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Alex Schubow (Alex)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 03:31 pm: | 
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Anyone seee these? They are advertising them in Petersen's. Don't know how well they are built, but if the build quality is descent and different sizes are avaialble, this looks like it may be a good mix of the Best of Bilstein & Rancho (Monotube construction of Bilstein and adjustability and low cost of Rancho).
Anyone?
Alex |
steveII
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 05:04 pm: |
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alex-
pro crap, for the most part is shoddy
one size oughta work junk made in chinese
slave labour camps. it has to be the
worst of the cheap sh*t made.
ranchturds aren't rated that much higher in my book either.
if you know anything about riflescopes - the chinese copy scopes are essentially corpalites with lenses stuck on the end.
i like bilsteins and i love omes. the ome's
are tuned specifically for your car vs. make
it work. why fight perfection?
steveII |
r0ver4x4
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 06:00 pm: |
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How come almost everone with a lift has Ranchos if they are junk0 |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 06:20 pm: |
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procomp are generic ranchos
i'd have to question "almost everyone" having ranchos. they seem to hold up well on lighter jeeps & pickups. |
Ho Chung (Ho)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 06:45 pm: |
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phil, how come almost every truck that has a rancho lift are junk?
LOL
and anonymous, "hold up" sounds to me like barely making it.... |
Ho Chung (Ho)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 06:46 pm: |
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back to the original comment...
monotube... they are great. but thats' not really what makes bilstein shocks better than ranchos. |
Milan
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 06:57 pm: |
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People have Ranchos as they seem to have almost any size available so you can usually find one that will work for your application. Even though I could be considered anti-Rancho, I have seen RS9000s work very well on Jeeps and have broken down and got a set for mine as well. I could not find any other make in the size I needed. They don't look so shitty to me yet. The shaft is a decent diameter and they are sort of double wall monotube design. And you can usually find a setting to your liking. Even though I have a Heep, I'm using Ford F150 shocks and thus run mine on the soft setting. The only problem I have heard of, is that the bushings don't last very long but you can always get replacements.
I never had Bilsteins but the best shocks I have tried so far were OME and Edelbrock Performer IAS shocks. The best "cheap" shocks I've had were Monroe HD Gas Charged shocks (the yellow ones). I understand Monroe builds the ES3000 Procomps and Rancho RS5000 shocks and all those are crap IMO.
For the Disco I will try either OME or Edelbrock Performer IAS shocks to match my OME MD springs. I am waiting for other Guinnea pigs to try the Procomps and if they turn out to be good, I'd use them.
I would never use a Chinese scope on my rifles though. LOL |
Blue (Bluegill)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 06:59 pm: |
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don't feel bad Alex - everything looks good in the slick sales promos! I took the same bait with Monroe shocks after reading ads and talking to salesman, but I think that they're just not for the Disco.... |
Milan
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 07:02 pm: |
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Actually the RS9000 are Tri-Tube Mono Flow design. Sorry about the blunder. |
Leslie N. Bright (Leslie)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2002 - 11:03 pm: |
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Mi dos centavos....
I put Rancho on the Jeep I had. They were okay, but not impressive.
Thing is, yes, they're common on Jeeps. But Jeeps are common, too. But, that by no means means that it is better.
Which do you think is better, a Cherokee, or a Disco? Won't they mostly do the same thing?
That's the difference between a Rancho and a Bilstein. Yeah, they'll do about the same thing, but which would you rather have?
-L |
Greg Davis
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 10:05 am: |
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I'm running the Rancho 9000's and have had good success with them (had them for almost a year). Also had Ranchos on my '70 Bronco. Except for the paint peeling off, they did fine. I went w/ Ranchos for three reasons:
1. Adjustability
2. Length
3. Price
I run the fronts on "2" and the rears on "5". Had I gone with a non-adjustable shock, this leads me to beleive that the fronts would be too stiff and the rears too soft for my desired ride. |
PerroneFord
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 10:16 am: |
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Just my opinion...
Rancho doesn't release valving information on their shocks. This makes the adjustability necessary.
Bistein, on the other hand, will tell you the valving of their shocks, which allows you to specifically choose the one that will best suit your needs.
OME offers several valving options in their shocks so that you can choose based on the rate of the springs you are running.
Adjustability can be a good thing, but in Rancho's case, its there because they make you guess at the actual valving of the shock. On an adjustable pressure shock like a Bilstein 9100, you can change valvings with proper tools, and on the bypass shocks, you can adjust ride characteristics to your hearts content. Unfortunately, real adjustability comes at high prices.
-P |
RVR OVR (Tom)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 10:39 am: |
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Don't forget, Perrone, for those of us dummies who have no idea which valving will do what, it is nice to be able to adjust after the fact, and depending on what you are carrying at the time.
