Learn me: rear shocks for the ranger

2002 Ranger FX4

I found the Original HD Bilsteins on Amazon, but from what I've heard they still suck and need to be replaced fairly often. 

Those are also the only FX4 specific shock I've found. All the online retailers have them but Amazon had them the cheapest. Everything else I've seen on rock auto and other places is for the regular 2wd or 4wd, but not the FX4. The ranger station has a good list of recommendations if I'm going to 35" tires, but I'm not interested in paying more for tires than I did the truck.

How/where could I pull measurements to find a similar size/rate shock? I'd be fine going Rancho or another off-road oriented brand if I could find something similar to stock in height and ride quality.

What the deal with the air helpers? Alfadriver mentioned them before in my "learn me rangers" thread,  but I haven't been able to find much info on air support unless I want to drag frame.

I would prefer a mono tube over a remote reservoir or dual tube, but air seems preferable for longevity and adjustability. 

Truck will see mild off-road, hopefully some rally cross, but still needs to behave on the highway or with a load in the bed. At most, maybe 2000lbs on a trailer very rarely for towing. As long as it doesn't make things dangerous to do so, I'm fine with something that maybe isn't the best for towing because I won't be doing it all the time.

I think I covered all the bases. 

Bump for the weekday crowd.

Yes, I wish I could stop asking simple ish questions too. But despite their being half a trillion of these things in existence, I can never find what I want to know, and I don't know the things I don't know. 

I can't suggest personally, I went with Gabriel Pro Guards on my '96 2wd but keep in mind the originals I removed with over 188k mi. were half rusted through and the fronts had zero rebound left.   I went with the cheapest but not absolute crap option in my case as it's my home project truckster and not main vehicle.   Try searching around Rangerstation or the like for suggestions but looking at RA they have what seems to be every imaginable shock option for these trucks.  They have Billstein, KYB, Gabriel, Rancho, etc and all in mono-tube flavors if you want.   They do have adjustable Billsteins(silver) as well, not sure what exactly is specific to FX4 pkg but anything would be an 'upgrade' to old worn out shocks at this point.  

Perhaps if you posted the question at the "Ranger Station" or at a Ford Truck forum you may get better answers. You're looking for a "off highway" shock and most GMer's are road guys.

Look at something like Bilstein 5100s, they give good control and improved ha sling and are fairly priced.  Don’t get Rancho RS5000, you might as well use pieces of wood.  If you want the best, see if Fox makes anything that fits, they probably do, even for stock height, for something so common. 

Have you done the front shocks too? Might handle funny with the old factory stuff in front and fancy new stuff in the rear. I'd go with Bilstein 5100s in any case. They seem to work great from what I hear.

I do some rallyx in a Ranger.  I use Bilsteins in the Ranger and many of my other cars.  For bolt-in application, that is what I'd suggest.

I'm going to do the fronts when I do the hubs this summer. I haven't seen any that say "excludes fx4 and high lift" like the rears do, but I'll match them to whatever rears I buy. 

Honestly the ride isn't that bad currently, but the rears are visibly cracked and leaking, and I'm going to have the bed off anyway so might as well change them. For all I know they could still be originals at 206k. 

I did eventually find this zombie thread over on ranger station that mentions the KYB KG54309 as a better replacement for the stock bilstein, but also has the dimensions listed so I can do a little size shopping as well.