Bilstien shock experiment $$

[akart]

Originally Posted by sweetk30

who ever they use the springs are made to there specs . not a basic off the shelf spec .

whats the problem ? ?

lots of guys running them and super happy over on ck5.com site .

unless you changed something or didnt give the right info they should be spot on .

and yes rancho shocks fit like crap . i recently worked on a guys truck and the rancho shock part#'s were correct for his truck and lift hight . but the shocks were limiting spring travel by close to 25% . made for a hard ride . told him but he didnt care .. . . .

First I was to get custom springs and it was to take 3 weeks, fine w/ me they shipped me whatever springs in 1 week,doesn't sound like custom to me. I measured eye to eye and asked what measurements they wanted, they said they knew what I had and they do this all the time. They sent me rear springs 2" too long and told me to move the back mounts.ever try that. Grind off 12 rivets and drill 12 new holes,fun. The front springs rode on the frame and they sent me longer front shackles. I am a stupid old man and I had to spend many hours on the net figuring this out. I was supposed to get a 2" lift, front was 3" (fine) and the back was 7". No answer from them on that (like too bad) maybe it will settle (right) Which threw my castor off and I had to buy 2 degree castor wedges which I have yet to put in because it is a real PIA and they don't want to talk to me anymore but they were sure good at taking my money. It's all my fault you see.

[Burbnasty]

I'm in the process/ shopping for custom leaf springs for my suburban, and I am about to pull the trigger on a similar set up to what you have.

Give Mark a call at Motor City K-5, he is very knowledgeable he actually takes the time to listen to what you have and can make suggestions based on you application.


www.motorcityk5.com

[Stephen Watson]

Originally Posted by akart

First I was to get custom springs and it was to take 3 weeks, fine w/ me they shipped me whatever springs in 1 week,doesn't sound like custom to me. I measured eye to eye and asked what measurements they wanted, they said they knew what I had and they do this all the time. They sent me rear springs 2" too long and told me to move the back mounts.ever try that. Grind off 12 rivets and drill 12 new holes,fun. The front springs rode on the frame and they sent me longer front shackles. I am a stupid old man and I had to spend many hours on the net figuring this out. I was supposed to get a 2" lift, front was 3" (fine) and the back was 7". No answer from them on that (like too bad) maybe it will settle (right) Which threw my castor off and I had to buy 2 degree castor wedges which I have yet to put in because it is a real PIA and they don't want to talk to me anymore but they were sure good at taking my money. It's all my fault you see.

If you still have big ride height differences after moving the hangers to the 56" location we need to work that out. We thought that was fixed last summer.

As for shocks, I suspect part of the problem might just be length and positioning. If you don't have 3-4" of shock travel in each direction it'll get stiff quick. The rougher the road the more travel you'll need to keep from topping or bottoming the shock till you get to a shock length that exceeds the springs' available travel. It's not always obvious when a shock only has an inch of droop travel available but it'll ride terrible if that's the case. It's usually pretty obvious when there's only a couple inches of bump travel.

[akart]

Originally Posted by Stephen Watson

If you still have big ride height differences after moving the hangers to the 56" location we need to work that out. We thought that was fixed last summer.

As for shocks, I suspect part of the problem might just be length and positioning. If you don't have 3-4" of shock travel in each direction it'll get stiff quick. The rougher the road the more travel you'll need to keep from topping or bottoming the shock till you get to a shock length that exceeds the springs' available travel. It's not always obvious when a shock only has an inch of droop travel available but it'll ride terrible if that's the case. It's usually pretty obvious when there's only a couple inches of bump travel.

Actually the height problem was not fixed you just wore me down and you didn't want to talk about it so I decided to live with it. This thread is about shocks and I know I need new ones. I moved the rear shock perch down about 4" so my rear shock would even connect and there is only about 1.5" down travel in the rear and 2" in the front. I know what length shocks I need to get my 4" up/down travel. What I want to know is the shock rate and if I can get Bilstiens between there 170/60 & 255/70 rates or is that all there is?

[Stephen Watson]

Given the background on the springs we can just say we're still working on what's wrong and that's enough for now. For accuracy since these posts turn into permanent public record, our springs are built by Alcan and have been since the 90's. This isn't a big secret but we don't make a point of it either to avoid confusion. Our specs and build details are not set by them at all, in fact when we started this I had to assure them that I wouldn't hold them responsible for anything to do with the springs past simple construction details. The design work is all ours. It's already easy enough for guys to confuse this so we don't add any fuel to the fire by mentioning Alcan more than is necessary. They don't want to field calls about our springs too so it works for everyone.

On shocks, we have some application specific bilsteins that we can work with and are also working more with Fox on valve packages and shocks to our spec so we have some good options now and even more coming up.

It sounds like the shock length is definitely a problem so if nothing else you'll get a lot better ride by just letting the suspension move.

[akart]

Originally Posted by Stephen Watson

Given the background on the springs we can just say we're still working on what's wrong and that's enough for now. For accuracy since these posts turn into permanent public record, our springs are built by Alcan and have been since the 90's. This isn't a big secret but we don't make a point of it either to avoid confusion. Our specs and build details are not set by them at all, in fact when we started this I had to assure them that I wouldn't hold them responsible for anything to do with the springs past simple construction details. The design work is all ours. It's already easy enough for guys to confuse this so we don't add any fuel to the fire by mentioning Alcan more than is necessary. They don't want to field calls about our springs too so it works for everyone.

On shocks, we have some application specific bilsteins that we can work with and are also working more with Fox on valve packages and shocks to our spec so we have some good options now and even more coming up.

It sounds like the shock length is definitely a problem so if nothing else you'll get a lot better ride by just letting the suspension move.

Do you have Bilstiens shocks other than the 170/60 255/70 rates? Yes or No Please.

[Stephen Watson]

yes.

[Bent77]

Pretty happy with my Bilstiens

That I got from ORD
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