[laxman1306]

I have a 03 WJ with a clayton 6.5 long arm lift and I' looking for a better shock option for the type of wheeling I do. I'm not afraid of spending a little some money on some good shocks so i was wondering if anyone had some recommendations on what to go with. I've been looking at the bilstein 9100's, king smooth body 2.5 with reservoir's, and FOA's. I know they are a little on the cheaper side but its still and option.... I do a lot of higher speed dune riding and occasional trail and rock climbing..... Any info would be great.

 

[laxman1306]

bump

 

[-HAZARD-]

I think 8 out of 10 people will tell you to go for the Bilstein's.

They have sort of become the "go to" in shock upgrade for WJ's, and they are complimented heavily by reviewers.

I have them on my rig. They do what they're supposed to do.

 

[caronaxtr2]

I bought a ton of white body shocks in all my old builds. I went with Bilstein on my 02 WJ.

 

[780406jeeper]

Bilstein does not make a shock specifically valved for the WJ that is longer than the ones they list for the 4" lift. Once longer shocks are necessary, there are really 2 options that everyone seems to use, either one made for a TJ, or one made for a YJ. The TJ version (same shock body) has the digressive valveing Bilstein is known for, and the YJ version simply has a linear valveing. I tried both and found them to be a little soft, especially at speed. I ended up working with FOX a few years back to valve a set of their shocks for my front end. I ended up with a great riding shock around town that really performs at speed. Fox now lists a shock for our WJ for greater than 4"s of lift.


For the rear end, I ended up maintaining my 4" Bilstein shocks (wj part number) and rotated up my lower mounts so they hang down significantly less than they did stock. I got tired of hitting the mounts in the rocks. With the mounts rotated up, bump stops set accordingly, the 4" shocks worked great.
Kevin

 

[Kolak]

Do you really need an external reservoir shock? Do you do lots of high speed running over rough terrain for example? Or lengthy aggressive rockcrawling?

 

[MuddyWJ]

I have a 03 WJ with a clayton 6.5 long arm lift and I' looking for a better shock option for the type of wheeling I do. I'm not afraid of spending a little some money on some good shocks so i was wondering if anyone had some recommendations on what to go with. I've been looking at the bilstein 9100's, king smooth body 2.5 with reservoir's, and FOA's. I know they are a little on the cheaper side but its still and option.... I do a lot of higher speed dune riding and occasional trail and rock climbing..... Any info would be great.

I've had both bilstein has to offer and my buddy has fox. Fox are definitely stiffer than Billy's but do great in high desert areas that we've taken his rig on. My rig is currently set up with Billy 5165s which is a reservoir shock and I HIGHLY recommend for rock crawling. The return on the shock is great compared to the monotubes. I no longer bounce around it just sways and settles immediately. I have Clayton's 6.5 and he has RC long arms with Clayton's springs. I've purchased everything through kolak and is great to deal with. If you want to lengthen your rear shocks you can mount the upper eyelet to the rear sway bar mount. Figured that one out after I installed by mistake but it worked great and you get about 4" of extra travel.

 

[willis36]

Remote reservoir shocks can also be re valved if the off the shelf valving is not to your liking.