In my opinion, the ride is a little rough, but I prefer something a little stiff.

Off Topic:
What do you guys use for that smooth "air ride" feel?

 

My car

 

Dude, that's very gay!

 

LOL steve. Well I suppose I set myself up for that one.

But what do you guys put on your trucks for a nice smooth highway ride, you know, that *cough* chevy *cough* feel.

 

they get a 97+. they have torsion bars as the chevy's do. My sisters expedition is smooth as the chevs. but then again she has weight in the back and air bags in the rear.

 

My truck rides very smooth on pavement, but most of the freeways out here are cement, and the length of the slabs puts the seams in between them at just the right distance to totally screw up my ride comfort when driving between 55 and 75. It almost feels like there are no shocks at all.

I'm just trying to understand how the Ranchos work. The shocks we use on the sprint car aren't charged either, and won't move a hair in either direction on their own, but they aren't used to dampen the springs and smooth out the ride, they are used to shift and hold the vehicle weight to either rear wheel, depending on track condition. I've never seen passenger car/vehicle shocks that weren't charged in order to expand them when idle.

 

The fact that they tend to extend is just a side-effect of the pressure & the geometry of the piston. It has no impact on how they function, so the fact that the Ranchos DON'T extend also has no effect. It's just a slightly different design concept.

My personal preference is:

 

I've changed shocks and seen both easy and harder to expand and compress.

My guess is that temp swings alone will affect both the internal pressure and how hard it is to move the fluid.

Next time put your new shocks in the 'fridge overnight Chris, and let us know how it goes!