style light steel front bumper.

Im going to pick up the Bilstien 6112s for the front, and likely eibach pro lift coils for the rear.

Should i stick with Bilstien 5100 for the rear? I was looking at the Rancho RS9000XL which are a larger body shock, which i think would compliment the large body 6112s.

Thoughts?
 

ram1500rsm

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Bistein 5160’s or if you want better performance then get the Icons 2.0 with or without res, they have diggresive valving and should match the 6112s well.
Ranchos are not performance shocks and won’t match the performance of the 6112 struts. They’re more street oriented like the 5100 series from Bilstein except you can dial the firmness and go soft or softer than stock or firmer for a sportier ride or to accommodate more weight.

With the Icon shocks I’d also recommend the Icon 1.5 springs as the eibach springs might be a little to short for the longer Icon shocks.
 
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Kyle McWilliams

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Bistein 5160’s or if you want better performance then get the Icons 2.0 with or without res, they have diggresive valving and should match the 6112s well.
Ranchos are not performance shocks and won’t match the performance of the 6112 struts. They’re more street oriented like the 5100 series from Bilstein except you can dial the firmness and go soft or softer than stock or firmer for a sportier ride or to accommodate more weight.

With the Icon shocks I’d also recommend the Icon 1.5 springs as the eibach springs might be a little to short for the longer Icon shocks.


From what i understand, the 5160s are identical in performance to the 5100. The difference is more oil available in the 5160 from the resiviour (which would only be useful for guys who are really heating up their shocks with long offroad treks), and the 5160 has a 90 day warranty vs the lifetime on 5100.

Another note, from my research it seems like the eibach coils (claimed 1" lift) are giving guys 1.5", and the icon coils (claimed 1.5") are giving guys 1".
 

hodge-xj

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I'm running 6112s, the 5100s match well for daily use but definitely suffer if you decide to push it offroad at all. 5100s just can't keep up in choppy washboard terrain. I don't mind since most my offroad is run in 4lo and slow but I will be looking to jump to a better shock down the road. I'd say look at icons 2.0 at a minimum as they seem to handle some speed and like ram1500rsm said, should match well being digressive.

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JB1

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From what i understand, the 5160s are identical in performance to the 5100. The difference is more oil available in the 5160 from the resiviour (which would only be useful for guys who are really heating up their shocks with long offroad treks), and the 5160 has a 90 day warranty vs the lifetime on 5100.

Another note, from my research it seems like the eibach coils (claimed 1" lift) are giving guys 1.5", and the icon coils (claimed 1.5") are giving guys 1".

The Icon coils can be noisy

https://www.ramforum.com/threads/icon-springs-are-noisy.135762/
 
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Kyle McWilliams

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Got my order in today. I went with the 6112s up front and Icon 2.0s out back. I'm gambling that the icons will handle some chop and washboard a little better than 5100s or 5160s. I would have loved some icons with resi but i couldn't justify that big step in price. The icon 2.0 non-resi are the same price as 5160s.

4 Wheel Parts had a 1 day sale today so i got 100 bucks off the whole order. Its about 1300 for 6112/Icon 2.0s up here in canada, so that little sale took a bit of the edge off.

They dont carry Eibach, so ill be grabbing a pair of those somewhere else for 200 bucks.
 

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Were the 6112's in stock?

I was thinking of going that same route, but have been waiting for the 6112's since September...
 

hodge-xj

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Got my order in today. I went with the 6112s up front and Icon 2.0s out back. I'm gambling that the icons will handle some chop and washboard a little better than 5100s or 5160s. I would have loved some icons with resi but i couldn't justify that big step in price. The icon 2.0 non-resi are the same price as 5160s.

4 Wheel Parts had a 1 day sale today so i got 100 bucks off the whole order. Its about 1300 for 6112/Icon 2.0s up here in canada, so that little sale took a bit of the edge off.

