I'm a suspension freak, with my truck ('04 CC 4x4 LE) and my motocross bike; so I've tried all these shocks and these are my findings.
Stock: Real soft, good ride quality, don't like rough roads and won't last more than six months if you use them regularly on this kind of roads; bad bottoming resistance. I replaced my stock shocks with original Nissan's and same thing; they only lasted about five months. I paid about $70 ea. from my local dealer. I only replaced the front, not the rear because these are ok. I'm talking about the Tokiko shocks, not the Rancho OEM.
Monroe: Same ride quality than stock but last longer. They're ok.
DR's (front and rear): Too stiff in my opinion; I live in an area with realy rough roads and these caused the body of my truck to develop too many rattles. I tried several spring preload settings and same thing. I think that they're using a spring rate that is too high for everyday use. The rear caused the truck to go out of line when hitting a bump while going through a turn at speed (fast or moderate). Real expensive, I paid around $1400 for the set of four.
Rancho RS9000X (front and rear): These are the best so far, I really like them. They're adjustable for compresion and rebound (nine positions), you can go from softer than stock to much firmer. They use the stock spring, which in my opinion, it's the best spring rate for the Titan. Position #3 is about the same than stock, you can go from there all the way to position #9, the higher the number the stiffer they get. They come with a leveling kit; that's a cool feature. I paid $700 fo all four installed - not bad when you consider that they perform better than the DR's for half the price.
I was considering to install the kit to adjust them from inside the cab, but a Rancho representative was honest enough to tell me that I was going to have lots of problems with it, so i didn't get it.
I really recommend these.
That's it, I'll continue on my quest for the perfect set-up; I'll keep you posted with my findings, my wallet permitting.
Stock: Real soft, good ride quality, don't like rough roads and won't last more than six months if you use them regularly on this kind of roads; bad bottoming resistance. I replaced my stock shocks with original Nissan's and same thing; they only lasted about five months. I paid about $70 ea. from my local dealer. I only replaced the front, not the rear because these are ok. I'm talking about the Tokiko shocks, not the Rancho OEM.
Monroe: Same ride quality than stock but last longer. They're ok.
DR's (front and rear): Too stiff in my opinion; I live in an area with realy rough roads and these caused the body of my truck to develop too many rattles. I tried several spring preload settings and same thing. I think that they're using a spring rate that is too high for everyday use. The rear caused the truck to go out of line when hitting a bump while going through a turn at speed (fast or moderate). Real expensive, I paid around $1400 for the set of four.
Rancho RS9000X (front and rear): These are the best so far, I really like them. They're adjustable for compresion and rebound (nine positions), you can go from softer than stock to much firmer. They use the stock spring, which in my opinion, it's the best spring rate for the Titan. Position #3 is about the same than stock, you can go from there all the way to position #9, the higher the number the stiffer they get. They come with a leveling kit; that's a cool feature. I paid $700 fo all four installed - not bad when you consider that they perform better than the DR's for half the price.
I was considering to install the kit to adjust them from inside the cab, but a Rancho representative was honest enough to tell me that I was going to have lots of problems with it, so i didn't get it.
I really recommend these.
That's it, I'll continue on my quest for the perfect set-up; I'll keep you posted with my findings, my wallet permitting.
