Got new shocks today on the silverado

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Got 4 Gabriel Ultra shocks for my truck from autozone today. Before the ride was mushey and it swayed a lot on turns and felt overall "bouncy". The stock ones had 100K miles so they were ready to be retired. They were fairly easy to push in by hand and ver, very slowly, they would move back out. The ride is much better now and has the feel of a new truck!

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Another reason that pickups remain popular. Look at what it must have taken to replace those shocks. A couple of wrenches, a beer and a slice of pizza at half time.
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
What were the oem shocks, were they bilstein?


The reason i'm asking is that i have worn out bilsteins on the avalanche and i'm trying to decide if i want to stay with those or try the gabriel ultra.
 
Excellent choice..SteveSRT8 was the one who told me about Ultra's on here back when I bought mine. They will do a fine job on your truck and should last a good long time.
 
Yeah with 100,000 on the OE hardware you more than recouped that original investment.
And Florida has been good to your undercarriage!

GM doesn’t often get damper tuning quite ‘right’ imho.

Good aftermarket shocks and a rear anti-roll bar can transform these trucks.

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Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: spasm3
What were the oem shocks, were they bilstein?


The reason i'm asking is that i have worn out bilsteins on the avalanche and i'm trying to decide if i want to stay with those or try the gabriel ultra.


A buddy of mine has a 2001 Z71 and replaced the Bilsteins with some Gabriel or Monroe. Hated them and bought new Bilsteins. They've lasted over 100K miles.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Another reason that pickups remain popular. Look at what it must have taken to replace those shocks. A couple of wrenches, a beer and a slice of pizza at half time.

That was true in the past.

Now most 1/2 ton trucks and 1/4 ton trucks have a coil over strut on the front wheels, making replacement as expensive as replacing the front struts on most cars.
 
Pickups are popular (to you) because you like pickups;
not because a once in a 100k maintenance procedure is easier.

If you pop over to the cardetailing section, you could make the same argument that pickups suck because it takes you 4x as long to wash and wax your behemoth versus your smart fortwo microcar.
 
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^^^Yep, that's really relevant to the topic, eh?^^^

Frankly, IMO the Bilsteins are a better shock. They also last very well, they are OEM on my Chrysler and they are super fine at 100k miles after tons of track days and strip time.

But they are very pricey.

The Ultras work well even on our 9500 pound fleet vans, which DESTROYED KYB's and other name brands in short order...
 
Bilsteins are expensive and worth every penny but lets face it a lot of people either cant or don't want to put that kind of money out.
I take your word for it Steve, they sure look like a good alternative for the money.
 
I ran Bilsteins on my Explorer. I am running Gabriels on my Ranger. IMHO the Gabriels were very stiff at first and only softened after about a thousand miles. They feel pretty good now. I would buy them again. The Bilsteins were great right out of the box and never changed after 50k that I ran them up until I sold it.
 
Originally Posted By: Blkstanger
I ran Bilsteins on my Explorer. I am running Gabriels on my Ranger. IMHO the Gabriels were very stiff at first and only softened after about a thousand miles. They feel pretty good now. I would buy them again. The Bilsteins were great right out of the box and never changed after 50k that I ran them up until I sold it.


Thank you, sir. I now have them on everything except the SRT8 and our newer fleet vans.

I think they made the most radical difference on my daughter's Ranger-Mazda. It was an 01 with 80k miles on it and had original shocks when we acquired it this year.

Less than 100 bucks for all 4 and an incredible tied down feeling for that little truck!
 
I have Bilsteins on my Envoy and my Grand Marquis - they've transformed the overall handling of both vehicles. As long as they are available, I wouldn't buy anything else - but that's just me. I like the stiffer ride.

I've had some really good experiences with Gabriels too, which were the shocks I had before on my GMQ.

Worth noting, the OE shocks/struts on my Envoy were black Bilsteins. Those are a whole lot different than the blue/yellow ones I installed - in a bad way. You can't compare those to the signature blue/yellows.
 
Bilsteins give a very firm ride. I've had Bilsteins for the last 50,000 miles on my CRV and they have helped me discover every possible rattle and creak. Bilsteins helped amplify every bit of looseness my vehicle had.
 
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