Best Shocks to pair with Rear Air Springs?? (Digressive/Progressive?)

[Jetboy]

Long story short - I'm converting my 2015 4runner rear to air springs. GX460 springs specifically. I'll run them with my own home brew height adjust system. Probably also put a 1" lift spacer to go with. I want adjustable height in the rear to match my front coilovers so I can drop it down for daily driving duty and then spend an hour or two setting up for my usual week or so trips to the hills. I currently have Fox 2.5 coilovers up front. I can adjust them up 3" in about 20 minutes. Eventually I'll replace with bag over coils, but for now they're going to stay put.

I need shocks for the rear dampen the air springs. I don't know whether I'd be best off to pair them with digressive shocks (ICON, Bilstein 5160, ?) or with Progressive shocks (fox, king, etc.) I really love the ride quality of the Fox 2.5's. It's fantastic. But they are a matched spring/shock pair from Fox for this application. My rear is something I'm going an unusual route with to see how I like it. I just don't really know what shock type I should be looking for. I'm having a hard time finding any good engineering type data on which type best matches rear air springs.

So... has anyone switched rear shocks on an air spring GX460 rear? Or general thoughts on the best shock type or model?

Thanks!

 

[co4wheel]

Air springs are Very progressive. Just food for thought to add into your decision process.

 

[-MaTTi-]

I have the same air springs at rear in my FJ and FOX 2.5 coilovers w/res at front.

I have had Bilstein 5100 rear shocks and nowadays FOX 2.0 Performance Series IFP. After I had changed FOX coilovers the rear suspension is not felt as ”matched” at bigger jumps (speed bumps). It won’t swallow the obstacles as smooth as the FOX coilovers.

So I’m now thinking about ICON 2.5 Biggybacks. But would it be the right choise?

 

[titanpat57]

BP-51's

but I digress...

calling @crikeymike

 

[Nickk6]

I've got the Icons. I would never buy anything from them again, their customer support was crap (I bought them since they are 1 hour away). I'd go King or Fox, but don't touch Icon. Ride quality is nice on the freeway, but offroad, unless you are going fast, they are very jarring. King or Fox will be much smoother at lower speeds due to their design.

 

[Virgilus11]

I don't know if already made your decision or not but I will throw it out there.
Rule of thumb is that you have to match progressive front and rear. Your air bag in the back is going to support the weight and raise or lower the car. If I am not mistaking, Fox are progressive and they give you a pretty smooth drive on normal roads. If you install digresive in the back you will get a bouncyier feeling in the back vs the front.
I replaced the BP 51(digresive) with Kings (progressive) and I can tell you that , there is a big difference between the two.
I don't remember seen anybody else switching to air bags. Most of the guys go for simpler coil design.
Good luck

 

[KJ6IRM]

I replaced the BP 51(digresive) with Kings (progressive) and I can tell you that , there is a big difference between the two.

Why did you replace the BP-51s with the Kings? How are they different?

 

[Jetboy]

I took the airbags out a year or so ago. They never rode very well on the highway. Offroad they were great. But I couldn't seem to find a shock that worked well. It always felt unsettled in the rear. Not jarring at all - but just odd and uncomfortable. Like the frequency was off or something. So I've gone back to fox rear shocks and coil springs for now. I'm not super happy with them in all honesty. The rears are 2.0 Performance series. Fronts are 2.5 Factory RR. The rear is just too firmly valved compared to the front. Because of the 2:1 leverage up front I think a 2.0 rear is a nice match size wise - but the valving doesn't seem to match well front/rear unless the rear has about 400lb of weight. Then they're nicely matched. But I'm usually a lot lighter.

On the road - they work great and it rides well.

 

[Virgilus11]

Why did you replace the BP-51s with the Kings? How are they different?

Noisy in cold weather. They replaced few sets with no luck.