Blind shock tests

We figured that most people are buying these for off road performance, so didn't focus too much on street driving, but I will keep that in mind for the next series on the more budget shocks that I hope to put out this time next year.

 

I like that you did it with empty bed. I usually leave my stuff at camp and ride with mostly empty bed on the trails.

I agree about seeing some more on road, especially for the lower budget shocks. Hit some railroad tracks, potholes, speed bumps, mix of slower city street & faster highway, etc.

For all our talk of offroading, i'd guess most of our trucks are onroad at least 90% of their life.

 

Can you do some test with the cheaper options like OME and 5100?

 

I have 20k on my Zone Control 8112/8100 front and rears and they are Awesome, and the visual body roll isn’t noticed while driving spiritedly.

 

All of this has me wanting to remove my sway bar.

 

Well shit, time to throw my Fox 2.5's in the trash and start over.

 

I have a 6112/5160 setup (technically the TRD Pro version) and am very happy with my sway bar removed. Yeah, there's more body roll but it's also a heavy, gas guzzler so I drive it as such. It's now MUCH smoother offroad and was a worthwhile trade off with body roll/handling.

 

I took it off today and the first thing I used my truck for is I went to lowes with a friend and put 29 bags of 80 pounds of concrete in it. Drove it about 20 miles on curvy backroads and a dirt rodad. I think it handled not bad at all. Of course I did drive more cautious than normal. I'm going to go wheeling with now. Haha

 

That's a good example. That 2,320lbs you had in the bed will only make it handle worse by shifting weight to the rear and lifting the front slightly. Handling should get a little better with all that weight removed.

 

Send them to wheel every weekend, or bring them up to us, and we can get them rebuilt and revalved and make them handle sweet for your specific truck. Unless you're happy with the current performance

 

Trash em to me. I’ll pay shipping and $100 to buy some beer

 

I will not remove mine.

 

2320lbs?!

 

Everyone asking for 5100 reviews...here ya' go - It is nothing but an OE replacement that allows for some height adjustment and it is a very low end low performance shock. A few years ago there was a test of low end CO's on YT and the 5100's over heated and puked after 30 minutes on washboard...well and then there are the 100's of images like this where the lower stalk caves in or breaks lol

 

Preloading these beyond the first ring on a stock weight truck is a terrible idea and sometimes ends badly. If you don't let the shock be a shock, something is gonna give.

 

I’m honestly stuck between King 2.5 with adjusters and Fox 2.5 performance elite series with dsc’s. I hear the build quality on Fox’s are better?

 

Here is something to keep in mind with high performance shocks….they need a rebuild every 20k-30k miles. So that means you need to take them off, ship them out and be without a truck for a while.




I wanted fox shocks….but now my bilstein 6112 seem fine lol

 

Yeah my friend was trying to carry it in a 4 cylinder 90s ranger. I couldn't let him do that. He got 40 bags in total so I had 29 of them. It actually didn't drive bad even though it had a bit of carolina squat going on. It put the icon leafs to work. I don't drive like a crazy person. It felt like it was smoother than normal. It had that plus ride that reminds me of a land cruiser. Then off roading it did great. Soaks up bumps better. I see why they removed it for these videos.

 

the oe shocks do the same thing so preload is not the problem the problem is thinking that a stick of cheap metal the size of a sharpie with a horrible weld to a thin hollow tube holding up your truck is a good idea

 

They do, but preloading too much just makes the damper/shock take the brunt of the force until the spring can start to give and let the damper do its job. It doesn't matter if they are 5100's or 2.5's, they have a job to do and that job isn't to support the truck like a rigid stick. That's what you are doing when you preload them without adding weight to match the spring rate and preload. Preloading springs just for lift without adding the proper weight is just a terrible idea and results in poor performance all around.