New shocks for 2WD E250

[JWA]

Slightly off-topic but it would be far more useful (IMHO) if shocks were classified by some other system other than "comfort", "heavy duty" etc etc etc. Those terms are far too subjective and essentially meaningless, without any real way to compare characteristics.

Perhaps that's the intention all brands use for their own evil marketing reasons?

[REF]

I was going to make the same observation, the designation of "comfort" and "HD" is very misleading and not at all accurate as far as their intended designation. The idea of putting anything that would dare be designated as "comfort" on our macho vans would be blasphemy! I agonized over the same thing years ago when shopping for bilsteins, and I reluctantly went the "comfort" route after talking with one of their techs who said much the same thing about the "HD" being for class C motor homes, I was happy with the results. They should swap you out, just tell them that they told you so, but just didn't want to believe a "comfort" shock would be right....maybe they'll finally change the designation....
I am now running Ramsey's custom valved fox shocks....maybe he'll make you a set for non lifted?
What tire pressure you running? You might want to air down a bit, at least in the rear, for a bit softer ride till those shocks settle. Might help...

[MountainBikeRoamer]

Originally Posted by REF

I was going to make the same observation, the designation of "comfort" and "HD" is very misleading and not at all accurate as far as their intended designation. The idea of putting anything that would dare be designated as "comfort" on our macho vans would be blasphemy!

REF ---

Haha, I must confess I was heavily swayed away from the "comfort" shocks, just by the sound of that naming designation....it conjured up images of suspension your aging grandparents would prefer, a floaty and loose Buick-like ride (which actually sounds kind of nice right about now, after enduring the quivery/harsh ride of these HD's in my relatively-light RB 2WD....)

Will check the air pressure in the tires as you mentioned. Pretty sure I went with exactly what was spec'd/written on the Sportsmobile driver-door-jamb sticker, minus 5 psi to account for thermal expansion.

I'm calling eShocks today to see if I have any options to return/swap these out for the Comfort shocks. I'm not too optimistic though, as the local shop that installed the shocks for me threw away the boxes they came in.

[JWA]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeRoamer

I'm calling eShocks today to see if I have any options to return/swap these out for the Comfort shocks. I'm not too optimistic though, as the local shop that installed the shocks for me threw away the boxes they came in.

I believe Bilstein has a "ride guarantee" of sorts, a program that does allow exchanging one or the other. Most likely the issue of discarded packaging doesn't figure into the swap, I could be wrong though about all of this.

I'd call Blistein direct to get them involved, eShocks is just the middleman.

Let us know how this works out---even though I'm fully sold on the HD version I'm interested how that exchange program works out.

[MountainBikeRoamer]

Originally Posted by JWA

I believe Bilstein has a "ride guarantee" of sorts, a program that does allow exchanging one or the other. Most likely the issue of discarded packaging doesn't figure into the swap, I could be wrong though about all of this.

I'd call Blistein direct to get them involved, eShocks is just the middleman.

Let us know how this works out---even though I'm fully sold on the HD version I'm interested how that exchange program works out.

Here's the latest:

Good news: Bilstein is happily making the exchange of a set of the "comfort" shocks for the "HD" shocks.

Can't say enough nice things about the guys at Bilstein and also at eshocks.com. They're making the whole swapping process easy and simple. (Though the rear "comfort" shocks are still out of stock.....gonna be driving on the HD's for a couple weeks at least still.)

Freddie Gonzales is the go-to guy at Bilstein that approves these exchanges, and he was professional and clearly interested to help/sympathetic to customer concerns. Great guy, seems like a great company culture in general at Bilstein.

FWIW:
From what I gathered: Apparently there isn't any official "ride satisfaction guarantee" at Bilstein, but they still want customers to be happy with their shocks, so each case is different and sometimes they do indeed make exchanges, as they are doing for me. I'm coming away very impressed and appreciative of their approach to customer service, both at Bilstein and at eshocks.com .

[JWA]

Good news on the exchange---can't remember when or how I came to believe Bilstein's program was official, the fact its not is new info for me. The better companies seem far more intent on keeping customers satisfied one-by-one rather than focusing only on the bottom line of a single sale. In fact think of the great PR they're getting here on SMB!

EShocks is also a great online outfit and so far I've not had to do much more than place an order and wait for arrival. With Bilstein backing them up no doubt it makes this an easy task for them.

Thanks for the update!

[Flyview]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeRoamer

Here's the latest:

Good news: Bilstein is happily making the exchange of a set of the "comfort" shocks for the "HD" shocks.

Can't say enough nice things about the guys at Bilstein and also at eshocks.com. They're making the whole swapping process easy and simple. (Though the rear "comfort" shocks are still out of stock.....gonna be driving on the HD's for a couple weeks at least still.)

Freddie Gonzales is the go-to guy at Bilstein that approves these exchanges, and he was professional and clearly interested to help/sympathetic to customer concerns. Great guy, seems like a great company culture in general at Bilstein.

FWIW:
From what I gathered: Apparently there isn't any official "ride satisfaction guarantee" at Bilstein, but they still want customers to be happy with their shocks, so each case is different and sometimes they do indeed make exchanges, as they are doing for me. I'm coming away very impressed and appreciative of their approach to customer service, both at Bilstein and at eshocks.com .

I know I'm digging this up from 2-3 years ago, but I want to know how the "comfort" set compared to the HD ones after you swapped them. I now have the same dilemma for my 1992 SMB EB van. Thanks!

