Rear Shocks 3500 with Air Suspension

[DonRam240]

KYB Tech: If these will be firmer in jounce at the low ("jiggle" and small bumps) suspension velocities, that will be welcome. Truck is used mostly heavily loaded with 11 ft pickup camper, sometimes with race trailer added to that on 4 ft. SuperHitch extension, 1,000 lb tongue weight. In other words, loaded with roughly 5,000+ lb added to rear axle compared to empty bed. That's when it will sometimes bottom hard enough to hurt this old driver's spine on seemingly small, gentle bumps. Just not enough combined spring (leaf and air) plus shock resistance to jounce. Firmer will be OK, ride is pretty pleasant loaded like this so there is room for a bit more firm jounce control.
Thanks for the news.
Don

 

[DonRam240]

KYB Tech: Thanks for the news. Firmer in jounce at low suspension velocities over those low-speed bumps and humps will be welcome. Truck used heavily loaded most of the time, so not a problem here.
Don

 

[APay18]

I went on ahead and put Bilstein 4600s on all 4 corners. No issues as of now

 

[Cummins12V98]

Did you install the fronts THEN drive for comparison?

THEN install the rears to see if they performed any differently?

 

[APay18]

Did you install the fronts THEN drive for comparison?

THEN install the rears to see if they performed any differently?

no it’s my work rig so don’t have time to do that comparison. But rides nice. We’ll see how it handles once it’s under a load

 

[EZeis]

I went on ahead and put Bilstein 4600s on all 4 corners. No issues as of now

Did you compare the retracted and extended lengths of the new and old rear shocks?


Earl

 

[Wiredawg]

I'm not surprised going with Bilstein all the way around...Had them on my 03 2500 and they last and last. more than 130K miles on them and still good.

Cheers, Ron

 

[APay18]

Did you compare the retracted and extended lengths of the new and old rear shocks?


Earl

No just bought the ones made for non air ride 3500 duallys. Have another friend who put 5100s on all 4s and he’s been doing just fine

 

[Cummins12V98]

BUMMER, a little info would have been nice as this is a subject several are interested in.

As I have said my rear shocks are fine. BUT maybe new would be better??? Who knows. I can say changing to the 4600's on the front when the truck was new made little difference.

There is a reason no one says the standard sprung truck rear shocks cross reference with the rear air trucks.

 

[EZeis]

No just bought the ones made for non air ride 3500 duallys. Have another friend who put 5100s on all 4s and he’s been doing just fine

Ok, wanted to see if the shock lenghts were the same. Something is obviously different. Either lengths or valving or both. Could of eliminated lenghts from the wonder list.


Earl

 

[Cummins12V98]

Ok, wanted to see if the shock lenghts were the same. Something is obviously different. Either lengths or valving or both. Could of eliminated lenghts from the wonder list.


Earl

Yea a couple minutes would have answered that!

 

[APay18]

Yea a couple minutes would have answered that!

sorry I couldn’t help with your questions. I had a lot of maintenance to do the rig so measuring was the last thing on my mind. But you can always buy them, measure them and then return them. Just a thought

 

[EZeis]

sorry I couldn’t help with your questions. I had a lot of maintenance to do the rig so measuring was the last thing on my mind. But you can always buy them, measure them and then return them. Just a thought

If you still have the old factory shocks, measure the extended and collapsed lenghts. Center of hole to hole.


Earl

 

[Cummins12V98]

sorry I couldn’t help with your questions. I had a lot of maintenance to do the rig so measuring was the last thing on my mind. But you can always buy them, measure them and then return them. Just a thought

I understand.

 

[DonRam240]

Update from KYB on rear shock for 2500-3500's with air suspension. Emailed tech support, just got this reply:
"We are hoping to have it out sometime in the 4th quarter of this year.
Regards,
Technical Support
KYB Americas Corporation
techsupport@kyb.com"

 

[EZeis]

KYB has a part number now for rear shocks with air suspension, 3450014. I don't have any experience with KYB shocks. So I don't know their quality. It's listed as a OEM style replacement. So I don't know if there's any benefit over the OE shocks.

Earl

 

[lpennock]

KYB is usually decent stuff. You should call them and ask if it has any improvements over stock.

 

[EZeis]

KYB is usually decent stuff. You should call them and ask if it has any improvements over stock.

Just pulled up some pricing, 50 bucks. That's a low grade shock price. I would expect a "good" shock to be 80 bucks or more.


Earl

 

[DonRam240]

KYB is usually decent stuff. You should call them and ask if it has any improvements over stock.

I just sent the KYB tech email address this query, will report reply if it doesn't show up here first:
"KYB tech: Following up on "Rear shocks 3500 with Air Suspension" thread on Turbo Diesel Register website. I see from another person's post that you now have a part number for a rear shock to fit my 2018 Ram 3500 with the factory rear air self leveling suspension.
Can you say how the valving for low speed bumps, especially for jounce, compares to the factory shocks? It's the relatively mild, low speed bumps with low suspension velocity that cause bottoming (and back pain) with factory shocks when I have the heavy pickup camper in the bed."

 

[EZeis]

I just sent the KYB tech email address this query, will report reply if it doesn't show up here first:
"KYB tech: Following up on "Rear shocks 3500 with Air Suspension" thread on Turbo Diesel Register website. I see from another person's post that you now have a part number for a rear shock to fit my 2018 Ram 3500 with the factory rear air self leveling suspension.
Can you say how the valving for low speed bumps, especially for jounce, compares to the factory shocks? It's the relatively mild, low speed bumps with low suspension velocity that cause bottoming (and back pain) with factory shocks when I have the heavy pickup camper in the bed."

My issue is at highway speeds with bridges. Sometimes I get that pogo effect or not enough damping and the bounce lasts too long.


Earl