Dark Ember

I am in the market for shocks on my firebird and my S-10. Reading around on the forums led me towards Bilstein. However I decided to make the S-10 a test mule for the bird. So I ordered a set of Bilstein HD shocks/struts for the S-10..... softest shocks I have ever had. They call these heavy duty??

I can sit on the ground, lean my upper bodyweight on top of them, and in about 1-2 seconds, they are bottomed out. There is no way I would ever want such a soft shock on the bird.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

deadbird

It's good to do such a scientific test but, try understanding how it works first.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-suspension2.htm

"All modern shock absorbers are velocity-sensitive -- the faster the suspension moves, the more resistance the shock absorber provides. This enables shocks to adjust to road conditions and to control all of the unwanted motions that can occur in a moving vehicle, including bounce, sway, brake dive and acceleration squat."

I'll take a wild guess and say Bilstien uses something other than a guy sitting on their shocks to develop/test them.

Dark Ember

lol, right on guys. I agree this isn't the best test to do. However I have had my hands on several different shocks over the years and this is one of the softest I have ever had. Most performance, or HD style shocks you cannot simply compress by hand. Shocks you can compress without a press or jack, make for mushy handeling cars, speaking from experience. The Koni shocks for my monte for example took nearly nearly 2 minutes with 200lbs of pulling weight to get them to open up after I adjusted them. Then I had to use a car jack to compress them enough when installing. Those shocks made the car feel like it had no suspension travel. So despite my personal experiences, you are telling me, that I should not be worried if I can compress a "heavyduty" shock by hand, because of what "howstuffworks.com" says?

Once I install these, there is no sending them back. I'de rather not risk it.

85 ZXX

iTrader: (1)

Good one! //<86TA>\\......ROTFLMAO!!!!

I have them on all four corners with Eibach pro springs and I love the way the car rides and handles....Major improvement!!!!

The Eibachs lowered the car around 1" and the stance looks great! Bilsteins are Waaaay better than stock!

IROCU2

If you do not want to risk it then I will. Let me know how much you want. PM me with the information.

87350IROC

iTrader: (2)

Well thats not what you want. No travel is going to be far worse than to much travel. If you want no travel why not just weld you old struts so they can't move.

Yes, I trust our collective knowledge and that of Bilstein and Koni over your personal experiences. My Koni yellows can be compressed by hand. They are not soft once installed. As deadbird said, the damping is based on the speed of the piston. A struts jobs is not to hold the car up, that is the springs jobs. Its sole purpose is to control the oscillations of the spring, in other words, fast transients. Not a consistent 2min push. Trying compressing the strut in a tenth of a second. Can you do it?

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

Like said before, shock absorbers control the spring, dynamic spring motion, acceleration and deceleration. The fact that the koni is much harder to compress is because it's a different type of shock design.

Try to push the bilstein in and pull it out rapidly, like a dynamic suspension would do. THAT is what a shock absorber should do, control the spring motion.

The bilsteins do have a very thick, heavy duty shaft. Mich thicker than the konis or stockers

3rd gen Will

iTrader: (8)

I have Bilstein HD's on my 4th gen TA and I have Koni's on my 3rd gen, both cars are lowered. Bilsteins are definitley not mushy, they are just a tad softer than my Koni's but the ride is pretty comparable. Bilstein HD's might not be the first choice for someone who auto X's but for a healthy street car, IMO they can't be beat.

tekkitan

iTrader: (1)

I've got the Bilstein HD on my 7000lb Tahoe. Trust me they are worth every penny. Softest ride I have ever had.

ghettocruiser

iTrader: (4)

Its that valving that makes good quality shocks work so well. I too am running bilstein's front and back, with eibach pro-kit springs. The ride firmed up a LOT over the stock suspension, but with the variable valving, its softer when just cruising around. When im pushing the car into corners or doing faster manuvering, they stiffen up and Ive never experienced a situation where they didnt peform 100%. I would expect the same quality from Koni.

Ive been running Bilsteins on my TA and my Jeeps for years, and am somewhat brand loyal to them. I have remote reservoir, adjustable shocks on my off road XJ and love em. Better than the cheapo gas charged shocks that I was using before.

You wont be disappointed with them.

J.

Dark Ember

I'de rather return them to summit for 100% of my money back. Do you even have an S-10? Again, these are not 3rd gen shocks.


Whats too stiff for one man is perfect for another. My Monte used to be my daily, and I loved that stiff suspension. Daily driving is too boring if you cant enjoy it via fast turns and driving it like you stole it. Now the S-10 is my daily driver, and I want stiff suspension in that as well, so I can enjoy driving the thing.



I had never personally seen a stiff suspension be hand compressed, but I have been in a 92 mustang with Koni yellows and I thought that was perfect! Hearing that you could hand compress your yellows gives me hope. I was paniced at first because I really did not want to pay as much money as I did for shocks, only to get soft suspension. A browse on google returns quite a number of people with HD shocks on their TRUCKS, who said they were softer than their factory shocks. I paniced and came here :P

As for the speed of compression, I can immediatly compress it as soon as I touch the shock, although not far, and so picturing a 1500lb front end pushig down on every bump, to every gradual turn makes me nervous still. However, since Koni offers no front shocks for this application, and some of you have helped calm my anxiety, I will put the shocks in soon and let you all know the results. *crosses fingers*

tekkitan

iTrader: (1)

get some coilovers then...

Dark Ember

Hah, I came across this post of mine while doing a search and figured I needed to eat some humble pie and explain how it all went.

The S-10 handles awesome. The suspension is plenty stiff. Its not as stiff as the koni specials made the monte carlo that I mentioned above, but they are nice shocks. So nice in fact that I decided I wanted to get a set of Bilstein HD's for the firebird. It only has 60k original miles but the shocks, rear ones especially need replacing. BTW, autozone is running all kinds of specials for the 2015 year, like 20% off. One of those sales is going on right now as of this posting. They are selling those shocks for $200 each for the fronts and about $102 each for the rears. I got summit to price match the sale since Autozone suspiciously runs out of those shocks during 20% off sales. Summit told me the rears (P/N 24192934) were on back order but they would ship them out in May. The fronts are resting comfortably in my closet (P/N 35125228). At just over $600, It was the most expensive set of shocks I ever purchased, but that's a screaming deal for those. As I eat my humble pie I thought I would laugh at my own goofiness and mention that this time I did not bother to use my body weight method to test for shock stiffness, since bilstein proved that to be as silly as it surely looks. Thumbs up for bilstein.

As for the S-10's, heres my experience with them in detail for those interested:

I did a full set of poly bushings front and rear, stock replacement rear leaf springs, moog 5662(stock replacement) front springs, Hellwig front and rear anti roll bars, the bilstein shocks all at the same time. The truck ended up being stiffer than I wanted my daily driver to be. But being that I enjoy a stiff ride, I can live with it all day long with a smile. Body roll is almost non existent and the truck handles much better than you would probably believe. I hope/expect these shocks to be just as good with the bird as they have been with the S-10. *munches on pie* What a dumb way to start a thread, I swear they let anyone post up all kinds of nonsense on this interwebs thing lol

3.8TransAM

On my birds its Bilstein and Eibach or GTFO!

Best thing I ever did on my Formula and one of the best compromises for a street car suspension out there in my own opinion when u are talking thirdgens.

ThePain

Haven't tried them on the Camaro yet, but I have Blistein HDs on my Bronco and I love em.