Which shocks?

[Josh B]

Again, thanks, all y'all. Not a high Rider, but I still like it. Now I have a chance at an '86 4X4, 5sp, extended cab and 4-banger with a camper shell. Five hundred bucks, should I jump on it?

Got a picture of the camper shell?? haha! I'd recommend it for sure

 

[sgtsandman]

I absolutely hated my Rancho shocks (rode like shit).

Too late for me. They are sitting on the garage floor waiting for all the parts for the suspension mod to come in. I was originally looking at Bilstein but couldn't figure out what would fit with the pre-key mod and axle blocks for sure. I considered KYB as well but ran into the same problem. Rancho was the only ones that were listed as fitting what I needed.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Again, thanks, all y'all. Not a high Rider, but I still like it. Now I have a chance at an '86 4X4, 5sp, extended cab and 4-banger with a camper shell. Five hundred bucks, should I jump on it?

That sounds like a no brainer... if you're gonna drive old Rangers... might as well have two.

 

[Inbred Redneck]

Yeah like the old Broncos I had. Light blue and dark blue, '71 and '70. My wife keeps wishin' we still had 'em, but one was more rust than metal and the other we gave to our daughter and son-in-law. She does kinda understand that when you go to buy parts now for those old things, ain't nothin' cheap.

 

[4x4junkie]

Too late for me. They are sitting on the garage floor waiting for all the parts for the suspension mod to come in. I was originally looking at Bilstein but couldn't figure out what would fit with the pre-key mod and axle blocks for sure. I considered KYB as well but ran into the same problem. Rancho was the only ones that were listed as fitting what I needed.

Yeah both Bilstein and KYB are pretty bad about that...

The way I approached this issue many years ago for my '94 was to cross-reference the length of a shock (say Rancho or Superlift) that was known to fit in KYB's catalog. IIRC, the ones I ended up using were also listed as fitting the forward position on a '79 F-150 with the "Quad-Shock" option, I think they were 19.5" ext. length and fits a TTB RBV with 4-5" lift.

FWIW, if all you did was the pre-'08 keys and blocks, you should be able to order shocks to fit a 2007 truck and have them fit.

 

[sgtsandman]

I’ll have to remember that in the future.

 

[Inbred Redneck]

Just as a follow up, yesterday I got four Ranchos installed right in the parkin' lot at work.
My mechanic showed up about 09:30, and would've finished up in less than a couple of hours except that since he's popular in the community everybody in town stopped in to talk. Only cost me a hair over 400 bucks, with shocks, shipping, tax, labor and his 25 dollar charge for comin' on-site to do the work.
Seems to've raised the truck maybe an inch or so. Didn't measure before or after, since it really don't make too much difference in the great scheme of things.

 

[truckfan]

I replaced my shocks with Bilsteins a few months ago. They are a bit stiff but ride quality is still good. No handling problems whatsoever. Got these shocks from 4wheelonline.