Problems with Rancho Shocks

[RKrueger]

Well, just when I thought I knew everything



Actually, I didn't know that. I actually thought the Gas shocks were totally nitrogen filled, thereby unaffected by temperature.

Live and learn...

 

[CumminsPuller]

Diesel Dan........

Originally posted by Diesel Dan

Robert,



If the truck bounces more than once the shocks are bad. I believe they have a lifetime warrantee. call the place you bought them from and see if they have replacements in stock set up a swap, take them off and swap them. shouldn't be more than the labor of swaping.



should be a no brainer



DD

Does this policy hold true if you are towing? I am not sure if you are familiar with I-10 running east and west through Texas and Louisiana aswell as other southern states. But when I am pulling my 40' GN loaded, and worse when unloaded, the road/shocks literally beats the h*** out of you. I installed the R9000's on all four corners. And I have to say that without the trailer hooked up the are wonderful..... Nice soft ride when set on a low number. But with the trailer hooked up I think they are worse than the stock shocks. I was looking for a smoother ride while towing which led to my purchase of the 9000's. I have them set on 5 while i am towing. If they are supposed to do more maybe I got a bad pair in the rear?????



Thanks,



Jason

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Depending on the tongue weight (gooseneck weight!?) of your loaded trailer 5 may be too stiff of a setting - if they are too harsh turn em down. When towing my 8,500lb TT with a 900 lb tongue weight I ran my RS9000's on 3 in the rear - I would up them to 5 when I had 1,100 lbs of motorcycles in the bed plus the 900 lb tongue weight (2k load). Yes the warranty applies when towing as well. (this was all based on the original RS9000's which are 5 way adjustable)



RKrueger - I agree it sounds like you may have a bad shock or two or possibly weak springs. One thing I noticed is you said you can push down the front corner of your truck with your hand 4-5 inches. Putting all of my weight (I weigh 230 lbs) on the corner of my truck I can only move the suspension about an inch. If your springs are weak the shocks aren't going to help much. Also you mentioned even when on 3 that they are soft. With my RS9000x's I run them at 5 (middle setting) in the front on the street - there's a lot of weight on the front end of our trucks and 3 is a pretty soft setting. All that said, your truck definately should not bounce up and down 3-4 times by pushing down on the corner of the truck. Mine goes down and bounces up - that's it. Those shocks do have a lifetime warranty on them. (this was all based on the RS9000x's which are 9 way adjustable)

 

[CumminsPuller]

Steve..........

You stated that the original RS9000's were the 5-way adjustable's? Which is what I have. What are the new ones like? When did Rancho come out with the new ones? I just got mine I want to say about Oct. or Nov. last year from Sams-Offroad. And I waited along time to get them. I am going to try softening them up a bit and see what happens... ..... So if that doesn't work... . Who takes the complaint... Sam's Offroad or Rancho?



Thanks,



Jason

 

[HFletcher]

Robert, you got bad shocks. Go show the seller that your truck oscillates three or four times, and he'll take care of things. I've also got 9000x's- they don't do that on my truck! Henry

 

[RKrueger]

Steve,

I read your reply, and went right out and pushed down on the front corner of the truck, and I can only push down about an 1" to an 1-1/2". Musta thought I was stronger than I am

Even when I do this, though, the truck bounces back and forth sideways about 3 times. I know there's something wrong with these shocks, but I really am thinking that I chose the wrong ones to begin with, aside from the fact that these were the first off the line and may also be defective.

I absolutely agree with you and others that tow. An adjustable shock, especially in the rear, is a big asset. But I am also of the opinion that a better choice for me would be a non-adjustable version of a comparable-quality shock ( Bilstein, Rancho... ) that was specifically designed for this particular vehicle.



CumminsPuller:

The 9000 Series were 5 way adjustable. In June, when I ordered mine from 4 Wheel Parts, my order was put on hold because Rancho was changing production over to the newer 9000X series. I talked to an engineer at Rancho, and he said the 9000X series were about 80% redesigned from the original 9000 series, aside from being 9 way adjustable. So I waited until September, which is when they finally showed up.

 

[CumminsPuller]

RKrueger

It sounds like I got the raw end of the deal then... ... . I received the 5-ways..... must have been the left overs... ... ... That really pisses me off..... I had ordered mine way back around the time you did..... And waited along time as you did. And I still got the old ones. I am going to contact Sams-Offroad and have some words. So the new ones have a 9-way adjustable knob on them?



Jason

 

[RKrueger]

CumminsPuller:

" So the new ones have a 9-way adjustable knob on them?"



Yup...

 

[CumminsPuller]

Thanks Buddy... ... ... Time to make some calls... ... .....



Jason

 

[RustyJC]

Strange - we're running the 5-position Rancho 9000RS shocks and are extremely pleased with them. We're generally either unloaded or towing a 36' triple slide 5th wheel (10,380 GVW/10,500 GVWR, 21,180 GCW/21,500 CGWR).



With settings of 3 front/2 rear when unloaded, the constant front-end bouncing and rear-end kicking (front too soft/rear too hard) experienced with the factory shocks is gone. The truck rides and handles as well as I could ask with the Ranchos at these settings.