They dont carry Eibach, so ill be grabbing a pair of those somewhere else for 200 bucks.
Should be a nice setup. I thing the 5100s would do better if they were bigger bodies. They are only 46mm which is tiny and there's not alot of fluid to move. The 6112s are butter compared to 5100s. Tho for my 90% DD duties and low speed crawling around most of the time it's not worth the minimal gains I'll get.

Fyi bilstein has coils available as well.

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Kyle McWilliams

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Were the 6112's in stock?

I was thinking of going that same route, but have been waiting for the 6112's since September...

I'm in Canada, so im not sure if that makes a difference. 4WP told me "they are about 2 weeks out"
 
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Kyle McWilliams

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Should be a nice setup. I thing the 5100s would do better if they were bigger bodies. They are only 46mm which is tiny and there's not alot of fluid to move. The 6112s are butter compared to 5100s. Tho for my 90% DD duties and low speed crawling around most of the time it's not worth the minimal gains I'll get.

Fyi bilstein has coils available as well.

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I think I read your build, which convinced me on the 6112s. I want the 10% rate increase on the eibach pro trucks, and from what ive read guys are getting a good 1.5" out back from them, which is why i chose those. I imagine the bils coils are probably made by eibach anyways. It sounds like the bils coils are a bit too soft for what i want too.

I drive mostly highway myself, and it is a DD. However, i work in the dirty ol' oil patch in Northern Canada and travel a lot of off road beat to hell, wash boardy, massive potholes, 2 feet of snow in the winter, 2 feet of mud in the summer lease roads. In extreme cases im on those roads for 100km into location. 100% of guys who work out here drive trucks and at least 50% of them are lifted. Ive ripped my front sport bumper off 3+ times, drilled holes and ziptie stiched it back together JDM drift car style.

I didnt want a lift, especially where you lose an inch of clearance with the diff drop. I couldn't bring myself to drop 1800 on icon coilovers.

Hopefully the 6112 up front and the icon 2.0s out back perform at least half as good as Falcon claims their super pricey shock kit to run. I liked the look of those too but the price is a little nutty to me.

I wish Bilstien had a 6112 large body rear shock to match the fronts. Or offer a rear kit that packages in their new rear coil with a large body shock, and some kind of add-a-leaf for our other truck brand pals.
 

hodge-xj

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I think I read your build, which convinced me on the 6112s. I want the 10% rate increase on the eibach pro trucks, and from what ive read guys are getting a good 1.5" out back from them, which is why i chose those. I imagine the bils coils are probably made by eibach anyways. It sounds like the bils coils are a bit too soft for what i want too.

I drive mostly highway myself, and it is a DD. However, i work in the dirty ol' oil patch in Northern Canada and travel a lot of off road beat to hell, wash boardy, massive potholes, 2 feet of snow in the winter, 2 feet of mud in the summer lease roads. In extreme cases im on those roads for 100km into location. 100% of guys who work out here drive trucks and at least 50% of them are lifted. Ive ripped my front sport bumper off 3+ times, drilled holes and ziptie stiched it back together JDM drift car style.

I didnt want a lift, especially where you lose an inch of clearance with the diff drop. I couldn't bring myself to drop 1800 on icon coilovers.

Hopefully the 6112 up front and the icon 2.0s out back perform at least half as good as Falcon claims their super pricey shock kit to run. I liked the look of those too but the price is a little nutty to me.

I wish Bilstien had a 6112 large body rear shock to match the fronts. Or offer a rear kit that packages in their new rear coil with a large body shock, and some kind of add-a-leaf for our other truck brand pals.
I don't think you'll be disappointed. They are better than the low buck options and I feel they should be comparable to the higher dollar choices. As long as you keep the speed reasonable they'll rock. I managed to even jump a set of railroad tracks and the truck handled it great. No bottoming or anything harsh. It was literally like coming off a steep speed bump. That's when I was sold on these for what they are. They aren't kings but **** for sure they aren't slouches. These bilstein coils are surely soft, so you're not wrong there, I run unloaded or super light so much I don't need the capacity. With the hemi expect the 2.6 notch to be at or a bit more than advertised height. They said 2.3 lift for me and I am at least 2.5" after settling in if not a bit more. I still have decent droop tho at about 2.5" so the rode is still very nice. No harshness anywhere. As for the rear, I agree 100% and I'm sure with so these new products on the market something is in the works, but that does us no good now. The icons should match nicely and in hindsight I wish I'd have gotten them. Oh well.

