Shocks - Rancho, Bilstein, etc.

A

Ace!

Gone Traveling
Joined
Aug 21, 2015
Messages
530
Location
So. Oregon
I have used Rancho shocks in the past but would like opinions on competing brands. I read a lot about Bilsteins, but don't know if they are better.

My truck is a Super Duty with my Hawk on it all the time. It weighs ~9,000 lbs. total.

The Ranchos (9000) have a larger body and larger piston/shaft. They are adjustable. The Bilsteins seem to have a very good reputation.

Any reason to pick one over the other? Are there others to consider.
 
I had Bilsteins on both the front & rear of my Ram 2500 for a few years. As long as the camper was on it was great. I remove the camper frequently and the rear was really stiff with the Bilsteins. I now have Rancho 9000's on the rear which I can adjust when the camper is either on or off. The best of both worlds :) Both are great shocks..
 
I'll never run another Rancho. The 9000 are over priced for a hydraulic non gas shock. If designed for the application they don't need to be adjustable. Most friends who have run them moved on to something else. I've had Rancho 5000's on several vehicles and don't like them. Way too much compression damping(that's the springs job) and way too little rebound damping(the shocks job).

I've never run Bilsteins. Comments from friends say they are nice on stock vehicles but can get overwhelmed when you upgrade springs.

Old Man Emu is the best non reservoir shock I've ever used. But applications are limited.

For a budget HD shock Skyjacker Nitrochargers are pretty good. They worked very well on my lifted old school Powerwagon with Skyjacker Softride suspension. Both on and off road. That's what is currently on the "Moon Truck" project.
 
I have OME (Old Man Emu) on my 2014 Tacoma with FWC Fleet and it's great.

When I was doing my research, it seemed consensus among people who actually go off-road was that Bilsteins were kind of "meh".
 
I have Bilsteins on both my desert race chase truck and under the camper truck. Both totally transformed the ride and performance of their respective truck. What is now the chase truck came to me with RS5000's on it. As delivered I knew that I had to do something as it was horrible.

If those who thought "meh" were talking about the OEM Tacoma dampers made by Bilstein, then that wouldn't surprise me. Those are tiny and would hard pressed to do much if/when the truck was driven even moderately hard.

Have a look at any real desert race vehicle. You will never find a Rancho on anything competitive. You will find Fox's, King's, Bilsteins, Sway-A-Way's, and the occasional FOA's. These are all high pressure gas charged mono-tube dampers that use deflective disc valving.
 
I don't plan to use my truck for desert racing, but crawling over rocks wouldn't be out of the question. I wouldn't put RS5000s on a truck, but haven't used the 9000s (I did have the 7000s, 3-way back in the day).

For slow speed, or washboard roads, Bilsteins, or meh?
 
I take my Taco + Fleet camping off-road often. Nothing too terribly difficult, but the OMEs can handle more than I can do, I"m sure.
I went OME because I wanted quality, but not too spendy/over-kill. I won't be doing anything too hard-core, but need something very capable if I do find myself in a tight spot.
 
I have some old bilsteins that perform great, despite an unknown amount of miles on them. My understanding is that the valving on the bilsteins 5100 series makes them superior to a lot of others? On the front I have Radflo Coilovers which are adjustable to accommodate dual batteries, a custom steel bumper and a winch.

It looks like there are lots of great adjustable options for the super duty which is nice http://www.summitracing.com/int/search/part-type/shocks-and-struts/make/ford/model/f-250-super-duty/adjustable/yes?N=4294925615%2B4294951343%2B4294938654%2B4294951297&SortBy=Default&SortOrder=Ascending&retaillocation=int
 
It would be a mistake to assume that shocks suitable for a race truck are suitable for an everyday vehicle; the requirements are quite different. For example, a lot of so-called high-performance shocks come with heym joints instead of rubber bushings, which I think is a mistake for an overlanding vehicle.

I've had very good luck with Old Man Emu shocks, including about 140,000 miles on a Land Cruiser used for guiding and training.

I disagree respectfully about adjustable shocks. If you have a camper that is removed between trips, adjustable shocks are the only way to ensure a comfortable and controlled ride with or without the load. We're running Boss adjustable shocks on our Tacoma, and even though our camper stays on all the time I'll adjust the shocks up for firm freeway handling, then down for off-pavement comfort.
 