When towing, settings of 4 front/5 rear snub everything down tight! The stock rear shocks, although too stiff in compression (jounce) when unloaded, were too soft in rebound when towing. This caused a constant rear end bouncing that would make anyone carsick! The Ranchos got rid of that and gave us excellent ride and control when towing.



What's the old saying - "One man's trash is another man's treasure. " Go figure, I guess... ... .



Rusty

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

RKrueger - you mention back and forth sideways again in your latest post. Do you mean that one corner of the truck bounces up and down 3 times. Or that the truck is shifting sideways (horizontal to the ground). It sounds to me like it's shifting left and right - if that's the case then you have something wrong in the front end of the truck. The shocks have nothing to do with stopping the axle from moving left to right. You could have something wrong in the control arms or in the track bar causing that problem - which could cause all sorts of strange handling problems if it's bad enough to see.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by d90boy

You are right, I was going to say this. Easy way to tell a gas shock is when compressed, they expand themselves back out. Sometimes this can be a real pain when trying to install especially stiffly valved off road shocks such as the Bilstein 7100s in 360/80 valving or Fox racing shox.

I will add some more info to this. I am an engineer for an OEM shock supplier. All suspension shocks have oil in them. The majority of the shocks used to day are also gas filled. There are two primary types of shocks twintubes and monotubes. Twin tubes generally use between 50 and 100psi nitrogen gas to keep the oil from foaming. Monotubes are generally around 300psi and are very hard to compress by hand. The Bilsiens and the KYB Mono-Maxs are Monotube shock absorbers. The KYB Gas adjust as well as the Rancho RS9000s are twintubes.



I wrote three short articles a few months ago about shocks for DieselTruckResource.com, they can be found at that site in the "Tech Facts" section under "High Performance and Aftermarket Accesroies" They are titled "Shocks Explained" "Twintubes Explained" and "Monotubes Explained"



I do not have the files with me to attach to this post.

 

[Pit Bull]

Originally posted by Ryan



I wrote three short articles a few months ago about shocks for DieselTruckResource.com, they can be found at that site in the "Tech Facts" section under "High Performance and Aftermarket Accesroies" They are titled "Shocks Explained" "Twintubes Explained" and "Monotubes Explained"



I do not have the files with me to attach to this post.

Thanks Ryan this will get them there http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/faq/faq.php?list=category&nr=10&prog=1&lang=en&onlynewfaq=1

 

[RKrueger]

Ryan,

That is a really cool website! I bookmarked that and put it in my TDR folder. I'll print out your articles and read them tonight.



Steve,

So much depends on the chosen word...

It's hard to describe exactly this issue. For one, I know I have no frontend problems. I just had all four balljoints replaced, plus a new trackbar. The frontend is tight now.

Regardless, this problem existed before my frontend work. Other than that, I'm at a loss of how to answer your question differently than I have before.

Anyhow, Bilstein replied and said that all their shocks are of the HD variety, and will produce a stiffer ride than the OEM shocks.

Too bad... I could buy 4 Bilsteins on the "buy 3, get one free" for my truck for less money than 4 OEM shocks. ( I checked today )

I have not received a reply from Rancho yet, so maybe this is a simple solution of having Rancho send me a new set in exchange for the ones on my truck. We'll see.



Hmmmmmm..... rocking, that's it, rocking.

You know what happens when a vehicle has bad shocks and you push down on one side? It rocks side to side a few times, instead of just one occillation. That's the best I can come up with.

 

[JohnE]

<blockquote>The KYB Gas adjust as well as the Rancho RS9000s are twintubes</blockquote>



Unless something has recently changed, all my KYB Gas-a-Just series shocks are high pressure mono-tubes.

 

[HFletcher]

RKruger, your "rocking side to side" is confusing. Shocks aren't mounted horizontally, correct?

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by JohnE

<blockquote>The KYB Gas adjust as well as the Rancho RS9000s are twintubes</blockquote>



Unless something has recently changed, all my KYB Gas-a-Just series shocks are high pressure mono-tubes.

You are correct, I pulled out our aftermarket catalogue this morning and the Gas-Adjust are Monotubes, I was confusing them with the GR-2s which are adjustable twintubes.



Ryan

 

[wcjp]

I installed my Rancho's near the beginning of this threads lifetime. Mine rattled and were generally crap. One call to Rancho fixed the problem. I had undertorqued the bolts. At the proper torque they now ride great.

 

[RKrueger]

Anybody got a duallie in Rochester, NY with Bilsteins?



HFletcher... I give up :{

 

[RKrueger]

Result of all this...

I am now a happy customer once again



After an email marathon with 4 Wheel parts and Tenneco (Rancho), I finally had to get something done, so I went out and bought 4 new Bilsteins ( thanks to all your suggestions ) and had them installed. We found out that the passenger front shock was not only loose in it's mount, but was totally shot, no dampening at all. The rear on the same side was considerably weaker than the right side, although not as bad as the front.

The Bilsteins give me an awesome, smooth ride, just -slightly- stiffer than the OEM's but totally enjoyable. I should have done this originally. The Bilsteins, BTW, are a gas-charged shock, the Rancho's are not.

Finally, the East Coast rep contacted me and is refunding my total cost for the Rancho's.

He was very polite, concerned about my runaround with Tenneco, and was able to solve my problem to my satisfaction quickly.

Thought you might want to know how things turned out.



Thanks to all for your help, suggestions and advice based on personal experience.



Robert