Koni Shocks

[RoaminFree]

I have a 2017 Anthem with 42k miles. Sometimes on certain roads I get the "porpoising" I used to see in older cars with bad shocks. It can bounce bad enough to get scary.

I contacted Entegra who sent me to Spartan. I spoke with a Spartan tech and he told me there was no way the original shocks were bad. He asked me about tire pressures (which I have had each axel weighed and we use the right pressures).

I've read here about Koni shocks, and at $1300 for all six (two per axle before installation) I wanted to see what my esteemed colleagues think first.

We'll be at the Entegra rally in the coming months but before making a 2,000 trip from Phoenix to Tampa I wanted to see what ya'all think first.

[RayandWendy]

Almost everyone here will say that Koni shocks are a definite improvement.
Later...
Ray

[jeff.herren]

Heard very positive things but the consensus is only need to do the fronts. No need to do the rears at all at least that what I read.

Planning to make this change myself but haven't pulled the trigger as of yet.

[brobox]

Here's my experience and hundreds that shared their when we stated putting them on our coaches going back to 2014. https://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/kon...ng-297539.html

[alank]

Originally Posted by RoaminFree

I have a 2017 Anthem with 42k miles. Sometimes on certain roads I get the "porpoising" I used to see in older cars with bad shocks. It can bounce bad enough to get scary.

Slow down, enjoy the trip. Just wanted to get that in there before my response.

If I change shocks, it will be the fronts to the FSD shocks. I have a Freightiner solid axle. According to the Koni site, it seems the EVO shocks are the only ones available for the Spartin chassis.

The FSD (frequency sensitive dampening) shock operates in the same manner as the Edelbrock IFS (inertia frequency sensitive) shock operates. The idea is the shock will offer very little resistance to movement when the movement is initiated from one end of the shock and will provide a high rate of resistance when the movement is initiated from the other end of the shock. It's all done in the valving.

The low resistance end of the shock is connected to the axle and doesn't transfer the shock of rapid axle movement of a rough road surface up into the chassis nearly as much.
The top end of the shock connected to the chassis provides a high rate of resistance to movement coming from the coach body, such as going over swails in the road which can cause the porposing effect.

Edelbrock did a good video on the shocks when they came out with them. Their demonstration was on a Surburban vehicle, and the operator was quite impressed with the difference in their operation over a standard sock.

I wasn't able to find if the EVO shock had any of the same characteristics in its valving that the FSD shock has.

[Tim Fox]

I changed to Konis on the front of our 16 and 21 Anthems. Makes a great improvement for a reasonable expenditure.

[737 Driver]

I replaced my, front only, shocks with Konis on my 2017 Anthem. I like the way it handles much better. Way less bouncing. Personally I wouldn’t replace the rears until they needed to be replaced. I am all for not overspending with little return if any. Just my two cents.

Sincerely, Tor
2017 Anthem 44B

[RVFunlovers]

I put Koni shocks on the front of my 2017 Cornerstone because of the porpoising.
Sometimes I would hit bumps, a dip, or slight rise and I would have a hard time controlling the coach.

The new shocks helped. I just did the front.

I have not had that issue with the 22 coach. I am not sure why but so far all good.

[Gary.Jones]

Hal

I think they went with heavier duty Bilstein shocks on the newer coach models to help reduce the porpoising.

I have the standard OEM shocks on my 19 and don't feel that the ride is too bad. There might be one dip in the road or one unlevel section of road slab that causes a pretty deep porpoising motion in a full day of travel, but I can live with that (One of us always yells .... "YeeeeHawwwwww !!!!" when we go over those spots ).

I think Koni's have a great reputation and will add them to the front if my ride gets significantly worse.

Gary

[Steve 716]

You really only need to replace your front shocks. Koni is a softer ride, If they start to bounce they recover quickly. I purchased front Koni shocks online and had a truck service/tire company install them. In my case the factory shocks gave a rough and tiring ride. Koni fixed that. I added a Safe-T-Plus steering stabilizer at the same time and that also improved driving characteristics. I recommend Koni shocks but keep in mind that they are a softer ride than your factory shocks. Also, make sure your coach is in alignment.

[shootist]

https://www.brazelsrv.com/RV-Suspension/Koni-Shocks , I think they are a supporter here and have great prices.

[KingKid]

I put them on my 2022 Jayco Precept with 500 miles on it, and all I got to say is wow, they do make a difference.

[Capt Van]

I put them on the front of my Anthem and on my 2022 coach. At the same time I added the Centamatics. Very happy with both

https://www.centramatic.com/

[photraveller]

We put Koni's on the front of our 2017 Aspire and they help tremendously with ride especially the harsh bridge approaches.


That said, I have found that a certain stretch of interstate still causes what I would say is a frequency induced porpoising. In this section of interstate if I don't slow down, the porpoising will increase until I'm hitting the full travel bump stops on both ends of the front suspension travel. The first time it happened to us, it felt like it was going to throw us out of our seats. I imagine the coach looked like one of those hydraulic low rider cars.



The section that affects our coach is I-55 coming into Memphis from the west as you travel over the Mississippi river flood plain. Interestingly enough, I-40 right there does the same thing just not as badly.


I bring this up because, if the porpoising is due to something like I'm mentioning, I don't think the EVO Koni's will prevent it. It comes down the the frequency of the bumps, verse the frequency response of the suspension.


That said, other than West Memphis, I believe I have only run into this type of porpoising one other time in all of our travels. Since I run through Memphis once a year, I'm prepared and slow down. In West Memphis I have to slow down from 60+ to around 50 to make it manageable.



Steve