Bilstein 8112/8100 Full review Thread

Yes, installed right out of the box. And they were set correctly. The instructions give exact measurements of exposed thread below the height adjusting collars, and both the left and right were set exact.

 

I think it’s not bad at all up front and with the bed empty not bad either I think i may turn the rebound up a little and see if it makes any difference but in all I don’t think its bad still feels pretty good.

 

Are you guys running the front swaybar with the 8112s??

 

Still waiting for my test set to arrive.

 

Good thing you're moving to AZ

 

Next year this suspension setup (6112 / 5160) will hit 100k miles and I really will need to do something.

 

I agree with your harshness comment. There’s nothing even remotely comfortable about them in daily driving situations on less than smooth pavement. When it’s time to play, they are great, but still harsh.

 

The Harshness at slow speed was uppon initial impression the first few days ; it went away after a couple months ; they drive pretty truck smooth on the street /slow speed now . Best Street pressure with the Eloads is 36-38 .

Yet where they shine ; is still the faster you go over nasty stuff , they are the bomb ! I did notice on a old logging road the other day how smooth they felt at slow speed over big rocks and wash out ( more of an ATV trail then a road now ) at lower 30 Kilometer/hours kind of speed , with a huge grind pushing the gas pedal more at the sight of nasty stuff and rocks in front haha !

I did not remove the sway bars , running TRD one in the back . With my tall topper and often load way above pay load ; i still prefere less sway with them and the planted feeling on the road . i'm sure it does feel better without them , say in washboard and slow crawling area , but i mostly use my truck for truck stuff so on they stays . I would like to try some fun rides without them ; i will eventually test just for fun some times.

I did check my front ride heights the other day and i wont go with more lift on the spring adjuster ; as it sits the exposed shock rods offer a little more bump travel then droop ; so any higher is not gonna be optimal. If anything ,a little lower could be better to offer 50/50 bump/droop travel at ride heights .


Its been a year and a half that they are on the truck , without a single glitch on any component of the set-up , still using the truck mostly only to do truck stuff , put them thru hell and back in my fishing trips and hunting camp nasty forest road and trail , often over load . First trip in the spring was hell , many kilometers of heavy washout roads after heavy spring rain and snow melting seasons , mud, ripoff culvert , and ripoff bumpers on the truck too haha

They survive very well to our nasty salt belt winter ; still no visible corrosions , but they got a little sand blast and nick/dent from the gravel hits , i will get some better rubbers protections . I've only seen these kind of gravel dammage on rally cars underside . At some point i will need to built some wheel scrapper to ; my Wheels are getting worn a lots in the inside from all the sand and gravel , so does my brake calipers .

In the spring time i did remove the rear clickers to give them a little grease ( One felt a little rough ) ; i was impress that Bilstein put a O-ring in there to seal the little ball bearing behind the clickers , well done !

I Love how they hold up and never fade over longue wasboard section , sometimes a couple hundred kilometers at the time . They are as consistent as it gets , still love everything about it and every single penny spend was well spend !

 

Fun Fact ; i work in the mining industry and i drive F-250/chevy 2500 daily at work /mine site on Eloads Tires . I Work 14 days shift rotation ; after those 2 weeks driving those trucks that ride like crap on the road and on the nasty mine site production road ( where cat 793 240Tons truck circulated relentlessly ) , going home and drive the Tundra is SO much fun , it ride SO much smoother then mmy work trucks... I wish our compagnie trucks where equip with 8112/8100 haha !

 

Whats your tires and pressure ? Any other mods that might affect confort ( puck leveling kit on top , stock UCA angle to the max ,spring crank to the max with not much droop availble etc..) ?

When i said ''harsh'' i meant the '' '' ; they werent dry or jarring . Just very Firm and less compliant over stuff at slow speed . still way better then a stock F 250 haha

 

Springs are at the lowest level, low and high comp at lowest setting. I have 315/70r17 D range Hakkas for the winter. PSI will vary depending on what I’m doing, 25 - 40. Lower pressure helps, but it’s still rough. The only time they are decent is when the 600+lb snow plow is hanging 3’ off of the front. The truck is fairly light much of the time. I was hopeful the DSA would give some softer compliance, which is kind of the point behind such a feature, but it’s not to be. It’s the digressive piston. Again, nice when the situation demands it, but most of the time they are unpleasant. It’s similar to running a track biased suspension on the street.

 

I totally agree. Rough jarring ride with mine, and only got 2” lift from them.

 

Perhaps Too low ? Have you both check your expose shaft lenght at ride height ? it should be 50% exposed.

DSA+ also have a JCO adjuster , that i dont... it should also help giving a smoother ride at normal street driving speed/terrain

These shocks have never been rough or jarring to me , and far from a track biaised kindda ride ( thrust me i had tons of those too in the past ...) , firm at low speed : yes , not rough . I would daily drive them any day : they ride amazing on the street and highway .

I am sure some good linear valved shocks are smoother then those 8112 at low speed/daily drive ; those a meant to be Bang and abuse ; but still they are very nice and confortable under normal driving and the dual zone really shine there too and behave like a normal street shock should ; not jarring by any mean .

They are cover on a full 2 years warranty , you guys should contact Bilsteins and see what they have to say about the rough and jarring rides : that really dont sound right to me and mine dont feel like that .

 

I haven’t measured the exposed shaft length as I didn’t even know that could tell anything.

