Does anyone have any experience with upgrading to Koni or RoadKing shocks on the Phaeton? Is it worth the difference in price to go up to the RoadKings?

I have an 08 Phaeton and decided to upgrade to the Konis. They should be here around April 10-12 and I depart on a trip on april 16th. So by the end of that week I will be able to comment on the difference in Koni and the factory Sachs by the end of the trip.

I hear the Koni's are like night and day compared to the stock shocks. I do not know enough about the Road Kings but I know the Roadmaster Corp just bought them.

I will be looking to make the change as soon as some money comes my way!

My Konis were waiting on me today when I got in from work so I grabbed some tools and knocked out the project in about 30 minutes for the front only which is all I ordered so far.

I used the electric jacks to raise the coach in the front and turned the wheels all the way to one side then the other to access the shock.

I had a big 1/2" impact wrench by Craftsman and a 3/4" and a 1 1/8" deep well socket and wrench for taking off those big grade 8 bolts. I had already soaked them with liquid wrench and they slowly spun off with the 120V shop compressor rolled out to the pad when I park the RV.

Once I released the shock the axle dropped about 1/2" so I had to lower the coach slightly to re-allign the shock mount hole and the eye of the shock. That took an extra 5-7 minutes of the 30 total it took me for the project.

Overall it was quite easy and the Koni FSDs slipped right on. Unlike high pressure shocks like the Bilsteins I had on my old Workhorse these Konis are not pressurized so you just push or pull them to the right length and bolt them up. It takes a tug but its not bad.

Assuming you have the 500-600lb impact wrench and the big sockets and wrenches or can get them most anyone handy with a wrench can do this project. I leave on Saturday so I will report on the drive then.

If it is as good as I hope I will add the rears too.

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking forward to seeing what you say after you have time to put a few miles on them.

Anyone know the part numbers for the Koni for a 2004 Tiffin Phaeton, Freightliner chasis?

quote:

Originally posted by NYMoose "Lenny":
Anyone know the part numbers for the Koni for a 2004 Tiffin Phaeton, Freightliner chassis?

Lenny, Enter your information here to find the shock that's right for your vehicle.

Congratulations on your retirement.

Well I am home after the Front Koni install and I will be ordering the rears tomorrow.

They solved almost 90% of the front end dive on braking and add a lot of solid feel to the road as well. They may have a slight penalty on the interstate over sharp edge or sudden jolts but everywhere else they are much better.

I will likely try to adjust the fronts one click softer to see if that tones down the other bumps but I am VERY happy with mine !!

Thanks for the update. Please lets us know how they are with rears installed and a chance to take them out for a spin on the interstate.

Today the rear pair showed up for he Pheaton so of course I had to rush right in and install them after work today. On first glance it looks pretty easy but it turned out to be a lot tougher job than I expected. First I lowered the front and raised the rear using the jacks. I chocked the fronts as I planned on raising the rear as high as possible.

Even with the rear all the way up and on jack pads it was tough to reach the upper shock bolt with the rear wheels on. I forged ahead and after about 60-70 minutes of crawling around from every angle possible I finally got them off and the new ones on. You would think with the proper tools it would be pretty simple to remove 4 bolts. The lower shock mount is not easy because the stuff around it but it can be done. But the top one is just plain ole hard to reach. If my arms were 4-5" longer that would have been a big help too.

So unless you have a lot of patience and body flexibility then I suggest you farm this pair out to a shop. My arms and back are shreaded from crawling around on the concrete slab and reaching around, over and between the wheels. I have have two nice cuts on my head due to bumping it on the frame.

In the lomg run it would have been a lot less painful I guess to take it to the shop but in general I am one of those that insists on doing it myself.

I will report back later after I get to drive the coach now that I have front and rear FSDs installed now.

Now where is that hydrogen peroxide and neosporin?