And it only took me 4 hours, compared with the 6+ the RS5000s took on my
'99. Of course, this time I at least had half a clue what I was doing.
The rears were cake, no trouble at all. Rear end of the truck
definitely sits a little higher now. Which also happed on the '99 when
I put the Ranchos on it.
The fronts were...ouch. The IAS appears to be longer than the OEM
shock, and was impossible to compress by hand. Of course I discover
this after I have the truck in the air and the old shock off. Called my
friend who helped me on the '99 to see if he remembered how we did
those. We concluded that the Ranchos compressed by hand. Time to get
creative.
He suggested using one of my racheting cargo tiedowns somehow. I looked
around and finally cooked up a solution. I hooked one end of the
tiedown to the front cab mount, and the other end to the bottom bolt eye
on the shock after getting the shock roughly into position and putting
the top not on enough to hold the shock in place. Strap went over the
upper shock mount and then down alongside the shock. Cranked down on
the tiedown ratchet until the shock was compresed, slid it into
position, and drove the bolt home.
So I have everything installed. The questions:
1 - With the front suspension fully relaxed (and wheel off), I noticed
that the shock body was actually in contact with the upper A-arm. Back
on the ground, I do have clearance. Anything to worry about? I don't
expect to put my wheels airborne and come down on them while actually in
motion - only via a jack or lift.
2 - The RS5000s hissed on extension/compression. These don't. Just a
result of the different design?
3 - These shocks have poly bushings. Will I have to re-grease them
regularly?
I can't believe how easily the OEM shocks came out, compared with the
'99's. And the front lower shock bolts went in a lot easier. But I
have less than 1/3 the miles on these, and haven't been through a winter
with the truck yet.
The OEM shocks definitely aren't worn out, but I wasn't pleased with the
ride quality (and more importantly, my fiancee wasn't pleased with the
rear end bouncing all over). She better like these.
-- -andyhttp://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us -------------------------------------------- "Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine" -Bob Tom --------------------------------------------
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