I got about 30 responses to my request for recommendations for tow vehicle
shocks. Overwhelmingly, the answer was Bilstein. One long-time
autocrosser said Bilsteins made the ride on his Exploder
"juddery". Someone expects a Sport Futility to have a decent
ride?? Anyway, I looked into Bilsteins. Unfortunately, there is no
listing for a previous-gen Dodge 4X4. I called a couple of places,
including Bilstein. No joy. They do make these for lots of applications,
just not for mine.
Step down a few notches to KYBs. They do have a listing for their
"Gas-A-Just" models. OK, gotta be better than 180K mile OEM units, so I
start checking pricing. www.shockwarehouse.com wants $35 each. RD
Enterprises wants $40 each (that surprised me - they have always been
pretty good on Koni prices). I remembered something in a catalog I had
around, and double-checked, and sure enough, an old PST catalog had KYBs by
the set, for $120. PST is a muscle car suspension place. I called them
up, and they had them available, and they ended up costing $128 including
shipping. Jeez, I've paid more than that for one corner of a car.... I
got around to installing them yesterday. That was a good half hour or so
of labor. Gotta love dinosaur tech :-) One big surprise was that one of
the original rear shocks still had pressure. Quite a feat, especially
since these spend just about all their time in a VERY small range of
travel. I drove the truck about 20 miles today, and it is tremendously
improved. It doesn't pogo over bumps. It still has a very firm ride, but
then it's got about 3000 pounds of unsprung weight and an 8900 pound GVW,
so go figure. This weekend's 900-mile one-way trip to CA will be a good
test, but so far so good....
Paul and Meredith Brown
MR2: "Not the easiest car in the world to work on"
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