ive heard a lot of bad stuff on rancho shocks. Buy japanese, the quality will be there ... just look at your rig. i ride KYB ... they are wonderful

 

I seized a set of KYB's on the front of my old rig. I've never seen that happen to a set of shocks before.

 

Got a set of Nitros for my 94 4runner last year and love 'em. I've got BJ spacers and cruiser coils and I believe Nitros for 3" lift. I dont think I've ever ridden in anything with Bils, but these feel great compared to any pro comp, Rancho or Edelbrock ride I've been in. I was a little skeptical about the stiff ride but they feel great. And for a hair over $135 I can't complain.

 

rancho 9000's got em on all four corners. adjustable although I tend to keep them on 6

 

stay away from rancho. They blow even when there not blown. for the sam price as 9000s you can get bilstien 5100 which are 1000000000x better then rancho will ever be. usually the shocks that come with lift kits like rancho shock and sky jacker shocks are always horrible(hence why they give htem to you with the kit), Why do u think they offer a liftetime warranty, because nobody would buy them if they didnt. Same with fabtech suspension parts(not just shocks), they gurantee every part on every kti they sell becaus ethey know there parts are cheap and dont hold the abuse

 

I just took some Rancho RS5000's off the back of my rig. Pure rubbish, the former owner installed them 17k ago and they were already blown and covered in oil.

BTW I could not really help but smile when I threw them in the trash

I ordered some KYB Monomax.

 

those monomax shocks are nice. We put some in one of our trucks. Made it ride a lot better

 

I had Ranch RS 5000 on my Jeep CJ-7 for years. They have been replaced by warranty twice because they leaked. I thought they had a decent ride, but that is in a short wheelbase, leaf spring, solid axle vehicle. My stock shocks might as well not have even been there. After reading about the Ranchos on 4Runners here, I went with the Bilsteins. While I am somewhat happy with them, I am having a few issues. I think I have a bad tire on the front, it was pulling to the right, I took it in to have the front shocks put on, and told my mechanic. They swapped the front tires and it began pulling to the left, so they felt it was a tire issue. I have not gotten over to Discount tire yet, but now it feel like it is all over the road. I am hoping it is the tire, otherwise I may have one dud Bilstein. When I hit a dip it feels like it bounces unevenly. I think it is from compensating for the pull, but we will see. Starting to wonder if the shocks threw the alignment off a bit. It does seem slightly lifted.

 

The last time I checked a Rancho 9000 shock for the front of a 4runner/truck it had no compression damping, just rebound. The adjustment valve only made the rebound damping increase. This was on three brand new shocks so I have every reason believe they were designed this way. Before you put these on the front, check them to see if they have fixed this. All other shocks I have used have significant compression and rebound damping.

The rear shocks I had at that were 9000's and DID have significant compression damping, this phenomenon only applied to the front shocks.

Frank

 

Ok, I finally got around to installing the Bilsteins. Piece of cake pulling off the 2 month old Monroes. They are definitely dampening the suspension much better than the Monroe Sensatrac's. I still have a bit of that rigid tire vibration/bounce that was thought to be due to over inflation but my tire pressures are at 30psi. It's definitely improved though with the Bilsteins. BTW, I don't think the Bilsteins are too stiff; if anything they sorta feel like they aren't as stiff as I would like.

As another side note, Advance Auto Parts took back the Monroe's and gave me a refund with no hassle at all. I was expecting some resistance (especially since I didn't have the original packaging on one of the shocks), but they were very cooperative. Thumbs up Advance!

As for the remaining vibration, it might just be the nature of the Toyo Open Country H/T's that I have (which are also pretty new). I'm not sure what else makes sense to inspect/replace. Only 84k miles now, no off roading... are '99 springs known to noticeably stiffen over time?

 

That is exactly how I feel, I wish they were stiffer!

 

Ditto!

 

so the shocks at advance, the monroe sensetrac or whatever, how reasonably priced are they, and are they a step up from stock? good for a 2inch lift or so?

 

They are about $260 for the whole set, but I would not recommend them. I don't think they are better than stock. They didn't seem to dampen suspension oscillations much at all. They just didn't do much. Monroe also makes the Reflex model which is supposed to be stiffer and better suited for our SUV's but I haven't tried them. I would just recommend you stick with Bilsteins or Toyota/OEM. BTW, the Bilsteins were only $30 more and very much worth it over the Sensatracs.

 

Bilsteins for 80k (truk at 178k total on the truck) and they work like new.

any recommendation for replacing the stock steering stabilizer on a '93
4Runner? The original is definitely not doing much anymore

 

Old Man Emu (OME) comes highly recommended.

 

Kind Of OT but I'm putting on the Tundra TRD 4wd Coils with a set of OME 890's in back. I've seen some running Bilsteins and some running Tokicos. I'm just curious if the Bilsteins are to stiff for this setup. I would otherwise jump at Bils. But because of the coils I'm using, i'm kind of hesitant.

 

I am running the Bilsteins with the stock springs and they are not stiff. I think my stock shocks that were taken off were much stiffer. Don't know how they would do with the Tundra Coils, but maybe you can use this as a reference.