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

[ron_dittmer]

I seek the opinion of people with experience with either type on their class C or B+ Ford E350 or E450.

My red colored Koni-RV adjustable shocks in front are in need of replacement. I am thinking of replacing all four, wondering if I should go with Koni-FSD shocks or the Heavy Duty Bilsteins, putting price aside.

Ron Dittmer

[cbigham]

Utah and Wyoming, nice. We did that in July. Rv mostly trouble free with a long trip including 104 miles of tuff dirt such as Green River Lakes road. Dunno if I'll do that again.

I like the idea of the koni 2 speed shock, being a dirt bike I'm familiar with it works.

[ron_dittmer]

I see I did not keep up with the progress of this thread that I started. I did finish the installation of all 4 shocks in late July.

Yesterday we just returned from a 2 week trip out west to Colorado and Wyoming (from the Chicago area) so I got some serious use from the new heavy duty Bilstein shocks on our 2007 E350 chassis. I have drawn a conclusion.

First I want to say that the shocks the new Bilsteins replaced were 11 year old Koni-RV adjustable shocks. I cannot compare the two brands because the old Koni-RV shocks were not adjusted to the heavy-duty setting as I had been told by the installer. I think the technician simply installed them out of the box without any type of adjusting. Each shock was adjusted differently, favoring a middle setting. What made me replace the shocks was worn-away top-mount grommets on the front shocks.

New shocks are always going to be better than old shocks, especially when the old ones were adjusted wrong and with tired grommets. So I won't compare the two.

What I can say is that surprising to me is that the new heavy duty Bilstein shocks added only a very minor increase in the harshness of the ride compared to the old Koni-RV adjustable shocks. I expected a much bigger change, a significant increase in the harshness of ride. If someone changed my shocks without my knowledge, I would not notice any increase in ride harshness. Given my old Koni's were not adjusted to the heavy duty setting, I can see why the very minor increase in ride harshness.

As hoped, the new HD Bilstein shocks eliminated all of the front end bouncing up/down porpoising I had with the messed up Koni shocks and the Bilsteins noticeably improved handling. My front tires are original 11 years old with 38,000 miles on them with uneven thread wear, much caused by the messed up Koni shocks. I assume our rig will be back to 100% after I replace the tires and get our front alignment checked.

If I had a chance to do it over again, I would still install the same heavy duty Bilstein shock absorbers.

[T18skyguy]

ron.dittmer wrote:

T18skyguy wrote:
When I did mine, what works well on that top nut is a flex head gear wrench. The kind that articulates like your wrist.

I remember reading someone mentioning that before and I tried it as I have the same micro-clicking pivoting head box wrenches. I found a standard 3/8" shallow socket the better choice.....since I was able to get my hand back there after removing those two sharp screw-ends I mentioned earlier. The socket held the old top nut in-place while turning the old shock. with the lack of rust, it worked well. Installation was the same, but using a large (ground thin) open-ended wrench on the top of the Bilstein. It seemed to be the right way to do it at the time.

Just another little tidbit. Snap-On makes a socket specifically designed to fit over the tip of shocks for that (___) special shape.

[IAMICHABOD]

I also wonder what the manufactures were thinking. Not to throw shade on you guys,I feel your pain. :(I owned a Ford Van for a lot of years until some lowlife stole it.:M

I put Bilsteins on it and remember the banging, cussing, skinned knuckles and utter desperation the job required.I would never do it again..My had is off to you all.

The engineers at Chevy had a better idea,they made a flap on the inner fender well that you just pull back and there is the top of the front shocks,I replaced all 4 of mine in a bit over an hour.

[OFDPOS]

Ron
The access hole on our 2010 chassis made it easy to get a wrench on the top.
Hmm makes ya wonder why manufacturers do what they do... lol

Even tho its a pain , think of the $$$ your saving plus you get to look around while doing it and seeing and checking other things 😉

[ron_dittmer]

Tonight I tackled the right rear shock with the tires on the vehicle. I had the frame partially jacked up, but not so much to raise any tires off the garage floor. That did not go easy either, primarily due to the Phoenix-added flat sheet steel exhaust heat shield, but also an exhaust pipe hanger. Both had severely interfered with the top bolt area causing me lots of grief.

While underneath, I glanced at the left rear shock area. It appears to be the easiest of the 4 to replace with no blaring interference issues to deal with.

[ron_dittmer]

OFDPOS and DrewE,

Our chassis is a 2007 Super Duty E350. I could see the grommet for access to the top nut but it's not very big and did have a cable or wire running through it. It seemed it would be harder than removing the two very sharp self taping screws and get my hand right there from the top-left, two channels. That worked out well for a few reasons. Not just to gain access, but also to retrieve dropped hardware having my hand right there.

[ron_dittmer]

T18skyguy wrote:
When I did mine, what works well on that top nut is a flex head gear wrench. The kind that articulates like your wrist.

I remember reading someone mentioning that before and I tried it as I have the same micro-clicking pivoting head box wrenches. I found a standard 3/8" shallow socket the better choice.....since I was able to get my hand back there after removing those two sharp screw-ends I mentioned earlier. The socket held the old top nut in-place while turning the old shock. with the lack of rust, it worked well. Installation was the same, but using a large (ground thin) open-ended wrench on the top of the Bilstein. It seemed to be the right way to do it at the time.

[DrewE]

OFDPOS wrote:
Ron , don't recall what year your's is ? But on our 2010 chassis , you pull back the floor mat under the break pedal area and there is a plug you pull out . Its gives you access to the shock tower for easier R&R ...
Thought I posted that earlier ?

The rears are a walk in the park compared to the fronts !

There are various plugs there, but how useful they are varies somewhat from year to year. On my '98 the plug was not at all useful (and even with it out the parking brake cable goes through the same hole).

I ended up using a flex head ratchet wrench and a good bit of quality time on my back. I can't say it was the most fun job I've had to do, but it got done and I didn't have to pay mechanic's hourly rates to get it done.

[OFDPOS]

Ron , don't recall what year your's is ? But on our 2010 chassis , you pull back the floor mat under the break pedal area and there is a plug you pull out . Its gives you access to the shock tower for easier R&R ...
Thought I posted that earlier ?

The rears are a walk in the park compared to the fronts !

[T18skyguy]

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.

[ron_dittmer]

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.

[ron_dittmer]

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.

[ron_dittmer]

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.