air shocks?

[mud junky]

my 2003 Ranger FX4 has air shocks in the rear. Installed by its last owner. Im guessing by all the towing exuiptment he installed on it he did a significant amount of towing with it. the other day was the first time i drove it on a road bad enugh that i could tell somthing was not right with my shocks. today i found the a leak in my air line between the "T" joint and the frivers side shock. we cut out the bad section and re atached it. then put air to it. the drivers side started lifting up, but the pasangers side did not, and wereever the leak was caused the air we put in to quickly drain. this is my first rig with air shocks. so hear is my question. a friend of mine told me that if i had driven it like that with no air in the shocks, that the shocks were destroyed, and would need replacing. is that true? and if they do need replacing, should i look into new air shocks, or go back to traditional shocks? i dont plan on towing much. maybe once a year, but when i do it will be towing a bronco 2 on a car trailer. also i want to jack up the rear end some, and i know air shocks can do that, but so can helper springs or add a leafs.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

I personally wouldn't use air shocks for the simple reason that the upper shock mounts were never meant to take that kind of weight/pressure off of the suspension. Could rip the mounts off the frame or cause cracks.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've used air shocks on several vehicles and haven't seen any problems to the frame or mounting points. Two work vehicles that I overload regularly and tow with. And my b-II that the rear springs are weak and don't have time or energy to fix properly right now.
Sasquatch_Ryda brings up a point, and since I'm not an engineer, that I will be checking on. I'm thinking that the load that the shock mounts see when hitting a pothole would be way more than the weight of the vehicle that the air shocks would carry.
The problem with air shocks [my theory- not first hand knowledge] is the shock oil reservoir is smaller and will fade quicker .
And yes, the shock can be hooped if driven on while not aired up [first hand knowledge].