Koni's for my Anthem?

[brobox]

Originally Posted by RMatusick

Just upgraded the shocks on my 2014 Anthem and wow what a difference. Thanks Brobox for the info.

Thank Brian and Lynn, they are the ones that it took me two years to listen too. After trying everything else.....I said, why not, I've done everything else...the Koni's worked. Just passing along what finally did work for me.

Originally Posted by palehorse89

Chuck, I am surprised you never installed them on your Travel Supreme.........

The TS road great, but I had the 38 ft that had the same shock as the "big boys" on a 14,000 lb front axle. The Entegra used the same shock on a 17,000 lb axle and it didn't do so well. I now have the ride my TS had and I couldn't be happier.

I hope to help other when improvements work, if they don't I will be honest about that too.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by lowejug

I actually had the Spartan guy at middlebury inspect my whole chassis including alignment, ride height etc..
His report was alignment was great
Driver side ride height was off and he corrected , steering wheel was at 2 o'clock and he corrected and I had a front leaking air valve which he replaced.. So I feel all this has been looked at now and is the way it supposed to be at least per there Spartan guy..

All I can say about Spartan at Entegra is I just replaced my rear axle seal myself after they inspected the one before the last one and said it was OK. We returned 200 miles later and they replaced that one. It leaked all the way home. I just replaced the 4th one myself this time.... now I know it is done correctly.

The report was given to Spartans main office and they sent me the parts. Just my experience, but not the best shop for Spartan.

[lowejug]

Originally Posted by brobox

All I can say about Spartan at Entegra is I just replaced my rear axle seal myself after they inspected the one before the last one and said it was OK. We returned 200 miles later and they replaced that one. It leaked all the way home. I just replaced the 4th one myself this time.... now I know it is done correctly.

The report was given to Spartans main office and they sent me the parts. Just my experience, but not the best shop for Spartan.

Ya You got me thinking for sure.
Especially when I was un sure if my front air valve was correct that supposedly was replaced as on my way home the front air gage was going up and down by 20 pounds and I emailed mike the service advisor at Entegra about it and he won't respond.. Makes me wonder if I still have something off. There is only a freightliner in my town but they are thorough so I my just have them re look at it all ... Thanks for your input 😊

[jestal]

The Koni shocks have better tuning for high speed low amplitude inputs.....like tar strips and bridge approaches. I think the Bilsteins could be just as good if there was a little more ride tuning done to them. The 16's and 17's come with newer mono-tube Bilstein shock that seems to have the ride tuning corrected for the low amplitude sharp inputs like the expansion joints. They also should theoretically have more damping capacity for the large swells. I briefly drove a 2016 Anthem with the mono-tube Bilsteins and they were much better over the sharp inputs but no chance to try them over large swells.

I have the Konis on our '13 antique classic Anthem and the ride quality is dramatically improved as reported before....but...they do still do not have the damping capacity IMHO for the large swells so I would never recommend them for that as an improvement. I need to drop the Konis and move them from the typical "medium" setting to the firmer setting. I think this would help damp the large swells better and still provide the improvement on the sharp expansion joint impacts.

Everyone should understand the whole game here is in the tuning of the shocks under discussion. Bilsteins are excellent shocks and their engineers know exactly how to make them ride like the Koni shocks do....someone at Entegra that has control over ride and handling needs to provide the direction. And I think they have from the limited experience I have in a 16 and the input from the previous posters. Bilstein did not change to the monotube design and larger piston for no reason.... The koni shocks are very good units but their advantage (in this case) is tuning not some fundamental magic design. That and they are adjustable so you can personalize them a bit which may be an advantage over the Bilsteins.

My guess would be that putting the Koni shocks on a 16 or 17 would not be a priority unless you just want to play....... My journey to the Konis actually started with a quest to determine if the mono-tube '16 Bilsteins would retrofit to our 2013 Anthem. No one would give me the info I really needed to determine this so I ended up going with the Koni shocks due to other's experience and they were a known entity and Spartan offered an excellent deal on them installed.

[lowejug]

Originally Posted by jestal

The Koni shocks have better tuning for high speed low amplitude inputs.....like tar strips and bridge approaches. I think the Bilsteins could be just as good if there was a little more ride tuning done to them. The 16's and 17's come with newer mono-tube Bilstein shock that seems to have the ride tuning corrected for the low amplitude sharp inputs like the expansion joints. They also should theoretically have more damping capacity for the large swells. I briefly drove a 2016 Anthem with the mono-tube Bilsteins and they were much better over the sharp inputs but no chance to try them over large swells.



