I'm not much of a mechanic myself, are the shocks easy enough to install myself or should I just play it safe and take them to a shop?


Also just to make sure I'm not an idiot, these are what I want correct?



The Ranchos are much cheaper than the Monroes...

 

Shocks are easy to replace, I replaced mine with Monroe Sensatrac Load-Adjusting Shocks, Never replaced them before.
I did learn to jack the frame, not axle to do it. I had to use a jack and compress mine to get the bottom bolt back thru. If you jack the frame, you dont need to as the axle is dropped (IE more room).
I also removed my Spare tire well doing it for more room.
Those look like the correct shocks, But someone should chime in that has them to confirm 100%

Here are mine installed.

 

Yes, Rancho RS5315 is the correct part number.

 

Agreed on part # via amazon. If you want the Monroe load levelers get them through Rock Auto or Advance Auto etc. I got mine on Amazon and mine are lemons! I will be buying Rancho RS5000s soon because of this..nothing against Amazon since I buy numerous items from them but I am upset about my Monroe's. My Monroe struts are from Amazon as well but those are fortunately in proper condition and I like them

 

I ordered my Ranchos from here, these guys ship so fast, it's amazing!

Add this,(or something similar), to get free shipping, shipping is free with a $100+ purchase, otherwise shipping is $9.95.

 

I bought the load levelers from Rock Auto with the quickstruts. Don't the Monroe's have a lifetime warranty? You try a warranty claim? I think the load leveler are cheaper because they come in pairs and I personally like them since they're a bit stiffer.

 

They are way easy to install. You don't even have to jack up and remove wheel, but access is easier. I did both shocks and sway-bar end-links in under an hour, with my neighbour trying to get me to stop for a beer!

Only two tricks are access to some of the bolts (use lots of penetrating oil too) and slipping the bottom bolt in as the shock de-compresses and slides through the mounting bracket - got one first try and the other took three tries of compressing, sliding, slipping.

Easy-Peasy, good luck.

 

Being a recent owner of newly mounted shocks and struts I'm gonna jump in here.

I bought Monroe Sensa-trac load leveler shocks (with coil helpers) and Monroe Sensa-trac front struts. They really didn't change the ride of the truck much, but it IS much firmer now than it ever was stock. Going over bumps etc it still is a little rough but it plants the suspension right back to the road rather than bouncy bouncy bouncy like the stock garbage Dodge ships these trucks with.

As far as installation, the rears took about 40 minutes with a floor jack and 2 jack stands. All the bolts came out as if they were new so there were no issues whatsoever. The fronts were a bit more of a task, obviously but all of the front bolts also came out with no issues (even including the lower strut mount bolts). Fortunately, my buddy's body shop has a lift and wall mounted spring compressor so we had both struts done in about 2 1/2 hours last weekend.

With him being a body guy, I trusted him and took all his advice on the install. It was his call to drop the front anti sway bar assembly first, then loosen everything else to pull the old struts. The re-install went about as smooth as disassembly other then some prying and sore hands getting the struts back in the perches since I also installed an over the strut leveling kit which made the struts longer. Anyway, my truck is 5 years old and everything went off without a hitch. I was really worried about scenarios guys on here have talked about like frozen lower control arm bushings or broken end links and so on. One thing I would suggest if you replace struts is to also buy new mounts for the top of the spring/strut. I got mine on Amazon and think they were $40 bucks or so for the pair. Now everything but the springs are new and won't need to redo the front end until these new struts new replacing. In the next couple days I'm doing rear blocks and new u-bolts since the nose is almost level with the rear now.

So yea, this got a little wordy but I just wanted to throw my experience with replacements out there. And just a sidenote, I'm on the hunt for bigger tires now so I'll be posting a thread about the whole thing with pics once everything's done.

 

Thanks. You pretty happy with them?

 

Hell yeah, probably the best money that I've spent
on my truck.