Questions regarding shock upgrades

[WattTheTruck]

New owner of a lightly used 2022 platinum. Before buying I browsed this forum quite a bit and decided I would lower the truck with the eibach springs and sport shocks/icon camber kit or the entire icon kit once it’s on sale. Also decided to do the hellwig front sway bar. I have the sway bar and some beefier sway links on order.

Turns out the prior owner already did a 3” lift in the front to level the truck out and I actually really like the height. My problem being my first truck and always having sporty cars is that this thing handles like a jelly donut. The sway bar I am sure will help quite a bit. My question is, if I like this height and instead of doing the eibach lowering combo I did their lift combo instead, or any brands lift combo (shocks/springs & whatever else)…. Do any lift kits actually improve handling at all and help eliminate the floating? Or are lift kits generally geared towards flexing more for off roading and would make the floating worse?

If I could keep the truck up high but swap the suspension to be stiffer or less floaty that would be pretty cool. I am not familiar with lift kits and always assumed the higher you went the more floaty you got but want to confirm that. Maybe it’s just the factory shocks in general are super soft and any aftermarket, lift or drop, would handle better? Otherwise I assume I will eventually drop the truck to get better handling.

thanks

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[Whammy Bar]

How did they do the level? If its just a spacer, you have the factory springs. You could do something like the Eibach Pro Kit to replace the shocks and springs and it'd look the same but ride a bit more truck like.

Note - this will never feel sporty car like when stopping or turning, only when accelerating. Because its the weight of 2.8 Mazda Miata's.

 

[WattTheTruck]

Yea 100%. I know it’s never going to act like a car. It has just a spacer kit in the front. So my real question is - do off road shocks/springs handle better than factory or are they actually looser for better crawling capability and would make it worse?

 

[Better By Cab]

Bump for nailing the forum user name game - nice job @WattTheTruck

 

[mtg]

@WattTheTruck good question. The challenge is that none of these suspension options tell us if what is changed, other than static ride height.

The stock truck setup is pretty stiff in springs if the bed is empty-ish, and very soft in damping. The soft damping is what makes the floaty feel.

To make the ride closer to what you're used to, the closest would be lowered, springs that are not softer, much stiffer dampers, and a stiffer sway bar. If you want to keep the lifted ride height, then go with stiffer sway bar(s) and stiffer dampers.

Does anybody actually know if the Eibach kits are using softer springs for the lowered kits, or stiffer springs that are lowered?

Damper upgrades: I have only seen the Eibach branded versions, and there is almost no information about what is actually different than stock.

 

[Firn]

New owner of a lightly used 2022 platinum. Before buying I browsed this forum quite a bit and decided I would lower the truck with the eibach springs and sport shocks/icon camber kit or the entire icon kit once it’s on sale. Also decided to do the hellwig front sway bar. I have the sway bar and some beefier sway links on order.

Turns out the prior owner already did a 3” lift in the front to level the truck out and I actually really like the height. My problem being my first truck and always having sporty cars is that this thing handles like a jelly donut. The sway bar I am sure will help quite a bit. My question is, if I like this height and instead of doing the eibach lowering combo I did their lift combo instead, or any brands lift combo (shocks/springs & whatever else)…. Do any lift kits actually improve handling at all and help eliminate the floating? Or are lift kits generally geared towards flexing more for off roading and would make the floating worse?

If I could keep the truck up high but swap the suspension to be stiffer or less floaty that would be pretty cool. I am not familiar with lift kits and always assumed the higher you went the more floaty you got but want to confirm that. Maybe it’s just the factory shocks in general are super soft and any aftermarket, lift or drop, would handle better? Otherwise I assume I will eventually drop the truck to get better handling.

thanks

Floaty will be dampening.

I will STRONGLY recomend Bilstein 5100s, or 6112s if you have the coin.. The digressive valving is what you are looking for and will get rid of the float, give a tight sports car like feeling, without being harsh.

Unfortunately Bilstein only makes struts for the front. However the rear is much more well mannered in these trucks I expect you will not feel the need to upgrade the rear once you do the front.

Upside, if you get 5100s for the front and don't like them I'm sure you could off load them here.

 

[mtg]

Is there a Lightning specific 6112 setup, or does the standard ICE version work? And, do those dampers work with the stock springs?
A set of 6112's on the front of mine sounds like what I'm after.

 

[Firn]

Is there a Lightning specific 6112 setup, or does the standard ICE version work? And, do those dampers work with the stock springs?
A set of 6112's on the front of mine sounds like what I'm after.

Bilstein did not make a Lightning specific set of either the 5100s or the 6112s unfortunately. Fronts are the same dimensions as regular F150 but the lightning does carry more weight, the rear is obviously different (although is maybe just 2018 front shocks!?).

The 6112s use their own spring and reports have it that the 2" lift setting is a bit lower than that. They may be undersprung a bit for the lightning but a high trim Powerboost is within 10% of my Pro ER for weight so they are not THAT far off. The 5100s use your factory spring. That's good for weight, not as much for dampening (rebound is matched to spring rate).

Personally I'm starting to think the 5100s and 6112s are equally as good, with the 6112s just being a larger body and able to handle heavy off roading much much better. Not an issue for me anyways. I'm waiting for "Overland Outfitters" on youtube to finish their shock comparison series as they were planning to compare the 5100s against the 6112s

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