PhunOne

The Bilstein documentation on the shock lift heights is pretty spot on. #1 - 0" #2 - 0.62" #3 - 1.23" #4 - 1.85" I set mine to the 3rd ring right now to keep the rear a little higher than the front because of the loads I carry sometimes and I didn't want add spacers to the rear. I may raise both a little later, which these shocks will handle, but happy where it is now. Be sure to always have an alignment done after any changes.

No, I didn't and you don't have to, but can, because the Bilstein 5160's (25-242515) specifications are 0-2" additional travel. With the Bilstein 6112's on the 3rd ring setting and the 5160's on the rear, I still have almost 2" rear ride height difference from the front and a huge, night and day improvement in ride quality. The 6112's have more damping and are much heavier duty up front than the 5100's, but the 5100's, front and rear are great shocks and the Bilsteins are far superior overall to anything else. Note: You need a serious commercial spring compressor to assemble the 6112's or have a shop do them.

Adding so little to the length of the strut would have minimal effect on the issues described. As additional length is added to the strut, thus increasing the length of travel, alignment geometry and UCA issues occur. With just the spring pre-load, length of travel and overall suspension design geometry stay the same, your just reducing the distance to the lower travel limit.

Bilstein 4600's are great for town/highway and light offroad. For stock ride heights. Have had them on two different trucks, always very happy with them. Bilstein 5100's, slight improvement over the 4600's and shock length availability Front shock allows height adjustment from stock to 1.85 inches. Rear shocks available in different lengths from stock to raised trucks. Bilstein 5160's adds remote reservoir to 5100's rear shocks Bilstein 6112's, much heavier duty front stocks that come with their own springs cause of increased shock body size. Allows height adjustment from stock to 1.85 inches.

It's simple geometry. When you add a spacer to the bottom or top of the shock/strut mounting points to raise the vehicle, you have increase the overall length of the shock/spring strut assembly by having added those blocks to either end. This increases the suspension travel drop allowed, along with changing the strut travel geometry, in which the stock upper control arm is effected by the most, along with your available wheel alignment. The 5100/6112's front shocks raise the ride height by increasing the compression on the spring by preloading the spring to gain the increased ride height. The overall length of the shock/spring strut assembly stays the same, therefore the designed suspension components geometry ratio has not changed and wheel alignment can be adjusted to compensate for the limited height increase allowed by the shock/spring preload. Available shock travel and overall suspension travel has not been changed by the Bilstein setup, but there will be a very slight increase in ride harshness because you are in effect putting in a stiffer spring as you increase that spring compression height adjustment. This is so small that it probably will go unnoticed by most truck owners. I hope this helps with everyone's understanding on this debated question.

Have had Bilstein's on many vehicle's for over 25 years and have never been disappointed. Just put a set of 5160's on the rear of my 2018 Sierra 1500 with NHT and what a huge difference. Eliminated most all of the pogoing/bouncy ride without any harshness. Was very surprised that the rears alone made such a huge difference. Will be installing 6112's on the front shortly Yes, they are very big shocks, looks like front driveshaft clearance will be tighter.