At 48k miles I am replacing shocks on all four corners. Got a new set of rancho 9000xls and going to install this weekend. It seems I am feeling every crack and bumps going down the road. I used to run at 70psi and now down to 60 and feel the same.



Any advise?? Any special tools or large size tools needed?? I think my largest wrench is 17 mm or equivalent in sae size. I do have a crescent wrench as well.

It looks easy enough, top and bottom bolts.

 

Its a pretty straight forward job, I replaced my worn "rancho's" with Bilstein 5100's this winter and the difference is night and day!

 

Very easy to change. Couple wrenches, maybe a flathead to pry bottom mount out of its home.

 

I'm doing mine in a few weeks. I'm gonna see if my SA will let me pay the difference to upgrade as the stockers are covered under my ESP. He told me they do it for those running synthetic oil, so I don't see why not.

 

Spray the bolts now...couple times before the job is what I would do. I still have orginals. Seem just fine to me.

 

Going on 39K here. 'Night and Day' meaning a softer ride? My wife hates riding in the truck these days. She says all the bumping and shaking makes her ill

 

Ok, did the deal in about 1 1/2 hrs. Anyone who reads this post. If you have stock shocks change those things. It was the best $225 I have spent on this truck yet. I found a $325 price from one source in FL but I live in FL so I did not want to pay taxes. Summit racing matched their price and there is a $100 rebate for ranchos 9000xl

I did the rears without even jacking or removing tires. The front I removed tires and it was a pain in the butt with the top nut. I used a 7/8 wrench it worked but kind of big. I think it is metric, imagine that. It was a pain without a non ratcheting wrench. I have a basic air tools set so it was easy getting bolts and nuts off.

Night and day. My truck felt like I had NO shocks.

 

My 2006 fx4 250 had ranchos on them. From what I understand those are the cheapest made ranchos ford bought to put on the trucks to make it look like it was off road vehicle. Don't judge the shocks by them. These aftermarket ranchos are way different

 

The stock Ranchos are manufactured by Ford. If you look at the tube, they're stamped Motorcraft.

 

Trust me you will be asking yourself why you didn't do it sooner! The bumps are definitely a lot smoother.

 

I too went to the 9000xls shocks but at 10 or 20k just because i felt they would be better. They are indeed very AWESOME. i also tried Eldebrock and something else but can't remember but the high end Ranchos felt the best to me on my truck. They're good right out of the box but get better after 2k or so. I will definitely do the same again. By the way the other two are good to but the 9000's definitely felt the best to me.

 

Would you mind giving us the FL dealer? @ $81.25 each, I'll try to pick them up ASAP.

 

4wheelonline had them for $325. I called the number and recognized the area code in Fl and sure was in FL. I then called summit racing and no taxes in FL for me so I ordered and waited 3 days. No big deal. Summit price matched and no taxes and free shippping

 

That's a great deal, thanks for sharing the details! Seems like lots of folks look at the "Rancho branded" shocks that come on the FX4 trucks and declare all Rancho's junk. Don't think Motorcraft makes much of anything, as they have suppliers that produce products to their specs. I'm willing to bet that Rancho is in fact the supplier for the factory FX4 shocks, but they are likely a much lower quality product.

In fact, just found this:

 

How many miles are on the truck? Do you offroad a lot? I'm at 52k and the stockers are fine.