[MountainBikeRoamer]

Originally Posted by Flyview

I know I'm digging this up from 2-3 years ago, but I want to know how the "comfort" set compared to the HD ones after you swapped them. I now have the same dilemma for my 1992 SMB EB van. Thanks!

Hiya Flyview --

Hey, the "Comfort" shocks worked out great!!!! I was more than happy with them. Night and day difference from the HD shocks. On the first drive with them installed, my girlfriend definitely noticed and appreciated the difference from the passenger seat, that's for sure.

I know many individuals prefer the HD shock feel and performance, but I'm guessing they have heavier rigs than mine (or adjust their tire pressure significantly lower than I was willing to do) For what it's worth, my van weighed in at about 3500 pounds per axle, or just over 7000 pounds total.

As an honest nod to the HD shocks in one area:
For the week that I did have those HD shocks in --- I must confess that the van had it's sharpest and most controlled handling that it ever had. (I actually enjoyed bombing the van into clover-leaf freeway off-ramps!) But it still wasn't worth it (to me, anyway.) The overall stiff/pounding ride penalty (over sharp bumps) was just too much of a tradeoff.

And it was still a win-win going to the "Comfort" versions....as, by comparison, they really didn't give up much in terms of overall chassis composure. The van always felt stable and controlled while on long freeway trips, at speeds often (usually) up to around 75-80mph. But they felt great, and I'm sure they ultimately were the right choice for the frequent light-off-road excursions we make that include jarring/rocky/bumpy mountain and desert fire roads.

Good luck with your decision!
(And as is mentioned earlier in this post by a couple other guys, it sounds like its worth looking into the Fox shocks that are sourced by Agile Off-Road (and also WeldTec.)

[Flyview]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeRoamer

Hiya Flyview --

Hey, the "Comfort" shocks worked out great!!!! I was more than happy with them. Night and day difference from the HD shocks. On the first drive with them installed, my girlfriend definitely noticed and appreciated the difference from the passenger seat, that's for sure.

I know many individuals prefer the HD shock feel and performance, but I'm guessing they have heavier rigs than mine (or adjust their tire pressure significantly lower than I was willing to do) For what it's worth, my van weighed in at about 3500 pounds per axle, or just over 7000 pounds total.

As an honest nod to the HD shocks in one area:
For the week that I did have those HD shocks in --- I must confess that the van had it's sharpest and most controlled handling that it ever had. (I actually enjoyed bombing the van into clover-leaf freeway off-ramps!) But it still wasn't worth it (to me, anyway.) The overall stiff/pounding ride penalty (over sharp bumps) was just too much of a tradeoff.

And it was still a win-win going to the "Comfort" versions....as, by comparison, they really didn't give up much in terms of overall chassis composure. The van always felt stable and controlled while on long freeway trips, at speeds often (usually) up to around 75-80mph. But they felt great, and I'm sure they ultimately were the right choice for the frequent light-off-road excursions we make that include jarring/rocky/bumpy mountain and desert fire roads.

Good luck with your decision!
(And as is mentioned earlier in this post by a couple other guys, it sounds like its worth looking into the Fox shocks that are sourced by Agile Off-Road (and also WeldTec.)

Thanks for the update! I'm new to big vans like this. I'm trying to figure out how much mine would weigh, but I assume quite a bit. A friend also confirmed that Bilsteins tend to ride pretty stiff, and said to go for the regular ones, or not Bilsteins at all. Looking at rockauto.com , it looks like you can get Sachs shocks for almost a third of the price of these Bilsteins! Now the decisions got even more difficult...

[MountainBikeRoamer]

Originally Posted by Flyview

Thanks for the update! I'm new to big vans like this. I'm trying to figure out how much mine would weigh, but I assume quite a bit. A friend also confirmed that Bilsteins tend to ride pretty stiff, and said to go for the regular ones, or not Bilsteins at all. Looking at rockauto.com , it looks like you can get Sachs shocks for almost a third of the price of these Bilsteins! Now the decisions got even more difficult...

It's definitely worth figuring out your van's actual weight for starters.

Is your van already complete? Or are you just beginning to "build out" a van from a cargo or passenger EB? In either case.... get your van to some sort of scales and get some baseline weight numbers. You're going to want to learn what your total weight is for a variety of technical reasons (setting proper tire pressure!) anyway. And it's important to khow the weight distribution --- how much of the total weight is over each axle, front/rear, as well.

(If you're unsure where to get your van weighed in your area, look up locations of "CAT scales" for one option to do this.)

Other factors will definitely come into play as you choose shocks. (For instance.... what size tires are you planning to run?) I have no personal experience driving them, but the longer-rear-overhang EB models like you have are known for more "tail wagging" behavior (especially when heavily/unevenly loaded) and I imagine that a firmer shock might be more desirable for the rear axle of one of those vans.

At the end of the day:
Every Econoline (and Dodge....and Chevy....and....?) on this forum is built and loaded uniquely. And each owner/driver has unique goals for the handling/capability/load carry capacity/ride quality/stability of their rigs. Thus, each van ultimately will benefit from a slightly-unique combination of tire selection (make/model and size), tire pressure choice (front/rear), shock choices, front/rear spring selection....and also possible front/rear swaybars selection. (Ha! Now I've really thrown another item for you to chew on!)

Don't let all that get you too hung up at the moment though. My bottom line advice for you would still be "get your rig weighed right away."

The heavier (and the longer, i.e. EB) the build....the more shock (HD vs. Comfort vs mushy OEM) you're gonna want.

As a great reference:
Somewhere on this forum is a really neat thread, if I recall, where a lot of people have listed the weights of their personal rigs (along with the specifics of their builds.)