Koni shocks result

[Clay L]

I installed four Koni FSD shocks before we left on our annual migration from cold to warm.

We just completed an 800 mile trip from Grand Junction CO to Bouse AZ. We came down through Monument Valley UT on state roads 191, 163, 160, interstate I40, 95, and 72.
There was a variety of road surfaces and conditions.

Short version: I like them and am glad I installed them.

Long version:

The negative:
The new shocks seemed to provide a little harsher ride than the OEM Monroe's.

However the OEM shocks had about 35000 miles on them and I felt that they were getting worn. So it may well be that the Konis are similar to the ride provided by the OEMs when they were new.
With the old shocks I noticed that the roll and sway when entering gas stations and RV parks seemed to be a lot worse than a year or so earlier. We actually had a cabinet door come open and some Corelle plates hit the floor and broke when entering a service station in UT last summer. DW was not pleased and this was one reason I decided to get new shocks


The positive:

The low speed rock and roll is much, much,less than before.
I hit a speed bump in an RV park that I didn't see in time to slow down much and the bounce was much less than before.
Lean on exit ramps seems to be less.

Those of you that have 2004 or earlier Workhorse chassis may remember that WH tried to simulate a bus or pusher ride with the W20/W22 supension. I thought they did a pretty good job of doing that.
There were trade offs however that resulted in a somewhat disconcerting downward excursion when certain types of dips were encountered.
I saw them often on the transition from highway to bridge surface.
There was no loss of control but the large excursion upset a lot of people and I think may have caused or at least influenced WH to switch from Monroe to Biltstein.
Many people considered it to be porpoising.
On mine I didn't think it was.

To me porpoising is when the coach response to a bump or dip is under damped. I felt that my suspension was closer to being critically damped than under damped.
However over time it seemed to approach closer to being under damped.

I believe that Konis are closer to being critically damped than the OEM were when new.

That large downward excursion seems to be gone now. I feel that with the variety of road surfaces we encountered on the trip, that we would have seen dips bad enough to have caused the excursion, so I am pretty confident that it is gone.
DW always hated that big excursion and is very happy that it's gone.

Ride is a very subjective thing but DW and I agree that we like the Konis.

[Clay L]

I installed four Koni FSD shocks before we left on our annual migration from cold to warm.

We just completed an 800 mile trip from Grand Junction CO to Bouse AZ. We came down through Monument Valley UT on state roads 191, 163, 160, interstate I40, 95, and 72.
There was a variety of road surfaces and conditions.

Short version: I like them and am glad I installed them.

Long version:

The negative:
The new shocks seemed to provide a little harsher ride than the OEM Monroe's.

However the OEM shocks had about 35000 miles on them and I felt that they were getting worn. So it may well be that the Konis are similar to the ride provided by the OEMs when they were new.
With the old shocks I noticed that the roll and sway when entering gas stations and RV parks seemed to be a lot worse than a year or so earlier. We actually had a cabinet door come open and some Corelle plates hit the floor and broke when entering a service station in UT last summer. DW was not pleased and this was one reason I decided to get new shocks


The positive:

The low speed rock and roll is much, much,less than before.
I hit a speed bump in an RV park that I didn't see in time to slow down much and the bounce was much less than before.
Lean on exit ramps seems to be less.

Those of you that have 2004 or earlier Workhorse chassis may remember that WH tried to simulate a bus or pusher ride with the W20/W22 supension. I thought they did a pretty good job of doing that.
There were trade offs however that resulted in a somewhat disconcerting downward excursion when certain types of dips were encountered.
I saw them often on the transition from highway to bridge surface.
There was no loss of control but the large excursion upset a lot of people and I think may have caused or at least influenced WH to switch from Monroe to Biltstein.
Many people considered it to be porpoising.
On mine I didn't think it was.

To me porpoising is when the coach response to a bump or dip is under damped. I felt that my suspension was closer to being critically damped than under damped.
However over time it seemed to approach closer to being under damped.

I believe that Konis are closer to being critically damped than the OEM were when new.

That large downward excursion seems to be gone now. I feel that with the variety of road surfaces we encountered on the trip, that we would have seen dips bad enough to have caused the excursion, so I am pretty confident that it is gone.
DW always hated that big excursion and is very happy that it's gone.

Ride is a very subjective thing but DW and I agree that we like the Konis.