I have a 2008 2wd 1500 with a 1.5" spacer lift in front. I'm using 3/4 ton shocks on the front to get an extra 2" of travel. The rear has an adjustable air bag for towing purposes.

I recently went on a cross country trip and felt that I should have gotten new shocks. When crossing concrete bridges or large potholes, the truck would shake pretty good up front. When this happened in a turns on the interstate, the back end felt like it would skip out. Although it was all controllable, it reminded me of the death wobble experiences in my Jeep, which were NOT controllable. I should mention that I did the same trip twice last year. Once empty and the second time hauling a #7000 trailer. No problems then.

Anyway, is it typical to need shocks with only 20k worth of use? I originally went with a longer travel shock because the leveling crowd said the stock ones were fully extended and didn't allow enough travel. Now I'm reading that my year (if you are using the 3/4ton shock) will have the UCA hitting. So what shock should I use?

I'm also wondering about the rear shocks. Having air bags, I can raise the rear several inches in all but generally only raise it about 2". This again extends the rear shocks with limited travel. Should I replace them with longer ones? if so, with what? Should I not raise it when not trailering?

On the front, I kept the original shocks and put in cheap Gabriel shocks as a replacement. Should I use a Rancho shock? What would be the advantages of such?

Any comments would be most appreciated.

 

The shutter you are speaking of sounds just like the same one I dealt with in my '07 QC 4x4. I recently put a set of Bilstein 5100's on it and it eleiminated the issue. I had it at the dealer about 4 times and they could never feel it so they finally replaced my rack and pinion which didn't help. What I was able to figure out is that the front tires were losing contact with the road causing the truck to "push" in a sense once they grabbed traction again, they would be turned in the direction I wanted the truck to go so the backend would get "loose" and go into a bit of a slide. I also had it through me into on coming traffic one day. I noticed the problem around 5k miles or so and finally fixed it with the new shocks around 50k miles. I have heard and read a lot about the factory shocks being junk.

 

Bilstein, Rancho, ProComp MX6 would be good choices...

 

I like my Bilsteins.

 

Welcome to the site

 

Well, I decided to go ahead and order a set of Rancho 5000 shocks. Hopefully they will be better than the HD Monroes that I had up front. I decided to get ones used for the 3/4 tons. A little more travel and they won't be nearly fully extended with the 2" lift on it. Thanks for the advice.

 

Keep in mind that, on our '06+ 4x2 1500s, the front shock is the only thing limiting travel. Too long of a shock could cause unwanted contact between components, specifically the UCA and coil bucket.

 

i heard some people use shock extensions for the front shocks when spacers are used for lift. is this a good idea?? cause they don't cost that much. i too was leaning toward the 1.5" lift spacer for the front