Replacing OME Shocks With Bilstein 5125's (1 Viewer)

[Sea Knight]

Time for the dumb question of the day. I have an Old Man Emu ~2.5" suspension with stock length shackles. I may go to slightly longer shackles at some point, but not much longer.

I intend to pull the trigger on the Bilstein 4-for-3 shock deal that expires Friday, but I don't have access to my truck this week ('82) and can't take compressed and extended shock measurements. So the plan is to order Bilstein 5125 series shocks with approximately the same specs as Old Man Emu shocks for the same lift.

Specifically:

Front--

OME N-41 Heavy, 19.65 in extended, 12.17 in compressed, 7.48 in travel

Bilstein BE5-6252-H5, 21.54 extended, 13.58 compressed, 8.13 in travel

Rear--

OME N-89 Heavy, 23.6 in extended, 14.1 in compressed, 9.5 in travel

Bilstein BE5-A463, 24.35 in extended, 15.11 compressed, 9.24 in travel

Any reason that these Bilsteins wouldn't work as replacements for OME's?

 

[FF LC FREAK]

I think the one's you list would be close. I think the biggest thing is watch to make sure they don't bottom out on compression. As soon as you install them, flex it out. If they bottom out, see if you can exchange them. It shouldn't be a big deal as long as you don't trash them first. I ordered mine through shockwarehouse.com, and ordered the wrong ones (transposed one of the numbers). I sent them back and just had to pay shipping one way to get the right shocks.

Good luck!

 

[Landpimp]

curious why you want to change?

 

[Downey]

You have choosen the closest Billy choices, however the compressed lengths might prove a bit too long. Remedy=taller or harder bump-stops!!!

 

[Downey]

curious why you want to change?

I could be wrong, but I think the answer to your question lies in the abundance of post on this forum regarding how stiff OME shocks are?????

 

[Landpimp]

really, I run them on ALL(stock and lifted) my cruisers, never felt too stiff or anything like that......hmmmm

I could be wrong, but I think the answer to your question lies in the abundance of post on this forum regarding how stiff OME shocks are?????

 

[Sea Knight]

curious why you want to change?

John, Jim's assumption is correct. I just don't like the ride with OME shocks. It's too firm, for me anyway. I removed OME shocks from my 62 and 80 and replaced with Bilsteins. In both instances the ride quality improved significantly.

I will say that the ride in your John Deere 40, at least the one time I drove it, was excellent. Maybe it had something to do with the two overweight guys in the front seats.