I was curious as to how long these things are supposed to last. I bounce my truck pretty hard and was just curious as to what a blown shock feels like.

 

I changed mine at around 100000 and they were pretty well shot. Depending on how you use your truck, probably 50000 is a good change point or thereabouts.

 

BB <br>Buy my procomp mx-6 monotubes.

 

If you are towing heavy. Buy the truck, take it home and put shocks on it. The stock shocks are worthless for controlling a heavy load.

 

I bought my truck last Oct with 46000, I found all 4 shocks to be junk.<br>Just a piece of info. the the auto makers use the cheapest things possible, when they are not covered under warranty. <br>I replaced all four and this thing rides like a cady..... ;D ;D<br>Allen

 

Bought my truck with 65,000 mi and the shocks were completely shot. Put Ranchos on and it was night and day.

 

On a 2500 or up, how does anyone tell any difference in the shocks? Maybe I'm just not tuned in to this sort of thing, but I cannot tell much about the shocls because the springs are so stiff.<br>I got on the bandwagon and put Rancho RS9000X adjustable shocks on my truck and about 55K, and I don't notice any difference from the stockers except when I have them on their lowest setting (1 out of 1 to 9), and the rear end feels a little looser. I have yet to feel a Cadillac ride that some people talk about.<br>If anyone can give me any tips on what to look for in the ride, or how to test it, I'd be appreciative.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Chris

 

Put the bilsteins 5100s on you`ll feel the difference.
Bigblue ,a blown seal feels oily.(on the outside) ;D
Danny

 

Maybe you have a bad batch. My 9000,s feel great. I adjust for loaded and unloaded, and I can tell the difference.

 

Shocks go bad usually in one of two ways: either they become stiff and the rearend bounces excessively and you feel every bump or they go soft and allow the rearend to wallow under weight or in curves.<br><br>Best thing to look for is a residue on the outside of the shock tube that would indicate a blown seal. Internal damping seals being blown are harder to determine but they usually provide the sloppiest ride. <br><br>I changed my stocks out at 125K miles (60K of those miles were under my butt) to Edelbrock IAS shocks at all four corners. Tremendous difference under load and noticable in everyday conditions. These 1000 pound-engined trucks are not going to ride like a luxucruiser no matter which shocks you install. They are always going to ride like a truck. I figure if you want a truck that rides like a car then buy a Ferd F150 - if you want to haul weight comfortably then you have to put up with a stiffer suspension and the bumps in the road being felt.

 

Thanks yall. I'm not going to bother getting shocks until I get the leveling kit so I can do it all at once (that will go on hopefully this summer after the new TC ;D).

 

The crap the factory puts on there rarely lasts past 20,000 miles. My truck has about 10,000 on it, and I can already tell they're going south on me. It's pretty easy to tell when they start to go--the truck starts wallowing around over every impact, like the body isn't connected to the suspension anymore.

 

How hard is it to change the front shocks? I plan on doing this all myself. Remember, I'm going to be changing springs out at the same time.

 

If you're changing springs at the same time, that should make it quite a bit easier. I've only done the shocks on a half-ton, which has a bit more room under the hood to work, and they weren't too hard. Biggest problem I had, actually, was getting the bottom of the new front shocks into the mounts. The bushings were bigger, and it took a lot of prying with a large screwdriver to get them down in there far enough that I could beat the lower bolts back in. The bolts are tapered and *very* hard, so the nuts went back on fine even after all the beating I did on them. Here's a description of the process (no photos, unfortunately): http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/repair/...new_shocks.htm