Bilstein 5100 adj shocks (front and rear)

Skeeter McSkeet · May 8, 2015

Like my billys on max setting, could care less about what lifts the truck and what angles do and don't change lol.

-Skeet

nadrojcote · May 8, 2015

You'll care when your ball joints fail prematurely like people have had in the previous generation. Especially if you have aluminum control arms, you will have to replace the entire arm as the ball joints aren't replaceable.

Edited May 8, 2015 by projectsummit

5RWill · May 8, 2015

You'll care when your ball joints fail prematurely like people have had in the previous generation. Especially if you have aluminum control arms, you will have to replace the entire arm as the ball joints aren't replaceable.

To be fair the ball joints are going to go out anyway. It's a matter of time. 1.8-2.0 is pretty safe. Past it like 2.5-3.0 is where premature wear really kicks in. Friend of mine with a spacer kit replaced his at 120,000 miles with a 2" level. It's not a bad idea though to get UCAs with greasable or treatable ball joints though.

Skeeter McSkeet · May 8, 2015

You'll care when your ball joints fail prematurely like people have had in the previous generation. Especially if you have aluminum control arms, you will have to replace the entire arm as the ball joints aren't replaceable.

Maybe I should rephrase that more bluntly. I like my billys on the highest setting and could care less about you two agreeing to disagree on the same subject matter multiple times LOL. Me not caring about your all's argument of how the lift is achieved etc. etc. has no correlation to me caring about premature failure of ball joints and UCA's, nor worrying about replacing them. Once the warranty is up I will lift the truck I'm almost 100% sure. Hopefully the UCA's and ball joints hold up until then. Once lifted all that will be replaced anyway. I was under the impression the billys won't cause much more wear than you would see out of leaving it stock.

-Skeet

Edited May 8, 2015 by SkeeterMcSkeet

nadrojcote · May 8, 2015

To be fair the ball joints are going to go out anyway. It's a matter of time. 1.8-2.0 is pretty safe. Past it like 2.5-3.0 is where premature wear really kicks in. Friend of mine with a spacer kit replaced his at 120,000 miles with a 2" level. It's not a bad idea though to get UCAs with greasable or treatable ball joints though.

I wonder if your friends had steel control arms, it seems the angles of the steel control arms are slightly different and they hit the top out stop before hitting ball joint limits.

Maybe I should rephrase that more bluntly. I like my billys on the highest setting and could care less about you two agreeing to disagree on the same subject matter multiple times LOL. Me not caring about your all's argument of how the lift is achieved etc. etc. has no correlation to me caring about premature failure of ball joints and UCA's, nor worrying about replacing them. Once the warranty is up I will lift the truck I'm almost 100% sure. Hopefully the UCA's and ball joints hold up until then. Once lifted all that will be replaced anyway. I was under the impression the billys won't cause much more wear than you would see out of leaving it stock.

-Skeet

I cant see the billies causing much wear. They don't extend your down travel and that's what really kills the ball joints. It forces them to hit their limits when topping out. Spacer lifts and rancho quicklifts cause this. If I had the bilsteins on this truck I would probably get uca's just to know that my ball joints aren't at a 135 degree angle at all times, but that's just for piece of mind.

Edited May 8, 2015 by projectsummit

Skeeter McSkeet · May 8, 2015

I should also say you guys know a lot more about all this than I do haha.

-Skeet

nadrojcote · May 8, 2015

I should also say you guys know a lot more about all this than I do haha.

-Skeet

Ha! I sometimes get a little overboard with worrying about this kind of stuff. It gives me something to do in my free time and if it helps others down the road by having it documented on the internet then I'm happy do be doing it.

Skeeter McSkeet · May 8, 2015

I rely heavily on other people's advice/experience/input, this forum has some good stuff in it and most ppl are asses like you can easily encounter on most forums. Just so you know I'll be contacting you when I order uca's lol!

-Skeet

5RWill · May 8, 2015

I wonder if your friends had steel control arms, it seems the angles of the steel control arms are slightly different and they hit the top out stop before hitting ball joint limits.

Not sure it was a 2008 or 09 sierra. He ran it up to 220,000 miles had the tranny replaced at 200,000. He now has a 13" Ram 1500. He loves that thing.

nadrojcote · May 8, 2015

I think my next truck will be a ram. Have always told myself not to get a dodge, but the RAM seems to have a lot less problems than my sierra. My friend has one too and it just feels like a much more solid truck, the doors dont make creaking noises going over bumps like mine does and the hemi has some jam. I'm just waiting on them to compete with the mpg I can get with my 5.3.

