Ideal brands? Were to buy?

[Buggyman]

I am needing to replace the suspension on my 98' Ranger, 3.0, 4x4. I have been looking around and I really do not want to buy something cheap from autozone and I do not want to go back with OEM.

I do mostly road driving, but its on allot of country roads, they are paved but very rough with a long jarring driveway. I also do some off roading (farm work, trying to get stuck in the pond, etc) and I also have a long commute to school and work with winter almost on us. Right now, my suspension has 200k+ miles on it and its about to jar my teeth out (already jarred a few important bolts out) and I am looking for something that wont kill my budget but will do well on rough roads and some mild-moderate off roading. I am also interested in something that may put an extra 1-2'' of lift, I don't want to jack it way up, I want to keep my current tires, but an extra inch or two could come in handy.

Any recommendations? I have never done anything with suspension before so I am a complete idiot to it. Were is a decent place to buy? What type of shocks would work best for this type of driving? Do I need to replace the rear shocks as well?

Thanks for any pointers!

 

[Explorin94]

I am needing to replace the suspension on my 98' Ranger, 3.0, 4x4. I have been looking around and I really do not want to buy something cheap from autozone and I do not want to go back with OEM.

I do mostly road driving, but its on allot of country roads, they are paved but very rough with a long jarring driveway. I also do some off roading (farm work, trying to get stuck in the pond, etc) and I also have a long commute to school and work with winter almost on us. Right now, my suspension has 200k+ miles on it and its about to jar my teeth out (already jarred a few important bolts out) and I am looking for something that wont kill my budget but will do well on rough roads and some mild-moderate off roading. I am also interested in something that may put an extra 1-2'' of lift, I don't want to jack it way up, I want to keep my current tires, but an extra inch or two could come in handy.

Any recommendations? I have never done anything with suspension before so I am a complete idiot to it. Were is a decent place to buy? What type of shocks would work best for this type of driving? Do I need to replace the rear shocks as well?

Thanks for any pointers!

Any auto parts store is going to have the suspension parts you need. I suggest buying a MOOG or TRW parts if possible. Pretty much every part you buy IE. balljoint, tierod end, control arm bushing etc. is going to be within the OE specs. Any new part that you buy for the suspension will not lift that truck what so ever. To lift your truck 1-2" will require you cranking or rekeying the torsion bars, as well as maybe adding a taller block to the rear. If you have never changed your shocks and you are over 200k you are way past due. I buy all my parts from Carquest and I always get the TRW chassis parts and KYB shocks.