Shocks and extra springs

[Cattletrkr]

I have a lot of extra springs on the rear and I still have the factory shocks on back there. Will new shocks, probably Bilstein, make a difference with 2 extra leafs on each side, 2 EXTRA overloads (total of 4 each side) and airbags with 7K+ pin weight? Not so much with a load behind I suppose, but more for empty running.



I'm all for spending the $$$ for new shocks, especially after the improvement the Bilsteins made to the front. But with all those extra springs, will I be accomplishing anything?

 

[TAbbott]

I'd say yes if you are compressing the spring stacks when empty. If you have that much spring, you can be virtually guaranteed that a worn stock shock is not gonna do much if anything to control the rebound. A Bilstein might. Another avenue to explore might be to try and find a shock with the same extended and compressed dimensions as the ones on your Dodge designed to fit a medium duty truck like an International, small Kenworth, Pete or an F-650 or something. As to whether such an animal exists, I have no idea -- but a cross reference manual from NAPA or someplace else that is capable of more than just finding whatever part number the computer says fits your truck should be able to tell you. Probably the mounts might need to be shimmed or something as the mounting hardware could be 5/8" or larger instead of 1/2" or whatever our stock stuff is. None of this will make any difference in your unloaded ride if your springs are so stiff they are not being compressed while you're empty.

 

[Bob4x4]

I would go with a rebuildable shock,that will allow you to revalve the shock to make it work for your application. You will be able to add all the rebound damping you could ever need and also play with pressures to fine tune.



Bob

 

[HBarlow]

I recently installed a set of 4 new Bilsteins on my '06 Ram. I am disappointed in the shock performance. Truck suspension is factory stock. The Bilsteins seem to provide a softer ride and allow more rebound than the factory Dodge shocks. I loved the Bilsteins on my previous '01 Ram. I'm not impressed with them on the '06. I think Bilstein either adapted the shocks for the '06 application (and got it wrong) or took the wrong approach to engineering them for this application. I'm sorry to report that the factory shocks performed better. I don't recommend Bilsteins for '06 Rams.



Harvey

 

[NVR FNSH]

Ignoring the +7K pin weight issue.....



As Bob4x4 recommended, get rebuildable shocks and spend the time valving them for your application. Nobody has designed an off the shelf shock for the spring set-up you have... ...



Brian

 

[Cattletrkr]

What brand would you guys recommend? Is the valving something I can tweak or would they have to come out and be taken to a specialty shop until perfected.

I had the truck on a jack the other day to rotate my tires. When I was done I dropped the rear end as fast as the jack would go, which was pretty darn quick. I suppose I had the tires 2" off the concrete when I dropped it. It was hard to tell for sure, but it looked like the bumber went down, then bounced up about 1. 5" to its resting point. It came up every bit as quick as it went down. That has me thinking/agreeing a shock that would slow that rebound down would help with the empty ride.

 

[Lorenz]

Revalving shocks are pretty easy if you have a little patience. I just walked one of my clients through it over the phone in 15 minutes. I'll post some directions once I scan them.

 

[Lorenz]

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