I am still goofing around with the shocks on my truck. Right now I have a set of Gabriel Pro-Guards on front and rear. They are a little better than a Monroe Sensa-Trac type ride, more like OEM. Before those I had Rancho RS5000 front and rear. They rode real stiff so that is why I bought the Gabriels. Now that I have had the Gabriels for almost 3 months they still seem to be too soft and bouncy. I feel a lot of the bumps in the road, I can even feel it when I drive over the white turn lane arrows on the road. I tried lowering my tire pressure to 32.5 psi, it feels like it helped a little but I should not have to do that to fix this problem. I always ran my tires at 35 psi before this problem with the shocks.

I still have the Rancho's I took off the truck last year. They were special ordered so I can not return them. I tried to sell them here and on Ebay but no one wanted them. When I drive my truck I feel a lot of the bumps in my lower back and butt. This makes me think that it might help to put the stiffer Rancho's back on the rear and leaving the softer Gabriels up front. Does that make sense or should I put the stiffer Rancho's up front and keep a softer shock in the rear? I do not tow or haul anything heavy and my truck is only a 2-wheel drive V6. I do not go off road. Tires are BFG Long Trail T/A Tour, P235/75R15's, they only have about maybe 17,000 miles on them.

I have checked the front end components, a lot of it is either new or not too old and all is in good shape. The leaf springs and coil springs seem to be OK but the only way I know to test those is just by measuring the height..

I appreciate any help on this. I need to figure out what is wrong. I had Monroe Reflex before all this, those rode great, and if Monroe still made the Reflex for a 2 wheel drive Dakota I would have got another set when I started this process last year.

Thanks.

Jimmy

 

On the rear I would use a stiffer shock. There is no weight in the rear thus if you use a softer shock it going to give you less contact with the road. And give you that bouncy feel.

 

You might try adding some weight in the bed, see if that makes any difference. I noticed with mine that it rides a lot worse when it doesn't have anything in the bed and the tonneau cover is off.

That being said, I don't think the rear shocks have been changed in a long time, if ever. So I'm looking for a good shock too. I replaced the fronts when I put in my lift coils, so we're all good up there.

 

Well I figured if I did not like the Rancho's before I probably would not like them now, so I called Autozone and asked if they would give me a store credit for the Pro-Guards on a set of Gabriel Ultra's. They said no problem so I removed all 4 Pro-Guards and went to Autozone and paid about $60.00 difference for the Ultra's. After reading up on the Ultra as much as I could I figured they are about as close to the Monroe Reflex as I can get without spending serious money. It is odd but I really did not find that much info or reviews on Gabriel Ultra shocks online. I was glad to get a full refund at Autozone, in a few more days I would have been beyond the 90-day return policy.

I need to drive the truck for a while and see how it goes but my initial impression is these Ultra's are much better than the Pro-Guards. The ride is nice and firm without being stiff as a board like the Rancho's. In city driving the Rancho's rode hard as a rock. The Rancho's did smooth out some during interstate driving, which I read is a characteristic of a 4-wheel drive type shock. On my test drive today I had none of the bumps and rough feeling in the small of my back like I had with the Proguards. The Ultra's ride quality was nice and smooth even when I drove through some construction areas here in town where there are some pretty rough road surfaces.

I put my tires' air pressure back to 35 psi and the truck is once again riding good and smooth like it did with the Reflex. It's not like driving a big old Caddy or Buick but it is a good firm quality ride with no harshness and the Ultra's handle the bumps a whole lot better. The steering is crisp and responsive again too. I really think my Dakota is just too heavy for the valving on a cheaper shock. I will try to update this thread with more results in a few weeks but for now I can say the Ultra's are very good and live up to their name so far.

Jimmy

 

01 Silver - I also have a 01 Dakota. Two questions. Is it possible to change the front and rear shocks with the vehicle on the ground/tires on? Looks like all of the hardware is accessible. Also, did you consider Bilstein shocks?

 

You can do the rears with the wheels on the ground but it is a tight squeeze for me to get under there and still have room enough to work. My truck is stock height with stock size tires, so I guess it would be easier with a lifted truck or if you have bigger tires. I have removed my left rear shock before without lifting my truck but it was not easy and it was impossible to get to the right rear without raising the truck at least a few inches.

I don't like using jack stands on the rear, my stands do not go up high enough to get the rear that far off the ground. I like to use my jack stands on the frame, not the axle and the rear is just too high up to do much good with jack stands so I just used my floor jack to jack the rear up by the frame and set the rear tires down on Rhino Ramps.

I guess you could do the fronts without lifting the truck too but seems to me it would be a lot easier just to set the truck up on jack stands and remove the wheels so you can get to the bottom shock bolts and the nut up on top of the stem of the shock without the wheel being in the way. Plus you need the extra clearance to be able to lower the shock from under the control arm so you can remove the shock.

I did read a lot about Bilstein and a lot of people say they are the best but they are out of my price range and no parts store here has them in stock anyway. Besides that, I used the Autozone refund and put it towards the price of the Ultra's, and they had them in stock on the shelf. Plus I had a $10.00 coupon and the shock purchase yesterday earned me a $20.00 store credit on my Autozone Rewards Card so I really saved $30.00 on the deal. Bilstein is good if you can afford them and have time to wait for shipping. For an off the shelf shock at a good price the Ultra's are the best I could find and I have tried 4 or 5 different shocks in the last 6 months. I really wish they still made the Reflex shock for a 2 wheel drive Dakota, but they don't so I had to try different ones before buying these Ultra's. The Ultra is a great shock so far.

Jimmy

 

Glad to hear you got the shock worked out. Keep us updated on there progress. Never been a fan of Gabriel shocks, but curious how they do.

 

I have sensa-tracs up front and stock Rancho F-250 rear shocks.