"Well, from personal experience I hate Bilstiens. Here is a quick story and you can make your own call from it, but you couldn't give me a set that I would put on my rig.
When I did my SAS, I had a few bucks and decided to put the Bilstien 5150 with the attached reservoir on them. These ran about $140 each and I thought that I would be getting a really good shock. I put them on all four corners.
Within about 4 months, the front shocks started leaking so badly, they were leaving a puddle under my rig. I took them back to Off Road Solutions where I had bought them, thinking that for $140 a shock, they ought to have a pretty good warranty. Well, much to ORS' and my surprise, Bilstien said that don't warranty these shocks and were rude to Mike Caskey to boot. I then got on the phone to Bilstien and tried to get some help. They esentially told me to suck wind.
I then went down to High Country as they aslo sell Bilstiens and they tried to get them warrantied. They had the same results. My friend Jarret down there had a set of Pro Comps off his old rig that he let me have.
About 6 months later, my back shocks did the same thing. I didn't even try to warranty them. The end result of this is that not only do I tell this to anyone who is looking for shocks, but that Off Road Solutions and High Country stopped pushing these shocks and wouldn't sell them unless someone asked for them specifically.
Any place that sells high dollar shocks (I figured that the ones that I bought for $140 probaly cost Bilstien around $25 each to make) should stand behind and warranty their products. Like I said, you really couldn't give a set of these...
Currently I have a set of long travel Pro Comp 3000s that cost me $156 for all 4. I am happy with them. I have used both ProComps and Ranchos for quite awhile, some of them living through more than one rig. They both last forever, both are warrantied, and both do the job just fine. If you are looking for a basic off road shock that does what you ask it to, will last just about forever, don't want to spend big bucks and don't mind a slight loss of ride quality, these are the ones to get.
Yours would probably cost less as the cost goes up above 30"...
Just my
, but Bilstien, their associates, their policies, and especially their customer service can simply suck wind...and suck much more, too..."
That's some really good info to know about the Bilsteins. You'd think they would stand behind their product a little bit better. I think even if I had the money I wouldn't by them after reading that.