Shock/Strut Upgrade - Ride Quality

Careful @ram1500rsm you might be one of them snake oil salesmen.... LOL

I’m intrigued by this “comparison” and what was done to compare. I’ve never gave 2 cents about stock shocks. typically when I go aftermarket the factory ones end up in the trash as I have no use for them so i’d love to see what I have been missing for years

ram1500rsm said:

I’m intrigued by this “comparison” and what was done to compare. I’ve never gave 2 cents about stock shocks. typically when I go aftermarket the factory ones end up in the trash as I have no use for them so i’d love to see what I have been missing for years

Click to expand...

Hahahaha Man, all that wasted money LOL

I toyed around with a few pressures... started at 42 cold, then went all the way down to 37 cold, and now at 39 cold. Didnt really make a difference, which doesnt surprise me with stiffer sidewalls. I also want to point out that the reason I did spacers was to keep from preloading the springs(which makes them stiffer on linear springs) with the 5100s. I talked to a Bilstein Engineer earlier this week and he laid out the issue pretty spot on. The problem with running a stiff sidewall E tire on a half ton is there really isn't enough sprung weight to settle everything down, he said its the equivalent of running a really stiff spring on a super light car. Because its unsprung stiffness most shocks will have a hell of a time damping bumps at speed as there is zero 'pre cushion' to absorb minor disturbances. Which makes perfect sense bc on all of my track cars I have to run plusher spring on rough tracks like Sebring to keep the chop under control.

He said the 60mm 61xx would certainly help as shock diameter plays a big roll in damping at speed, but ultimately he said either go back to a C load tire the truck was tuned for or pay a pile of money to get a custom progressive spring/shock setup.

So for what its worth it seems if you want a bigger tire you're going to sacrifice ride quality. Well until someone comes out with a C/D larger tire in 20". I'm going to keep an eye out for deals on larger diameter struts/shocks as I think it will make a bit of improvement, but otherwise it doesnt bother me enough to justify thousands of dollars to upgrade the suspension.

Yep, some of us have been saying for quite a while increasing spring preload won't change your spring rate and it doesn't necessarily make the ride stiffer. Changing preload should only affect your ride height. All you're doing in the case of 5100's is simply changing the seat position up extending your shock shaft towards the max. as you put the vehicle weight on them you can achieve more lift because the springs are now pushing the weight up with the springs seating at a higher position in relation to the original mounts. if the shock doesn't have a lot of down travel left to extend which i'm 99% sure is the case with 5100 at max, you're going to top out the shocks much quicker and perceive that as a harsh event. You can clearly see the difference in shock shaft showing in this video and exactly what happens as the shock extends out everytime they move the adjuster to increase preload. The shock opens up more and more if you keep adding preload. you create lift because the coil now sits higher and the spring is compressing exactly the same once you add the weight of your vehicle on top of the struts. The only time the springs can compress more is if you added MORE weight, or you added so much preload that your shock can't extended anymore which is something you won't be able to do with traditional lifting struts with adjustable perches.

I remember arguing about this simple fact with somebody in another thread, guy couldn't understand the concept and wanted to argue for the sake of a silly argument. This video shows exactly what preload is and why increasing preload doesn't give you a stiffer spring/ride per se, especially not in something that has fixed points for you to go up like 5100's, Eibach etc.

Another way of looking at preload graphically


5100's and 6112's have all STOCK lenght assemblies. Don't max them out and your shocks will have enough down travel to operate with a wider range of motion and they'll feel a lot better because of that, 6112's have better low speed rebound valving so that's why they'll also feel better with bigger/heavier tires compared to 5100's at same height or even at max if you have to set them that way.

@Dad_Jokes i would drop to 35psi cold and hit up @Nick@GotExhaust to get you a set of Bilstein 6112’s

Lots of good info and advice here so far. With all the information you have provided I would say the 6112's would be a great solution. As mentioned above by some of our very knowledgeable members here the valving of the 6112's is really going to help out and give you a much improved ride.

Something to keep in mind is that your tires have a weight rating, irrelevant of c, d, e, or even passenger rating.

Check the GVWR on your door, find the weight on the front and rear of your tires from the factory, then factor in additional weight you've added from suspension, bumpers, etc,.

Then look up the tires you're running, typically the manufacturer will say what tire pressure correlates to the actual weight rating of the tire. You should match your tire pressure that way. Guessing at what pressure you like it to feel like and not noticing a difference in pressures with your butt meter could likely just be that you're over pressured already.

For example, an E rated tire I was running, based on front gvwr, I needed the air at 32 psi, and rear at 26 psi. The max psi on the tire was 80 psi. When I got the tires mounted, the tire shop put them at 60 psi. I didn't notice a different in tire presssure until I got down to the low 30's. I actually liked the tires more at 30/25 and it just felt smooth... even with the rigid 5100's.

Don't forget to buy something to turn off that low tire pressure warning if you actually decide to pair your tire weight to the actual rating when you start stepping into D rated tires in a light duty pickup.

Well I may be wrong on the weight splits on the door for gvwr on the front and rear. I swear some of our trucks have them lol... front typically is around 3000, rears at 2400. LT 285/70 17 C tires for example on the link below state weight per tire. At 35 psi for the stated tire you're looking at 4200 pounds maximum for the front and 4200 for the rear. So even at 35 psi on the bf Goodrich a/t ko2's, combined at 8400 pounds, it's gonna be over the average 6800 gvwr total weight rating our truck is rated for.

Even factory 39 cold recommended psi is above what our tires need for the factory Goodyear passenger tires. I'm not a fan of the factory tires, I believe they were picked for gas mileage reasons, also a reason they are ram over pressure probably. The max psi on the is 44 psi, cold at 39 psi in the garage then out in 100 degree weather on the roads pushed the max psi limit. But it does add mpg. Meh...

These tires are much happier aired down. Mpg takes a small hit, and tpms isn't happy, but the ride is much smoother. Never had an issue doing this, and never heard of any. Tire wear has never been an issue for me either with proper rotation at every oil change.

If I'm wrong, I'm sure somebody will correct me haha




https://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/on/...Size/420bcacc-01bf-42c9-840e-55344685c842.pdf

yep you are 100% correct on the preloads. For some reason I assumed that cranking to the highest setting would reduce the loaded stack height(height of spring when compressed by vehicle). Just went out and measured and it looks like even at the highest setting, 2.8, you still would have the same height as stock setting. To your point only time preloading would affect the spring rate is if you reduced the height of the spring when weighted, which again in this case it doesnt.

Correction: GY said pressures should be 35 for my application, looks like DT needs to get their info fixed(they said 42 was the mfg rec)

The top setting does tend to make the ride choppy or "pogo stick" in my experience when the terrain is rough enough that you reach the end of the wheel's travel. The offset between when a tire begins bearing weight after returning to the ground vs. when the spring gets back in the game can produce enough roughness to be noticeable and that prompted me to scale back my ride height.