Rear Shocks

[JMB]

Has anyone just installed rear shocks and left the factory ones up front. Got my Bilstiens today and may paint them...don't really care to see the bright blue and yellow behind the front tires...but was just curious if anyone has only replaced rears and gotten an improved ride. ???

[Worm]

The front is what needs the most help, on mine anyway.

[ceferino]

I don't want to be the Grinch stealing your Christmas, but I've already tried fixing the X's ride with shocks, and that failed.

I tried Bilsteins. Too soft. Bottoming in the front was even worse than with stock shocks. I've been using Bilsteins for 20 years and never never been disappointed with them before.

I tried Rancho RS9000s. GREAT SHOCKS. Better ride on the road. But with only about an inch of travel in the front before it bottoms out, I had to keep the shocks cranked up to level 4 or 5. With the shocks that stiff, the off-road ride was brutal. But I couldn't back the shocks off much or it would start bottoming again. So I had to drive very slowly when off road.

The rear was never as much of a problem as the front. Just replacing the rear shocks won't help much at all.

The right way to fix the X's soft suspension is to throw away those pathetic limpwrist things that Ford calls front springs [img]images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] and put in a lift kit. You get new front springs with 4 or 5 leaves instead of one. You get new rear springs or an add-a-leaf. You get longer sway bar links. You get dropped mounts for the front. You get new shocks. And you get 3-4 inches more travel in the front.

[JMB]

not looking for any off road ride...just trying to make trailering better and will give the Bilsteins a shot and see what goes...

[ceferino]

Well if road is the only place you go, the Rancho 9000s will probably suit your needs. You can crank them as stiff as you like. My X handled great on the road with the Ranchos on 4 or 5. It was a stiff ride though.

Bilsteins are valved for more comfort and longer suspension travel that a stock X has. So I doubt that you'll like them if what you want is more control and better towing.

[Rover]

I am very happy with my ProComp ES9000s

Seems to be the least used shock of people on this board...but I have no complaints and have had them for 15,000 miles.

Towed a 6,000lb trailer from MN to UT and it handled great!

Take a look.

RoverOn...

[Recycled Racing]

Quad shocks on front and rear are the only way to get the X riding right. 8000 pounds of mass bouncing around needs significant damping. Also, if you take a look at the specs of many shocks that work great on a lighter PU, and not so hot on the X, you will find that the piston and shaft diameters are again relatively small for such a large mass [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] .

I'm running 4 prerunners up front and will be finishing up installation of 4 prerunners in the rear this weekend. Best part about the prerunners in 11/16" shaft and 1-5/8 piston. Will be pretty hard to break them!
[img]images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[ceferino]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>... I am very happy with my ProComp ES9000s ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well you can have mine, because they are floppy soft already after 10,000 miles. God knows who really makes them because ProComp won't tell you. They're probably made in China or something. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] They were OK for the first 5000 miles but they softened up like warm butter after that.

I've ordered some RS 9000s to put in there and get my controlled ride back.

I'm not sold on dual shocks. I ran them on my F350 crew which is also very heavy and they were just too darn stiff all the time. I had very little flex, and on rough dirt roads they'd just bounce a lot. I think one big hefty shock per wheel is OK unless you drive like a maniac offroad. I paid 40 large for my rig and I'm not driving it like some actor in a TV ad, you know what I mean? [img]images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]