Sounds like after suspension you need some bumpers!

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ram1500rsm

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From what i understand, the 5160s are identical in performance to the 5100. The difference is more oil available in the 5160 from the resiviour (which would only be useful for guys who are really heating up their shocks with long offroad treks), and the 5160 has a 90 day warranty vs the lifetime on 5100.

Another note, from my research it seems like the eibach coils (claimed 1" lift) are giving guys 1.5", and the icon coils (claimed 1.5") are giving guys 1".

I think both springs will offer a similar gain in height once they've settled, though the main difference between both is not the gain in lift but the lenght of the coil springs. I believe both are 19.5" or so but the Icon coils are progressive and have more coil bounds to support little longers shocks like the Icon 2.0.
Icon 2.0 Part# is 216524, send a message to Nick@Gotexhaust and see if he can hook you up with the shocks and coils, the shocks are like $160 each or so, so not a lot more than the 5100's, if you want reservoirs is like $100 more each, part# 216524R.

The Eibach springs are linear and just 10% stiffer than stock, Icon coils are softer than stock in their 1st rate, which is why some people only get 1" (i got only 1" but i have an extra 100lbs in my bed at all times) but 75% stiffer in the 2nd rate, i have no idea where 1s rate or 2nd rate start or finish, lol, that's what i hate the propaganda on the progressive springs, but there is some documentation around that shows the Icons can carry weight, It'll be good if we had a way to compare with the Eibach.
https://www.ramforum.com/posts/1961541/
 
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Kyle McWilliams

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I don't think you'll be disappointed. They are better than the low buck options and I feel they should be comparable to the higher dollar choices. As long as you keep the speed reasonable they'll rock. I managed to even jump a set of railroad tracks and the truck handled it great. No bottoming or anything harsh. It was literally like coming off a steep speed bump. That's when I was sold on these for what they are. They aren't kings but **** for sure they aren't slouches. These bilstein coils are surely soft, so you're not wrong there, I run unloaded or super light so much I don't need the capacity. With the hemi expect the 2.6 notch to be at or a bit more than advertised height. They said 2.3 lift for me and I am at least 2.5" after settling in if not a bit more. I still have decent droop tho at about 2.5" so the rode is still very nice. No harshness anywhere. As for the rear, I agree 100% and I'm sure with so these new products on the market something is in the works, but that does us no good now. The icons should match nicely and in hindsight I wish I'd have gotten them. Oh well.

Sounds like after suspension you need some bumpers!

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I think i recall you looking at prerunner bumpers? And the westin outlaw was one. I bought the westin outlaw, with skid plate (its a complete joke if you dont get the lower skid plate btw, so it looks like a cheap bumper but you literally only get half a bumper unless you buy the lower skid).

First thing about the outlaw, it was not designed to be used with any flare. I cut some OEM flares up and did some plastic welding on them and made a set that fit... and it still didnt fit lol. So i cut and welded the bumper ends to fit with my custom flares. Its all going in for color matched linex in a few weeks.

Rear bumper is staying stock, but im color match linexing that too. I may cut and add some flush mount pods to it later, maybe not.
 
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Kyle McWilliams

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I think both springs will offer a similar gain in height once they've settled, though the main difference between both is not the gain in lift but the lenght of the coil springs. I believe both are 19.5" or so but the Icon coils are progressive and have more coil bounds to support little longers shocks like the Icon 2.0.
Icon 2.0 Part# is 216524, send a message to Nick@Gotexhaust and see if he can hook you up with the shocks and coils, the shocks are like $160 each or so, so not a lot more than the 5100's, if you want reservoirs is like $100 more each, part# 216524R.

