Blown Ranchos

long_tall_texan · **Posted:** Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:51 pm

Anyone else blow out your Rancho shocks on the front of your KJ? I went to swapping out my Daystar lift for OME 927s today and to my surprise, my Rancho RSX17505 shocks were toast. The driver side one was blown. Only dampened about the last quarrter of travel. The passenger side one still dampens, but when manually compressed, it will not return to extended length on its own. It just stays compressed.

Have some Bilstiens on order from 4WD Parts. They will be here at noon tomorrow.

But I would really like to get the Rancho's warranty'ed too.

Any reason y'all can think of that would have blown these? My only guess is that my springs are weak and therefore bouncing more, causing the shocks to work harder and extend/compress farther each cycle.

They only have about 50k on the shocks.

durangotang · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:38 am

50k really seems about par for the course on them... mine wore out and were toast after about 15k... though they had been wheeled a bit.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:38 am

If you didn't have extended front bumpstops you will not get many miles out of any shocks,even if you don't wheel.You'd be amazed at how much they bottom out going to the mall.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:00 am

101,000 on my old set and no problems at all,
they are sitting in the garage waiting to go on someone else's.
Yes they are worn some but still handle well and much better than what this person has currently :BANANA:

long_tall_texan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:38 am

tjkj2002 wrote:

If you didn't have extended front bumpstops you will not get many miles out of any shocks,even if you don't wheel.You'd be amazed at how much they bottom out going to the mall.

Yeah, I knew that. But I have had the extended bump stops from the start with my Daystar lift. However, it did seem to look like they have been bottoming out A LOT. I guess that shows how weak the OEM springs are. 927's should help that...

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:31 am

That's the thing you may of had bumpstop's, but with the sagging stock springs it was hitting the bumpstop's more than it should of been and quite possibly been like it had none!

long_tall_texan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:32 am

See. So much bottoming out that the paint got worn off this end. And you can't see it in this pic, but those end caps are bent too like they have been beaten with a rubber mallet. Imagine that - they kind of have...

Also, notice the "rainbow" color on the shaft. Steel does not usually do that unless a lot of heat is involved. That tells me that the shock was just bouncing A LOT right in that area and building up enough heat from friction of the seal around the shaft to change the color. Not good. Not good at all.

omGoddard · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm

Daksport · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:30 pm

Did you install those shocks yourself??? I've never seen a set of shocks come off looking like that

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:44 pm

That's what you get with spacer type lifts and worn out stock springs
but lots of folks don't think its possible.
Pictures don't lie :wink:

long_tall_texan · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:12 pm

Yes, I installed the shocks myself. I lifted my KJ with a Daystar lift at about 19k miles. I kept the OEM shocks at that time. Then I got these shocks from Hood927 with about 30k miles on them. They were in great shape when I got them. Plenty of damping and they recoiled slowly on their own as they should. I put the Ranchos on with my Daystar at about 30k. Then I got OME 927 springs and just swapped out the Daystar for the 927's at 44k miles this week. So the Rancho's have about 45k on them, 15k of thatt is with my Daystar lift. I think Hood used them with OME HDs too.

So... Lessons learned once again is that the OEM springs are junk by 45k at the latest. Probably sooner. Adding a spacer lift to OEM springs does not keep from damaging your shocks. Adding Daystar bumpstops with the Daystar kit will not keep your shocks from bottoming out. Bottoming out the shocks will ruin them.

So please listen to Rev Mudd, TJ, and the many others (I just mention them specifically, because they tried to warn me in the beginning. But I am too dang hard headed) that say don't bother with spacer lifts. It is just not worth all of the trouble in the long run.

Hoping that Rancho will warranty these for me. If so, I'll have a brand new set of Ranchos available for sale on here soon!

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:35 am

Glad you are getting it all worked out.
Hard lesson to learn but all's good in the end!
But look at it this way,
if a lot of us weren't "hard headed" we would all be driving around in KJs 6 inches off the highway! :ROTFL:

Blown Ranchos

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