suggestions for "upside-down" front D60 shocks

[LCAM-01XA]

Typical shocks have the body attached to the axle with the shaft shooting up to the frame bracket. We have a need for just the opposite - shock body attached to the frame rail, shaft hanging down to meet the axle. Simply flipping the shocks upside down is a bad idea for twin-tube shocks, which is what we have now. They are nice twin-tubes, and they work very well, but they are twin-tubes nevertheless, and by design should not be flipped as that will dry up one of their valves. So we need new shocks - it appears that from all the available offerings for the D50/D60 axles, only Bilstein's 4600 series is of the upper body lower shaft setup we're looking for. Can someone running those shocks on the front of a 1-ton 4x4 truck please confirm this is indeed how they are set up? Or if anyone knows of a different shock that is done in similar fashion, please speak up Thanks!

 

[tbrumm]

LCAM-I have the Bilstein 5100 series shocks on the front of my F350. These do indeed mount with the shock body "up" and the shaft "down" toward the axle. I switched to the 5100 series because I lifted the front end about 2 inches. I previously had the Bilstein "heavy duty" shocks on the front(yellow shock body, blue boot) and those mounted the same way.

 

[dunk]

Bilstein 4600 series PN 24-016179

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[LCAM-01XA]

Alright, excellent, thank you both! Tbrumm, would you happen to know the part number for your 5100s? We haven't decided whether to lift the truck a but or not, and considering that in our case this takes literally a push of a button it would be nice if we can equip with shocks that can handle the new geometry properly.

 

[tbrumm]

Alright, excellent, thank you both! Tbrumm, would you happen to know the part number for your 5100s?

Technically, the 5100's aren't actually made for our trucks, but are made for the '99 up superdutys. I actually checked the maximum extension/minimum compression lengths by cycling my front suspension and looked up in the Bilstein catalog to see which shock best fit those dimensions. I ordered a pair of 33-185545 shocks, which are supposed to be for a 99-04 SD with 4-6" lift. IIRC I also double checked that number with the shock number that PMF offers with their 2.5" lift RSK. I figured that if these shocks worked with a 2.5" RSK, then they would work with my 2" lift springs. Been on over a year and no complaints. Seem to be a tad "softer" than the Bilstein HD's.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

The way ours sits now at 19" ride height, the factory-fit 4600 Dunk posted will allow for like 5" compression (of which we can only use 4" cause of the air bellows) and 4" droop. If we lift the thing another 2" we're running into 6" compression but only 2" droop, not a good situation.

From the Superduty trucks we have either 33-187297 with 14.44" collapsed and 23.23" extended, or the 33-185545 with 15.96" collapsed and 26.02" extended. First one is darn near identical to the standard issue (for IDIs) 4600-series shock. The second one will allow us 3" compression and 7" droop from the current ride height, or 5"/5" if we air the nose up a bit. Guess tomorrow we'll play a bit with the jack lifting one wheel at a time and see what the truck actually needs...

And to throw a curve ball here, assuming we decide to stay with the shorter shocks, do we get the 4600-series Dunk has or the 5100-series made for a slightly-lifted SD truck? Sizes and travel being the same, and cost not being an issue as we found a vendor on Amazon who sells this particular 5100 model for the same price as the 4600s, are the 5100s actually better shocks? Our truck is very nose-heavy for a number of reasons, but it does not have oversized tires, and it rides on a combined leaf/air suspension so it's not too harsh over bumps right now - so the shock needs to be able to keep the nose bounce under control without being too heavily valved to kill the ride quality...

 

[Greg5OH]

the 5100s were deisgned for lifted trucks, with bigger tires (i assume the tire part, as what other reason should one lift a truck)
I cant comment for a fact, but I ASSUME the 5100s would be valved stiffer to help control the larger unsprung mass of a bigger tire. But how much bigger, what kind of valving..I dont know. And the guy at bilstein when I called was useless, just read me the description off their website...damn desk jockeys.

 

[tbrumm]

the 5100s were deisgned for lifted trucks, with bigger tires (i assume the tire part, as what other reason should one lift a truck)
I cant comment for a fact, but I ASSUME the 5100s would be valved stiffer to help control the larger unsprung mass of a bigger tire. But how much bigger, what kind of valving..I dont know. And the guy at bilstein when I called was useless, just read me the description off their website...damn desk jockeys.

From my "butt in the seat" meter, it "feels" to me like the 5100's I installed are just slightly "softer" than the 4600's they replaced. I run stock tires (LT235/85R/16), but the front is lifted about 2" with Tuff Country 5 leaf "EZ-Ride" spring packs. The original springs were badly sagged due to the diesel weight and the weight of the huge "cow catcher" replacement bumper. The front end now sits just a bit lower than the rear, which looks way better than a sagged out front end. With the combined weight of the diesel and the bumper, it actually rides pretty decent (for a 1 ton truck with a solid axle). I am still running stock springs in the rear with 4600 shocks. I think the 5100's are marketed as being a better shock, but how they are better I really don't know. They do have a silver paint on them which probably makes them more rust resistant than the 4600's, which obviously has nothing to do with ride quality. IIRC another guy on here that is running 5100's is Jon @6.9poweredscout and maybe he can provide some input too. I think he was running them with an RSK.

 

[A48WillyzGuy]

I also run the 5100's from a 99+ Super Duty on my truck. Shock body is up, and the shaft is down. The ride is firm, but it's a 1 ton 4wd.... Lol. I plan on getting some for the rears as well.

 

[riotwarrior]

Would these 5100 shocks work well for a F350 with 4" lift?

 

[LCAM-01XA]

16" compressed length brother, 26" extended. Factory for our truck is 14 and 23 respectively. Go measure what the length of the shock is eye to eye in the lifted truck as it sits on the ground, if you're at around 22" I'd say they should work great.

 

[riotwarrior]

Not lifted yet...want purchase springs locally..new

 

[A48WillyzGuy]

They are actually meant for a Super Duty with a 2" lift. They do sit higher than our trucks, so it may work out fine. I don't know for sure. I do know that my stock F350 front springs work nicely with these shocks.
http://www.amazon.com/Bilstein-33-187297-Lift-Front-Shock/dp/B004WO9S5I

 

[LCAM-01XA]

They are actually meant for a Super Duty with a 2" lift. They do sit higher than our trucks, so it may work out fine. I don't know for sure. I do know that my stock F350 front springs work nicely with these shocks.
http://www.amazon.com/Bilstein-33-187297-Lift-Front-Shock/dp/B004WO9S5I

Those are the exact ones we'll be getting actually. We had the truck up in the air axle hanging by the shocks, and it turned out the shocks we have now are only 21.5" extended. Dunno what shocks they are, they came with the axle and they were new at the time so we just reused them. But they're obviously shorter than factory. In any case, with the 5100s ones you just posted, or the 4600s that Dunk is running, we'll get 2" more droop. Which is perfect as right now the air bellows sit at 8" length with the axle hanging, the longer shocks will bring them to 10" which is almost at their limit. So we'll end up with both shocks and air bellows maxing out at the same time, that's about as perfect as it can be. If we use the shocks Tbrumm is running, we'll easily overstretch the air bellows, not a good thing at all.

Btw the SD use shocks that are an inch shorter than what our trucks call for, so that's why their lifted shocks work well for us at lower lifts.

Regarding the 5100s having heavier valving cause of larger tires, that's good in our application, as heavy-valved shocks also work well to control heavy axle loads, which is what our situation is. So overall I think it should all work out well. We'll see in a few days I suppose

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Btw, 48WillysGuy, just to confirm your 5100s are of the "upside-down" type as well, right? Body up shaft down? Thanks!