Off roading with Bilstein 5100’s?

[flipflopnfly]

The 5100s are fine for your average trails and some light duty stuff. Don't run Baja with it and start trophy truckin it.

Pretty much this. Constant shock cycling overheats and kills thin body shocks. If you're out on long stretches of rough roads you need thicker body shocks and reservoir is even better. Shock fade is downright dangerous on rough roads at speeds over say 30mph. Washboards are a shock killer.

Here in the Four Corner states it isn't a Baja race but there's long stretches of dirt roads where you want to put your foot into it and still be able to safely brake into corners without faded shocks. I've never run 5100's and never will, there's so many other options that I'll pay $1500 for a front/rear kit with thicker shock body and thicker shafts.

 

[Syr4RinNC]

Not sure if we're talking about the same thing or not, and I don't believe that the analogy of the cinder block vs flat on the ground with a 50 lbs weight.

When installing the spring on the shocks, you are working with a limited space (the top hat of the shock with it fully extended on the top and the spring perch on the bottom). This isn't the same as setting the spring on a cinder block which isn't limited to travel up as many cinder blocks as you want to stack under it. But in that statement the spring/coil isn’t the focal point of extension - the strut is

Without having exact numbers, call the total available space on the shock for the spring to sit into X, by moving the perch up each setting you are effectively subtracting the total amount of space X by whichever perch setting your are setting it on. At the end of the day the spring will be physically more compressed on the last perch setting once the shock is fully assembled vs the 0 perch setting (whether it be by 1 inch or 2 inches I'm not sure exactly what it works out to be).

Now, you are correct, because of the suspension geometry, the amount of lift you get isn't 1:1 due to angles and distance travelled on an arc. The same way you can correct a 1/2" lean by installing a 1/4" spacer.

Yea I’m on your team - just playing devils advocate. They will say that once you install the coil over that the coil/ spring will decompress and return to its natural length and it’s not compressed and will push out the upper strut mount and lower strut mount so the spring is in its natural decompressed state

 

[originalg00kster]

Bilstein 5100's, OME 884 front/895 rear, durobumps bump stops, built right uca, and eimkeith pck. I love the ride for my budget build, mainly desert and "rock crawling". I can keep up with my friends who have king shocks and all the expensive brands.

 

[bmgreene]

Question regarding the 5100’s. Back in August I installed 5100’s on front and have it set on first notch (0.85) to make it more level with the rear. When doing that we took out the XRES suspension so you can imagine how rough it rides in the rear. I’m planning on installing 5100’s in the rear but I also want to add around 1 inch lift on the front and rear and keep it level.

My question is should I install the 5100’s and raise the front and rear to add 1 inch or look at installing lift springs? a spacer with the 5100’s at lowest setting 0”? Keep in mine I will not be doing much off reading and it’s my DD so I’m mainly going for looks and ride comfort.


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Unless the softer ride is important to you, a spring lift is almost always a better functional solution than a spacer lift. 5100s are fine for fire roads, lower speed trail driving, and even rock crawling; if you're going to want to cover bumpy ground at speed, you'll need reservoirs and such to dissipate the heat of fast and sustained cycling of the shocks.

I'm building a 2008 Limited V8 for crawling and using 5100s, for the kind of driving I'm looking to do, they've held up fine on my Tacoma, and a lot of the trucks I've run with use them as well, but I also rarely get into 3rd gear while off-roading, so I'm almost never taking more than a dirt road at 30mph or higher. I'd offer some reccomebdations for springs, but all my research was for lifting the vehicle 3" with front/rear plate bumpers, sliders, winch and bigger skids plates.

 

[EdmundGTP]

Pretty much this. Constant shock cycling overheats and kills thin body shocks. If you're out on long stretches of rough roads you need thicker body shocks and reservoir is even better. Shock fade is downright dangerous on rough roads at speeds over say 30mph. Washboards are a shock killer.

Here in the Four Corner states it isn't a Baja race but there's long stretches of dirt roads where you want to put your foot into it and still be able to safely brake into corners without faded shocks. I've never run 5100's and never will, there's so many other options that I'll pay $1500 for a front/rear kit with thicker shock body and thicker shafts.

This X2. I had 5100's in the form of one of the original Toytec coilver kits. Long rough desert roads at 25-30+ MPH would have the shock bodies hot enough to cook bacon on. Of course my location doesn't really help, being out in AZ desert.

It wasn't something I ever paid attention to at first. What I did notice was on longer rough roads, after driving for an hour or so. I'd stop the truck to hang out or whatever. Start driving again 20-30 min's later and immediately think to myself "Huh... The truck seems to be riding much nicer now than right before I stopped..". It wasn't until a little while later that I put the heat piece of the puzzle together, and at the next chance, decided to put my hand on one of the shocks after a long stretch of rough road. HOT AF!! Suspension got upgraded quickly thereafter, and I have yet to heat up my Fox's to the point that I can't put a hand on them.

Wanna know if you're out-driving your shocks? Next time you're out wheeling for a while, stick your hand down there and find out. You might be surprised at what you feel. Keep some burn ointment handy if you're running 5100's.

 

[Quiero]

This X2. I had 5100's in the form of one of the original Toytec coilver kits. Long rough desert roads at 25-30+ MPH would have the shock bodies hot enough to cook bacon on. Of course my location doesn't really help, being out in AZ desert.

It wasn't something I ever paid attention to at first. What I did notice was on longer rough roads, after driving for an hour or so. I'd stop the truck to hang out or whatever. Start driving again 20-30 min's later and immediately think to myself "Huh... The truck seems to be riding much nicer now than right before I stopped..". It wasn't until a little while later that I put the heat piece of the puzzle together, and at the next chance, decided to put my hand on one of the shocks after a long stretch of rough road. HOT AF!! Suspension got upgraded quickly thereafter, and I have yet to heat up my Fox's to the point that I can't put a hand on them.

Wanna know if you're out-driving your shocks? Next time you're out wheeling for a while, stick your hand down there and find out. You might be surprised at what you feel. Keep some burn ointment handy if you're running 5100's.

Huh. I'll have to check mine. They have always ridden fine so I assumed they were doing their job.

 

[MAST4R]

The 5100s are fine for your average trails and some light duty stuff. Don't run Baja with it and start trophy truckin it.

Pretty much this. Constant shock cycling overheats and kills thin body shocks. If you're out on long stretches of rough roads you need thicker body shocks and reservoir is even better. Shock fade is downright dangerous on rough roads at speeds over say 30mph. Washboards are a shock killer.

Here in the Four Corner states it isn't a Baja race but there's long stretches of dirt roads where you want to put your foot into it and still be able to safely brake into corners without faded shocks. I've never run 5100's and never will, there's so many other options that I'll pay $1500 for a front/rear kit with thicker shock body and thicker shafts.

^ as said

Another way of putting it is this:

Twin tubes are "honest" shocks when it comes to their failure to perform. But they are "cheater" shocks when it comes to how long they last. They may not leak, but they perform even worse over time. Technically, they are fine. But they are even worse than before.

Monotubes are the reverse. They are "honest" about failures because they start leaking or fail outright instead of pretending they are still fine. But they are "cheater" shocks when it comes to performance. An entry level shock like the 2.0 Icon IFP can perform really well and even take hits from full extension very well--over short distances. Do that over and over again and they will fail rather early. So they lure you into doing more than they can take.

I am sure one can go anywhere on 5100s as one can on the stock suspension, taking more hits, etc. The question is how fast and how comfortable.