Well, on Good Friday I pulled all of the OE shocks and the steering stabilizer off of my '01 X w/ 104k. That's right - all five were factory OE at 104k! That really surprised me with how well the previous owner seemed to do on other maintenance items.

I did a lot of reading here and it seemed that the consensus was Bilstiens for a good ride. I ordered them but the rears were back ordered. In the mean time I found some recent posts by people saying they thought the Bilstiens didn’t live up to the hype. This surprised me since all of the earlier posts seemed to say good things.

Well, I canceled my Bilstien order and picked up Rancho 9000X shocks and 5000 steering stabilizer.

WOW! What a difference! You might say, “with 104K on the factory OE a pillow stuffed between the axle and the body would have made a difference” – but I’m really impressed with the Ranchos. I like the adjustability since I tow a 7600# TT. I like the soft ride when the TT isn’t hooked up.

Install went smooth for the shocks except for the “boot”. I spent more time trying to get the boot over the rear shocks than I did putting them on the truck. Really nice to not have to fight with the “expanding shock” when trying to bolt it all up. I was surprised that I had to drop the setting on the shocks pretty low (3 out of 9) for the softer ride. I might even try 2.

The steering stabilizer didn’t install as smoothly. Did anyone else run into confusion with the “stud” that came with it? I think I got it in right but the graphic in the instructions was misleading. I found that the steering requires much more attention than it did before. Maybe it’s just me. Got a Helwig rear anti-sway going in soon and that may help.

All in all I’m very impressed with the Ranchos. They cost more, but a lifetime warranty will recoup that soon enough.

Side question: Where the rear shocks bolt in at the top - are those just “clips” or is there a bolt welded to the top? I didn’t want to over torque them if they are just sheet metal clips but I don’t want to loose a rear shock either.

For my money, the Ranchos are worth it.