I concede that Rancho's probably are not as nice as Bisteins, and the paint is for shit. But I like that they came in the right lengths for my setup and that when I load the truck down in the spring with 100's of lbs of mulch and topsoil, I adjust to meet my needs.
Tom |
burger flipper dude
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 10:42 am: |
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(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos(pull lever)-hamburger(pull lever)-lifted jeep with ranchos... |
RVR OVR (Tom)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 10:45 am: |
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huh? |
Greg Davis
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 11:14 am: |
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Don't worry Tom, I missed it too. I guess if a J**P has certain tires on it, we shouldn't use those either? Seems like a rather nieve mentality to me. |
burger dudes manager
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 11:27 am: |
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Leslie said
>"Thing is, yes, they're common on Jeeps. But Jeeps are common, too."
burger dude agrees with this and was commenting on the fact that jeeps lifted and fitted with ranchos are churned out like the billions of hamburgers churned out every day as if someone is pullin a lever and makin them all day long. in fact theres a place down the road from me that buys lightly used jeeps, slaps shiny wheels, fat tires, and ranchos on them and then throws them on their lot. i believe they are currenlty perfecting a machine where you just pull the lever and out pops another rancho jeep buggy. they have a pile of stock wheels, tires, and leaf/coil springs in the back you wouldn't believe.
not a comment on rancho quality, just a comment on why they're so popular. I will stick burger dude's hand in the deep frier for his insolence. |
Leslie N. Bright (Leslie)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 11:33 am: |
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No, Greg, not at all what I'm saying... not that, just because it's on a Jeep it's junk, but that a lot of things on a Jeep are common because they are common. It may be a very good thing, but quite often, lower cost is lower quality.
Ther are some really nice Jeeps out there. There are some really nice things on Jeeps out there. But, the really nice things are usually 'not' common. Usually they're not common because of the cost of doing things right.
I'm not saying bad things about Ranchos, I'm just saying good things about Bilsteins and OMEs...
-L |
Alex Schubow (Alex)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 12:32 pm: |
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Supposedly the new Procomps are going to be offered in different lengths and valving depending on vehicle weight. So you can have your custom valving AND adjustability, at least according to their ads.
Now, whether the build quality will be up to Bilstein standards remains to be seen.
BTW, I have broken 3 Bilstein shocks so far--2 stock replacements and one $100 6100-series racing shock. YMMV
Alex |
PerroneFord
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 12:43 pm: |
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RVR OVR,
No one is a dummy because they don't understand valving. Perhaps John or Ho will put up a technical article about choosing the correct valving for any particular spring application.
The basic idea is that if you are running a certain weight truck, on a particular spring it will compress the spring "x" amount and that is how you set ride height and median shock length. You then look at how much load it would take to fully compress that spring and what force would be generated to bring it back to normal ride height. The shock must create enough resistance so that the spring will flex back beyond the normal ride height, and then back down to ride height and stay there. Any less, and the spring begins to pogo. Any more resistance, and the shock will slow up the spring too much and create a harsh ride.
There is a calculation to figure all this out that takes into effect the spring rate, weight it's holding up (sprung weight) and the speed at which the suspension is cycling (highway speeds, crawling speeds, desert running speeds) and gives you the proper valving.
Bilstein makes a big deal about this because their shocks' valves adjust automatically for different speeds being traveled. So do the Edelbrocks. The Rancho does not adjust automatically, which is why the have a knob. Much easier and cheaper to do it that way.
-P |
RVR OVR (Tom)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 12:46 pm: |
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My huh was simply not getting the joke. I didn't know that there were levers that made hamburgers appear. When I flipped burgers as a teenager, there weren't any such devices. Would have been nice.
I know Ranchos are common and cheap. They do the job just fine though. When one breaks, I'll buy another one (although, Mike DI did fine the low-priced Bilsteins of the same length). If I need unique suspension to be an individual, I have other problems far more pressing than valving.
Tom |
Ho Chung (Ho)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 12:51 pm: |
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perrone,
tech article on shock valving?
we'll leave that to the shock experts. |
PerroneFord
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 01:13 pm: |
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RVR OVR,
Don't Rancho have a lifetime replacement warranty? I thought that was one of the good things about them. In fact, that's a hell of a deal.
-P |
RVR OVR (Tom)
| | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2002 - 01:22 pm: |
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Yes, as a matter of fact they do. So, I won't buy one when it breaks, I'll send it in. I have said before that a full set of Ranchos and a full set of spares is a very fine setup, indeed. Last set of shocks you'll ever buy!
Tom |
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