Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 11, 2025 ...

Time for shocks or not

September 27, 2015, 10:50:40 am

Will be in Nac tomorrow and have a short list.  (1) ck dash a/c (2) service engine ck air filter and coolant (3) ck alignment (4) Pick up some spare air springs for doors  (5) Noticed the mileage did not come up on the odometer.  Hope this clears up before I get there.
BUT what about shocks 65,000 miles?  Is it time?  tks DAN

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Re: Time for shocks or not

Reply #1 – September 27, 2015, 11:04:14 am

Check shocks two ways:

Physical inspection:  Look for leaking (not just damp). Look for physical damage. Look for worn bushings.

Bounce test:  Remember when you used to check car chocks by "bouncing the bumper"? Coach is a little too large to do that.  BUT, drive over parking lot speed bump at normal low speed.  If an axle bounces more than 1.5 times the shocks are not doing their job.

Now comes the difficult part-- determining what to do:

If the "red/brown" adjustable Konis, they can be adjusted firmer.

But the new generation Koni FSD's are a better shock-- give less dampening over small, sharp bumps (for better ride) and are firmer over large ones (for better handling).  Yes, two sets of valves are more expensive.

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Re: Time for shocks or not

Reply #2 – September 27, 2015, 11:26:54 am

Dan, I replaced mine but I had over 100K on them. I also had the holes starting to elongate a bit.  None of them were leaking and they were replaced when I bought the coach in 08.  I noticed a much better ride right away. If you have the OEM shocks the Koni FSDs will give you a much better ride.  Call MOT before you go if you are going to get them and have them preorder them.  I love the new Konis and was happy I put them on and decided to put them on again after driving 20 thru jackson. If you bounce more then once on the the dips, you might want new shocks. 

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Re: Time for shocks or not

Reply #3 – September 27, 2015, 03:14:47 pm

Tks for the input Dan.     

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