Another Bilstein Shock Question...

[CoopVA]

Hello everyone. I'm working on rebuilding my 1980 Scout II. It's running the sd33 turbo.

I have the frame and rear diff complete and will be putting Bilstein 5125s on her. Suspension is stock. I picked the 33-233970 shocks for the rear. They have 7.3" travel, extended length of 20.4", collapsed length of 13" and 255/70 valving.

The specs on that are pretty close to what I could find for stock shock dimensions as far as travel and lengths.

My question is, what should I get for the front end? Everything I see recommends using the same 255/70 valving for the front, but, I cant find an eye to stem mounted shock with the correct specs...

From what I can tell, the front and rear stock shock specs are very similar. The only big difference is that the front shocks are stem mounted at the top and not eye mounted...

The closest Bilstein shock I could find for the front is a 24-185684 with 7.62" of travel, extended length of 20.45", collapsed length of 12.83" and 224/100 valving. The valving is close to the 255/70 I have for the rear. Would the stiffer compression in the front be of any value?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[CoopVA]

Did some research on all the shocks I could find that are available for the stock Scout II.

Out of all of them, the average lengths are as follows:

front:

collapsed = 11.94"
extended = 19.13"
travel = 7.19"

rear:

collapsed = 12.65"
extended = 20.10"
travel = 7.44"

the bilsteins I chose for the rear have lengths that are all less than .40" from the average and have the recommended valving for an suv.

The fronts I posted that I'm looking at are not as close, but are less than an inch of average for compressed and travel lengths and just over an inch for extended length. I think that'll work.

The only concern is with the valving of the fronts. They have about 12% less rebound and 30% more compression, which makes them a little stiffer than the rears.

I actually think that May be beneficial... Especially with a heavy front end and a light rear end.

Does anybody have any opinions at all about this?