Community Forums

jespo27 · 09-13-2022, 06:54 PM

I have a 2018 Winnie Sunstar 29' Class A F53 chassis. Was wondering pros and cons of each shock and/or recommendations as which is the better replacement Koni or Bilstein? I have steering stabilizer and sumos in front and roadmaster anti sway in rear. Factory shocks have 19k miles on them. Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks
Joe

blueridge-fl · 09-14-2022, 04:27 AM

I replaced the factory shocks on our 2018 Vista with KONI FSD in an effort to smooth out the ride. It did help but only on certain road surfaces where there were thousands of very small imperfections. Was it worth the money? Not really. I assume your factory (Sachs) shocks are still good with only 19k miles so you are looking to improve the roughness of the F53 ride. In the end, I had to go with liquid springs to give the Vista a good ride. While I am happy with the liquid springs decision, it is not for everyone. Its expensive and unless you regularly take long trips (5000-6000 miles) they may not be worth the investment.

jespo27 · 09-14-2022, 07:32 PM

Thank you for your feedback. I did not know the life expectancy of the factory shocks. I will have to do more homework....
Thanks again
Joe

KingKid · 09-14-2022, 10:08 PM

I just replace my oem shocks with Koni fsd and day are like night and day I can't compare them to Bilstein shocks.

jespo27 · 09-15-2022, 06:36 AM

Thanks KingKid, I am leaning towards the Konis myself

RajTaj · 09-15-2022, 03:50 PM

We have a Vista 27PE and are considering Koni FSDs when we do some suspension upgrades next year. We had a Winnebago Via before the Vista and put the Konis on that unit and they were a definite improvement. Sorry, but I don’t have any experience with Bilsteins to help you with the comparison, just that I liked the Konis enough that I would do them again.

KingKid · 09-15-2022, 10:28 PM

Well, I was trying to upload some pics to help you out, lol, but they don't want to upload now, we are at a campsite so it's slow.

jespo27 · 09-16-2022, 01:33 PM

It seems like the consensus is for the Koni Shocks. I might start with the rears first, as they seem to be the easier installation and with my roadmaster sway bar that should do the trick. My front has sumos and a roadmaster steering stabilizer.

Thanks all for the terrific input and quick responses. iRV2 really rocks! my goto site for quality and helpful information.

KingKid · 09-17-2022, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jespo27

It seems like the consensus is for the Koni Shocks. I might start with the rears first, as they seem to be the easier installation and with my roadmaster sway bar that should do the trick. My front has sumos and a roadmaster steering stabilizer.

Thanks all for the terrific input and quick responses. iRV2 really rocks! my goto site for quality and helpful information.

You want regret doing the mods, on our 500 miles trip I was driving with one hand on the wheel but of course I didn't do that long but you will tell the different like night and day.

jespo27 · 09-17-2022, 07:43 AM

I appreciate your response and thank you for your service to our country!

KingKid · 09-19-2022, 09:21 PM

Thank you sir, I was in for twenty-eight years that I serve my country.

jespo27 · 09-20-2022, 07:06 AM

That is awesome!

yeloduster · 09-20-2022, 07:37 AM

The shock absorber issue appears on the forum quite frequently. The bulk of the respondents for shocks for gas powered motorhomes vote for Koni. I note that most of them replace their old worn out shocks with Koni shocks and the improvement is dramatic!

I don't recall anyone comparing new Koni shocks against any other new shocks. The comparison seem to be new Koni shocks against worn out shocks.

My motorhome had very worn shocks when I bought it. I did some research, both on this forum and on line. Click HERE. I found this article doing a direct comparison of shocks for motorhomes. New shocks from several brands were tested. While the results are subjective they are still comparing new to new, not new to old.

The testers found the Bilstein shocks had the same amount of chassis control as the Koni shocks but were less harsh on rough roads. Based on the article I bought Bilstein shocks. I have ≈20K miles on the Bilstein shocks and they are still doing well.

I don't know if I like the Bilstein shocks are better than the Koni shocks. I never tried the Koni's. I suspect that they are both very good.

FIRE UP · 09-20-2022, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueridge-fl

I replaced the factory shocks on our 2018 Vista with KONI FSD in an effort to smooth out the ride. It did help but only on certain road surfaces where there were thousands of very small imperfections. Was it worth the money? Not really. I assume your factory (Sachs) shocks are still good with only 19k miles so you are looking to improve the roughness of the F53 ride. In the end, I had to go with liquid springs to give the Vista a good ride. While I am happy with the liquid springs decision, it is not for everyone. Its expensive and unless you regularly take long trips (5000-6000 miles) they may not be worth the investment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingKid

I just replace my oem shocks with Koni fsd and day are like night and day I can't compare them to Bilstein shocks.

This is PRECISELY why I haven't dived into purchasing any replacement shocks for our coach yet. Our coach, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP, now has 103,900 miles on it and it's sporting the original Sachs shocks. At this time, there is no porpoising, no wandering, no odd handling characteristics what so ever and, my front tires are approximately 3 years old and maybe with 10-15 thousand miles on them and they're wearing flawlessly.

When I see reports like the two above, one says Koni's really didn't do all that much of an improvement and one says they were/are a night and day difference, and both coaches are at least somewhat similar in chassis construction, this makes me sit back and not be so quick to make a decision. Especially when you see just how much Koni's cost.

As far as Bilstein's, our last coach was a '99 Fleetwood Bounder 34V with the F-53 chassis and the 275HP Triton V-10. That coach had a brand new set of Bilstein's on it when we purchased it and rode like ROCK! A bit or research and effort showed the front GAWR of that coach was rated at 7,000 lbs and when I weighed it, it came in at around 4,800-5,000 lbs. No wonder it rode like a rock. Those springs were not even being compressed. But, those Bilstein's didn't help at all with the harshness and even contributed to it. I myself will NEVER have another set of Bilstein's.

I've had them on my Jeeps too and they also rode like a rock. Bilstein's, no thanks, I'll keep looking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yeloduster

The shock absorber issue appears on the forum quite frequently. The bulk of the respondents for shocks for gas powered motorhomes vote for Koni. I note that most of them replace their old worn out shocks with Koni shocks and the improvement is dramatic!

I don't recall anyone comparing new Koni shocks against any other new shocks. The comparison seem to be new Koni shocks against worn out shocks.

My motorhome had very worn shocks when I bought it. I did some research, both on this forum and on line. Click HERE. I found this article doing a direct comparison of shocks for motorhomes. New shocks from several brands were tested. While the results are subjective they are still comparing new to new, not new to old.

The testers found the Bilstein shocks had the same amount of chassis control as the Koni shocks but were less harsh on rough roads. Based on the article I bought Bilstein shocks. I have ≈20K miles on the Bilstein shocks and they are still doing well.

I don't know if I like the Bilstein shocks are better than the Koni shocks. I never tried the Koni's. I suspect that they are both very good.

Based on my personal experience as stated above, with Bilstein's, I myself will not ever go to them. A shock in my opinion, should NOT increase the harshness of a ride. It should however, make the ride more controlled. Also as stated above, at this time in our coaches life and mileage, it is still driving fairly nicely. No wandering, no porpoising, no odd tire wear, no continued bouncing after hitting sways and dips in the roads etc. I don't plan on spending a ton of money on shocks, only to get a harsher ride than I had.
Scott