I have an 04 new style super crew that I bought new with over 60,000 miles on it and still has the original struts and shocks. I think it feels a little sloppier than when it was new but Im not sure if thats just in my head or not. its all stock except it has the equivalant to 33 inch bfg all terrains on factory 18 inch wheels. I keep the tire pressure around 45 psi and it does have a bit of un even wear on the inside of the front tires, esspecially the drivers side..... any help would be apreciated.... thanks

 

I'm going to tag along to your post, Kinda wondering the same think mine is an 04 with 54,000 and it does feel a little like you are saying and I have a sqweek on the drivers side that I cant find, maybe its the strut.

 

I think it's safe to assume they're nearly worn out on both of your trucks. They certainly don't perform like new ones would.

The fronts are tough to experiment with, but you can get the rear shocks off fairly easy to see how clapped out they feel off the truck. I would bet they're loose as a goose given the age of your trucks.

 

My 05 started feeling like that around 40k and new shocks and struts fixed the problem for me.

 

do you think my tire wear issue could be related to worn struts or does the front alignment settings work independently from the struts. I know on some cars bad struts can cause tire wear problems

 

Vehicles that rely on a high nitrogen charge to keep the suspension at the proper height suffer when the charge poops out. I don't think that is the case on these trucks (could be wrong), and I'm thinking the fronts should really be called a coil over shock, not a strut.

Not real sure about the tire wear.

 

Im going to replace them,thanks for the help.

 

The factory shocks are useless.

I bought my truck used with 60K miles and the truck was 1 1/2 years old, all hwy miles, and I replace the shocks shortly after I purchased it, and two of them when compressed would not even come back up, and the other two would slowly extend while makeing nasty sounds but it took a couple minutes for them to actually extend. You know good and well they weren't helping with the weight of the truck.

 

I have an '04 FX4 that was bought in '03 and now has 32k. I just bought a set of Rancho 5000s, have not installed yet but I have heard that the factories are no good as were the crappy bfg rugged trails that went bald at 24k. I had been noticing considerable noise in the front when I would go over a speed bump slow and figured I should do all 4 at the same time. looking forward to seeing the difference and will let you know how it goes...

 

I put the Rancho adjustable 9000s on, and they are great shocks (at least a lot better than the stock shocks).

 

let me know zigs04fx4 if that fixes the noise you are getting when going over speed bumps

 

Rancho 5000's on front now with much improvement and no noise, not to bad of an install with the righ tools.

 

The problem with your tire wear is the pressure you keep them at.

Stock tires are supposed to be at 35 PSI on these trucks...when you go with a bigger tire, you need LESS air pressure, not more!

You figure, the air pressure is not a measure of the volume of air in the tire, rather the pressure the air is exherting on the tire, and onto the road. Bigger tire means you have more surface area of the tire contacting the road at any one time...and for all that more surface area you have MORE downforce per square inch! This is not good!

Depending on size, I'd recommend a MAX of 35 in any larger tire than stock....