When going 30 when I hit little imperfections in the road, the front end of the truck rises and drops. Like when initially jumping a trampoline. I went over a speed bump pretty fast the other day and it bottom outptettu hard and bounced me around for a bit.

In addition to this, I hear what sounds like change rattling around the front.

I'm assuming the shocks are bad. I've never messed with suspension so pardon my naiveness, but in this case do I have to replace the spring as well? How do I determine if it is the spring vs the shock?

I use my body weight and push down on the front and it has play when I release.

 

Springs rarely need to be replaced, shocks, on the other hand..... Sounds a lot like bad shocks to me.

 

You can be pretty darn sure it's the shock. The bouncing you have is what you'd get if you had just a spring without a shock. It sounds like that's effectively what you have now. If the shock were working it would dampen the compression and extension of the spring, keeping bouncing to a minimum.

And no, no need to replace the spring.

 

ditto
-shocks control jounce and rebound
-springs support the load...springs only need replaced if broken or you need to correct a ride height issue.