Off Road Shocks
When it came time to tame the suspension, we found that options were fairly limited due to the height of the suspension lift. Superlift provided a set of their premium shock absorbers and I took the time to have them sand blasted and painted with a super tough coating of white super-thane. But when I started to install them, I found that they were just a bit too short to reach the full length between the mounting brackets. Now I was back to square one. Chris over at Heckethorn offered to send over a set of their extra long off road shocks and I gladly accepted. I waited and I waited and I waited. I sent several emails to Chris and the shocks never arrived.
Chris told us they just didn’t have any available in stock. So I ordered a set from a local off road shop and low and behold, they were able to get the very same shocks that the factory somehow was unable to produce when I was waiting for nearly three months. So needless to say, I was completely unimpressed by Chris’ performance and follow through. But I finally had a set of shocks I could install on our truck. Now these shocks were pressurized and it made installation a little difficult. For the front shocks, each shock absorber was mounted one by one in the lower ORU dual shock bracket. Then I had to stand up on the tire and force the shock piston back down into the shock absorber body until the mounting eye lined up with the ORU dual shock hoop. Then the mounting bolt was slid in place. This was not an easy task. Finally, the four front shocks were in place.
The shock boots had been installed prior to putting the shocks on the truck. Then it was time for the rear shocks. Because there was no bed on the truck at the time, this made installation much easier. Had it been necessary to install them from below, it would have been a much greater challenge. The shocks were mounted to the axle first then collapsed, not easily, and attached to the frame. Now, the suspension was finally ready to roll. The truck still had a ways to go, more than year in fact, but at least this was one more step towards the final product. I would have preferred to have the Superlift shocks on the truck but wishes don’t always come true.