Shocks for 2011 4x4 extended cab

[mister moose]

Stock truck, 4 liter stick, 110,000 miles, use it for light hauling, daily driver, rare towing a chipper or car trailer. A little off road on construction sites. Shocks need replacing and there seems to be a dizzying amount of choices. Can someone help out with recommendations on replacements? Decent quality without going overboard?

Also, need to replace sway bar links as well. Is a bolt is a bolt is a bolt? Are the heavy duty options the way to go?

 

[sgtsandman]

Your standard name brands would probably serve you just fine. Gabriel or Monroe. If you want something a little better, You can look at KYB or Bilstein.

As far as sway bar links, standard ones work just fine. I tried heavy duty ones before and the flanges on them were weird and hard to tighten properly. Other than the flanges, there were no difference between the heavy duty ones and the standard ones. So, just run the standard one.

 

[rubydist]

The factory ones for those trucks (at least the FX4) were Rancho - which imho were junk. The earlier FX4 were Bilstein and those were far better - that is what I recommend.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Bilstien. It'll ride a little rougher, but it's a tradeoff for slightly better handling. Plus, lifetime warranty.

 

[pjtoledo]

on the links, it's the way they are tightened that really matters.
if you examine the geometry the sway bar ends pivot from pointing down to up as it moves.
that results in the bar ends trying to rock the top end of the link and that weakens them more than pulling/pushing.
don't over tighten.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

For shocks, KYB at minimum, in my opinion. I put Rough Country N3 shocks on my Choptop and the ride quality took a huge improvement over OE types (Monroe, Gabriel, Guardian, etc). My green Ranger is probably getting Bilstein. I’m not going back to OE style shocks, there are better options.