Rear Shocks for factory air ride

[splatmatt]

Has anyone replaced the rear shocks with aftermarket shocks on factory air ride equipped trucks? Bilstein, Fox, Rancho makes shocks but say they will not fit factory air ride. But the measurements when when at exit entry mode is 20". when in off road 2 its 24". The measurements for the 5100s is 16.75" - 26.73". It's fits in the range . but would they work?

 

[Trevor D]

Interested in an answer.

 

[Intense-Dakota]

Has anyone replaced the rear shocks with aftermarket shocks on factory air ride equipped trucks? Bilstein, Fox, Rancho makes shocks but say they will not fit factory air ride. But the measurements when when at exit entry mode is 20". when in off road 2 its 24". The measurements for the 5100s is 16.75" - 26.73". It's fits in the range . but would they work?

Did you ever find an answer or try anything? I have a 2017 Rebel and the driver's side rear shock is considerably softer than the passenger side. I really notice extreme softness after driving rough roads for a while. I was gonna pull my shocks and check lengths of fully compressed and full extended also. I need to find replacement shocks but refuse to pay the $300+ for the each of the OEN shocks.

 

[corneileous]

I’m curious too, as my Limited has the air ride. All the places I’ve looked for aftermarket shocks says they aren’t available for the air ride trucks.

I always thought the factory shocks were all the same whether air ride or spring ride but if go on practically any Mopar parts sites, you’ll see that there’s two different OEM part numbers between the rear air ride shocks and the rear spring ride shocks.

I have no idea what the difference is, they both look the same but the air ride shocks are a little bit more expensive than the shocks for the coil spring trucks.

My guess is maybe they have different dampening valves in there since I guess because a bag can have it’s spring rate and rebound totally changed just from how ever much air is in it that’s different from a steel coil spring at more/less compression.

Who knows, maybe it’s all in how the air ride truck’s shocks are made too, so they can accommodate the up to two inches of on demand lift and all the way bottomed out for entry/exit mode?

I’d love to replace all four of my shocks but since I have those air struts on the front of my truck, I don’t even know if anybody who makes an aftermarket strut that you can just simply transfer the bags over too. But then again, even if you could find front replacements, that would include breaking air line fittings and would lead to having to take your truck to a dealer to have your nitrogen system recharged....




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[Intense-Dakota]

I don't think you can easily deperate the air bag from the front struts. There are aftermarket/rebuilt air struts but they still run about $300. I am currently looking at the 5160 Bilstein for the rear, but if they are like the regular 5100s they are a bit soft for me.

 

[corneileous]

I don't think you can easily deperate the air bag from the front struts. There are aftermarket/rebuilt air struts but they still run about $300.

I really didn’t think you could either. But aren’t you limited to only a few certain brands of aftermarket air struts that would even be better than the factory ones? Changing those front struts is an absolute *****. Or at least they were on my old 08. It took me 85% of the day just separating the lower ball joint, tie-rod end and sway bar end links. Compressing the damn coils and transferring them to the new struts was the easy part!!...lol.

But these- either way, would still require a much better strut option in my opinion to even justify doing the replacement, and spending whatever the cost would be to basically have to treat your air ride system like you would on recharging your air conditioning system like if you replaced an AC compressor/dryer for example.

I am currently looking at the 5160 Bilstein for the rear, but if they are like the regular 5100s they are a bit soft for me.

Since all my truck sees is asphalt anyways, I think I could be perfectly fine with that softer shock you mentioned but are you saying you’re ok with just upgrading your rear shocks and not all four? I was/kinda still am contemplating doing just that but I was kinda told it was better to always replace all four shocks. That’s kinda why I haven’t looked any more into it.




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[Intense-Dakota]

I would love to be able to "upgrade" the front struts, but I haven't found any. Currently, I need to replace the rear for sure so I am focused on that. I have 65k miles on my 17 Rebel, so the fronts are likely due for a change, but I haven removed them to test. On the vehicle there isn't a ton of roll/bounce though. I do off road quite a bit and being in Illinois the pavement is worse than the dirt on the suspension. If I go with the 5160s or Fox 2.0 in the rear that leaves me the option to replace the air in the future though I would like to keep the air if possible.

 

[Intense-Dakota]

For anyone else looking, I just measured my shocks (on vehicle, gonna remove and measure soon). In entry/exit mode the shock length (sitting on bump stops) is about 20 5/8. In Off Road mode they are around 23 5/8. I would give it +- 1/2 inch due to the possibility of my driveway being off level and also the fact that my driveway slopes to the rear of the vehicle.

 

[corneileous]

I would love to be able to "upgrade" the front struts, but I haven't found any. Currently, I need to replace the rear for sure so I am focused on that. I have 65k miles on my 17 Rebel, so the fronts are likely due for a change, but I haven removed them to test. On the vehicle there isn't a ton of roll/bounce though. I do off road quite a bit and being in Illinois the pavement is worse than the dirt on the suspension. If I go with the 5160s or Fox 2.0 in the rear that leaves me the option to replace the air in the future though I would like to keep the air if possible.

I’ve only got 25,000 on my ‘18 so I’m sure my stuff is good to go for probably quite a few years to come, especially bein’ that I don’t off-road mine at all but I’m just curious what my lifetime Mopar mvp warranty is gonna tell me when it does come time to replace the front struts because if you replace with factory, those front strut assemblies are about a grand a piece. And not to mention, is probably gonna have to be like what you said where the whole assembly will have to be replaced. Not gonna be as easy as a coil over strut.


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[corneileous]

I decided to call up a local Dodge dealer to get their opinion and info on it and it the guy I talked to said pretty much the same thing I wondered about which probably the major notable differences between the air-ride trucks and the spring-ride trucks rear shocks is in the valving and in the dampening. He said they might even be made a little differently too to accommodate for the instant lift and entry/exit mode so that the shocks don’t get bottomed out or over-extended.

But he did say in his opinion that if any given shock manufacturer says a product they have for a spring-ride truck but not an air-ride truck that, that needs to be respected because the OEM shocks between the two are different with different part numbers and a big price difference.


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[corneileous]

Did you ever find an answer or try anything? I have a 2017 Rebel and the driver's side rear shock is considerably softer than the passenger side. I really notice extreme softness after driving rough roads for a while. I was gonna pull my shocks and check lengths of fully compressed and full extended also. I need to find replacement shocks but refuse to pay the $300+ for the each of the OEN shocks.

I doubt you’ll get an answer from this guy tho. He made this post almost two years ago and hadn’t even viewed the forum in almost a year and a half.


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