shock question 89 1/2 ton suburban unmolested

[jamacee]

I tried to go through the search features and am still trying to familiarize myself w/ all features of the site so please forgive me if questions have been asked a bazillion times.

I just purchased my 1st GMC ever. 89 GMC 1/2 suburban tbi350,700r4,241 (it was from the original owner and he looked like he was about to cry when he handed the keys to me after the sale) It's going to be a family expo rig and tho I have things planned for it like we all do but for now I'm looking for the basics.

Everything in truck has been gone over the engine is a jasper motor w/ 75k and honestly everything is pretty dang new on it. except the shocks they look like they have been on there from day one.

I did a search on here and I heard folks say stuff about bilstein which I'm familiar w/ and Monroe HD but I just called o'reilly auto parts and they had the rancho rs 5000 for like $50 and the monroe HD are $16 bucks both are gas shocks and I believe both are made by monroe...so what the heck is the difference.

If my rig is in it's stock form and I would like to get the best (naturally liked to pay as lil as possible) gas shock for it now before lifts and stuff are they all the same? Any thoughts or opinions of which one to choose. What are the key points or differences between gas shocks? regardless of name brand?


SO to keep it simple:

1) what is a GOOD gas shock to go w/ for a bone stock v1500 89 suburban?
bilstein,rancho,pro-comp,monroe are they all the same?

2) I need hubs so how do I determine if I have a 28spline or a 30spline 10 bolt?

 

[jt512]

Your hubs should be a 30 spline, on the ck5 home page there is a section called "specifications" whenever you are looking for some info on stock stuff it's a good place to start.
As far as shocks, I have rancho 5000's on my DD and overall I have no complaints, I believe they still come with a limited lifetime warranty which is nice. I honestly wanted to run the Bilstein's but for my app. no one had them in stock so I went with the RS's. Procomps are decent also, I had a set on a k5 w/ 4" lift and they worked well on a street/ mild trail truck. If you are going to lift your sub in the near future I would go for the "cheapest decent" shock since you will need to change them when you lift it anyway. Just my $.02 , hope it helps.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Ranchos are a waste of money.

Go buy some NAPA truck shocks. Nitrogen charged monotubes for about $25 last time I bought some. That's compared to RS5000 hydraulic twin tubs for twice that...

 

[jonathon]

If you need lockouts.. the inner spline count doesn't matter. I believe an 89 should have 30 spline inner axles. The stubs are all 19 spline for all the D44 and corp 10 bolt axles.

If you want a deal on a set of quality lockouts.. check these out. I run them on both my burbs and they are good lockouts. I love the all metal parts and the fact they only require 1/4 turn to lock, not to mention the dial is easier for my big fingers to turn versus the Warn premiums. They were $35 when I bought mine.. I'd still say they are very good hubs at $65 delivered.

As far as shocks.. I'm going to agree with the above. I have put Monroe nitrogen monotubes on two rigs now.. on the S-10 they were all of $20 a shock. I think on the burb it was around $25.. good shocks, made in the USA too.

 

[jamacee]

ok so its the mile marker ones that are crap lockouts then....I couldn't remeber if it was superwinch or MM...I just always had thought warn were the best ,they certainly are the most expensive i haven't found them better than $111. Yea you can't beat that price if they're good I'd certainly consider it.

So I've heard Napa over rancho and Monroe are good for now but the monroe come in like 5 different models ( H.D. , Matic , Gas Magnum , Sensi trac , and Reflex ) the H.D.'s are the cheapest ones and when you start looking at the price of the others you start gettin close to the price of Procomp,Bilstein,and others. I just don't know what the difference is. I'll prob just get the 16 dollar monroes or those napa ones and call it a day since eventually I wanna get that full 4" lift kit from ORD and run some 33's till I can afford to switch the axel to 44 or 60 and 14blt in rear and hopefully a nv 4500 and 205 case and then later top it all off w/ a HT 383. Tho this thread is about shocks and lockouts and the other stuff is waaaaaayyyyyy down the list.

Thanks guys I really appreciate it. I was scratching my head there going wtheck is the difference when they are made essentially by the same companies.