Shock question

[Beau beau]

I looking to installing some new shocks on my 2012 2 door JK with a 4" lift. I posted on here a while back about my ride being to stiff and I was told the Bilstein 5100 is a good shock to run. I would like to have a soft ride I see on Bilstein web site something about rebound rate. Is the higher number softer or harder. What shocks are you guys running and how do they ride. I would love the new coil over kit from evo but thats later and a lot of saving. Thanks guys

 

[ichthus]

I love the 5100's on our Jeep. They were a huge improvement over the cheap RC 2.2's. Untill I can justify 5160's, these will be my first choice

 

[wayoflife]

I looking to installing some new shocks on my 2012 2 door JK with a 4" lift. I posted on here a while back about my ride being to stiff and I was told the Bilstein 5100 is a good shock to run. I would like to have a soft ride I see on Bilstein web site something about rebound rate. Is the higher number softer or harder. What shocks are you guys running and how do they ride. I would love the new coil over kit from evo but thats later and a lot of saving. Thanks guys

a couple of things, before you spend any money, how much air are you running in your tires? too much air will cause your ride to feel harsh and in a tire like a 35, you really don't want to be running anything more than about 28-30 psi tops. second, a lot of your ride quality will come from your coils and if they are stiff, new shocks may not help that out. grated, if you are running a soft coil with stiff shocks, new shocks can help out. having said all that, i've run a lot of shocks and have always liked the 5100's as they are reasonably priced, are valved specifically for the JK and provide a good ride.

 

[Beau beau]

I see evo offers a 4" plush ride coil spring that i am going to look into and also install the 5100's I will follow up after I complete this upgrade. I did lower my tire psi to 28 and it did make a huge difference thanks guys.

 

[wayoflife]

I see evo offers a 4" plush ride coil spring that i am going to look into and also install the 5100's I will follow up after I complete this upgrade. I did lower my tire psi to 28 and it did make a huge difference thanks guys.

the evo plush ride coils are by far the MOST comfortable coils i have ever run bar none. also, they've worked with bilstein to have their 5100's tuned to their coils and so, paired together, you should have a really nice ride.

 

[Mitch]

But with softer coils you might get a lot of sag. Specially when you have steel bumpers, tire carriers and so on. So you might ending up having 4" coils but only 2.5" lift.
I´m also a fan of a really soft ride and soft as can be suspension. But that would be my fear of super soft coils........

Or am I wrong with this ?
because we only have a handfull of street legal lift kits in Germany and I´m trying to work around this problem.......

 

[wayoflife]

But with softer coils you might get a lot of sag. Specially when you have steel bumpers, tire carriers and so on. So you might ending up having 4" coils but only 2.5" lift.
I´m also a fan of a really soft ride and soft as can be suspension. But that would be my fear of super soft coils........

Or am I wrong with this ?
because we only have a handfull of street legal lift kits in Germany and I´m trying to work around this problem.......

no, you are absolutely correct on this but, coils like what evo makes take this into consideration and rate their coil height (about 3.5"-4") based on extra weight like this. if you load up your jeep with a lot of gear for the trail, additional sagging will be seen and, when i ran the plush ride coils, i just installed a set of 1" coil spacers in the rear to help compensate for it.