Started last week. I bought and installed a set of driving lights. I went
the inexpensive route and got the ones that mount on top of the bumper.
They look pretty good and work well so I'm very pleased with how that
project turned out. While I was in the process of that install I noticed
the front tires are almost worn out on the outer edge of the tire. I
figured since the truck has over 118K miles on it with the factory shocks
still on, I might start consider changing them. I know, take me out and
shoot me, I bought the Gabriel LT gas shocks at AZ for all 4 corners. I did
the fronts first. While I had the truck up on the jack stands, I checked
the play on the ball joints. It seems like its ok to me but then again, I'm
just a shade tree mechanic. Anyway, I did the front shocks first. Drivers
side shock compressed easily and rebounded very slowly. Passengers side,
well lets just say I'm still waiting for it to rebound even a little! since
the passengers side tire was the worse for wear of the two, I'm guessing
the shocks might have been the major culprit. now I know some of you out
there are asking me "Why didn't you rotate the tires dummy?" Cause I had
street tread (badyear wrangler rts) tires on the front and snow tread
(firestone firehawk atx) tires on the back that's why. Back two shocks were
both rebounding nicely, but they compressed wayyy to easy. I figured since
I was looking at my front tires I should probably do a close inspecting of
the rears as well. I noticed a good bit of dryrot and cracking in the
sidewalls of the rear tires. Got the truck off the jacks and took it out
for a test spin. Wow, what a difference, I'm tickled with it. So my next
step will be hopefully completed this afternoon. I ordered 4 new tires for
it. I went with the Cooper Discoverer Radial. I got a really good price of
$350 for all 4, mounted and balanced, new valve stems, disposal of the old
tires, tire service agreement, and lifetime rotation, all the good jazz. I
swear looking at the tread pattern, those are the same molds goodyear use
to have for the wrangler radial back in the mid to late 80's. I had a set
of those tires on an old Bronco I used to own and I really liked them. I'm
stepping the size up to the optional size offered for my truck, from
215/75R15 to 235/75R15. Since this is only a 2wd truck, I didn't want to
go overly aggressive on the tread and I wanted to be able to rotate the
tires as well. While its in the shop for the tire install, I'm going to ask
the mechanic to double check the ball joints for me and see what he thinks.
I know I have a control arm bushing that's about due for replacement. I
will change that out this summer and I'm hoping the ball joints will be ok
till then. Being retired USAF, I'm getting the tires through the base
exchange and I saved enough on the tire deal to pay for a front end
alignment. So all together, I've spent over $500 on my truck in this past
week and a half and I'm hoping that's all I need to spend for a month or
so. Especially since I getting laid off from GM (again) for a month
starting Monday. Since the beginning of the year, we've only run the plant,
including today, 15 days total. Oh well, guess I'm really glad I got that
part time gig at AutoZone!
Ray Irons
Dover, DE
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