5100 bilstein shocks, is it a good shock?

Maybe Bilstein didn't care much about these, but i've had 5160's on jeeps and they are light years beyond Rancho etc. I hear a lot of good things about OME, but have no experience.

My buddy has a 95 Bronco pulling 17" of travel on 9100's and it is like riding on a couch through the desert at 60mph, but they have a lot of tuning in them. I run Kings on mine because Bilstein doesn't make an OE application 9100 series.

What do you think is better than the 5100 in an identical setting?

 

The only thing in the same rough price range is Old Man Emu nitrochargers, which are quite a bit better than 5100s IMO. Otherwise you've got quite a bit of a jump in price to Kings, Foxes, etc. Although for what I paid for 5100s, two different sets of coils after I gave up with preloading the stock coils, and finally OME nitrochargers after the 5100s failed, I could have bought a nice set of coilovers.

FWIW I have 7100s in the back of my rig I'm quite happy with.

 

Did the 5100s you had not last 30k worth of some pretty good wheeling with armor and a winch? Also going from an almost blown shock to a brand new one will make the new one seem alot better. That being said i probably wont replace my 5100s with another set but dish out the money for a set of ext. travel coilovers.

 

How's the ride with the Nitros? The 5125s in the back of my truck are too damn stiff, like riding in a horse carriage. And no it's not the springs.

 

I heard that adjustable 5100 bilstein shocks last longer than the normal 5100. But I don't know if that's true

 

every 5100 strut/coil over is adjustable.

 

That not entirely true. When I first put on the 5100s, I had no armor, and didn't really wheel that much. Build progressed over that time frame as well as wheeling. Hard to say how long they were used for what with what amount of weight. What eventually did them in was a bent shaft. Which makes up a few thousand of those miles anyways. Also, the OMEs I put on were used and had like 15k miles on them.

Lastly, I'm not saying I'm shocked that they got that short of life given my use for them, or moreover that others shouldn't use them at all. I just like to caution people that they are not an end-all be-all shock like a large majority of TW likes to proclaim. For a lot of members on here, you're right, they're probably fine. Just don't fall into the TW hype like I did and expect them to be awesome if you want to wheel. That's the main point I try to make when I start these 5100 arguments: most people here recommend them without any comparison to other shocks or real world experience, especially with wheeling on them.

I've never had OMEs in the back. Started with 5100s, went to 10" 5125 (255/70 valving) moved on to 10" 7100s on custom mounts (also 255/70 valving, but rebuildable if I want to change them). Rear shocks can be tricky when using the factory mounts.

 

I had these on my 11 and my 15 now, I had one issue with the passenger rear which was replaced for free by bilstein (they have a warranty). Any shock will leak if dirt,salt, etc get into the seal.

 

I know they got a limited lifetime warranty but sometimes bilstein won't send you a new one