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SHOCKS

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Denny Wagaman:
I have a'05 40' Beaver Monterey w/4 slides.  I have experienced porposing (more than I thought it should do) since I bought it new.   The dealer said there wasn't a problem.  But now with 32K miles the porposing has worsened.  I've called several different companies for quotes and recommendations on what brand they use and most say Koni. But the prices vary.  When I questioned one Camping World as to which Koni they were using they said the "same we have been using for a couple (or) three years and is the newest one out".  They were the least expensive ($1764). Guaranty  said that Road King was receiving rave reviews and is $4400 installed. Bend Service Center quoted a price for the "new Koni"  at about $2600.  

I would like to hear about your experiences and having new shocks installed.
Thanks!

Denny Wagaman

Joel Ashley:
I as yet haven't had new shocks installed, but perhaps can offer a little insight regardless.

There was supposedly a short period where Monroes were used at the factory, '05-'06.  Our Monterey had some issues since new, and we thought that's the shock we had.  Turned out ours were Bilsteins afterall (the colors are similar to Monroes), and the major problems were from a poor installation at the factory, including some support linkage goofs, not to mention super-bad shock mounting that was totally out of whack.  Bend's techs refitted everything and solved most of the problem, except for an improper alignment/realignment by the Redmond Les Schwab.  I've had minimal issues with porpoising since.  Goodyear in Portland used their advanced balancer to get out the vibration that had been misdiagnosed as "out-of-round" tires. The Les Schwab or factory wheel weights were waaaayyyy off.

Most seem to think the Koni FSD is the shock to have, but there are those that tell me not to spend the dough to switch out my Bilsteins until they reach their service life;  they say the difference isn't worth it.  If our shocks had been the Monroes, however, we likely would have replaced them with Koni FSDs at Bend or at Henderson's Line-up Shop.

Even though your problem is porpoising and apparently not vibration, it's possible you have the same issue we did - improper factory shock installation.  Resulting wearing at sloppy shock mounts could be making things worse with time.  Or yours may be the rare coach to get Monroes at the factory.

I'm sure others with actual new-shock experience will give you more info here.  Click on "Search" at the top of the Forum page, enter "Shocks", and you will probably find plenty of previous threads discussing the issue, including Van Huyck's post about a similar issue to yours.

-Joel

Michael Kauffman:
[size=14]I bought a 98' Patriot 37' with 54K miles 2 months ago.  I flew to Phoenix to pick it up and drove it "as is" back to Seattle.  The first thing that I noticed was the porposing.  On I-5 in northern CA there were times that I thought that it was going to plow the nose into the ground.  

That did it for me.  I put new Michelin's and Koni FSD's on the coach 3 weeks ago.  We finally got to try it out on a short 200 mile round trip this weekend.  This was on WA freeways and it had absolutely NO porposing.  What a nice ride it is now compaired to before, like night and day.  Whether it's the tires, shocks, or both together, it just great.

Good luck to you, Mike, Issaquah WA[/size]

215:
I put Koni's on the front end after the first year of ownership.  That put an end to the porposing.  I am very pleased with them.  The second year I put them on the rear.  It was not a noticable improvement like the front was.  Try it - you'll like it.

Larry and Heidi Lee:
I ordered 8 KONI FSD's for my 2005 Monterey but they are on backorder coming in from Holland next week. The pricing from KONI direct is as follows. Front 8805-1004 SP1 $189 each Rear 8805-1005 SP1 $189 Each
I sure hope they are as good as everyone says...

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