I was wondering if i had to jack up the truck and pull the front tires off to do this? Any other tricky parts i may run into?

 

no need to jack anything up. remove center nut on tripod tower(upper shock nut) then pull the 3 nuts that around it, remove tower, remove lower bolt, the nut has an arm attached to it so there is no need to put a wrench back there to hold the nut. reach in thru the top and pull the shock out, replace in reverse order. drivers side is a pain, I unhook the tripod tower and lay it on its side and fish the shock out.

pass side you need to remove the air box to acess the shock tower, suggest you start on this side first, as its easier to do.

lower bolts will need to be super tightened as the metal is hard to compress tightly around the lower shock mount, symptoms of too loose is a thumping noise felt in the floor boards

 

Cool...... Thanks Nickg ..... Couple hours tops?

 

Takes 15mins a side if nothing is rusted together

 

I can echo this... but also suggest squeezing (in a press perhaps) the metal sleeve on the lower end of the shock so the bolt has to be hammered thru it when re-installed. This is what I did and it kept the thumping noise away for years on my 5100s.

And if you have a long extension (probably end to end) for your sockets, it makes the job easier.