BFH worked fine for me as well.

 

so did you just hit it an angle and mushroom the end?

 

No, I hit it twice and it popped off with no damage whatsoever.

 

guessing you came at it with a pretty good angle tho right?

 

Why would you hit it at an angle? I'm not sure what you are after, but I used a hammer and hit the **** out of it and the hardened tapered bolt came lose. That's it.

 

I tried to hit it as well, but theres only a couple inches between the end threaded end and that other big tube / bar thats in the way. So i couldnt get enough swing to hit the tapered bolt to pop it out. Im wondering if you hit it sideways or something or what?

 

I don't remember EXACTLY how I hit it. I just hit it.

 

im very exacting and know nothing less. thats why i asked

 

Well, the toys have been mounted. I just used a regular hammer and hit it three times and the OEM steering stabilizer just popped right off.

The Cali-Stabilizer took two of use to pull and push the shock to get it on place. We were just cussing up a storm in the craft shop on Richardson. lolololol

The vehicle rides stiffer which is something I like.

Over all I really like the ride.

 

im guessing people are just hitting this thing on the side, as i couldnt get a hammer to move more than 2-3 inches hitting it straight on. which resulted in a mere tap as it just laughed at me

 

The hammer trick is on the side of the link, not the the actual stud coming through the link.

Little pressure (fork helps) and a solid whack on the side should have it pop.

 

I had my wheels straight and smacked it three times on the stud that was coming throughout the hole and it popped right out. Placed old shock in the trash can.

On page eight, post #109 SavageNFS pictures. The first picture shows the new shock installed. I did remove this bolt from the old one first, then removed the nut from the tapered bolt next and smacked it three times. The damn thing almost hit me in the face as it came falling down.

Now compressing that 200 psi shock was a SOB.

 

I'm telling you a small ratchet strap takes care of the compression issue. Makes it really easy and safe to install.

 

LOLOLOL I didn't have on of those. It would have been very nice to have.

We struggled but we were able to reduce it enough to where I could start the bolt.

 

After the Ohio meet I figured I'd post an update to this thread.

I worked on the air system last week and got it sealed up. One of the fittings was leaking where it bolts up to one of the shocks. I was testing where all the lines enter the fittings and once I had that all sealed up there weren't any leaks. However, the one I kept missing was the whole fitting block itself. In any event, no more leaks. My compressor hardly runs. I keep the power on to it all the time now and have only heard the compressor 2 or 3 times outside of setting changes or cutting power/turning it back on.

Setting changes:

I am most of the way loaded for my trip up North so this has been a decent way to see how the truck rides with a load. I haven't put the truck on scales yet, but I would guess there is between 1000 and 2000lbs in the bed. The overload springs are touching the front plates.

On my drive back I was paying attention to the settings a bit. The highway setting (6 front 3 rear) and sport setting (8 front 6 rear) were the better "stock" settings, with the sport setting damping the oscillating more than the highway, but they both rode OK. The "off road" setting (4 front 4 rear) wasn't as good, it rocked and rolled a bit more.

On the MyRide setting I played with 9's front/rear and, as you would expect, it rode quite stiff. This was the best setting for holding back the oscillating though.

I loosened up the rear to 7 with the front on 9 and that was pretty good too, still stiff in the front but it worked and didn't oscillate much.




One note I have is it would be really cool if these shocks could have 2 different settings for each shock - a compression setting and a rebound setting. I say this because I like the damping ability of the shocks at 9's front/back, but it sends every bump through everything that can rattle. If it was possible to have a softer compression and stiffer rebound that may be interesting to see. Or, if the shock absorber could be reversed so instead of rebounding when unloaded it compresses (put the force the opposite direction to soften the overall compression of the suspension). For all intents and purposes the shocks only dampen the spring motion they aren't load bearing.