There are some upgrades we do to our Jeeps and hardly notice any performance gains, and there are others that we do, and say, “Wow, why didn’t I do that a long time ago.”  It was time to update our suspension, and we got our hands on the new Bilstein 5160 shocks for our JK project Jeep. We were impressed with the looks of them alone.

The Triple C, zinc alloy, corrosive resistant shock bodies and braided hoses were enough to get anyone excited, and we installed them with the anticipation of the shocks working as good as they look. So why didn’t we do this along time ago? The 5160s are new shocks in Bilstein’s lineup and should prove to be their new flagship offering to the Jeep world once they hit the market.

The 5160s are close relatives of the proven, self-adjusting 5100, with a 46mm piston and 14mm, centerless ground, case hardened and polished, chrome rod. However, Bilstein took the 5160s one big step further with the addition of a piggybacked reservoir that houses a floating, dividing piston. One benefit of the reservoir is greater shaft travel by opening up more room in the main shock body. It also increases overall oil capacity and the gas chamber is larger as well, leading to better overall dampening and reaction time through rough terrain. 

In the past, almost every shock we tested “faded” during high-speed travel through the rough. Shock fade is a common problem where dampening is reduced due to foaming while the piston moves rapidly through a small volume of fluid. The 5160s are the first shocks tested on our Jeep where we have not been able to experience fade—no matter how hard we tried. This translates to better control in all situations when on- and off-road, with increased predictability and stability for our Jeep. 

The braided hoses are attached to the shock bodies via swiveling attachments. This makes for an easy and clean install by eliminating bind from a fixed hose mount. Bilstein includes all new mounting hardware for the shocks, including pre-installed vulcanized rubber bushings and sleeves, body to reservoir spacers and hose clamps. Attaching the reservoir to the shock body with hose clamps is perfectly acceptable, however, it does not provide the cleanest of looks in our opinion. We will be picking up a set of the optional billet aluminum clamps in the near future from Bilstein to complete our Jeep.  Install time for all four shocks was a little over an hour, including assembling each shock and reservoir.

Our first impression of the 5160s is that they allow our Jeep to ride very comfortably on road and on the highway, combined with our Rock Krawler X-Factor Mid Arm Aluminum Pro Suspension. They seem to be slightly more firm than their 5100 brothers, however, easily and comfortably absorb small imperfections in concrete and asphalt roads. They really shine over larger “bumps” in the road, such as potholes and highway expansion joints. Fire and country roads are a blast! At 60 and 70 mph, through wash board, water ruts and even good-sized whoops, the shocks are absolutely incredible and most at home. The 5160s soaked it all up with ease and flattened the dirt out like asphalt.  A few of the whoops were more like small jumps that launched us airborne for the first time in our new Jeep. The Bilstein shocks begged for more and were not phased by the landings. In fact, we pushed the Jeep even harder and could not find a weak point in the 5160’s. 

We all know that Bilstein shocks handle dirt roads very well at high speed, but how do they do in low-speed Jeep crawling? The 5160s shine here too. The dampening and rebound is tuned perfectly for the heavy JK. Dropping off and climbing boulders resulted in controlled crawling, with no hard bottoming of the suspension. They also reacted quickly as our very flexible Rock Krawler suspension cycled through big ruts and rock fields. While they performed flawlessly at low speeds, we would like to see some longer 5160s from Bilstein.

As with many JK suspension systems on the market today that provide ultra flexibility, a longer travel shock is in order. Our shocks are approximately 2 inches too short in the front and the rear to achieve the flex that we would like from our 3.5-inch RK suspension. Bilstein is expected to release a longer 5160 for the JK that is designed to fit up to 5 inches of lift, which might be the better solution for our shorter suspension. In the mean time, we plan to move our axle shock mounts to give us a bit more droop that we are looking for. 

We love these shocks. If Bilstein 5100s were on your short list of shocks to buy for your Jeep JK, move them over for the 5160s and put these at the top of your list. We were so impressed by these well balanced dampeners, we ordered up another set for our other JK project. If that wasn’t enough, we also plan to grab up one more set for our TJ build that is about to begin. Three sets of 5160 for three different Jeeps? Yes, they are that good.

ThyssenKrupp Bilstein of America
14102 Stowe Drive
Poway, CA. 92064
1-858-386-5900
http://www.bilsteinUS.com/