The Eibach springs are linear and just 10% stiffer than stock, Icon coils are softer than stock in their 1st rate, which is why some people only get 1" (i got only 1" but i have an extra 100lbs in my bed at all times) but 75% stiffer in the 2nd rate, i have no idea where 1s rate or 2nd rate start or finish, lol, that's what i hate the propaganda on the progressive springs, but there is some documentation around that shows the Icons can carry weight, It'll be good if we had a way to compare with the Eibach.
https://www.ramforum.com/posts/1961541/

Im in canada, so i imagine any deal that fella could get me would get gobbled up by our horrible trade laws (customs) and our horrible dollar... both thanks to our ******** government right now.

Im banking on the eibachs giving me 1.5, but ill be happy with 1. After reading that thread on noisy icons im super glad i didnt order those today. Especially after seeing the photo of all the coils touching eachother at just static ride hight. On top of that, the icons are literally 2x the price.
 

hodge-xj

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I think i recall you looking at prerunner bumpers? And the westin outlaw was one. I bought the westin outlaw, with skid plate (its a complete joke if you dont get the lower skid plate btw, so it looks like a cheap bumper but you literally only get half a bumper unless you buy the lower skid).

First thing about the outlaw, it was not designed to be used with any flare. I cut some OEM flares up and did some plastic welding on them and made a set that fit... and it still didnt fit lol. So i cut and welded the bumper ends to fit with my custom flares. Its all going in for color matched linex in a few weeks.

Rear bumper is staying stock, but im color match linexing that too. I may cut and add some flush mount pods to it later, maybe not.
Yes sir, I'm torn between that bumper and the body armor. Leaning towards the body armor for the winch mount mainly. But hey, pics are always welcome. I pulled my flares back off, and will be most likely staying that way, but that still sounds stupid. I like the looks of it in the pics I've seen, but I need winch capability.

I really want color match line x my whole truck. One day

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ram1500rsm

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Im in canada, so i imagine any deal that fella could get me would get gobbled up by our horrible trade laws (customs) and our horrible dollar... both thanks to our ******** government right now.

Im banking on the eibachs giving me 1.5, but ill be happy with 1. After reading that thread on noisy icons im super glad i didnt order those today. Especially after seeing the photo of all the coils touching eachother at just static ride hight. On top of that, the icons are literally 2x the price.
Fair enough hope the Eibachs make you happy then. Have fun.
 
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Kyle McWilliams

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Yes sir, I'm torn between that bumper and the body armor. Leaning towards the body armor for the winch mount mainly. But hey, pics are always welcome. I pulled my flares back off, and will be most likely staying that way, but that still sounds stupid. I like the looks of it in the pics I've seen, but I need winch capability.

I really want color match line x my whole truck. One day

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Mine is going to get the front and rear bumpers, the flares, the wheel arches under the flares (extending out about 1cm past the flares) and up to the door lines linex. I still want some nice shiny, but that will protect me from all the gravel roads.

Some more info on the westin bumper:

- Because of the way it mounts to both the front of the frame and the frame extensions (the "tow hook mounts"), you cannot use a body lift with it. Unless you dont get the skid plate, and as i mentioned, its a joke without the skid plate. If you really wanted that, you may be able to weld in an extension to the "upper skid plate".

- I was looking for ways you might get a winch on there. I feel like if you did a 'hidden winch' type setup like the one posted on these forums, it would be far too low to be useful in deep stuff. Unless you want to go scuba diving to find it. I am considering way down the line maybe fabbing a tray that would sit up on top of the 'shelf' that sticks out in front of the grille (above the light bars) and just mount the winch in the open. Jeep style lol. The bumper itself i wouldnt trust to take any yanking on, so you would need to construct a tray that extends down to the frame. That being said, if you look up the instructions for the outlaw bumper and the instructions for the skid plate too, you'll see that the bumper bolts to the front of the frame and the skid plate mounts to the back of those front frame plates. Not a lot of real estate to get anything else bolted on there. Im sure you could slide another 3/16ths plate inbetween or something, but there would definitely be some creativity involved in bracing.

