The outfit below seems to be bottoming out much harder than it used tothis season.Pot holes or sharp bumps in the road produce very jarring results,veryquick rates.The shocks are Bilstein 5100's and have been on the truck forabout 8 years, they show no sign of leaking.Tires are 75psi front and 85psi rear.Ball joints seem good, the whole thing weighs about 11,000lbs Gross.I don't know of any method to test them properly.Thanks

The only way to test ball joints is with the weight off the spindle, grab the tire and see if it moves back and forth (vertically). If it does, it's joint time. Same with tie rod ends. but horizontal wiggle. If you have OEM ball joints and they aren't gereasable (most aren't), they 'fill' them with a tiny amount of grease and they have plastic balls and are prone to wearing out, I replaced the ones on my F350 ford diesel long ago with Moog greaseable joints, did it myself. Not too had, just a lot off bull work.Far as shocks go, the only sure fire way to tell if they are shot (if they arnen't leaking is pull one. The old bounce the corner of the vehicle (car) and see if it bounces more than once to determine if a shock is shot, don't work well with a truck because the truck is more heavily sprung. I'd pull a front, they aren't hard to take off and see by compressing and extending the shock (and listening to it) to tell if the internal dampening is gone or not. The shock should progressively resist compression but be easier to extend.One thing I learned about shocks is, you don't want a gas charged shock on a truck, you want oil filled shocks instead. Gas shocks have a starting load and the equates into an ever harder ride because the 'shock' of the bump has to overcome the start load before the shock moves.I just replaced my Rancho's on my truck (2nd set) with Skyjacker Black Max oil filled. You can buy factory direct from Skyjacker, saving you the middleman matkup.Hope that helps you....

If it's changed, my guess would be shocks. Call Bilstein. They do have a lifetime warranty.

jimh425 wrote:If it's changed, my guess would be shocks. Call Bilstein. They do have a lifetime warranty.Kind of reminds me of my Warn Lockout hubs with the 'Lifetime Warranty'. It's lifetime all right. Trouble is, to receive warranty service, you have to send the hubs in to Warn in Washington State (at your expense) and then wait for them to decide if it's a warranty issue or not. I broke an outer selector dial, how, don't have a clue but I found out right away that even though they have a 'Lifetime Warranty' Warn don't sell replacement parts...period.I have them sitting on the bench now. For a Dana 60 front axle 31 spline if you want them, you can have them...free, just pay the postage. I'll send them to you... In a Mile Marker box...:RI installed a set of Mile Marker Supremes, also with a lifetime warranty and replacement parts (unlike Warn).Getting back to shocks.. If your Billstein's fail what do you do? Run with no shocks or replace them. I know what I'd do. My Rancho's were 'lifetime guarantee too. I replaced them.

Bilstein 5100 shocks are lifetime warranty.http://cart.bilsteinus.com/pdfs/limitedlifetimewarranty.pdfsee above pdf file to claim warranty.I have replaced Bilstein 4600's on my wifes 1996 Toyota 4 runner under warrant after they were 15 years old.I have the same 5100 shocks as you ,originally purchased for my 2011 GMC 2500 hd.used them for 75,000 including a trip to with truck camper to Alaska.Those original shocks are now on my 2016 GMC 3500hd . Still working great.

My warranty is lifetime too..... Just say'in.

Shock Time? | Good Sam Community

JTLance
Explorer
Sep 04, 2017
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29178971/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1

read the past thread!
JTLance
Explorer
Sep 04, 2017
The Bilsteins soften up about 3 years of heavy use. The best ones I'd recommend have been KYB Monomax. 2 trucks, never soften up.

http://www.shockwarehouse.com/site/kyb_monomax.cfm

rebate.... http://www.shockwarehouse.com/news/pdf/KYB-Feeling-is-Believing-Fall-2017.pdf
Rubiranch
Explorer
Sep 04, 2017
Lifetime.

I love it when the manufacture claims its "lifetime" is up so they don't have to cover them.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Sep 04, 2017
Think I'd be checking the upper and lower ball joints (and tie rod ends) before anything else. Use the procedure I outlined in my previous post. One side at a time or if you have jack stands...both sides.

No, I don't have Bilstein Shocks and don't want any. Overpriced IMO.
jimh406
Explorer III
Sep 04, 2017
19.5s are much heavier and are more unsprung weight. That will cause more wear on shocks and suspension components all else being equal.
woodhog
Explorer
Sep 03, 2017
AnEv942 wrote:
How long ago was switch to 19.5s?

The 19.5's have been on for about 4 or 5 years now, I often wondered if
they might cause extra wear on the suspension components in the front end.
ticki2
Explorer
Sep 03, 2017
woodhog wrote:
The outfit below seems to be bottoming out much harder than it used to
this season.

Pot holes or sharp bumps in the road produce very jarring results,very
quick rates.

The shocks are Bilstein 5100's and have been on the truck for
about 8 years, they show no sign of leaking.

Tires are 75psi front and 85psi rear.

Ball joints seem good, the whole thing weighs about 11,000lbs Gross.

I don't know of any method to test them properly.

Thanks
Check the rubber bushing at the bottom of the front shocks for wear . Early Bilsteins had a problem with them wearing prematurely and came out with a new design . I called them and they sent 4 New front shocks (2 trucks) and did not have return the old ones , which BTW had the same dampening feel as the new ones after almost 100k miles . You do have to remove to test for dampening . Good luck .
AnEv942
Nomad
Sep 03, 2017
How long ago was switch to 19.5s?
jimh406
Explorer III
Sep 03, 2017
SidecarFlip wrote:
My warranty is lifetime too..... Just say'in.

What's your point about Bilstein? It doesn't seem like you buy them or have a point.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Sep 03, 2017
My warranty is lifetime too..... Just say'in.

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