Bilstein 6112/8100 DSA, 2.5s on a budget

This post is amazing, I am so nearly sold on the combo! I have the exact same set up, spring settings and everything, but 5160s in the rear. I’ve had the 8100s sitting in my shock surplus cart for months! My only hesitation is I keep hearing about the length of the 8100s being a limitation. Any experience you can share. Do you find yourself topping them out?

 

Where are you located? I have a pair of 8100 DSA with 20 miles on them. Was hoping not to have to ship them. I’m in VA, Tidewater area.

 

Thanks! I already went and bit the bullet with the DSAs. I’m thinking with more compression control, I won’t need to run so much rake, and I can drop the RXTs back down. When it comes time to upgrade the fronts, I will be reaching out.

 

I just got done with a vacation that had some off roading in it. I did a bunch of low/no maintenance roads at high speeds (45-55mph) and the shocks are incredible. It takes some really big washboards before you notice how bad the road is. So many pot holes, washboards, and puddles I hit at speed. They feel like the faster you go the better the ride gets.
I felt like I could drive as fast as I could see, meaning if I could see farther down the road I would have gone even faster. Though I was worrying about my LCA cam tabs hitting all those bumps at speed. Gusseted cam tabs might be in my future.
And I am still using the suggested settings on the DSA shocks

I have Perry Parts bumpstops, which help out a ton when you are topping out, I only felt them top out maybe 3 times. Which were some really big hits going through washed out sections of road at 40mph.

Here is a picture of my rear shock you can see the rubber sweeper (I guess that is what's called) still has some space so the shocks don't top out.
What I lost is about 1/2" of down travel that the Icon leaf pack would have given me.

Honestly I am not able to tell I lost a little bit of travel compared to my previous shocks, but I can 100% tell the ride quality difference once you leave the pavement.

 

Thanks for the update! I’m just getting to the install. Overall it looks like the 8100s are about an inch shorter. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme.

 

The zones on the 8100 probably do a good job of getting rid of the harshness from bottoming or topping out. On road and even well maintained but washboarded dirt roads the 8100s seem like the top performer. Running 1in oem blocks with 5125s so I just cant bring myself to lose the travel for real offroad situations vs this setup.

 

For me when I installed the shock top bolt with the leaf pack sitting at max droop the shocks bottom bolt was about a 1/2" short, so depending on your leaf pack setup you might not even loose the full inch.

I could see maybe if your kinda off roading is mainly crawling over obstacles where every little bit of articulation counts having a stock length shock would be a hinderance.

 

I do a bit of rocky trails, but rarely lift a tire. If I do, it just means I use the locker more often.