- Someone mentioned westin may have cheaped out on coating to make the cost lower. It comes with a matte textured black powdercoat on it. I found the coating is fairly easily marked up, and it feels like it may chip easily. However, they do lay it on thickkk. I had to grind some off to weld, and theres a good amount on there.

- Almost every part of the bumper that isnt tubular is bolted on. I would definitely recommend bedliner on the bumper for longevity, but you may run into some problems here. You either have to encase the bolts in liner and never remove those parts again (lots of them im not sure why they didnt just weld it in anyway) or liner it and hope you can still fit the bolts through the holes and everything line up right after. Linex claims it goes on ~1/8" thick, so if you try to bolt two surfaces together that now have linex on them - in theory they are going to have a 1/4" spacer of bedliner between them now. I am dreading this right now, we will see how it comes out.

- Its worth mentioning that my bumper came with an upper skid plate that was bent the wrong way. It mounted to the bumper but the bottom edge was folded the wrong way by manufacturing. I called westin and got a new one sent out within 2 weeks to my door. GREAT customer service, but interesting mistake - i guess they shipped out a whole batch of wrong ones and kept getting calls from ram guys about it. I now have an extra skid plate/piece of 1/8th steel with black powder coating lol

Ill post photos of my rig when i get all this crap coated and mounted on the truck. I might be able to dig up some photos i took when i found out the bumper wouldnt let me run flares.
 
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hodge-xj

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Mine is going to get the front and rear bumpers, the flares, the wheel arches under the flares (extending out about 1cm past the flares) and up to the door lines linex. I still want some nice shiny, but that will protect me from all the gravel roads.

Some more info on the westin bumper:

- Because of the way it mounts to both the front of the frame and the frame extensions (the "tow hook mounts"), you cannot use a body lift with it. Unless you dont get the skid plate, and as i mentioned, its a joke without the skid plate. If you really wanted that, you may be able to weld in an extension to the "upper skid plate".

- I was looking for ways you might get a winch on there. I feel like if you did a 'hidden winch' type setup like the one posted on these forums, it would be far too low to be useful in deep stuff. Unless you want to go scuba diving to find it. I am considering way down the line maybe fabbing a tray that would sit up on top of the 'shelf' that sticks out in front of the grille (above the light bars) and just mount the winch in the open. Jeep style lol. The bumper itself i wouldnt trust to take any yanking on, so you would need to construct a tray that extends down to the frame. That being said, if you look up the instructions for the outlaw bumper and the instructions for the skid plate too, you'll see that the bumper bolts to the front of the frame and the skid plate mounts to the back of those front frame plates. Not a lot of real estate to get anything else bolted on there. Im sure you could slide another 3/16ths plate inbetween or something, but there would definitely be some creativity involved in bracing.

- Someone mentioned westin may have cheaped out on coating to make the cost lower. It comes with a matte textured black powdercoat on it. I found the coating is fairly easily marked up, and it feels like it may chip easily. However, they do lay it on thickkk. I had to grind some off to weld, and theres a good amount on there.

- Almost every part of the bumper that isnt tubular is bolted on. I would definitely recommend bedliner on the bumper for longevity, but you may run into some problems here. You either have to encase the bolts in liner and never remove those parts again (lots of them im not sure why they didnt just weld it in anyway) or liner it and hope you can still fit the bolts through the holes and everything line up right after. Linex claims it goes on ~1/8" thick, so if you try to bolt two surfaces together that now have linex on them - in theory they are going to have a 1/4" spacer of bedliner between them now. I am dreading this right now, we will see how it comes out.

- Its worth mentioning that my bumper came with an upper skid plate that was bent the wrong way. It mounted to the bumper but the bottom edge was folded the wrong way by manufacturing. I called westin and got a new one sent out within 2 weeks to my door. GREAT customer service, but interesting mistake - i guess they shipped out a whole batch of wrong ones and kept getting calls from ram guys about it. I now have an extra skid plate/piece of 1/8th steel with black powder coating lol

Ill post photos of my rig when i get all this crap coated and mounted on the truck. I might be able to dig up some photos i took when i found out the bumper wouldnt let me run flares.
Thank you for the in depth review

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