Off-road, towing, and street shocks

[Connor B]

Hello everyone!

I'm thinking about getting a 5 inch RC lift on my 2011 Ford Ranger XLT. I've heard that Bilstein's are really good. My question is how you balance all the needs and purposes with a great shock and how you decide what shock to use as I know that the right shock will make or break the ride especially when lifted?

I hope this makes sense. Help me understand about shocks!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

If you can find adjustable ones that might help.

I do all that and my billsteins are good enough for me.

 

[Fast Eddie]

What he said - same here. If you look close, you'll see the tow bar.

 

[sgtsandman]

Focus on what you do the most and what your priorities are. My suspension on the 2011 is setup for hauling heavy loads and fairly stiff shocks for off road performance. It's rough on poorly maintained roads sometimes but I'm happy with setup overall. There are different schools of thought on what the correct damping rate should be for off road. My 2019 with the FX4 package is a bit floaty for my taste and is damped softer than the standard truck suspension. So, Ford thinks (at least currently) that a softer shock is the way to go for off road. Me personally, I'm going to get a stiffer shock when the OEM shocks need replaced. I just have visions of my front differential slamming off a rock because of the soft dampening that the truck has from the factory.

 

[wfxt]

While I bought my 2006 as a pure work truck, I find that I like driving it about half the time when I could be driving my other ride, which I’m guilty of babying.

I haven’t replaced the shocks since I bought it from the third owner 30K ago,, and don’t know if he ever did, but the way it catches air for a split second when I hit a hard bump (or feels like it, anyway) makes me feel it’s time. If I wanted a bit more rebound dampening, which would you all recommend.

Sorry for thread-jacking too!

 

[gw33gp]

I do a lot of those three things with my Ranger. I use Bilstein and feel they do a great job. I also have rear helper air springs and they are adjusted for each.

I agree with sandman, I think Ford likes to run softer shocks than what I prefer. The original Ford tuned Bilstein shocks on my FX4 were a little too soft for me. They did OK off-road but when it came to moderate rock crawling, they were too soft when dropping off a rock and the suspension would compress to much resulting in undercarriage contact to easily. At 100K miles I switched to Bilstein tuned shocks and am much happier with them. They are probably a little stiff for washboard but everything else is much improved.

There are better shock available like Fox but you are getting into very high cost there.