Do adjustable shocks make a 3500 ride better?

[Ajs76]

Hey all

this is my first heavy duty truck (2020 3500 diesel long bed) because I’m towing a fifth wheel. It tows really well but off-road those beefy leaf springs are trying to knock my teeth out.

Is there an upgrade I can do like adjustable rancho shocks or something that will let me tow a big fifth wheel and do light duty off roading with less pain?

or is this one of those “just get a toy hauler and a side by side” kind of moments

Thanks in advance. Would love to hear an actual persons experience vs a sales dude from bilstein

 

[Ajs76]

Side note. I aired down which helped but Moab was a bit of an eye opener for me haha

 

[crash68]

just replacing the shocks on a 3500 isn't going to make it ride miraculously better and being a CTD doesn't help either.
Maybe someone that's upgraded their truck with a Thuren or Kelderman suspension system will chime in.

 

[Travelin Ram]

My last 3500 SRW was not too bad off-road when I ran 315’s and aired down. That’s not saying it was a compliant suspension and it could proceed at the same pace as a Jeep on the trail. Slow is the only way when it’s rough or rocky.

Duals are even worse, but I have done it with really low rear tire pressures.

I had the Rancho adjustable shocks on an SUV, and they were helpful, but in that case I was trying to stiffen the ride when I was loaded heavy or towing. It was already softly sprung for off road.

I did a Carli suspension on a 2500 Cummins that also towed a small fifth wheel. That truck was awesome on the interstate or the trail. However the pin weight on the trailer was only about 1700#. I ran 35’s on that.

My opinion based on the above as well as a bunch of similar experiences is just doing shocks on a 3500 would not help much. High spring rates and hard tires are the problem. To have a suspension that performs you need the tires, springs, and shocks to be matched and suitable for each other. The requirements to safely tow a heavy fiver and run trails with comfort are very far apart. OEMs spend a lot of resources to match components, and it usually doesn’t work well to just change one part.

My current PW is a testament to that; just changing from 33” D to 35” E rated tires is enough to make the suspension perform less capably in some circumstances.

 

[mtnrider]

Yeah, don't waste your money on shocks that's not going to make a noticeable difference. (exception: If you truck was old and shocks were worn out).

Shocks only control compression and rebound and that is it. It's the heavy springs that are giving you a stiff ride.
Give it some time and you will get used to it. Being new to the HD trucks you are just used to a plush ride and this is quite different.
You can go with after market springs (Carli, Thuren etc) to soften up the ride but it's at the expense of payload capacity.

Maybe try throwing some weight in the bed when you are just driving around town that might get the rear moving a little bit and improve the ride.

.

 

[Ajs76]

This is officially the first forum post I’ve been part of that has SAVED me money from the modification bug on any of my cars. Haha. I appreciate the honesty. This is primarily a tow vehicle so I’m going to avoid trying to turn it into something it isn’t.

while I’m at it, can I ask a silly question? If I air down to drive trails but might need to take highways to get there, what’s a reasonable psi? I’m not going to do the 15 psi for sand thing if I’m driving 70 mph. Would 30 psi be reasonable? 40?

thanks for the quick responses!

 

[RedneckHippy]

I swapped my stock shocks on my 19 3500 hemi with bilstein 5100, it has a 2 inch level on it and 325/65r18. The shocks helped a tad bit, but the bigger tires with the higher load range allowed me to run lower pressure and that helped more than the shocks.

 

[Ajs76]

Interesting angle. What tires and wheels did you get? Load range E I assume?

I have the stock transforce HT E rated 18s so this could be an angle that might work for me also! I assume people aren’t sad about losing the firestones

I swapped my stock shocks on my 19 3500 hemi with bilstein 5100, it has a 2 inch level on it and 325/65r18. The shocks helped a tad bit, but the bigger tires with the higher load range allowed me to run lower pressure and that helped more than the shocks.

 

[chri5k]

.... I assume people aren’t sad about losing the firestones

It was the happiest day of my life. The Transforce HT's I had sucked. Wore out in 35K miles and had the worst wet pavement traction of any tire I have owned. The fishtailing at very very light throttle was downright dangerous.

 

[RedneckHippy]

Interesting angle. What tires and wheels did you get? Load range E I assume?

I have the stock transforce HT E rated 18s so this could be an angle that might work for me also! I assume people aren’t sad about losing the firestones

Im pretty sure it is E rating, each specific tire will have its own specs on what PSI holds whatever weight. So if you compare the recommended PSI for the transforce on your truck, you can reference that to your stock tire load carrying capacity. Then shoot for the same load on the new tire to reference the PSI from there. My new tires are nearly 13 inches wide and max at 65 PSI. I run them at 50 PSI in the front and 40 PSI in the rear with a chalk test, I just pump the rear up to 65 when towing.

 

[RandomRam]

Most of the ride harshness comes from the front. Swapping to Thuren soft ride coils and Fox shocks made a huge difference. My rear is stock at the moment. I also run 50 PSI front and 45 PSI rear with the OE tires.

I did an off-road trip in August with completely stock suspension. Was about 100 miles off pavement on pretty rough forest roads. It was okay but the front was jarring. I bought the Thuren setup almost immediately after. Couple days ago was the first off-road trip since then and it was incredible. The truck feels planted and smooth.

One thing I noticed when I installed the front was how soft the stock shocks were. I could easily compress them by hand. The Fox shocks on the other hand needed my body weight.


I’m going to put Thuren spec Fox shocks in the rear after the first of the year.

 

[RedneckHippy]

Most of the ride harshness comes from the front. Swapping to Thuren soft ride coils and Fox shocks made a huge difference. My rear is stock at the moment. I also run 50 PSI front and 45 PSI rear with the OE tires.

I did an off-road trip in August with completely stock suspension. Was about 100 miles off pavement on pretty rough forest roads. It was okay but the front was jarring. I bought the Thuren setup almost immediately after. Couple days ago was the first off-road trip since then and it was incredible. The truck feels planted and smooth.

One thing I noticed when I installed the front was how soft the stock shocks were. I could easily compress them by hand. The Fox shocks on the other hand needed my body weight.


I’m going to put Thuren spec Fox shocks in the rear after the first of the year.

I had the exact same experience, I did the 1.5 Thuren coils and fox IFPs all around and that helped more than anything. Those foxs were far harder to compress by hand when installing then either the stock or bilsteins, kinda frustrated me for a minute to be honest. It was definitely worth the money to get that Thuren setup.