Jackseric · May 8, 2015

My friend just sold his '10 Ram for '14 Silverado. He took one ride in mine and traded his in a week later. He said it was "nickle and dime-ing" him to death. Just in the last year alone he's replaced brakes/rotors, ball joints, wheel bearings, and the dash was cracked in about 4 places (never wrecked) and the thing sounded like a coffee can full of nuts and bolts. Add all that on top of what went wrong when the dealership was still fixing stuff under warranty... and he says he'll never own another Dodge. The ball joints and wheel bearings were done twice, once under warranty and once on his dime.

nadrojcote · May 8, 2015

My friend just sold his '10 Ram for '14 Silverado. He took one ride in mine and traded his in a week later. He said it was "nickle and dime-ing" him to death. Just in the last year alone he's replaced brakes/rotors, ball joints, wheel bearings, and the dash was cracked in about 4 places (never wrecked) and the thing sounded like a coffee can full of nuts and bolts. Add all that on top of what went wrong when the dealership was still fixing stuff under warranty... and he says he'll never own another Dodge. The ball joints and wheel bearings were done twice, once under warranty and once on his dime.

Did he have a lift and offset rims? They cause ball joints and wheel bearings to go often. The dash does seem like its cheap plastic in the older models though. Also how many miles?

Edited May 8, 2015 by projectsummit

5RWill · May 9, 2015

I think it just varies truck to truck honestly. My sierra doesn't have a single issue functionally. I have some complaints but those are my personal complaints, no fault of the truck. Where i like the dodge better than my sierra is the tranny isn't lackluster, dual exhaust, and gear ratio. Ride is about the same mine might be a little stiffer daily due to my more aggressive bilsteins. Friend has a 2013 ram. His truck is comfortable though, i drove one night when we were looking for hogs. He does say that his Ram pulls loads much better than his 5.3L Sierra he had. But then again it should he's running a 5.7L hemi and a 3:55 gear ratio. The 6.2L GM with 3.73 would be more comparable. As far as fuel he gets around the same i get it's no joke. Granted i just got back home and am not in starkville anymore i now get 16 in town 18-20 highway because it's the delta.

I think for the money Ram is the best truck on the market. Warranty is now first in it's class, interior is first in it's class (GM is right behind them), powertrain is very competitive, and fuel economy is also very competitive. The only negatives are the aesthetics IMO. Three of my friends that have 13+ rams swear by them. Two of them 1500 5.7 Hemi, the other Ecodiesel.

GM has the best looking truck by far and IMHO the best engines as well, i really like the Ecotec Engines. They're pricey though.

Edited May 9, 2015 by 5RWill

Jackseric · May 9, 2015

Did he have a lift and offset rims? They cause ball joints and wheel bearings to go often. The dash does seem like its cheap plastic in the older models though. Also how many miles?

He had a leveling kit (or maybe small lift 2" or less, I can't remember) and stock wheels. I'm not sure how many miles, but it was shockingly low. I do agree that sometimes it gets down to truck to truck variations. Overall, I've had fantastic GM vehicles over the years, not so much with my Dodges. Everyone has their favorites. I loved my Durango (1st Gen) and liked my Charger. I just didn't like the never ending repairs to keep them going. In my GMS I've been annoyed but not stranded. I can't say the same for the others.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Jackseric

5RWill · May 11, 2015

Found someone who had a coilspacer kit on his dodge and then bilsteins. He measured before and after. I'm not sure what his stock spring length was but it appears it doesn't compress the spring like a coilspacer. I guess it depends on where said coil spacer is. I figured the coil spacer would sit on the spring perch but it looks like it sits at the stop where the spring meets the strut cap.

http://www.ramforum.com/f40/bilstein_5100_leveling_shocks_verus_coil_spacer_reviewed_ram_1500_a-45489/

So if you notice the top pick, the coil spacer puts the factory spring into the 10 inch compressed position, when you get the 5100's it immediately releases it back to the stock relaxed position of 12 inches. If you have a good eye, you can see that in the top pic each spring is less then and inch, and with the Bil's it goes up to about a perfect inch. Prior to making the changed I manually tried rocking the truck back and forth, and with the spacer it was very hard to rock back in forth. The first thing when I got my truck was do the same thing, and the truck easily rocked back and forth.