I'm at 92k miles and have the original shocks. Time to switch out?

 

my last truck, a 2005 tundra came with bilsteins. worked fine.

 

48k and I could compress the rears by just looking at them.

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

I’ve had at least 2 of my trucks have severely leaking shocks before 35k, they wouldn’t even extend when pulled off the truck.

id assume the guy that said “as soon as you pull off the lot” meant the stock ones are crap compared to aftermarket upgrades not that they are physically “bad.”

 

I had every intention of not putting aftermarket shocks on my F-150 when I got it, at least not right away. That went out the window the first time I tried to go uphill on a washboard gravel road and had to switch to 4WD just to keep moving forward.

I left the stock fronts on until last weekend (52k) and just put on a Halolifts Aluma kit. The handling is so much better now; the body roll is substantially reduced in cornering, and I don't get bounced all over the place on bad pavement. No gravel or off-road testing yet, but hopefully soon.

Edit to add: I switched the OEM rears off at 1540 miles and put on a pair of Fox 2.0 rears. The difference was night-and-day, and yes, one of my OEM shocks was already failing to hold pressure. One of the Fox rears started leaking at some point in the past six-eight months; I didn't notice exactly when, but I was very aware this winter that the *** end wouldn't behave very well if I hit a bump mid-corner. When I pulled them last weekend, the leaky one was completely shot; the other one still seemed to be working.

 

I replaced the stock shocks at around 36K, the back ones were done, one just collapsed in, and the other one would just fall out after you compressed it. The front were slightly better, but by no means good.

 

As far as how long they should last, like with most anything its how they have been used. There are a couple of quick tests that you can tell if they are bad or going bad.
1) If they are leaking-- change them out
2) When you have to make a sudden stop, does the front end bounce up & down? Or if you push down hard on the corner of the bed is it easy to compress then springs back kind of bouncy? Time to change them.

But just because they are a certain age or has so many miles is not a 100% reason to say they are bad. For example, mine is a 7 yr old F-150 SCREW FX4 with 115K and they are still very good. No noticeable difference from when I first got it. I cant hardly even compress any of the corners even a half inch, they are VERY stiff. If they aent bad -- I aent wasting' my $ on changing out perfectly good shocks.

Now my truck is a straight pavement pounding grocery getter and never goes "off road", I dont drive down dirt roads, especially at higher speeds with pot holes and wash boards. I dont off road at all, haul or pull heavy loads either, 99% is light to moderate loads-- all of that adds up and makes a big difference

 

You do realize that as they slowly degrade, you adapt without knowing. 115k on a set of shock even on pavement is insane to say they are identical to new. I guess you bought the one auto which the shocks have never degraded. Love to take yours off and compare them onto brand new OEM's.

 

I never said that they have not degraded- you implied that- I only stated that there was no noticeable difference to me, and having had worn out shocks over the years, I know when shocks are bad. I am happy with mine- no abnormalities with my tires like cupping. I know it goes against your way of thinking, as long as your happy changing yours out when you do thats all that should matter to you. Mine are still good though