Very happy with Koni STR.T's

[Bpjr07]

Installed orage all around for the last 15k, with stock shocks and its nice to drive through the bad roads of Los Angeles, but im gearing more into a cayon setup, and these give my car too much of a floaty feeling and body roll. The body roll made me loose alot of confidence on the mountain roads.

My back and my wife think the orange are a good choice tho!

Might regret changing them later.

 

[kazoospec]

<----- Michigan Drivers listening to you West Coasters talk about the "bad roads".

BTW - thanks for bumping up this thread. Some potentially helpful info in here.

Sincerely, An old dude with a bad back trying to decide where I fall on the "comfort > or < handling" spectrum.

 

[tri-pedaler]

I’m split between the Oranges and B6s but putting up with the OEM pogo stick for now. I’d hate to lose lift off oversteer…

Michigander in Indy - by March Midwest roads can swallow you whole like Dathan and Abiram…

 

[kazoospec]

Michigander in Indy - by March Midwest roads can swallow you whole like Dathan and Abiram…

Whoa! "I'll take obscure Biblical analogies for 1000, Alex!"

Of course, I sometimes call my route to work "The Ho Chi Minh Trail", so who am I to criticize.

 

[rallytaff]

Damn, I must be a fit 74yrs old as I have H & R coil overs on my car! They are stiff but have never given me any back problems and some of the roads here aren't the best in LA! I wouldn't change them for a softer ride, but that's me.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Whoa! "I'll take obscure Biblical analogies for 1000, Alex!"

Of course, I sometimes call my route to work "The Ho Chi Minh Trail", so who am I to criticize.

I just call the ones around here the 'Burma Road'.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I guess that I am a very resilient 67 year old, since a car has also never given me any back or leg problems at all, and I can handle the 'jarring' of a full road race type suspension on the streets just fine.

What worries me (and makes me cringe if hitting a crater and then bottoming out said suspension) about anything that unyielding is NOT the damage to ME, but the shock transmitted to all of the other suspension parts and components, and the unibody as a whole, causing much permanent damage/stress risers on totally bombed-out roads.

 

[Dpro]

the roads are crap but the ride is not the issue! It’s whole pothole killing wheel effect that royally sucks.
Its like run tank worthy wheels or risk wheel replacement every couple of years. Mind you I never had this problem with any of my other cars.
Of course if Ford had done a better job with our wheel wells, so we could spec tires that had more reasonable girth? It’s having to run a extremely limited range of ultra low profile tires that just exacerbates the problew.

 

[M-Sport fan]

the roads are crap but the ride is not the issue! It’s whole pothole killing wheel effect that royally sucks.
Its like run tank worthy wheels or risk wheel replacement every couple of years. Mind you I never had this problem with any of my other cars.
Of course if Ford had done a better job with our wheel wells, so we could spec tires that had more reasonable girth? It’s having to run a extremely limited range of ultra low profile tires that just exacerbates the problem.

THIS!! ^^^

It also becomes even more limited yet as soon as one installs ANY of the brands (or even their own, fabricated) mud flaps on these cars, as anything over a 24" diameter, 205 section width tire WILL rub on those flaps' mounting bolts, even at the factory ride height, let alone any lower.

 

[neeqness]

I think that for those who are complaining about back problems, they are not saying that the car gave them back problems, but rather that the ride makes their pre-existing back problems worse. I don't have pre-existing back problems neither do I drive my car through many canyons. My car spends most of it's time rolling on the highways (even when I'm in town) but since I frequently go on road trips, having the Str.T's has definitely been useful...especially when I may be going hours on end rolling on those highways. I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much (nor do I think that i would have done it) using stock suspension.

For me, the Str.Ts have been great, but there is nothing wrong with using something stiffer if that is what works better for you.

 

[Dpro]

I don’t know I have Recaro‘s and some people complain about those and I love them vs stock especially on a long trip. Hell my leg would get sore on stockers. I have driven Fiesta rentals that have the same seats as our cars stock. No go in the comfort department IMO. I will also say that even with my coilovers set stiff my back is no bothered and you are talking to someone who has had a 8mm herniated disc and sciatica in the past.
YMMV though.Everyone is different about these kind of things .

<----- Michigan Drivers listening to you West Coasters talk about the "bad roads".

BTW - thanks for bumping up this thread. Some potentially helpful info in here.

