Ram Active Level air suspension shock upgrade??

[[email protected]]

Just bought a 2015 Ram 1500 limited with the self leveling air suspension a few months back and the truck has been great. My question is there an aftermarket shock for the air suspension Ram. I can only have a few hundred pounds on the bumper and I can literally bounce the truck aprox. 2in up and down. Seems to be super spongy. Dealer wants $150 a side for the factory rear shocks, but I would assume upgrade if its a possibility. Thanks in advance.

 

[corneileous]

I don’t know if there is one or not. I’ve gone to a few websites that sell aftermarket shock absorbers and all the ones I found all tend to say the same thing which is w/o air suspension. I even called up my local dealership to see what the differences was between the rear shocks that come on the air ride trucks and the shocks that come on the coil spring trucks and the only thing that he could say that might be different between the two is how the dampening works. The air ride shocks may probably have different valving in them as well.

Try giving Rancho, Monroe , Gabriel and Bilstein a call and see what they say. But really the only other alternative that I can think of that really doesn’t have any reason on why it wouldn’t work would be the yellow Bilsteins that come OEM on the rebels. But I don’t have no idea at the Rebel front air strut. Those may be the exact same air struts is on my limited.


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[corneileous]

I went ahead and took the liberty of calling up monroe and they don’t have anything for the air ride trucks. Well, I take that back, the only thing they have is a conversion kit to go from the factory air ride to a coil spring set up but that’s it. And as far as what the differences between the two OEM shocks that he figured he the same thing that the dealer said that it’s probably all in the valving and something else he said that the dealer didn’t say was that it’s also probably due to the fact that because of our two off-road modes, the air ride shocks are probably longer so that you don’t over extend it when you have the truck raised up.

And probably not to mention the fact that all they could probably make is just the rear shocks because if I’m not mistaken, unlike the normal coil spring front struts where you can actually put your old coil spring onto the new strut, I think these air ride struts have to be replaced as a complete unit as I really don’t think you can take the airbag off the old strut and put it on a new strut which would also explain why new factory front air struts are over a grand a piece.

But as far as just looking into only replacing the rear shock absorbers, I would look into either replacing your rear shocks with exact replacements, or you could look into the Billstein shocks that come factory on the rebels with air suspension. That’s probably your only option.


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[[email protected]]

Ok, thanks for your efforts Corneileous I was thinking the same thing on the dampening, If I am able to get the correct length compressed and extended It still may act differently in different positions of the stroke. I will look into the rebels and the billsteins. Again thank you.

 

[corneileous]

Well at least for you, there is a light at the end of that tunnel. I found another thread or two on here that a guy that’s got a 2015 just like you do and he found a set of shocks on Monroe’s website that’s for his truck with air ride.

These.

http://www.monroe.com/en-US/e-catalog/911197


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[Jaymo]

If you guys are at all interested I just fit a full set of Bilstein 5100's in the front and rear of my truck. I have the active level 4 corner air ride system and I was able to separate the front factory shock from the airbag and replace with a Bilstein 5100. And reassemble.

When purchasing the replacement shocks in these trucks, they are the same as if you'd replace if they were conventional coil.

 

[Laps]

If you guys are at all interested I just fit a full set of Bilstein 5100's in the front and rear of my truck. I have the active level 4 corner air ride system and I was able to separate the front factory shock from the airbag and replace with a Bilstein 5100. And reassemble.

When purchasing the replacement shocks in these trucks, they are the same as if you'd replace if they were conventional coil.

Definitely would be interested, not much info out there.

 

[corneileous]

If you guys are at all interested I just fit a full set of Bilstein 5100's in the front and rear of my truck. I have the active level 4 corner air ride system and I was able to separate the front factory shock from the airbag and replace with a Bilstein 5100. And reassemble.

When purchasing the replacement shocks in these trucks, they are the same as if you'd replace if they were conventional coil.

You were able to take the airbag off the front struts? For some reason I thought the front air struts were all a permanent one piece unit that couldn’t be disassembled.

But is this the kit you got? That website doesn’t say anything about whether or not this kit is for trucks with air ride or trucks without but that’s great you got those to work. But I do know one thing, the factory rear shocks for the air ride trucks is not the same Mopar part number as the rear shocks for the trucks with coil springs. Being that the description said the rear shocks is for stock ride height up to 1 inch, can you still put your truck in off-road 2 mode and not over-extend the shocks?

 

[Curt Gobbell]

All,

Jaymo's VLOG can be found here. https://www.ram1500diesel.com/threads/air-ride-front-shock-upgrade.62250/page-2