Hey all,

I have a 1999 Ranger 4x4 XLT Off-road that i just bought a couple of months ago. I hear a lot of squeaks and creaks as im rolling down the road so I know the trucks due for some new suspension.

My goal with the truck is just to have a dependable truck that can do basic off-roading without breaking a sweat.

I was looking at mevotechs (Rock Auto) front end kit, i liked that it pretty much had everything I need. My question is, is mevotech any good for our trucks? Has anyone had good/bad experiences? Im considering their ttx line because of how the parts are sealed. I also plan to get the kyb mono max struts for the truck, im assuming those are pretty good.

Im open to all suggestions/insight given, thanks in advance.

 

For shocks, i always recommend BILSTEINS, sure they are a bit pricy, but they offer very good ride quality. I have them on my F350 right now too. Never dealt with mevotech, i much rather use the store brand components at a brick and mortar for easy replacements in the future.

 

Off-road vehicles have SOFTER suspension not stiffer which is actually harder to do, this is why you see dedicated off-road vehicles having multiple shocks at each wheel

Point of any suspension is to keep the wheels on the ground and the body/frame level

With stiff suspension when you hit a bump the energy is transfer to the body and frame which goes UP, this weight is then lifted off of the wheels, and you lose steering and traction, a BAD THING, lol

But with soft suspension when you go around a corner you can get body roll which is also a bad thing

So there is a happy medium for your use
It starts with the springs, softer is better, better ride on the road and better at keeping wheels on the ground off-road

Then shocks, shock can firm up softer springs, but can do nothing about springs that are too stiff
So first decide on best springs for your vehicles weight on each axle, it all starts there

Disconnect shocks, top or bottom, on an axle
Bounce vehicle at that end, should be easy to bounce, if its hard to press down springs are too stiff, shocks can't fix that

 

Thank you guys for the replies.

Didnt think about if and when the suspension broke how easy i can obtain it again if it was from rockauto. The only problem is if i source all the parts from a brick and mortar store it would be a lot more compared to the front end kit sold at rockauto.

I was considering the bilsteins as well actually, i would love it if they had different colors though. My red ranger against the bright yellow/blue may not look too good but no biggie.

I'll test that out before I purchase any shocks, should i even test it if i have the torsion beam suspension in the front?

Also, any thought on Mevotechs TTX line?

 

I did the mevotech ttx front end kit, mevotech hubs and bilstein shocks. Has been great so far, love it all. Definitely worth all the work. Thank you to everyone that replied!







Now, time to fix the spark plug thread/replace the cylinder head because one of my spark plugs shot out while I was test driving the damn thing