Mine rides great with the 5100's, but I wouldn't want those LT tires.

 

I’ve sliced 3 sidewalls on P rated tires and 0 on LT tires. I also don’t like the extreme tire squish when hauling heavy loads. Plus towing heavy loads with P rated tires versus LT rated tires makes a pretty big difference.

so no, not needed but we all do a lot of stuff that’s not needed to our trucks to make them bigger, stronger, faster, etc.

Maybe I’ll just upgrade the shocks.

 

You might be trying to go in two different directions. A soft offroad suspension is opposite to your towing needs.

 

I understand, would hope that an upgraded shock would help with both.

bottom line for me, the ride got worse with the Bilstein. So either I got a defective shock or maybe I’m just the 1 in a million who thinks the ride stiffened up way too much. As far as towing, If it becomes too big of an issue I can add an airbag system to the rear to help tighten it up only when towing. So far the F150 has been great with towing compared to the Ram.

 

I live in the middle of North Dakota and have never sliced a tire. Sounds like you have bad luck.

 

I'm not so sure that this is a tire issue rather then the shocks. 5100s are way way too popular to have a hard ride like that

 

I have 5100’s on the rear of my truck, OEM still on the front. The 5100’s on the rear give a firmer ride IMO, but more controlled. Although a bit jarring, I feel more in control when I hit rough pavement.

 

I’m not entirely sure why the state you live in matters to my harsh ride but I have a hunting cabin that’s 12 miles of packed dirt road with huge rocks, I go into the hills quite a bit camping, I live off a one lane dirt road where you have to pull completely off to let another car by...so yeah, maybe I have bad luck or maybe my truck hits a lot of harder terrain on a regular basis more then yours does? I’m not looking to argue about what type of tires my truck needs, you aren’t the one changing my tire 8 miles away from the house on a one lane road, I am...so yes, I went with a heavier, stronger tire and have yet to have an issue that I had with a p rated tire.

So, since I’m not dropping the air pressure of my tires well below the recommended pressure for 10 ply tires AND I’ve stated the ride got worse after the shock install...I’m back to focusing on solutions.

that means I’m looking for people who have gone from a 5100 to a higher end shock.

 

Good luck!

 

Sarcasm? Lol. I promise I appreciate the help and I am looking for ideas but at this point im not changing the tires...so just trying to figure out if i should risk the expensive journey of swapping the 5100's for a more expensive shock.