I am a new Ranger owner of an 03 XLT FX4 4.0L 4x4 truck. I need to replace my shocks and so far leaning towards Rancho Shocks for the task. I was looking at several web site and seems there are several models to choose from and I do not know if my truck is equiped with Torsion Bar? it gets kinda confusing.....

1) Can someone tell me if my truck has Torsion Bars?
2) What correct Rancho Shock model for my truck?
3) What brand of shocks is best for Ranger ? with stock suspensions


Thanks for the input...

 

1) You have torsion bars. Unless the previous owner did a coilover conversion but I doubt it.

2) Forget Rancho and go with Bilsteins

 

^^^^this

 

I had 2 sets of ranchos on my old superduty and they started leaking after a year.I would go with bilsteins they are not cheap but they work great.

 

Rancho Shocks(twin-tube celluar-gas) are good enough for Ford to use from the factory on the 2011 Ranger Sport 4x4...just saying. I put them on my 96 Ranger Sport in 2007. I had them on a 2008 Tacoma TRD Sport 4x4. Bilsteins are fine but $$$y. It seems like if one person has a bad experience, then they just write off the brand or company FOR-EV-ER. If that was the case I would never have owned Ford products, becasue my family drives Dodge and people hate the blue oval.

 

Not sure why you guys think the stock bilsteins are expensive? I could buy 16 bilsteins for the cost of my 2 front kings.

Gotta pay to play shocks are not worth skimping on they are so critical to the drivability of the truck.

 

Rancho's are good but Bilstein's are better chocks.

 

Can anyone give me a part number for the Bilsteins? I also have an '03 XLT FX4 (not a level 2) and that just adds to the confusion. I have a about a 1" T-bar crank on mine also if that makes any difference.

 

Ranchos are okay. Get the Bilstein's. You will not regret it. Get on the their website. You should be able to find the part number.

 

When I replaced the original Bilstein shocks on my 02 FX4 at 100K miles, I stuck with Bilstein. I did not think they were all that expensive. I know they have changed the part number since then so passing on that part number will not help you.

You should also be able get the Bilstein shocks from Ford that are tuned differently from the shocks directly from Bilstein. They are more expensive and not as desirable as the shocks directly from Bilstein in my opinion. I think the Ford Bilstein shocks are tuned slightly too soft for off-road but work well on the street. I now have almost 100K miles on Bilstein replacement shocks and they still work near like new.

I have heard many regrets from people buying Rancho shocks but some are satisfied with them. I rarely hear complaints about Bilstein shocks and use them as replacement shocks for all my vehicles if possible.

FX4 shocks are the same as any Ranger with torsion bar suspension. If it is lifted you might need longer shocks but a 1" torsion bar lift will not require it. I have been running a 1.5" lift on my Ranger since near new and have not had any issues with the shock length or suspension.