Mid Travel vs. Bilstein 5100’s

Hi there, first time posting on this forum so let me know if I mess anything up!

Moving forward, I recently got an Accutune Mid-Travel kit, the Fox 4A performance elite (with adventure tune and icon level 3) to be precise. Before taking the leap to upgrade (I originally had Bilstein 5100’s with Eibach springs and Fox 2.0’s in the rear with a Deaver AAL) I had tons of questions and couldn’t find everything I was looking for, so I figured I’d give a better rundown between some key differences.

First off, the two setups do basically the same thing. If you just want a lift and don’t do too much off road, go with the cheaper setup. If you’re tired of the huge bangs from bottom outs off road or noticing your truck feels too stiff when you hit too much washboard, go with the pricier setup.

Now as far as in cab feel, if you’re cruising through 30 MPH washboard you’re still going to feel it in the cab either way, if you’re hitting large bumps you’re still going to feel them. What really changes is with speeds higher than that. Over 40 or so, a bumpy dirt road feels like pavement. The truck is much more planted on washboard, with less bumping, kicking, and understeer. This is true of highway driving as well. I feel almost no bumps in the road, and potholes have become a joke to me. Essentially, at slow speeds, the truck a bit better, while at high speeds it becomes significantly nicer to drive. The biggest difference while on slower more rowdy trails is bottom out. While doing the same ATV trail at roughly the same (20mph) speed, I bottomed the Bilstein setup around 5 times, and only once with the 2.5’s (which I could have adjusted out).

Overall the 2.5’s are a significantly better shock, and the new leafs seem to handle weight better. If I were to have a do-over, I’d still make the upgrade from the old setup to new. It isn’t as cloud-like as I’d anticipated, but it is a huge jump. I might’ve bought the parts separately and shipped them straight to Accutune to do the tuning, because they do have a pretty significant premium over other sources (even if you were to still pay for their tuning). I would still not have done long travel, it’s double the price and I think there’s diminishing returns considering how little is left on the table with this setup.

 

Great write-up!

What height setting were you running your 5100's at and what all did you have to do to your CV's to accommodate? Also how banged up are your 2.0s and are you wanting to sell them?
I want to run my 5100's at the full 2.5" but haven't heard any reviews. seems like most do 1.5". Mine came with a spacer on top of the 5100's that I'm certainly looking to get rid of

 

@ghardy

I think my Bilsteins were on the middle setting, I believe right around 2” was what I got.

As far as CV’s, I’ve heard that up to 3.5” is completely fine on stock CV’s (though if you do tear a boot there’s an aftermarket rebuilder CVJ with supposedly better boots that I’ve read good things about). Other options are diff drop or longer CV’s, but from what I read the diff drop can actually harm the truck more than stock as it rotates the diff more than it actually lowers it. The extended CV’s won’t be of use until you go long travel and increase the length of the LCA.

I’m not looking to sell my 2.0’s, a benefit of the new suspension is that it’s rebuildable but a week or two of downtime means I need spares.

 

@boofishy8

What rear springs are you running (leafs)