Opinion Time - Bilstein 5125 Shock??

Want some opinion on these shocks, they are sized to what I have been looking for

Bilstein 5125
Part #BE5-A465-H7
Loop to Loop Style
11" travel
28.01" extended
17" compressed
255/70 valving

Are they a good option for the front of an XJ? I'm currently running a stem-loop style 10" travel with a 26" extended length. I am going to convert to upper loop with a $13 set of our Warrior 161's at work, so I gain some length there. Right now at a full compressed front end I still have a few inches of shock remaining on the shorter ones. I figure with these and another inch of lift I would be pretty well set.

Jason-RJR said:

Want some opinion on these shocks, they are sized to what I have been looking for

Bilstein 5125
Part #BE5-A465-H7
Loop to Loop Style
11" travel
28.01" extended
17" compressed
255/70 valving

Are they a good option for the front of an XJ? I'm currently running a stem-loop style 10" travel with a 26" extended length. I am going to convert to upper loop with a $13 set of our Warrior 161's at work, so I gain some length there. Right now at a full compressed front end I still have a few inches of shock remaining on the shorter ones. I figure with these and another inch of lift I would be pretty well set.

Click to expand...

You should like the shocks. Be careful on the length, though. You'll loose an inch or so with the loop shock conversion, plus an inch longer shock and it could be too long. The suspension won't compress all the way when articulating, so you definitely need a few inches of shaft showing if that's how you checked it. The bump stops will compress quite a bit on a hard hit. If you checked it with a small wire tie or something around the shock shaft after a hard run through some rough stuff or whoops, then you know for sure how much shock you're using.

Yeah, when I checked what was left as far as travel on the shock, I had the tire stuffed with no bumpstops at all, so with the bumpstops in I'll be fine.

I just got the 12" ones for my rig. Was going to go 10" in the rear but they were backordered to infinity so I re-arranged the upper mounts to run the 12" in the rear too.

They're a bitch to install if you take off the strap. But even with the rig still on the shop floor, just installing the front 2 did wonders for how it felt when testing the suspension. All 4 should be spectacular.

I should mention that I've got it set up now for 3-4" uptravel on the shock, this is one of those low-COG crawler kinda builds, so I'd be surprised if you'd be able to fit the one you're looking at without bottoming out. I would recommend changing the mounts, or going to a 10" if they weren't backordered forever.

vetteboy said:

I just got the 12" ones for my rig. Was going to go 10" in the rear but they were backordered to infinity so I re-arranged the upper mounts to run the 12" in the rear too.

They're a bitch to install if you take off the strap. But even with the rig still on the shop floor, just installing the front 2 did wonders for how it felt when testing the suspension. All 4 should be spectacular.

I should mention that I've got it set up now for 3-4" uptravel on the shock, this is one of those low-COG crawler kinda builds, so I'd be surprised if you'd be able to fit the one you're looking at without bottoming out. I would recommend changing the mounts, or going to a 10" if they weren't backordered forever.

Click to expand...

Well my math here is that I currently run a 26" long shock and have at least 3.5" at a full stuff with no bump stops.

A conversion mount will lose me an inch and put me at 2.5" with a 26" long shock

Then I can add my 1" longer spring or ACOS setup, and put me at 3.5-3.75" with a 26" long shock.

At that point I think I can do a 27" shock and some bumpstop work. The one I originally posted was 28" so maybe I'll make an adjustment to my plan.

I ended up going cheap for now, gonna tackle this problem this weekend, I keep eating the stem style upper bushings, so here's what I'm doing...

Bought this stuff from work:
Warrior 161 shock conversion mount (converts stem style to loop style)
Warrior 60502 Shocks (measure loop to loop 15.25" comp/25.25" ext/10" travel)
Warrior 106 Bar Pins (solid steel piece, very stout looking)

Gonna bolt this stuff on this weekend. With the conversions I estimate that I should be sitting at about 26" extended, which is about the same as where I am now. I will try to do some measurements of before vs after flex and see if I gain or lose droop.

All in all, I spent a little over $60 for the conversion mounts, shocks, and bar pins... When I get my ACOS spacers I will be at 5.75" lift, and then I will step up to an 11" or 12" travel bilstein or something. After the shocks and fixing my trackbar issue, I am gonna give the front a rest and start saving for some good new or used leaf packs and put my focus on the rear suspension/height/shackle angle. PS - Warrior shocks = Heckathorn = Rough Country...shh don't tell anyone, lol