Toytec CO's with New Bilstein Shock
They were a little stiff at first but after a week they softend up quite a bit. I moved them down to 1.75 because 2.5 was to high with out adding coils in the rear. They now are a perfect balance of nice ride and stiffness(feels great)bilstein made these shocks specificly for the 5th gen and as far as I can tell they are spot on. I'm heading out to the desert tomorrow morning and will report back on how they are off road. I hope this helps.....
Cool, thanks for the info. Just called and ordered a "modified" Ultimate lift from Toytec -- having them build up the front CO's with the new shocks (I also went with the Eibach 1.5" springs they just got in for the rear -- planning on a ~2.25/1.5 lift...but that's for another discusion).
They only got one set of the new 5100 front shocks in to take a look at and confirmed that the shock travel is shorter than the "old" part. They'd verified the other differences Bilstein told me but couldn't actually confirm how much the valving is firmer. For the time being they've decided not to pursue rev'ing the Ultimate kit with the new shock since the longer shock stroke is of bigger value than the modified valving for off-road use.
The other concern they had was that their springs are a little firmer than stock and they were uncertain how pairing a stiffer spring with the firmer valving would feel until they have someone test it.
So, now that I've placed the order (which won't actually be assembled and shipped till Tuesday, Jan 2nd), I'm wondering if I made the best choice. Keep my order as is and risk the front end being a little too firm with the new shock and spring or call them back and go with their tested front CO shock that uses the "old" shock which many on the forum have installed and have been running without issue...
I'm not going to be doing any real off-roading/rock crawling anytime soon (yes, this lift is primarily for looks) so the extra ~0.5" travel of the old shock isn't a big deal for me, but I do like the idea of having the "proper" bushing fit and valving of the new shock.
Worst case I'm figuring that I can replace the front shocks with a set of "old" 5100 shocks if I don't like the ride and sell the "new" 5100's to someone on here that is looking to use them with stock springs (or I could rebuild the COs with the stock springs assuming they're the same size as the Toytec springs). However, the only reason I'm OK with paying the premium for the fully assembled front COs is so I don't have to screw with a spring compressor and assembling the struts in my garage or paying the $50 for a shop to do it for me...
Any thoughts?