I have the Konis on our '13 antique classic Anthem and the ride quality is dramatically improved as reported before....but...they do still do not have the damping capacity IMHO for the large swells so I would never recommend them for that as an improvement. I need to drop the Konis and move them from the typical "medium" setting to the firmer setting. I think this would help damp the large swells better and still provide the improvement on the sharp expansion joint impacts.



Everyone should understand the whole game here is in the tuning of the shocks under discussion. Bilsteins are excellent shocks and their engineers know exactly how to make them ride like the Koni shocks do....someone at Entegra that has control over ride and handling needs to provide the direction. And I think they have from the limited experience I have in a 16 and the input from the previous posters. Bilstein did not change to the monotube design and larger piston for no reason.... The koni shocks are very good units but their advantage (in this case) is tuning not some fundamental magic design. That and they are adjustable so you can personalize them a bit which may be an advantage over the Bilsteins.



My guess would be that putting the Koni shocks on a 16 or 17 would not be a priority unless you just want to play....... My journey to the Konis actually started with a quest to determine if the mono-tube '16 Bilsteins would retrofit to our 2013 Anthem. No one would give me the info I really needed to determine this so I ended up going with the Koni shocks due to other's experience and they were a known entity and Spartan offered an excellent deal on them installed.

Very well put. I was thinking the exact same thing. Everybody says the medium setting is magic but after still bouncing outa my seat on the big swell bumps I thought going to the highest stiffer setting would cure a lot more of that type of ride. So you are saying yours are on the stiffest setting ? Do you still get the benefits of softness over bridges and concrete gaps in freeways if so ?

[jestal]

lowejug, I still have the konis on the medium setting and have an extra "half rebound" event I do not like when going over a large bump or swell in the road. I haven't had the opportunity to try the other, firmer, setting yet but will do soon.

The coach is actually quite stable and the ride is excellent over all. I would just like to get a bit more damping on a very large amplitude oscillation of the front. Konis on any Entegra before 2016 would be a worthwhile mod. I suspect they will not improve a 2016 especially if the '16 driver is looking for getting rid of the large amplitude "bounce" but I they are still going to try then put the konis on Firm instead of medium. Maybe someone will try this and let us know how it feels rather than rely on my imagination.

[hogdriver]

John.

Which model Koni's did you get installed on your Anthem. The newer (99 model I think) or the older (90 series) ones?

[steve11669]

I read some replies about ride hieght adnustments. I'm wondering how many guys do the adjustment themselves vs. Having a shop do it.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by lowejug

Ya You got me thinking for sure.
Especially when I was un sure if my front air valve was correct that supposedly was replaced as on my way home the front air gage was going up and down by 20 pounds and I emailed mike the service advisor at Entegra about it and he won't respond.. Makes me wonder if I still have something off. There is only a freightliner in my town but they are thorough so I my just have them re look at it all ... Thanks for your input 😊

I do not trust the Spartan's work at Entegra. Somebody is ripping their company off for time and the customer is getting the short end. This is what I arrived home with after Spartan at Entegra replaced it. They were caught twice not doing the work they wrote on there work order as completed. Just because they said they did it, here is proof they do not.

I won't even go into how poorly and incorrectly the seal was installed. That was also lied in writing on the work order.

[TurboDaveTX]

Originally Posted by brobox

I do not trust the Spartan's work at Entegra. Somebody is ripping their company off for time and the customer is getting the short end. This is what I arrived home with after Spartan at Entegra replaced it. They were caught twice not doing the work they wrote on there work order as completed. Just because they said they did it, here is proof they do not.

I won't even go into how poorly and incorrectly the seal was installed. That was also lied in writing on the work order.

The roadside tag axle on my 15 CS appeared to be throwing out oil [not as much as in pic]. I pulled the cover and discovered one of the bolts that hold the seal cap on had fallen out and was rolling around in the hub cap. There were four other bolts that were loose. I reinserted and the bolt that fell out and tightened the others and that seemed to eliminate the leak. Drove 1,000 miles home and no sign of a leak.

[brobox]

Two of the bolts marks as torqued were finger tight, the other were so tight the gasket was crushed and leaking fluid. Wheel bolts are to be torqued in a star pattern.

Sealant was applied in 3 large globs, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock making the surface uneven to seal against the axle.

Point of the post was....any work preformed at the Spartan Entegra shops is not 100% if problems are still being had with what was worked on.

[wmpbauer]

On my '17 Anthem, the bounce was excessive. Ride height was off, but more important, the governor on the air system was low...by a fair amount. I was probably running at about 110-112 psi instead of 135 psi. Dialed it up, now it's better!


Pat Bauer, President
Entegra Coach Owners Association
www.entegraowners.com
2017 Anthem DEQ/Ford Edge