Review of Rancho Shocks
I called Rancho on the phone for advice on what to buy. Since my camper only adds weight to the rear axle (very little to front) they said I could put RS5000's on the front and RS9000 adjustables on ...
Forum Discussion
Not everyone runs 5 empty. I run the rears on 1 empty and it's plenty of dampening. I would turn the fronts down to 5 empty but I'm usually too lazy as the difference isn't great. With the camper I run 7 or 8 on the front and 9 on the rear.
I good 1st order check is to bounce up and down on a corner of the truck, then let it go. It ought to go up, then settle to ride height without overshooting much. If it bounces more than that, too little dampening in my opinion. The dampening required depends on both spring rate and mass. Both change when you load the camper - mass obviously and spring rate because you engage the extra leafs and whatever other bandaids you have installed.
On my air suspension I run about 35 psi empty and 95 with the camper loaded. Since spring rate is proportional to pressure, I have about 3 times the spring rate and by measurement about 3 times the mass compared to empty. There is no way a non-adjustable shock is going to work well in both conditions.
I good 1st order check is to bounce up and down on a corner of the truck, then let it go. It ought to go up, then settle to ride height without overshooting much. If it bounces more than that, too little dampening in my opinion. The dampening required depends on both spring rate and mass. Both change when you load the camper - mass obviously and spring rate because you engage the extra leafs and whatever other bandaids you have installed.
On my air suspension I run about 35 psi empty and 95 with the camper loaded. Since spring rate is proportional to pressure, I have about 3 times the spring rate and by measurement about 3 times the mass compared to empty. There is no way a non-adjustable shock is going to work well in both conditions.
