Anyone Disappointed in Ford's Choice of Bilstein over Fox Shocks?

[Ryuk]

Personally I'm a little disappointed to see Ford go with the Bilstein Shocks on the higher packages. I was really hoping to see the Bronco sitting on the Fox Active Shocks, similar to the Raptor. I'm not saying they are junk or anything. I currently drive a 2016 4Runner TRD Pro which has the 2.5" Bilstein Shocks and they've been great for 66K. I just love the feel of the Progressive valving of say Fox or King over the Digressive Bilsteins. They just don't have that cushy feel of the Fox and can be a little harsh on the street and small stuff, especially when paired with LT tires. It would have been nice to be able to choose the shock package to suit your needs. Oh well just my take on it.

I competed with Bilsteins when I was rock crawling. Never had any issues and can guarantee I pushed them hard. I've also had them on sports cars and they are a solid brand.
I am glad Ford started with these and if people want to upgrade after the fact, they can do so and then sell off the stockers to recoup some moola. Win Win imho

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[Natai]

This is an older thread, but I just saw it.

I've seen lots of comments on social media about how a lot of people plan to swap out for Fox immediately. The automatic assumption is that Fox > Bilstein.

I don't have a lot of experience in this area, but when I heard in some of the KOH videos that Bilstein spent something like 4 years engineering the suspension specifically for the Bronco, I was impressed. I would be hesitant to assume that an existing market product is going to be automatically superior to a custom-engineered one, simply because of brand.

 

[jay-rod427]

Until the regular Bronco, or Warthog comes with Fox live valve there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Bilstein's. If ford really wanted to cater to the real offroad market Fox live valve or a magneride type shock would already be a thing, but they know 90% of them will handle the mall speedbumps just fine with the much more economical bilstein/base shocks.

Live valve adjustable shocks are Yuuuuuge in the utv market. Varying conditions with electronic sensing and adjusting shocks make an enormous difference in different offroad settings.

But hard to get $3,000+ shocks and springs past the factory bean counters.

 

[AcesandEights]

Bilstein > Fox, so I'm very happy the Bronco will come Bilstein. If the Bronco came with Fox shocks I probably wouldn't have bought it, but if I did buy it, I would have either replaced the Fox shocks with Bilstein or lit the whole damned thing on fire and walked away. Bilstein > Fox.

 

[JesseS]

Not to happy, my RV came with Blisteine's and were blown and leaking within 18 months. Don't know if Ford under sized them on the F53 chassis or if they were just crap. Replaced them with Koni FSD's (bigger pistons by 30%) and they ride so much better, and 4 years without issues.

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

I had Bilsteins on my wrangler and swapped them out for custom-valved Fox shocks since I was swapping out my axle and I actually regret the decision. Bilsteins rode better on the rode for DD. Still have them in my garage and if I ever find time to spin a wrench again on ym jeep, I may just swap them out. Not to mention, the bilsteins provided a tad more travel, so I had to install taller bump stops with the fox.

 

[MVP]

No. Who wants to take off their shocks every year and rebuild them. If you choose to do that it’s fine but to come stock with a 2.5 system that you have to rebuild would be a death sentence.

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Until the regular Bronco, or Warthog comes with Fox live valve there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Bilstein's. If ford really wanted to cater to the real offroad market Fox live valve or a magneride type shock would already be a thing, but they know 90% of them will handle the mall speedbumps just fine with the much more economical bilstein/base shocks.

Live valve adjustable shocks are Yuuuuuge in the utv market. Varying conditions with electronic sensing and adjusting shocks make an enormous difference in different offroad settings.

But hard to get $3,000+ shocks and springs past the factory bean counters.

https://www.ridefox.com/subhome.php?m=truck&make=Ford&model=F-150+Raptor&year=2020&position=ALL
$3K might get you the rear Fox live valve shocks. lol

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