Shocks, what to do...

The shocks on my Limited are pretty weak, but ride nice. I once took it over some bumps at the river and it was quite bouncy. The F150 I had before this, which had Bilsteins on it, took them better.

 

This is very wrong. While sway bars do affect sway the shock/spring setup is a more dominant factor in how much sway you get. You could easily create a vehicle without a sway bar that sways significantly less than a vehicle with a sway bar.

 

So are you talking about struts and coilovers or shocks?

Upgraded shocks typically mean stiffer as shocks are in the rear and upgrade means increased payload.

You don’t have shocks in the front but coilovers. There are many options for a softer ride... just depends on how much money you want to spend LOL.

Being stiff over potholes isn’t concerning as thats not indicative of the amount of damage you can get from a pothole.
Just don’t run low profile tires on your truck lol.

Its hard to make a recomendation if stock is too stiff but you feel 5100s are too soft. There is not too much inbetween unless you want to blow $2,000 on Kings haha

 

No, it is not wrong. Shocks to some degree control the rate at which it rolls, but not how much it rolls.

 

They significantly affect both the rate and maximum extent of roll.

 

The only way they limit extent of roll is if you bottom them out. Meaning the shock is too short or too long for the springs on the vehicle.

 

I put a set of OR bilstiens/front coils on my SR. I'll be honest it's not a huge difference in day to day driving, I don't notice any increased body roll in turns but I'm also not ripping corners at high speed.

They are definitely an improvement on rutted up dirt roads, I think for the low price that you can source a set they are well worth it.

 

No. Shock damping absolutely affects stroke length per force applied.

Edit: Same for the coilover as a whole. Overall travel for a given force applied is directly impacted by both spring rate and shock damping.

 

I called a friend of mine that is an automotive engineer. In short we are both a little wrong, or the truth is in the middle. Shocks really don't limit the overall sway until the internal bump stop is hit. However they are velocity sensitive, meaning the faster the movement, the more they restrict oil flow. So they do provide sway control well beyond what my early post implied. I'll give you the point.

 

Sure but "limit" is very important in that sentence. Effectively that's just saying the hard limit of sway with unlimited force applied is the bump stops. Of course, but both shock damping and spring rate directly affect the amount of sway per force applied within the limits confined by the overall travel of the coilover.

So for example the stock OR billies require X amount of force to sway into the bump stops. Kings are going to require X+Y amount of force to sway into the bump stops. This is the case even with all else equivalent. That extra Y value comes directly from the spring/shock setup and yields less sway under equivalent circumstances. Unless you actually managed to sway into the bump stops which I wager could only happen if the vehicle was in the process of flipping.

Anecdotally I've experienced this first hand with a multitude of aftermarket suspensions. I've even done stiffer sway bars on stock spring/shocks into aftermarket coilovers at a later date and sway mitigation was near negligible from the bars alone and night and day with the coilovers.

 

Time is the variable you are ignoring. The only way a shock can limit the overall sway would be to stop the oil flow or hit the bump stop (assuming normal shocks, magnetic aren't included).

 

Not stop the oil flow but limit it - more precisely limit it at varying rates relative to velocity. That's exactly what shocks do and every shock is not created equal. Shocks exist that can easily be compressed by an average human. Shocks also exist that wouldn't compress under thousands of pounds.

 

Sport. Changed out the sport Hitachi shocks and stock springs to 5100s on stock setting, OME 884 springs, 1-1/2" AAL.

 

Right, and given enough time, a long enough corner, it will still reach the bump stop. No way around it.

I've owned a half dozen sets of Konis, several sets of Bilsteins, AST's, etc. I've raced someone else's car with Penske shocks on it. I have yet to see this mythical vehicle without sway bars where the shocks limit total sway. Help me out. Show me one. I'm from Missouri afterall.

 

Reach the bump stops in a corner? A setup would be trash if it was getting into the bump stops in a corner from sway. If that were possible you'd be slamming bumps on every bump in the road and that's not even considering offroad. I say this with respect to a truck. That scenario could happen in a car on a road circuit but would still be very rare if non-existent in a properly setup car going through a smooth turn.

In either case in your scenario the time it takes to reach the bump stop would be different from shock to shock. That difference results in less sway under equivalent circumstances within the confines of the suspension's travel.

As for the last bit, I never said they would limit "total sway" more commonly referred to as travel. Sway bars dont affect "total sway" either. The bump stops will always be the limit sure but that's largely irrelevant for the average car rolling around day to day and certainly not what people are referring to when talking about how much their car sways.

 

So kinda side track from the OP, but how would you say Fox COs fall into the spectrum of brands as far as stiff/soft ride, cornering, off road, etc? Anyone with experience with them.

Saw people mention Billy’s, Kings, Icon but nothing on Fox’s and they seem to be a little better priced than Kings

Edit: I guess on second glance, Fox coil overs with adjusters are just as expensive, if not more, than Kings?

 

I changed my sport suspension to OR, ( 4600 shocks and progressive springs). The new suspension soak up the bumps but is bouncy, and at 75 on the highway is not as firm as I’d like. I was thinking about leaving the 4600’s and putting the Lanier springs back on that they came with. Wondering if it would be worth the trouble. I know there’s an answer from one of the members. Thanks