Hello all. I have an 05 F-150 FX4 with stock suspension now. Replacing the fenders with 4" bulge fiberglass tomorrow.

I want to purchase bolt on coilovers but no lift kit. The 2" rise with coilovers should be plenty for me.

I do minor offroading, but no jumping or really crazy stuff. I am looking to improve the ride quality on and off road. Which coilovers will give me a soft ride (better than the stock shocks) on the road and still be able to handle offroading?

King, Icon, Camburg, Bilstein?

I know King and Icon are some of the best, will these be soft on the street or are they pretty stiff to be able to withstand the offroad abuse?

Also, if anyone is looking for a fender by any chance I have the passenger side fender for sale (black).

Thanks

 

Keep you stock coilovers and buy the adjustable bilsteins which will give you from 0-2inches of lift. It will save you about 1k. I think the kings your looking at are like 1200 or am i wrong? No need to spend that much money on Kings and such to get 2inches of lift and a better ride. Bilsteins will do the same job.

 

So in your opinion, for my application the Bilstein 5100's would do just the same as a set of King or Icon's? Why then is there such a difference in price?

I have read other posts which say their Bilsteins seem to have made the ride even tighter. That's what I'm kinda worried about.

I am looking for a smooth ride on the street, shocks that will absorb speedbumps and perfem well off road....

Thanks

 

Well im not so sure about the bilsteins and how much they absorb when hitting speed bumps and offroading. From what ive heard they are better than stock shocks hands down. But to answer your question about the 5100s compared to Kings in how smooth they will be, Im not sure. With kings you are getting a whole new coilover/shock body i believe ? With bilstein its just the shock itself. But King is expensive period haha.

 

Yea I know. That's why im "on the fence", dont know what to do. Hopefully I can find some guys with Bilsteins or Kings on this site and see what they say...

 

yah but for the money id be going bilsteins hands down. Now after i install my 12inch Rize with my leveling kit ill be getting kings to replace the leveling kit and the factory strut/strut extension. But pretty much for a leveling kit up front and a better ride than factory id go bilsteins IMO. But its up too you

 

FYI, if you ran 5100s up front with 2" of lift, you'll only be left with something like 2.5" of down travel. They are limited like this internally to prevent the suspension for binding. On road they firm the ride up and ride well, but I think you will get better response from coil overs if your looking for higher speed. A tuned coilover is going to do more than a shock on stock springs in my opinion. And if you ran a coilover with only 1" of lift or so you would be left with more downtravel to absorb dips and holes and such. No matter what you run up front, the more it is lifted (without differential drop brackets) the easier the suspension will top out.
With the fiberglass you would probably still clear 35s easily with the right wheels.


Though to be fair I haven't driven an F150 with coilovers, only ridden in one for a short distance.

 

Do it right and spend your money once. The Kings are greay, and COMPLETELY rebuildable, the 5100's are not..There for, down the road..gonna have to replace. The Kings, just replace seals and uniballs, new oil. Done. Camburgs are built by Fox and Sway-A-Way. And are just as good as the Kings.. So depends if you want blue or red.

But dont be cheap cause it will just cost you more in the end.

Oh, and any coilover will add lift by turning the spring down.

Also, the above post, using the C/O to lift is turing the coil down, that has nothing to do with your down travel. The stock ball joints will limit the travel WAY sooner than the shock does. Also, the shocks shaft will max out before the coil seperates from the collar.

It will minimize your up travel more the more you spin the coil down, so when it compreses its already riding at a stiffer rate, and may bind. but, most likely, the stock suspension will bump out before that.

Give camburg a call, they are great guys and personal friends, their shocks will come valved for your truck for the best ride out of the box. Not to mention, alot more personable servie than King.

Your best ride will be a Camburg Upper arm on uniballs, Camburg Bolt in C/O, then i personall would put a small limit strap on it.


A good valved shock and lesser travel will perfoam WAY better than more travel and ****ty shocks and valving.

 

sounds good, thank you very much.

 

I was thinking about getting some coilovers for my truck aswell. I currently am running the bilstein 5100s and they perform good, but I take my truck off roading quite often and I am looking into getting a pair of better coilovers and upper control arms. I found some sway a ways online front and rear set for $1350 brand new. The Icons look great but theyre around 1200 just for the front, same with camburg and KING.

 

I agree but you missed what I meant about down travel. I was referring to down travel from ride height. Just simply stating that the more lift you get from cranking the coils, the less downtravel you will have from ride height causing the shocks to top out more (and therefor rougher ride). The suspension will still be able to move through the same range of travel assuming the coil doesn't bind, but more pre-load is going to negatively affect the ride. I'm just trying to discouraging him from cranking the coils for a ton of lift.

 

Idk I guess I told him to go with bilsteins just for the fact that if he ever decides to lift his truck then he doesn't have to try and get ride of the kings. But go big or go home right? Haha

Nocturnal- you said kings are completely rebuildable ? What all can you replace on them? Just curious on this

 

YEs it will be a bit stiffer ride with the coils cranked that much, and it will droop out sooner, being that cranking the coils down, starts to bring the suspension into droop at ride height, and may cause some camber issues. But 2-3in should not make much of a diff...4-5, if you could even get it that far by hand. would be noticable for sure. I think were gettign at the same point, just diff. wording.


Everything.... No joke..Everything. You can replace shafts, uni-ball bearings, seals, oil, bodies, different coil spring rate, different shims for valving. Completely rebuldable..So are Camburgs and Sway-a-ways. SAW makes Camburgs. I just rebuilt my SAW's for the race truck before i put them on. New seal rebuild kits were like $15 and shock oil is like $25, or you can use Power steering fluid w no additives. Uniballs were a few bucks each.

But you can replace any worn parts. thus it will last a lifetime. and not that hard to do if you have a little know how. Rebuilt both my front shocks in about 2 hrs.

 

Wow I learn something new everyday. So he can get the kings and then if he lifts the truck 6 inches all he has to do is contact king or sway away and give them the measurements on getting a longer body or shaft? Which would take away having to use a 6inch spacer like what comes on some lift.

 

Not exactly to that extent, Since you would be pretty much using a whole new shock by then. I mean, ya, you could order up a longer body, and matching shaft, but the valving would change as well due to more oil=more cooling/dampening. He weould also need a longer coil as well. Since the threds only go down about half to 3/4 of the body for the spanner.

By rebuildable, its mainly instead of buying a new shock after use, you replace worn parts. But if he wanted to, yes, he could go that way. My SAW shock bodies were $45 with a hook up each. Shafts are about the same.