Koni vs Bilstein

One major bonus for the Koni's is that they are re-buildable. And personally, I see far more koni shocks than Bilstein out there. I personally have only ever gone with Koni's and can't speak highly enough of them.

Only my oppinion though.

Bilstein front shocks can be adjusted to the weight of the car
i.e. no bull bar/second batteries/winch to bull bar/second battery/
winch and it will still be the same height. I guess it all depends
what the springs you get them with...

I got bilteins with Lovells springs and very happy with the setup...
Drives better the OME Prado suspension on road and
you don't jump and hit your head through the roof while offroad
and going twice as fast compared when I had OME suspension.

Don't have any experience with Koni shocks.

Might be worth to have a chart with GO_OFFROAD from this list.
He done my setup and getting a new Hilux with the similar setup
for the Simpson Trip in July.

After much investigation I went Bilstein over Konis because I'd heard that some of Konis leaked after a short time and the suspension specialist I was talking to claimed that Koni would not replace them under warranty as they claimed it must have been an installation problem.
After about 30,000 kms on the Bilsteins including a trip to the Cape my LHS front has a slight leak and my mechanic thinks that both rears are weeping as well.
Supplier has ordered a replacement front shock under warranty without hesitation and will take a closer look at the rears when the car goes in.
If you're in Sydney talk to Michael at Northshore 4WD for what I think is pretty fair comment.

Got Konis on the front and Bilsteins on the rear of my Rangie. Very good combo - have very little problems with corrugations. Billies on the front are too stiff IMHO... I kept on pulling the ends on the Konis when they were in the back, and went to Billies. This proved to be a very good move. I have tried Gabrielle, Rancher (from memory - some US shockie that needed 2 people to lift up - they were huge)), De Carbons, custom De Carbons, some US multi adjustable valve shockie (can't remember). Biltseins beat all of themby a country mile...

On my Cruiser I am putting custom Bilsteins wiht airbags on the back. Not sure yet what I will do on the front...

/viz

Hound, What kind of vehicle is it? You can tell by the posts here mostly good experiences with both in certain situations. Different types of suspension design benefit better from certain types of shock set-up. "Normal" Koni and Bilstein are a different design and have different operating charateristics which need to be matched to the vehicle in question. Both brands have more expensive, more adjustbale vesions that can do almost anything, but the mass market shocks from both have definite built in charateristics. For example, most Koni's have more rebound rate than bump and when adjusted change the rebound rate only. They also are a twin tube design that can stand a few stone dents. Bilstein have some funky speed adjustable valving that adjusts depending on bump frequency. Being mono tube they don't like stones. IMHO IFS likes Bilstein. When there is a live axle in the front I use Koni and either will do in the rear, Koni if stones are involved. As said earier, for some applications Bilstein will have a "sport" and "Comfort" shock which have different rates.