Running Bilstiens in the rear?

Bad idea? I have myself a few things to put on, one of those things are new shocks- Bilstien 5150's, 255/70 valving with 10" travel. My concern is that with the stock shock mounts (both on axle and body) the Bilstiens will rip atleast one of the body mounts off in under a week and I will be dragging $100 worth of German engineering on the ground...

why would they rip off if they haven't already? If your that worried, you could always reinforce the mounts.

Blue XJ said:

why would they rip off if they haven't already? If your that worried, you could always reinforce the mounts.

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Because at the moment I'm running cheap Pro Comps in the rear that have next to nothing for resistance. I guess I could, I just didn't want to go and spend xxx amount of dollars on the rear JKS shock rail thing.

I personally wouldn't be too concerned about ripping a mount off. It happens, but it would seem to be a pretty rare occurence. Breaking off the rear upper shock mount bolts when removing the old shocks is much more likely to happen. Of course if you want piece of mind, the JKS product won't bankrupt you.

The only mount you would rip off is the axle end right? Since the upper is just a couple holes to bolt into. You could lay a couple extra weld beads down on the lower mounts to make sure they stay attached.

Okay this doesn't totally pertain to the topic. I bought this really great XJ a while back but it rides really REALLY rough in the rear. once its loaded to the hilt the camping stuff its much better but since its a DD it sucks for that. It has Bilstein 7100s and i'm wondering if they were valved wrong. Would that cause my really crappy ride quality? What do I need to do to correct this? Oh and just to add to the actual topic at hand, reinforcements are always a good idea

I would think that 255/70 would be extremely stiff for the rear.. most front applications are 255/70 with rear beaing 170/60. But you may be carrying lots of weight back there to help smooth it out.

Jeepin... Your best bet would be to ship me the 7100's and i'll send you the correct shocks.. just kidding.. get the part number off them and look up the valving... Another thing that could add to your crappy ride would be the springs you're running.. brand, how much lift, etc.

Reinforcements are not always a good idea! The unibody is a total system that is designed to perform and handle stress. If you eliminate a portion of the system by reinforcing, then the stress gets concentrated somewhere else which may cause failure. Then you reinforce that failure portion and another fails. You may end up chasing problems you induced and then say the design sucks! It is important to understand what you are doing and the consequences.
Having said that, running a couple of extra beads to complete a weld may be ok. Remember that something else may fail instead and the consequences could be worse. I would rather repair a lower mount then fix a hole in the deck.

I am running the Re 5.5 with 5150's front and rear. 10" in the rear and all I have done is cut the drivers side axle mount in half and moved it up. I welded it back onto itself which acheived two things. It brought my travel up by as much as 3 inches and straightened out the angle.

Like any shock, if you use the damn things for limiting straps, you will eventually rip out the two top mount bolts.

I found that if I didnt relocate the driver side upward than my shock too would have been too short in that application.

I have 255/70 valving front and rear which works excellent and I wouldnt change a thing.

98XJROKS said:

I have 255/70 valving front and rear which works excellent and I wouldnt change a thing.

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Yep, I run identical 12" Bilstein 5125s with that valving on all 4 corners (the 12" ones) and they're terrific. Coils in the rear though. :gag: