Lift kit issues

nice man! I’m interested in how you like the CBI swing out. I’m looking into alternate mounting options for my spare

 

Still waiting on parts to show up. I’ll try to remember to send you a DM or tag it here once its done. Here’s my front end and suspension as of a couple of weeks ago.

 

Sorry, but you paid $150 labour for the shop to replace the first shock that Bilstein gave you under warranty?? Did I read that right? If so, I think you need to find a new shop asap....

 

I don't believe it's uncommon for just one shock to be blown. I blew my rear drivers side shock when I took a road trip loaded close to payload limits and bottomed out hard on some construction joint at a bridge (was like a 4" vertical drop) at highway speeds. After the dealership denied warranty (which, I can't really blame them for) I put in some used Bilstein's designed for a RAM truck (free from a friend). They ended up being too long and I blew the driver side again from bottoming them out. Replaced with Bilstein 5100's and drove like that for a year before I replaced them with some KYB's and one of the 5100's was blown yet again.

I should mention I think my leaf springs were clapped out after the first incident/trip (we also wheeled hard for a week in Moab), which I believe is to blame for blowing the 5100 in the end. I swapped my leaf springs for a friends OEM take offs that were in better shape than mine when I added the KYB shocks and all is good since.

The leaf springs are what take on the load in the back, the shocks are just there to dampen their oscillations after hitting bumps (otherwise the rear end is really "bouncy" for a few extra up-downs after hitting bumps, which is how I first knew I had a blown shock). I was surprised when I removed the OEM shocks and only one was blown, it sure felt like they were both doing nothing.

Based on my experience of repeatedly blowing only one shock at a time, I wouldn't worry that your driver side didn't fail at the same time your passenger side did. I drove for several months on the various setups with one blown shock, and the 2nd one never failed.