You stewed and brewed for two years before responding to me? I have since found that Bilstein will reconfigure the amount of fluid in their shocks to soften up or harden the ride, for a small fee of course.

When you mentioned putting a few sacks of sand in the rear, I didn't read "just for a short test", I read "forever". Not a good solution. And, adding weight will force the shocks to compress and make the tires take most of the road bump vibration.

When I replaced the front struts on my 1998 with Koni Sport, I tried different settings. With the screw tightened completely, the ride was hard as was expected and my wife did not appreciate that. The softest setting was still harder than OEM, but the Konis did not transfer the harshness to the steering or passenger seat bottom.

Buying Bilstein HD is needed for quite a few of us, as we are known to carry heavy loads often. Those who don't usually opt for OEM, which usually last for 130K and are designed for Volvo FWD, front engine.

The next time you don't like my answers, please don't wait two/three years for a rebuttal.

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My back feels better when I sit in a Volvo seat

I would note that Klause goes to a lot of effort helping this discussion site answer the tough questions (he contributes his experience and backs up the tough issues with research and where to find the needed information.)
Enough said.
AFM