Hi .I have a 4" lift om my 75 F250.What shocks are your favorite.Im leaning toward Bilstien,only because I had them on my 86 ranger.What is your prefered shock? thanks dave

 

For cheap over the counter shocks i like KYB, but if you want a good quality shock, i too like Bilsteins.

 

I use Bilsteins in my 01 SCrew and 71 Pontiac. Love'em. However, I have yet to find Bilsteins to fit my 73 F100... Sometimes PNs will cross over from newer vehicles to older vehicles. If the mounting config and OAL are the same on the 80-96 rigs then it's a reasonable conclusion that they will fit on earlier models but the valving may be different.

 

Is any one running them on their dentside?With a lift? thanks dave

 

Here's something I had posted on another thread, maybe of some help:

I went thru some calcs to sort out front/rear shocks on the truck (not sure if it had a 4 or 6 lift when I bought it).

On a recommendation from a 4wd buddy that knows more about it than I do, I used factors of 40% for compression and 60% for extension, meaning that I anticipated that the shock would not compress or extend more than those factors for my usage. I use the truck on our property, trailering, etc, no extreme off-road with lots of high angles, etc.

I used Pro-Comp ES3000 shocks with boots, they seemed to work fine for my use, but of course everyone has their picks on shocks. Not interested in debating that, just giving an example of how I picked shocks.

If you look at the Pro-Comp site, they list specs for their shocks. I had a chart somewhere, easier than sifting thru many web pages.
Pro Comp ES3000 Series - Shock Absorbers - Shock Absorbers, Stabilizers & Accessories - Lift Kits, Suspensions and Shocks - by Pro Comp

As an example:
At ride height, the distance between top/bottom mounts on my truck was 24" on one set of the front shocks (have quad shocks on the front).

Looking at the specs, after some trial and error and looking at several shocks to get me generally in the 24" installed height range, there was a ES332010 shock that shows 31.76" extended, 18.25" compressed:

• this shock has 13.51" of travel.
• 40% of 13.51" = 5.4" for compression travel
• 60% of 13.51" = 8.1" for extension travel
• 24" ride height plus 8.1" = 32" extended
• 24" ride height minus 5.4" = 18.6" compressed.
  

My numbers of 32" and 18.6" were very close to the published 31.76" and 18.25" numbers so I went with the ES332010 shock. I went thru the same selection steps for the other set of front shocks and the rear shocks as well since these other sets had different mount spacing dimensions. That was in 2003 and I never ever had any issues with bottoming out or overextending.

This time around, when the truck is reassembled I will go thru the same process, especially since I'm changing the location of the rear axle shock mounts and also adding 2 more shocks in the back as well. In your case, if you are anticipating more dramatic off-roading you can increase the compression and extension factors.

Hope this helps. Maybe someone has a different and better way, this is what I did and it worked fine for me. <!-- / message -->

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