2021 Ram 1500 with Bilstein 6112 and 6" strut spacer

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Silver700

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Hello all, I have a 2021 Ram 1500 4X4 with a zone 4" lift kit. I purchased the Bilstein 6112 coilovers for the front and 5100's for the rear. The front is using a 4" inch spacer. I will be changing to a 6" lift and was wondering which is the better way to go. Replacing the 4" spacer with a 6" spacer, and replacing the rear shocks, or replacing the 4" inch spacer with BDS Fox's 2.5 6" coilovers? I don't do much if any off road driving. I am doing lift mainly for looks, and want to keep as much of a smooth ride as possible. When I say smooth I don't mean "floating soft ride", just more closer to stock ride as possible. Any advice would be appreciated.
 

crazykid1994

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Why are you swapping to a 6” lift? Why not just raise the bilsteins to a higher ring. How high are you looking at lifting?
 

Dodge 1500 4X4

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A 4in lift should be more than enough going to a 6in you may run into CV shaft angle problems and drive shaft problems.
 
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Silver700

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Why are you swapping to a 6” lift? Why not just raise the bilsteins to a higher ring. How high are you looking at lifting?
Sorry I may have mistated what I was going to do. I am not going to swap out the lift. Zone said I can just change a few parts to get a to a 6" lift. Since I will need to get to the front end to replace parts (strut spacer) to get from 4" to 6" on the lift, I might as well decide if I should get the 6" BDS fox coilovers or just use the 6" spacer.
 

crazykid1994

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Why not raise the bilstein up? Can go up to 2.6 which will put you at 6.6” lift. Also the spacer in the bds 6” kit is only a 5” spacer so you are going to pay to go up 1” more than you are now. The 6” bds coilover is a 4-6” lift height. I would imagine you could go up a tad higher but it’s collapsed and extended measurements are only 4” longer than the stock replacement fox shocks so any more than 6” will be starting to reduce your down travel. 6.5” lift would be the max I would push them.
 
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olyelr

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Yes, like said above…if you are currently set at 4” with the 6112 (essentially with the coilover at stock height and the spacer), just crank the coilover up another 2” and get an alignment. Done.
 

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This is what CV angles will look like with 6112s maxed out on a 4" lift. There's a reason they say not to do it..




20210717_184706 (1).jpg
 

crazykid1994

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This is what CV angles will look like with 6112s maxed out on a 4" lift. There's a reason they say not to do it..




View attachment 511667
Only problem is going to a 6” lift and doing the same thing only makes it worse. Adding 1” more lift is harder on the cv axles. The diff drops are 4.5” on the zone and bds kits
 
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Silver700

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Why not raise the bilstein up? Can go up to 2.6 which will put you at 6.6” lift. Also the spacer in the bds 6” kit is only a 5” spacer so you are going to pay to go up 1” more than you are now. The 6” bds coilover is a 4-6” lift height. I would imagine you could go up a tad higher but it’s collapsed and extended measurements are only 4” longer than the stock replacement fox shocks so any more than 6” will be starting to reduce your down travel. 6.5” lift would be the max I would push them.
I thought about this but Bilstein does not recommend using their coilovers, when set to a 2" or more and using a spacer. Not sure if it is because of the angles or if they feel it adversly affects their shocks.
 
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Silver700

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Only problem is going to a 6” lift and doing the same thing only makes it worse. Adding 1” more lift is harder on the cv axles. The diff drops are 4.5” on the zone and bds kits
I had not heard of that. I have the 4" zone lift installed and did not notice any issues with the diff drop. I was told the 4" and 6" are identical other than the front spacer and rear coil springs. I will have to double check that. Dont want to cause any issues with the diff. The reason for my original post was to get opinions on whether there is a big differnce bewteen going with a 6" spacer with the bilstein 6112 coilovers or going with the BDS 6" fox 2.5 coilovers. Price wise, there is a big difference, just not sure it is worth the extra money. I figured, if they are going to have the front end taken apart, might as well make that decision now.
 

crazykid1994

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Yes. The only difference is the spacer. They use a 4” spacer in the 4” and a 5” spacer in the 6”. No that’s not a typo. The biggest consideration is your ride. What is your bilstein 6112 currently set at? The 4” spacer and bilstein at 2”is 6” lift either way. Going to the 5” spacer only gets you 1” more front lift either way. Also bilstein recommendation goes out the window as soon as you put a suspension lift on the truck anyways. The suspension lift should keep all stock geometry so setting the bilstein up to 2” or 2.6” should not max out the suspension
 
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Silver700

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Yes. The only difference is the spacer. They use a 4” spacer in the 4” and a 5” spacer in the 6”. No that’s not a typo. The biggest consideration is your ride. What is your bilstein 6112 currently set at? The 4” spacer and bilstein at 2”is 6” lift either way. Going to the 5” spacer only gets you 1” more front lift either way. Also bilstein recommendation goes out the window as soon as you put a suspension lift on the truck anyways. The suspension lift should keep all stock geometry so setting the bilstein up to 2” or 2.6” should not max out the suspension
I currently have a 4" spacer and the bilsteins set at 0 or at stock height. That makes sense on the bilsteins, when a 4" lift is installed. I was just going off what they originally told me but the tech I talked to may not have know I had a 4" lift installed. He may have thought I was lifting the truck via a spacer and using the bilstein clip at 2".
 

crazykid1994

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I currently have a 4" spacer and the bilsteins set at 0 or at stock height. That makes sense on the bilsteins, when a 4" lift is installed. I was just going off what they originally told me but the tech I talked to may not have know I had a 4" lift installed. He may have thought I was lifting the truck via a spacer and using the bilstein clip at 2".
Yup. So go ahead and set your bilstein up higher and swap your upper control arms from stock arms if you still have stock arms and you’ll be good to go
 
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