Sincerely, An old dude with a bad back trying to decide where I fall on the "comfort > or < handling" spectrum.

me laughing because you don’t understand that what happens every winter their gets repaired every year . Yet our roads are the same condition as yours because they don’t fucking repair them at all. We are literally lucky when they repair one block but use soft slurry asphalt that literally craters and indents from the city buses within weeks of repaving and that is like I said on a purely random one to 5 block at a time situation 5 blocks being the exception one block being the norm.
Ya LA cannot fix roads if their life depended on it. Oh and don’t get me started about the illogical road paving and tearing it open a month or two later to repair water pipes that should have been repaired before the repaving. The right hand seriously has no clue what the left hand does around here.

Ya you think because we don’t have snow or ice are roads are great think again. It’s just an excuse for Them not to do their job.

not jaded , not cynical, just the facts.

 

[Bpjr07]

Anyone try the Str.T with upgraded swaybars? I like the ride but they made my car feel too floaty with more body roll.

Or just thinking of getting koni yellows

 

[neeqness]

I don’t know I have Recaro‘s and some people complain about those and I love them vs stock especially on a long trip. Hell my leg would get sore on stockers. I have driven Fiesta rentals that have the same seats as our cars stock. No go in the comfort department IMO. I will also say that even with my coilovers set stiff my back is no bothered and you are talking to someone who has had a 8mm herniated disc and sciatica in the past.
YMMV though.Everyone is different about these kind of things .


me laughing because you don’t understand that what happens every winter their gets repaired every year . Yet our roads are the same condition as yours because they don’t fucking repair them at all. We are literally lucky when they repair one block but use soft slurry asphalt that literally craters and indents from the city buses within weeks of repaving and that is like I said on a purely random one to 5 block at a time situation 5 blocks being the exception one block being the norm.
Ya LA cannot fix roads if their life depended on it. Oh and don’t get me started about the illogical road paving and tearing it open a month or two later to repair water pipes that should have been repaired before the repaving. The right hand seriously has no clue what the left hand does around here.

Ya you think because we don’t have snow or ice are roads are great think again. It’s just an excuse for Them not to do their job.

not jaded , not cynical, just the facts.

Ya, but the people complaining are also talking about stock suspension, not coilovers or any aftermarket suspension. Just because an aftermarket suspension is considered stiffer or has better performance, it doesn't always mean that it will have a less overall comfortable ride. It is not all that uncommon to upgrade your suspension from stock with aftermarket for better performance and find out that the comfort has improved as well. The comfort is really in the balance.

Another thing with the roads here in Cali is you can go to one part of town where roads haven't been repaired since the 50s and then go to another part of town where the roads are so buttery smooth that even a tractor driver would have trouble complaining about them. I can see someone from out of town driving through the "nice" areas with great roads and then wondering what we are complaining about. Like you said, our problem is that the roads never get repaired. Every not so often (if you are lucky) a crew will go through to fill in the potholes but even though it doesn't rain much here, those potholes soon return in a few years at best...

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^HA! In many parts of the northeast/midwest those frost heave, freeze-thaw pot holes/absolute CRATERS reappear in DAYS (or less!) after being filled in, which is not often.

 

[Dpro]

Ya, but the people complaining are also talking about stock suspension, not coilovers or any aftermarket suspension. Just because an aftermarket suspension is considered stiffer or has better performance, it doesn't always mean that it will have a less overall comfortable ride. It is not all that uncommon to upgrade your suspension from stock with aftermarket for better performance and find out that the comfort has improved as well. The comfort is really in the balance.

Another thing with the roads here in Cali is you can go to one part of town where roads haven't been repaired since the 50s and then go to another part of town where the roads are so buttery smooth that even a tractor driver would have trouble complaining about them. I can see someone from out of town driving through the "nice" areas with great roads and then wondering what we are complaining about. Like you said, our problem is that the roads never get repaired. Every not so often (if you are lucky) a crew will go through to fill in the potholes but even though it doesn't rain much here, those potholes soon return in a few years at best...

Oh I know people complaining are talking about stock suspension for the most part though Ford did soften the ride up from 2017 forward. In fact I can honestly say that the ride of my stock suspension was not so bad in my 18 that I felt a need to change. I went to coils for the sake of ride height adjustability . It was because at the time I did not want to be forced into the ride height any one particular lowering spring gave me. Some did not drop a lot some dropped too much. I also came from a coil over is the best solution world. Oh and coils can indeed be adjusted to ride stiffer and more jarring than stock. The key factor is the adjustability in both ride height and rebound and compression or both combined found in most coil setups. I am also quite aware of some of our roads being smooth but a lot being crap. It all depends on where you live. As far as your fifty’s analogy that’s a bit exxagerated. I live right next to Griffith Park that has closed roads that were paved in the 50’s and the pavement is deteriorating . It’s more like roads that were last paved in the late 90’s

Oh and potholes hear in LA can reappear in months due to the soft slurry asphalt they use to repair them.