This may be a dumb question but I am changing my rear shocks soon and I need to know the easiest way to lift the rear of the truck to get it on jackstands. Where exactly should I position the jack in order to raise it and where should I place the jack stands. I've never raised the rear of the truck before so I'm looking for pointers. Truck is a '98 1500 4x4. Thanks.

 

Any vehicle with a solid rear (and front for that matter) should be jacked up right on the diffrencial houseing. All there is to it

 

thanks for the reply. So just right under the pumpkin huh? I thought about that but I didn't want to break anything so I figured I would ask.

 

why are you jacking the truck to replace shocks?

 

I wasn't aware that you could change them without jacking it up. I have a Haynes manual and it tells me to jack the truck up and place it on jack stands but if I could change the shocks with the truck on the ground that would be better.

 

what he said, i didnt have to jack to do shocks, but when u take shox off, bounce the vehicle, you will get a kick out of how bouncy it is, i know i did..

 

undamped spring... hmm yeah it's gonna BOUNCE LIKE HELL!!!!!!!


you do know that is why we have shocks right? ok sorry i've been in tooooooo many dynamics classes dealing with springs..

 

In layman's terms....to absorb energy....to slow the truck down when it hits a bump

They are not load bearing (the leaf springs are for that). They're just there to dampen the ride.

 

Putting jack stands under your truck to do shocks gives you a little bit more room to work under there, otherwise,its sorta a waste of time, and its safer not to have your truck on jack stands.

Just remember to remove the spare tire to get to the upper left rear shock bolt

I did mine on my hoist with the truck sky high in the air, had to lower the truck, rip the jack kit apart from under the rear seat, lift the truck back up, then carry on

 

More random information!! Correct, shocks don't support any weight! But what other deviece does?

And answer is....STRUTS!!!

Lots of people don;t actually know that Shocks support no weight while struts are beefier cause they do support weight!