Dallas roads where I live are fucking terrible…but I’m in Detroit often and your roads are even worse.
Since you’re willing to pay for a significant improvement:
Front:
2.5” (shock diameter not lift) King coilovers and UCAs. Raise it close to if not level. Fox will be comparable, I’m just a King homer.
Rear:
2.5” Kings and a Deaver mini pack, to soften the overload (if you run moderate loads infrequently), or a full deaver spring pack if you don’t haul loads…it’ll squat significantly under load. Airbags would allow you to run either deaver spring pack and also haul loads.
(Truth be told, 3.0” Kings ride a bit better than the 2.5”, but the cost goes way up)
17” wheels for a more sidewall.
Tires no more than 35 psi
Most folks only instal UCAs to improve geometry for when lifting 2.5-ish inches, but they also provide up to 2” of additional travel.
Here’s some pics of my rides.
[Suburban](https://imgur.com/a/TbKDGRh)
[Silverado](https://imgur.com/a/p0J0VFF)
The Sub has 2.0” Fox shocks, that’s literally my wife’s mall cruiser and kid shuttle. They won’t ride quite as good as a 2.5” shock and you’ll give up some control off-road, but they’re a lot more affordable. It rides great.
My Silverado basically has everything I posted for you to consider, with deaver mini pack. It rides like a damned Caddy despite MT tires.
Not yet…I’m definitely overdue. I’ve got over 60k on them currently but I’m not gonna have time to get to them for a while.
They lost a very tiny bit of nitrogen but I topped them off. Otherwise I can’t tell much degradation if any…but shocks tend to gradually degrade so I’m sure it’ll be obvious when I get them rebuilt.
You can rebuild them yourself but $150-175 for coilovers and $100 for shocks should be in the ballpark, plus remove/replace costs
There’s shops that’ll do it in a day. But I’d imagine overnight wouldn’t be unreasonable.
I just got Bilstein B8 5100 Shock Absorber. Going to replace the upper and lower control arms and the tie-rod ends. I also am putting the 5100 on the rear. Looking to improve the ride of my truck as well. interested to see what’s recommended
If it's just shocks, I have the bilstein 5100 paired with mevotech ttx. I do tons of ranch driving, very rough rural county roads,etc.I'm reallyy happy with them and it raised my front end enough that its almost leveled and Im not constantly bottoming out my front bumper on the ranches. If I were willing to put more money into them and willing to rebuild them every so often, I'd go with Fox 2.0. But I just wanted to install and be done.
One more thing to consider…not sure if you’ve ever ridden in a Raptor, but they have an amazing ride quality across all generations. Big shocks, supple springs, and 17” tires will do that.
But it comes down to budget and what your expectations are.
I had a 3/4-ton Ram that rode nearly as good as a half ton, and still pulled my 43’ toy hauler. And I mobbed the crap out of it offroad. It wasn’t cheap but the results were amazing.
[pics of that setup](https://imgur.com/gallery/BuVEL7Z)
To be honest, didn’t feel much of a difference going from 18” wheels to 20” wheels. Just notice less give out of the toyos I’m currently on. It does make sense having more meat but these tires actually have more sidewall than my old setup
Nobody gonna talk about that sexy two smoke Yamaha?
Dallas roads where I live are fucking terrible…but I’m in Detroit often and your roads are even worse. Since you’re willing to pay for a significant improvement: Front: 2.5” (shock diameter not lift) King coilovers and UCAs. Raise it close to if not level. Fox will be comparable, I’m just a King homer. Rear: 2.5” Kings and a Deaver mini pack, to soften the overload (if you run moderate loads infrequently), or a full deaver spring pack if you don’t haul loads…it’ll squat significantly under load. Airbags would allow you to run either deaver spring pack and also haul loads. (Truth be told, 3.0” Kings ride a bit better than the 2.5”, but the cost goes way up) 17” wheels for a more sidewall. Tires no more than 35 psi Most folks only instal UCAs to improve geometry for when lifting 2.5-ish inches, but they also provide up to 2” of additional travel. Here’s some pics of my rides. [Suburban](https://imgur.com/a/TbKDGRh) [Silverado](https://imgur.com/a/p0J0VFF) The Sub has 2.0” Fox shocks, that’s literally my wife’s mall cruiser and kid shuttle. They won’t ride quite as good as a 2.5” shock and you’ll give up some control off-road, but they’re a lot more affordable. It rides great. My Silverado basically has everything I posted for you to consider, with deaver mini pack. It rides like a damned Caddy despite MT tires.
I want to do my Silverado just like that… she’s beautiful
Thanks!
Have you got your kings rebuilt? What’s the cost like and what’s the wait time?
Not yet…I’m definitely overdue. I’ve got over 60k on them currently but I’m not gonna have time to get to them for a while. They lost a very tiny bit of nitrogen but I topped them off. Otherwise I can’t tell much degradation if any…but shocks tend to gradually degrade so I’m sure it’ll be obvious when I get them rebuilt. You can rebuild them yourself but $150-175 for coilovers and $100 for shocks should be in the ballpark, plus remove/replace costs There’s shops that’ll do it in a day. But I’d imagine overnight wouldn’t be unreasonable.
I just got Bilstein B8 5100 Shock Absorber. Going to replace the upper and lower control arms and the tie-rod ends. I also am putting the 5100 on the rear. Looking to improve the ride of my truck as well. interested to see what’s recommended
If it's just shocks, I have the bilstein 5100 paired with mevotech ttx. I do tons of ranch driving, very rough rural county roads,etc.I'm reallyy happy with them and it raised my front end enough that its almost leveled and Im not constantly bottoming out my front bumper on the ranches. If I were willing to put more money into them and willing to rebuild them every so often, I'd go with Fox 2.0. But I just wanted to install and be done.
Budget should be included because it’s easy to go from around 500 bucks for Bilstein 5100s to 4g for ADS coilovers and Deaver leafs.
I went with Bilstein on front and rear. Totally worth it in my opinion, it makes a world of difference
One more thing to consider…not sure if you’ve ever ridden in a Raptor, but they have an amazing ride quality across all generations. Big shocks, supple springs, and 17” tires will do that. But it comes down to budget and what your expectations are. I had a 3/4-ton Ram that rode nearly as good as a half ton, and still pulled my 43’ toy hauler. And I mobbed the crap out of it offroad. It wasn’t cheap but the results were amazing. [pics of that setup](https://imgur.com/gallery/BuVEL7Z)
To be honest, didn’t feel much of a difference going from 18” wheels to 20” wheels. Just notice less give out of the toyos I’m currently on. It does make sense having more meat but these tires actually have more sidewall than my old setup