Just Installed Bilsteins on my W22

[woodyk]

Ordered a set of Bilstein shocks on line for $395 and installed them today on my 2004 Alledgro Bay, W22 chasis. It took me 2 hours total, the old shocks were shot!! No life in them at all. Can't believe the shocks died in six years. We go from Enterprise, AL to Burnet, TX and I-10 from Crestview to Houston is like a washboard so that's probably what did them in.

WoodyK
2004 Allegro Bay, W22 chasis

[oemtech]

Woody... 6 years is a lifetime for OE shocks. Mine only lasted about 6 months.

The Bilsteins are good but Knois are better.

[JCM]

Another Workhorse let down.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCM Another Workhorse let down.

JCM, Perhaps shocks last longer in Canada? My shocks were shot as soon as I left the dealers lot. I changed those to Monroe RV Magnums. Those lasted 30,000 miles - totally shot. Installed Koni FSD about 4 years back and they're still running great!

[dezertcamper]

Good to hear you got Bilstein's. I know many have complained about the harsh ride that the Bilstein's supposedly have. Bilstein's U.S Corp office is just down the road from my work. I have spoke to them regarding what people have said about the ride. Bilstein said that factory Bilstein's on the Workhorse chassis have a different valving then the aftermarket shock you just bought.

I guess when Bilstein became a supplier for WH, WH specified a particular valving they wanted. Bilstein built the shocks to this spec. A few years later when people started to complain regarding the ride quality Bilstein looked into it and found that the valving WH wanted was not what Bilstein would have chose. The reason WH wanted the valving they chose was because each Coach manufacture builds their Coaches different and WH does not know what size that chassis might be.

So what Bilstein did is make the aftermarket shock a softer better rebound controlled shock. When I say aftermarket I mean a shock the consumer would buy, not the manufacture. Bilstein's engineering dept asked WH to use the newer valving, but WH did not want to change what they had been using.

So the Bilstein's that come on your coach are not the same as the one you can buy aftermarket.

[JoeandMarcia]

I replaced the 10 year old OEM shocks on our Coachmen Santara (triton v-10) with Koni's and I wasn't impressed at all. I think the bilsteins would have done the same job at almost half the price.

[Ron & Dee]

How do you know when your shocks are bad

On cars I used to bounce the car up and down and if it bounced over one time after letting go, the shocks were bad.

Ron

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeandMarcia I replaced the 10 year old OEM shocks on our Coachmen Santara (triton v-10) with Koni's and I wasn't impressed at all. I think the bilsteins would have done the same job at almost half the price.

What color are the Koni shocks you installed on your motorhome?

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron & Dee On cars I used to bounce the car up and down and if it bounced over one time after letting go, the shocks were bad.

Ron, You need to hire King Kong and have him bounce the motorhome up and down a bit!

Actually Koni will have you send the shock back and they actually test them on a machine.

[Ron & Dee]

When we bought the MH It was 2 years old and had about 28k miles on it and the original shocks were bad. The MH would porpoise when hitting a dip in the road and I knew right away that the shocks were bad. I complained to the dealer that we bought the MH from and they tried to say the tires were too low causing it to bounce.

Rather than argue with them I went next door and had four Bilsteins put on and that stopped the bouncing

I think at that time Workhorse would replace the original shocks to the original owner with Bilsteins

Ron

[oemtech]

I installed after market Bilsteins when I dumped the OEM's. When I said 6 months there were only about 2,500 miles on the coach. The Bilsteins did the job but they were fairly firm compared to the Konis.

When I first installed the Konis I only installed the fronts as I got them from a friend. He removed them and reinstalled his Bilsteins. I ran with Konis on the front and Bilsteins on the rear for the better part of 2 years. It was a great combo on my coach. But, I installed the Konis on the rear and never looked back. I sold the Bilsteins to another RVer that called his coach "BOB" as he still had the OEM's on.

Each coach is different... "Your mileage will vary".

[Abnmarine]

We picked up some new Bilisteins in December when in Florida. I intended on the Konis but couldn't pass the good deal. I'll install them in a couple of weeks when I start on my RV list for spring. We just bought our coach and it still has the stock shocks on it with 39k miles. Let me say it was an interesting drive from VA-FL and back for the holidays.

[woodyk]

I don't know what the orginal shocks manufacture--but they were not Bilstein. When I took my rig out of storage it seemed to rock and bounce more than it should so I ordered the shocks. Wow what a difference they made. I was going with Koni but they are very proud of their product and I'm sure they deserve it based on the comments here, at the moment after buying three new calipers and brakes in Dec I'm streching my retirement $$ to keep my rig in top shape.

Woodyk

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron & Dee I think at that time Workhorse would replace the original shocks to the original owner with Bilsteins

Ron, When Workhorse was replacing shocks on 02, 03 perhaps 04 models they used Monroe Magnum RV shocks. Although immediately better than the black DSP shocks that so many of us had from the onset of our ownership, the Monroes did not last very long at all.

The Bilstein shocks that come OEM from Workhorse are valved pretty hard. The replacement Bilstein Shocks are valved more moderately which do yield a more comfortable ride. This is especially noticeable on lighter, shorter motorhomes.