Bilstein 5100's come with bushings, not bearings. A little known trick with the Bilstein 7100's, that come with Heim joints or spherical bearings or Rose Joints - which ever you want to call them, is to remove them and replace them with quality urethane shock eyelet bushing. I've done exactly that on the chase truck which also serves as my crawler and my long distance solo trips rig. Damping is damping, if it is tailored correctly to the truck then it will be suitable no matter how the truck is used.

It would be a mistake to assume that a high pressure, mono-tube shock is only for racing. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are exotic high pressure mono-tube dampers out there that only belong on race vehicles, but price alone will DQ them from consideration.

A common misconception is that the dampers damp the movement of the body. An easy conclusion to come to that is completely erroneous. They damp the movement of the un-sprung weight (the axle or the suspension links of an independent design) relative to the sprung weight (body, frame, interior, etc.). If you have to change the damper setting with a change in weight then something is wrong with the damping.
 
JHanson said:
It would be a mistake to assume that shocks suitable for a race truck are suitable for an everyday vehicle; the requirements are quite different. For example, a lot of so-called high-performance shocks come with heym joints instead of rubber bushings, which I think is a mistake for an overlanding vehicle.

I've had very good luck with Old Man Emu shocks, including about 140,000 miles on a Land Cruiser used for guiding and training.

I disagree respectfully about adjustable shocks. If you have a camper that is removed between trips, adjustable shocks are the only way to ensure a comfortable and controlled ride with or without the load. We're running Boss adjustable shocks on our Tacoma, and even though our camper stays on all the time I'll adjust the shocks up for firm freeway handling, then down for off-pavement comfort.
Click to expand...

I haven't done it, but aren't airbags more recommended if you are going to be taking the camper off and on?
 
One of the problems with consensus is everybody likes something different. I grew up driving when trucks were trucks and ride was secondary. I like a firm ride in both a car and a truck. Younger folks who grew up in very soft riding new cars complain about the harshness and truckyness in good riding SUV's.

Then comes money. From cheap to sky is the limit. There are some good bargains out there. I've had great luck with things like Sears gas HD truck shocks over the years. They did fine for a while. But didn't last long. Lifetime replacement was a blessing.

Bang for the buck OME's rock if they make them for your truck. Mine ride nice empty and have no trouble handling loads like this.




I'm told the new OME sport shocks are even better. Position and velocity sensing valving.

Personally I'd rather have too much shock or stiffness than not enough. A little bit of firm ride beats wallowing to me any day.

I know lots of folks who love Monroe Sensatracs or whatever they call them this week. But most admit they start to give up with a lot of weight on the truck.

On another Trooper I ran a set of Doetsch Tech shocks. Physically they weren't huge but they sure damped like they were. Quite impressive. I wasn't sure if they still made them so I looked them up. They don't seem to get the press they once did. Maybe ntsqd can shed some light on these as well.
http://www.doetsch-shocks.com/

On our import cars I've been pleased with KYB's. Don't think truck shocks are their market though.


JH you've mentioned Boss stuff before. Is there a retail outlet for these in the US? They look nice. In fact the welding and outer tube shape and such reminds me a lot of OME.
 
I remember DT's too, but have no experience with or info on them. Their popularity in off-road racing pre-dates me.

I have had one set of RS5000's that I thought worked extremely well. They were purpose damped for the application: front of my '91 4WD Suburban. It happened that the springs were also Rancho's, but not the std part number easily found. They were a rarely known "pre-runner" K5 application spring that you really had to know how to find in their catalog. Fortunately Ruben at Ventura 4x4 did know how to find them and that spring & shock combo worked exceptionally well. Right up until they would fade. Fortunately I had to work pretty hard to get them to fade so it was a rare event (the road from Baja Hwy 1 to El Arco could do it, and I suspect that Harry Wade Rd. could do it too).

Contrast that singular good experience with Rancho's with many more uses of Bilsteins (or similar design of other mfg) where bolt them on and they work well regardless of how or where the vehicle was driven and you see why my bias is what it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads - WTW

T
Tundra Hawk Suspension Mods
JHanson
JHanson
T
Need new Toyota shocks…Recommendations?
Bosque Bill
Bosque Bill
K
Super Springs HD coils SSC-52 Ram 2500
kmehr
K
AspensNook
Best solution to reduce body roll
2
fish more
fish more
B
2016 F150 SC 8 Ft bed HEAVY DUTY PAYLOAD #2611
BBZ
B

New posts - WTW

Back
Top Bottom