Time For New Shocks - HD Bilsteins Or Koni-FSD?

When I did mine, what works well on that top nut is a flex head gear wrench. The kind that articulates like your wrist. To the poster who said he was advised to keep the stock shocks cause their new, don't believe it. Change them out and enjoy a much improved ride. The joke is that the stock shocks are only good to get you from the dealer to home.

When I set the frame on jack stands and dropped the front suspension, this is what I seen on both sides. Note the top stem of the old Koni-RV shocks are showing a lot. I did not see this with the vehicle on the ground.


The play from the worn-away top-most grommet had the stem rubbing on the shock mount area, resulting in this. Thank goodness the holes in the shock support did not appear to suffer from the abrasion.


Here you can compare the hardware of Koni-RV to HD Bilstein.
Everything is much bigger on the HD Bilstein.


Here is the HD Bilstein on the passenger front.


Here is the HD Bilstein on the driver front.

pnichols wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
One thing certain.....I really did need new shocks up front. My Koni-RV shocks acted like they were not even there when I raised the front and dropped it to relocate the jack. The front bounced like a basket ball, up/down over and over and over (and over) again.

Hmmm ... my little Itasca has over 73K miles on it and my mechanic (and me pushing down on the front bumper) tells me that the Ford OEM front shocks are still good. Strange.

The front springs and general suspension on our E350 is so stiff, even with the worn-out Koni-RV shocks, I could not budge the front end by myself. The front-end drop test was an excellent test. I highly recommend that test to determine how good your front shocks are. A before/after shock replacement comparison is ideal. I should have done that when our rig was brand new with the Ford OEM shocks.

Desert Captain wrote:
Ron, I warned you in an earlier post that the Bilsteins were a serious PITA to install with the fronts being the worst. You should fair better on the rears. I learned this by watching two large Gorrilla's wrestle with mine as I stood by and drank coffee. :B
That is the good news... the better news is you are going to love the ride and handling improvement that comes with a set of HD Bilsteins. I just added a single axle cargo trailer to haul my Indian motorcycle and it adds a bunch of tongue weight {single axle's do that} and the Bilsteins are completely up to the task. Smoooth is the way it tows and rides. :C

Yes I do recall all the warnings on the difficulty in tackling the front shocks. Still I had hoped with my automotive skills, I could have said it was easier than warned. The best I can say about it is that I got the fronts done. One thing that helped was the lack of rust. It all came apart without heating or cutting.

Given my quick release drop-test of the front end comparison with the old Koni-RV compared to the new HD Bilstein, I anticipate a night/day improvement. I do wonder if my Koni-RV shocks were not set to the stiffest setting prior to their installation as I was told because they initially compressed in so easily until after I played with them. Adding, it didn't help that the upper-most bushing was so badly worn on each front shock, to the point of remnants.

It sure was time for new front shocks. I have to admit I was disappointed that they were probably toast with under 30,000 miles of use. Going 35,000 on them was bad. Not having a life-time warranty, investing again made my pain worse.

ron.dittmer wrote:
One thing certain.....I really did need new shocks up front. My Koni-RV shocks acted like they were not even there when I raised the front and dropped it to relocate the jack. The front bounced like a basket ball, up/down over and over and over (and over) again.

Hmmm ... my little Itasca has over 73K miles on it and my mechanic (and me pushing down on the front bumper) tells me that the Ford OEM front shocks are still good. Strange.

I wonder if Ford installs different front shocks on an E350 than what they install on an E450, such that maybe some under-loading of the front end can help shock life?

Of course "front shocks still good" is relative. I can hardly wait to try the Koni FSDs there to soften a bit of the coil springs' sting on cracks and pothoes.

Ron, I warned you in an earlier post that the Bilsteins were a serious PITA to install with the fronts being the worst. You should fair better on the rears. I learned this by watching two large Gorrilla's wrestle with mine as I stood by and drank coffee. :B

That is the good news... the better news is you are going to love the ride and handling improvement that comes with a set of HD Bilsteins. I just added a single axle cargo trailer to haul my Indian motorcycle and it adds a bunch of tongue weight {single axle's do that} and the Bilsteins are completely up to the task. Smoooth is the way it tows and rides.

:C

Well well well, mister OP procrastinator here is finally in the thick of installing his heavy duty Bilstein shocks.

I tackled the front two shocks first and they are now done. That was torture. I hear the rear two are easier. I sure hope so.

One thing certain.....I really did need new shocks up front. My Koni-RV shocks acted like they were not even there when I raised the front and dropped it to relocate the jack. The front bounced like a basket ball, up/down over and over and over (and over) again.

After the HD Bilsteins were on, I dropped the front and it went down and up and finished with one very minor repeat, just like I experience with my other vehicles.

After much struggling with the front/left driver-side shock, I opened the hood and removed the two sharp-tipped self-tapping Ford screws that hold a wire harness in place. With those two sharp objects removed, I was able to get my hand to the shock-top from the upper-left channel.

One other hassle was what I call sloppy fabrication of the shocks at the Bilstein factory. Bilstein welds the hex and shaft to the top of the shock. Both shocks had excess welding metal intruding over the nut preventing me from using an open-end wrench. Fortunately for me, I had two open-end wrenches of the same large size. I modified my worst one for the project by grinding it thinner to clear the welding intrusion.

One more challenge was that the shocks come fully extended, no strapping to keep them semi-compressed. I had to place my entire body weight to compress them, and then they slowly extend back to their full length again. Laying on my back under the rig, I had to use leverage to compress the bottom of the shock upward to align it with the mounting stem of the Ford lower control arm. With the limited room to work with, that too was quite challenging.

I surely hope the worst is behind me, looking forward to getting the rears done in the next few days.

Ron Dittmer

DrewE wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:

My rig is 24 feet long with a 158" wheel base. The front was porpoising (up/down) for every little reason which was encouraging inside chaffing on the front tires. I hope the switch will resolve that motion, and hopefully improve the ride and handling in other ways.

Check the ride height in the front as well. With the twin I-beam suspension, if the springs are weak and the front rides low, the camber is increased (and, I think, the toe in may be reduced slightly as well). I wouldn't be surprised if replacing the springs helped both with the ride/handling and with the tire wear on the inside edges of the tires. However, please note that I'm not in any way qualified as a truck suspension expert!

Drew , never thought about checking the ride height, but since it was at the Ford Fleet Service for 6 months trying to figure out a vibration I had and Henderson's Line-up neither place made any comments about ride height. I'll stick with it being the shocks.

Another thing to look at is with both Ron's Phoenix Cruiser and my Winni Aspect we don't have the big heavy over the cab tops like most Class C's have...
Yet have that porpoise action happening... ;)

Magnet'll tell if Aluminum. A shock uses oil and valving to turn motion into heat. AL radiates heat better than steel. I hope Bill did it.

ron.dittmer wrote:

My rig is 24 feet long with a 158" wheel base. The front was porpoising (up/down) for every little reason which was encouraging inside chaffing on the front tires. I hope the switch will resolve that motion, and hopefully improve the ride and handling in other ways.

Check the ride height in the front as well. With the twin I-beam suspension, if the springs are weak and the front rides low, the camber is increased (and, I think, the toe in may be reduced slightly as well). I wouldn't be surprised if replacing the springs helped both with the ride/handling and with the tire wear on the inside edges of the tires. However, please note that I'm not in any way qualified as a truck suspension expert!