Great honest review on the high end King shocks vs Bilsten 5100! Here are a few key points to help you and your viewers to understand shocks and the purpose of why this part is even on your car or truck: • Shocks, regardless of cost, are designed to dampen the harmonic vibrations the suspension goes through when it encounter a bump and begins to bounce up and down. • A spring system, coil or leaf, will now be compressed and it will release this energy back into the vehicle as it rebounds. • If you imagine the vehicle going down a surface as smooth as a bowling alley, when a vertical bump has been introduced into the system, the tire and suspension system will continue to bounce up and down until all the energy is dispated and dampened. • A sock, which has internal gas or hydraulics, causes more friction and will dampen out this natural oscillations quickly and return the suspension to its normal state! This is the whole purpose of a shock! • The ride quality has more to do with the spring rate more than the actual shock. They are both interlinked but the springs have more effect. • That said, the King shock has a much larger reservoir for the fluid used, either gas or hydraulic fluid and in desert running/racing, it cycles the shock much harder than street or mild off road use and benefits from the larger fluid capacity to prevent overheat & failure. • So unless you will be cycling your offroad shocks like desert running at speed continuously for long periods of time, it is just a waste of money to buy those shocks! But of course, if you want the bling factor and can spend the money, it is all your choice! • There may be some minor comfort that comes with the King shocks as their performance envelope is much larger than a convential shock or a performance monotube shock like the Bilstein 5100. However, the price you pay is huge compared to the incremental gain for comfort. If you plot the price vs comfort on a XY graph with price on the horizontal X axis and comfort on the vertical Y axis, you will find the curve flattens out and increase very minimally as price increases with very little additional gains in comfort! Hope this helps.
Man...thanks for the infos. It's one of the reason I love doing these type of videos. 1 - If I can help someone out with my experience than it's an accomplishment for me. 2 - I get so many feedbacks from people and learn more and more from different aspects Thanks again man for the detailed infos on shocks, what it does and the many components that goes into it.
@@Michael_Tran No problem Michael. You are very welcome. You're doing a great job in doing your videos for offroading but also a great community service on this type of videos as well!!👍👍👍
Coils are not the be all end all. The valving of a shock makes a lot of difference. Billsteins are digressive shocks so they’re softer under higher speeds. He says he wants it for overlanding and light off roading so a progressive shock would be better. The valving is almost more important than the spring rate IMO. You can have the right spring rate but when the shocks are valved with no compression and rebound it’ll ride like shit. Reservoirs are not for cooling. That’s just a positive side effect. The reservoirs give more room for the gas so there’s less bubble formation under load. Watch Tinkerers Adventure about shocks to get more clarification on that.
Overlanding is about reliability when you really shave it down to the bare bones. You don’t want to break in the middle of nowhere. Both shock brands are reliable for overlanding. Kings will shine in the whoops and you can adjust the dampening. But I think the only thing to mention is Kings are rebuildable and can be revalved where as the 5100/6112 are not. Awesome video Mike!!!
Yea true...these 2 companies are very reliable in their products. I did forget to add that part into the video...the option to have it rebuild is pretty awesome in the long run. Thanks man!!!
I have Bilstein 6112/5160 lift kit on my 2022 TRD Sport. It’s been a great ride for almost a year. Looking to upgrade to either Fox or Kings set up. Thanks for the review.
That setup is perfect for most off roading and overlanding IMO...Kings and Fox are top tier for sure. Bilstein now have some beefy reservoir type of kit as well I think.
I have the 5100s right now I'm trying to decide if I should go to the 6112 and 5160 in the rear or try out the dobinsons ims I've heard good things about them. I'm in a Nissan frontier though.
Thank you for being so honest and forthcoming. That’s really valuable! This video was really helpful to me. I’m stoked that you got to live your dream by having King suspension on your dream truck!
I put King suspension on my 2023 5th generation 4Runner big big difference, it is true what you say at slow speeds really couldn't tell any difference but at high speed definitely even medium speed you can tell the difference and also on the pavement. Why did Kings 2.5 with reservoir with adjustment. Install myself, could fit 285-7017 on the truck. BF Goodrich all terrain ko2 I think... I think my miles per gallon has suffered a little bit,. Total cost around 6000,, like the man on this video who has the truck I just wanted to splurge and do it right.. now I have to save up for a few other things I want to do but at least suspension is done until rebuild, by the way I just did get some protectors for my front coilovers looks like they're going to be a pain in the ass to put on. You're talking complete disassembly of the front coil over. Thanks for the video
I recently just put an Icon 2.5 front and Icon rears, add a leaf- I’ve had Icon UCA’s for a while- I put 100k on my Bilsteins (6112 & 5100). It was time for replacement. Icon Performance is better on faster offroad, very very stable. The Icons are still stiff on the road but I have a 3” lift. I paid $2680 installed, mind I already had UCA’s- it’s technically a stage 3 kit minus reservoirs as those I determined were not necessary for over landing. I can rebuild the Icons/service, add reservoirs etc. I will say they are an upgrade in handling compared to the 6112’s I think part of it is the look, like your Kings, they are bling,but performance , need, and price dictates the choice- also most of will not beat the crap out of our expensive Tacomas therefore we probably won’t push our suspension to the limits they are designed for- thanks for the honest review.
Great comment man. I agree...a lot of factors when chosen a lift kit. Some of these kits are designed for total abuse which 99% of people not gonna do to their truck. But the average Joe...a nice comfortable ride and some articulation on a trail is all that is needed.
Thanks for your opinion man! I’m thinking in the future of getting the Bilsteins lift kit set up. I don’t do much intense off-roading but I do want a better ride and extra clearance for the long run
thanks for the honest video, I run 5100s all around for my few times a year getaways and its enough, if I ever have the time to have more trips then I'll consider something more expensive
The multimatic DSSV suspension on my ZR2 has been awesome. Big difference from the stock suspension I had on my other 4x4 Colorado as far as comfort. I agree on what you said though, clearance & tire size is more important on these trails. Skid plates & sliders too.
I have the 6112/5160 and they've been great on and offroad. Granted they're not Kings or Fox, and I do get curious about those, but if you really think about it its way too dangerous too be mobbing down trails too fast. I've had some close calls with UTV's that come fast out of nowhere. A lot of people get hurt in UTV's with expensive suspension because they dotn realize how fast they're going. Stay safe fellow offroaders and dont risk your families safety. If you drive calmly and at a reasonable speed, something like 6112/5160 or 5100's is all you really need.
Yea I agree...Kings and Fox are just top of the line for hitting those trails fast. I don't go fast when Im on trails that have a lot of twist and turns. Those SxS guys can be a pain sometime since they feel they can go as fast as they want without thinking of others on the trails. I've only gone fast with my setup when im on open desert trails where I can see far ahead of me.
Awesome info ! I got the fox 2.0 because they are rebuildable . But come to find out it’s almost the same price as new ones to rebuild 🤷🏻♂️ so once it’s time I’ll probably just go bilstein 5100 or 6112 instead of rebuilding the fox 🦊
I had the eibach stage 2 coils with dirt king uppers they felt good but felt the shocks bottom out fast and now I have kings 2.5 with resi and tc upper and night n day difference especially high speed
I haven't bottom out my truck that I can remember but I definitely felt it being stiffer with the Bilstein in the rear...maybe because of the leaf pack. On high speed in the desert the Kings eat those whoops all day..I really felt like that's where Kings is meant for.
@@Michael_Tran yes definitely I feel kings are just so smooth in my opinion I have friends who run fox and they stiff… other good brand is Elka but they seem very pricey lol
