[Rathbone]

My 2000 Trooper has an absolutely gutless suspension. Totally designed for soccer moms only. This thing bottoms out all the time just riding down the interstate. I put Rancho RS5000 shocks on - no help. I would like to replace the springs but am unaware of my options. Can anyone help? I would like to maintain stock appeatance as much as possible (no lift kits, etc). I've looked at Old Man Emu springs, but don't know if there are other options available. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Tad]

In all honestly, would your mom even notice if the truck was 1" taller? The regular OMEs have a nice ride, in my opinion. You might want to see if someone near you has the OME springs so that you can take a test ride.

While we are at it, I have nothing but good things to say about the OME shocks as well. They are something else to consider.

-Tad

 

[Jules]

I don't know about the Trooper but the OEM shocks on my Rodeo were really weak. Even the KYB shocks were a bit too soft for me. I ended up replacing the fronts with Bilstiens. A bit firm over bumpy roads but the ride and handling is much better and more confidence inspiring than OEM.

In fact, the right front OEM shock was completely blown when I bought my '96 Rodeo with only 67k miles on it. The other front was well past useful and the rears were just okay but could be compressed fairly easily by hand. The Bilstiens were near impossible to compress by hand and very hard to install.

 

[DoctorC]

The OME 912 coils on lift the Troop about 1.5 inches. My 82 year old father in law actually likes it better because he can sit right on the seat now without dropping down. It firmed up the rear pretty well. I put on the rancho 9000 series shocks and noticed an improvement from them as well. Last I replaced the stock rubber sway bar bushings with a polyurethane bushing from JC whitney. This cut the body roll down quite a a bit and for $20 for the pair a very reasonably priced mod. Good Luck.

 

[mtboulder]

I put Bilstiens on the front of my '98 Trooper and Edelbrocks on the rear. I've been very happy with the ride and performance for over 3 years with them. To install the Bilstiens I used a pipe vice to compress the post and then tied it in place with 550 cord. Once I had the shock in position I cut the cord to release the post.

 

[Rathbone]

Thanks Guys for the info. I appreciate it!