First Post!! Quick question about Bilstein 5100's...

First of all I really appreciate all the people on here who give great advice and have a friendly attitude. I've already found a few tips and some advice that has helped me out a lot.

But my question is about Bilstein 5100 shocks..I am looking to lift the front of my truck 2.5 inches and after comparing different options with my needs and budget these seem to be the best choice. My only two concerns are if I will need new UCA's with these shocks set at 2.5 to get the correct alignment, and about the down travel issues I've heard about . Could someone please help me to better understand this? thanks

 

If you do a 2.5" lift, new UCA's are recommended but not required. The factory arms don't have enough caster adjustment, which translates into a "wandering" feeling of your steering at high speed.
As far as the down travel issue, per Bilstein's website they claim their shocks have an added 1/2" to 3/4" of length compared to the factory shocks. This is to allow a more down travel. I've never checked to see if it's true or not. But FWIW there are many guys on here that have the 5100's set at 2.5" and love the performance and ride quality. Hope this helps....

Marco

 

thank you for the heads up. Ive heard so many different things about these shocks its hard to come up with a clear answer. I was actually talking to a guy today at a stoplight who has bilsteins set at 2.5 and we ended up pulling over into a shopping center and talking for quite some time. All in all there are certain things I wish were different about them...but for my budget of around $500 i think it is the best option. maybe get some ucas later on after i finish paying off my college tuition . Thanks for replying

 

What size tires are you going to run? I was in the same position as you when trying to figure out my setup. I went with 265/75/16's and 1.75" on the 5100's. I didn't want to spend a ton of money, didn't want to have speedo/power/UCA issues. If you're going to upgrade to 285's, you have to go at least 2.5", but if you're not going that big, set them at 1.75" and skip the UCA's.

 

i just got 265/75 r16 bfg all terrains put on my stock rims today. i hadnt thought about setting them at 1.75...will it level the front out still?? The main reason why im getting the lift is to get the front up level or even a little bit higher then the back. Ill put it at 1.75 if that gets the job done. the guy i talked to recomended 2.5 but then again he did have 285's sooo

 

From what ive been reading the 1.75" up front with the stock rear set up is the way to go, it levels it out perfectly. I plan i doing 1.75" up front with 265's i think that set up looks perfect.

 

You see what happens when we tell Nubes to search

 

at least he searched..

 

lol