***** Shocks - Which one should I get???????

[Busskipper]

Trying to get the Old Bus ready to go back out on the Road and revisit the Good old USA.

Just re-shoe'd it with Michelins so now thinking I might need to get some New Shocks.

2004 Mountain Master Chassis - Spartan - with Tag.

Anyone have the Part numbers?

Which one did you select?

Why?

Happy? -

DIY - what problems did you encounter?

Any Special Tools NEEDED?

Any Links you used online?

Would Love to get some answers before I decide and do the work - as I have said before - The forum is filled with the Answers to all the Questions, just hoping to get the correct answers. -

TIA

[Dav L]

I had old Bilsteins on the Bounder. Replace them with new Bilsteins. BIGGGG upgrade to the handling. Went from White Knuckles to casual driving.

Had old Bilsteins on the MountainAire. First drive and the front porpoised when crossing bridge road heaves. Put Koni's on the front. Fixed the problem. Drives great.

The problem is not many users have tried brand A, and then switched to brand B to get a good comparison. Also, at least the Konis are adjustable. I put them in at the standard setting, but haven't played with adjustment which would further skew A / B comparisons.

Maybe just because Koni is more expensive, I put them as "better" shocks. I was willing to pay the additional on the MA because I was only doing two and the hit wasn't that bad compared to the anticipated big difference in drive.

Most important is to replace the shocks when the old are tired.

Tool wise - I use an air impact to get the shock bolts off. They are big, tight, and usually a bit corroded. I put some WD40 on the nut before surgery.

In the MA case...the tie rod was in the way of the lower shock bolt. I went to remove the tie rod and found the last moron to work on it didn't put a cotter pin on the finger tight bolt on one side, and put a cotter pin on a two turn loose nut on the other side. So, replacing the shocks may have save my family and others on the road life. Who the heck does stuff like this?

Front Koni for 2002 MA K2 w/ tag (shockwharehouse):

2 90 2815 Koni Adjustable
Item: 90 2815

$188.68 $377.36

Sub Total $377.36
Discount Code (SNOW25) - $25.00
Shipping (Ground) $0.00
Invoice Total $352.36

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[MSHappyCampers]

I used the Bilsteins after reading the comparison below.


Shock Testing.pdf

[Dav L]

Interesting subjective shock test. Of course it's one RV they tested on. So your results may vary. The results are somewhat in line with what my intuition would conclude. Interesting that the Bilsteins seem to be mounted upside down compared to the rest. I can't remember if that is by design.

Note, no mention of adjustability. Not sure if the Koni model they tested is adjustable. Oh, and there are different models of each brand to choose too.

So, hard to compare.

I'll suggest that most folks that are changing shocks that the originals are worn out that the driver will be happy with their switch, no matter the brand and will tell all others theirs is the best .