I even adjusted mine to the max just to see if they were initially set wrong and only got 2.75” lift instead of the 3.25” claimed by Bilstein. I did adjust the height back to the stock setting and added a CB shim to reach a full 2.5” lift. I did call Bilstein and spoke to tech support. The guy on the phone was adamant that I must have installed them wrong and there could possibly be nothing wrong with their product as it was “hand made”.


Which way does the JCO need to be adjusted to give a better ride?

 

The zone control, on either bottom or top out, is not engaged during most of my everyday driving. I even disassembled the coil spring from the damper and measured the engagement points to make sure the suspension was riding high enough above and below it as to not cause a rough ride due early engagement. Here is the point at which the first stage of bottom out begins to engage. For easy reference, the CV axle is roughly level in the pic, maybe a pinch past horizontal. The suspension sits well above this level as installed. It’s high enough that the inner Cv boot ribs are very lightly rubbing, which will eventually destroy the boots.

I can hand stack a pile of dog shit, too. What does that have to do with the design and tune? It’s a bit difficult to install these wrong and in a way which will influence the ride quality. Again, if you want to be the fastest stock length arm truck down the trail, these will do it, no argument, they just won’t be comfy. The little stuff is a killer.

Sorry if I’m pissing in the Bilstein Cheerios. I saw your harsh comment and felt I needed to agree. Some people may like the digressive piston and valve stack supplied, I’ll never buy the stuff again. I have two sets, they will be listed FS shortly.

 

Yeah besides swapping the passenger side for the driver, or putting that washer on the wrong side of the lower mounting bolt, I can’t see any way to incorrectly install these coilovers on our trucks.
I sold my TRD Pro Fox stuff and bought these Bilsteins for a better on road ride. Hindsight 20/20 Should have kept them and my $5k

 

I see the ''old'' style chrome strut , no JCO adjuster but low and high compression knobs ; they never produce them like this ; where these revalve with the compression knob added ; perhaps not factory valved ? Poor revalved or rebuild quality issues could explain your harsness ; whats your 8112 storys ?

 

8112 are certainly not the strut to buy for ''on road compfort'' purpose reasons ; they are meant for off road performance and they deliver , more then expected in my case . and they do that while being very very well mannered on the road and higway . Truck is planted AF and have much better road handling then my stock Sr5 ; win-win .

Firm while driving slow for sure ( a little firmer then my buddy's '24 Trd pro at slow speed ) . Harsh and unconfortable ; not by any means . They feel better and more ''plush'' than many stock truck with stock struts . and i have driven a tons of make and truck model over the years for references.

Compare to my buddy's Trd pro ; he's feel more plush at sub 40-50 kilometers on a forest road/trail. As soon as things get going with a little more speed ; hes bottom out and cant handle washboard at speed without getting side ways and unstable ( lots of steering correction needed and lost traction ) while my truck feels bottom less and handle any type of wash board at any speed and stays strait as an arrow like its on rail . On the road his truck is more comfy ( it might be a Gen 3 thing ) , more family sedan feel then truck feel . It also sways a lot more then my truck .

I still think your shocks have issues , or your own personnal feel have had expectation of '' driving like on cloud'' road manner because these are the best off road performance bolt-on shocks on the market.

Softly valved linear shock with the right amount of rebound might suites your ''softness '' on the road expectation better then 8112 thats for sure .

 

That’s the non DSA+ set I have, they were never run, only used for mock up and to determine engagement. The set on the truck is a DSA+ with valve stacks as delivered.

 

IMO, these should be set up as a have your cake and eat it too type of damper. That’s part of the point behind secondary damping in stock arm system, being able to run the main stack on the normal or even comfy side, and then not blow through travel due to, in the Billys case, the extra two compression zones. Need more? Dial it up with high/low knobs on the rezi and we have all that a single 6” stroke damper can give. I’ve considered buying some of Bilstein’s linear gold pistons, but finding/developing the proper valve stack is not on my list of want to dos. Here’s some back up on the issue…

https://www.wheeleveryweekend.com/b...9mqrpk_0RgS-m5I0IS-hG2wUD9aLJDaHv0zcUP1N4QPBz


I’m glad you are happy with them.

 

Just for fun : you should installed the non DSA strut just to compared the ride !

 

I'm sad you are not happy with them honestly ! Maybe try a revalving with a reputable shock shop ; it will still be cheaper then sell your shocks and buy another set that you might not enjoy either .

These valved to your taste and comfort expectation might just be what you are seeking for !

 

I have all the tools and experience to swap to the gold linear piston and develop the basic valve stack… it’s just not something I was planning to do with this particular project. The hope was to get something off the shelf for it. The list of projects in my barn that will require that type of work is deeper than even I’d like. Swapping in the non DSA would be interesting, and nice if the ride is more to my liking… but I suspect the digressive piston may still be a little harsh for my tastes.

@memario1214 That’s how you do it! Great to hear you are willing to help out your customer with these. I truly believe the 8112 can be so much more.

 

I got mine installed last weekend! I love the way it sits and the ride quality is great on road. Keep in mind I came from rough country 2.0s so the bar was pretty low. I’ve got the DSA+ in the front and smooth body in the rear. I’ve only got about 100 miles on them so far, mostly pavement so I’m still feeling them out.

 

That’s amazing customer service! I’m not trying to get anything for free, but would love to discuss options. The tech support guy at Bilstein was a rude asshat and offered no help or advice when I had questions.

 

What does your truck measure front center of front hubs to bottom of fender? With the weight of the truck on the ground, not jacked up in the air.