Suspension Replacement: 887s or Fox 2.5?

Current suspension setup:

Front: 5100s with OME 885s, 1/2” top plate spacer on the driver’s side, 1/4” top plate spacer on the passenger side. ~3” of lift.

Rear: 5100s with Icon 3 leaf progressive AAL on TSB leaf packs, with overload leaf. ~2” of lift.

I’ve been satisfied with the ride of the 5100s and I really like the overall height of the truck right now but I’ve been running my current suspension setup for about three years. It has close to 60k miles on it at this point and I’m leaning towards replacing the shocks all around and either upgrading the front springs to 887s or buying Fox 2.5 coilovers. Ideally, I’d like to ditch the top plate spacers, with the exception of one on the driver’s side to correct “lean” if I stick with the OME springs.

I do a lot of highway driving. In fact, 80-90 percent of my driving is on the highway and the rest on local roads. Shitty local roads, I might add. Pot holes and uneven surfaces everywhere. Off road use is limited to dirt/gravel trails usually to and from fishing locations. Very occasional off road trail usage.

With that in mind, I’m looking for the most “comfortable” suspension setup I can get, while maintaining my current amount of lift. I’m already running standard load tires (even C rated LT tires were too rough for my commute) to keep things as smooth as possible on the highway. I’m also open to upgrading the rear springs to a medium duty Dakar setup, but for now, I’m mainly focused on shocks and front springs.

Based on what I’ve read so far, it sounds like the Fox 2.5 coilovers are quite comfortable on the road. I guess my question would be, how are they compared to 5100s/887s? What about the upgraded 6112s? Would I be better off going full OME? And in the rear, I’m leaning towards the new 5160s for a bit more travel but I’m open to suggestions there as well. Any advice/experience would be appreciated as I’ve already messed with the suspension on this truck enough so I want to do it right on the first try when it comes time for the upgrade/replacement.

 

While I have no experience with the 5100s, I can give my opinion/experience on the latter part. I do similar driving you do, mostly commute and find myself offroad on weekends. I had the 6112/5160 with dakar medium leaf pack. I then went to Fox 2.5 extended travel with remote reservoir in the front and still have the 5160/dakar in the rear.

The 6112/5160 combo to me rode good, it was comfortable, but I had to set it at the highest setting to get the 3" height I wanted. I had second gen specific 6112 on a 3rd gen. and had the spacer on the driver side to account for the lean. Honestly I should have went down 1 clip and it would have rode much nicer, but I wanted the 3" lift.

My current setup is Fox 2.5 and 5160/dakar medium in the rear. I do not know how much lift, I'm guessing 2-2.5". I only upgraded the front because the deal was too good to pass up, and I was curious if they were worth the extra cost. Going from the 6112 to the Fox was a huge difference. The front absorbs bumps, pot holes and general driving was way better. However my rear end now does not match the front. The rear feels a lot harsher, and feels like its bouncing around. I believe this is due to different valving. I do not recommend this setup, and I will be upgrading the rear shocks to match.

Both of these coils are able to get you 3", but they will perform better at a lower setting. I will sacrifice height for comfort, even if that means I have to cut and trim (285 size tires). So If you have the funds I recommend Fox front and rear.

 

Awesome, thanks for the input!

I’ve priced out the full Fox 2.5 setup with rear shocks and I can handle spending that much on my next suspension, but I don’t want to go much more than that.

And I’ve been doing some reading about the 6112 shocks and I don’t think I like the idea of preloading them as much as I’d need to in order to obtain the lift I want...

It sounds like it’s going to come down to whether I want to sacrifice a little height and go with the full Fox setup or stick with OME coils to stay at ~3” and then decide between another set of 5100s or go full OME.

I’d probably be ok dropping back down closer to a 2.5” lift if it means no more jarring my teeth and hearing things rattle when I’m driving down all these bumpy and pot hole ridden side roads. I’m also running 285s but I’ve got adjustable UCAs so I can play with the alignment settings and hopefully avoid having to trim too much more.

 

We are huge fans of Fox suspension. The shafts have better surface hardening which will help prevent dings/damage/rust. I imagine that may be a benefit in Ohio. The Fox coilovers/shocks can also be tuned to ride even better than factory and rebuilt later down the road instead of being replaced like other (cheaper) shocks. We would also strongly suggest removing the spacer on the front coilovers.

Do you already have aftermarket upper control arms?

 

Yep, installed SPC UCAs when I bumped the lift to 3” and had the 285/70/17 (Standard Load Nitto Ridge Grapplers) tires put on. I also had new LCAs, inner and outer tie rods put in about 10k miles ago. And I know my alignment, the tires and the suspension all play a part in the “ride quality” on rough roads. I’m just hoping when it comes time to replace the 5100s, I can find a shock/spring combo that is more forgiving at speeds under 40 mph on uneven and sometimes downright shitty surfaces.

And I fully intend to remove the top plate spacers when I upgrade the suspension. I installed those as an “easier way to get to 3” versus replacing the coils with 887s. The ride quality didn’t change much given the shocks were already 50k miles old and I only increased both sides by 1/4”.