Question About Painting Rancho Shocks

TJRick

TJRick

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 2, 2019
Messages
414
Location
South Carolina
I purchased a new set of Rancho RS5000X shocks for my 1998 TJ, and I would like to paint them before I put them on. The front ones came with a nylon strap holding them compressed, which I suppose is for shipping purposes? If I were to remove that strap for painting the shocks, would there be a problem installing them later?
 
Nope! It's to keep them compressed for shipping. You have to remove that strap before installing them anyway.
 
I painted my Rancho shocks before installing too - couldn't abide the blinding white color. I painted mine with a rattle can of Dark Graphite Metallic mixed by a local paint shop to match the fender flares on my 2004 Jeep Wrangler Columbia Edition - not that you can see the shocks:
ColumbiaMineHalfDoors1.jpg
 
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TJRick said:
Why do the rears have a hard boot? None of my other shocks ever had those before.
Click to expand...

I think of it less as a boot and just a shaft cover like many shocks have, with ribs to make it look more boot-like. I left it on, because there's enough gap around the outside that I don't think it's going to trap a bunch of crud.

I didn't put the front boots on, but I think there are valid arguments for them as well as against.

I used a bright silver color because I already had it in my garage, and they came out looking more like the RS9000XL.
 
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From what I read of the Rancho reviews, seems like painting them is a requirement even if you like white. The paint it comes with peels fast according to customers.
 
97' 4 Popper said:
From what I read of the Rancho reviews, seems like painting them is a requirement even if you like white. The paint it comes with peels fast according to customers.
Click to expand...

Can confirm, I just put clear coat over mine and that only lasted about a year. I didn't reapply really though... Rears ended up worse than the front. Definitely paint them.
 
freedom_in_4low said:
I think of it less as a boot and just a shaft cover like many shocks have, with ribs to make it look more boot-like. I left it on, because there's enough gap around the outside that I don't think it's going to trap a bunch of crud.

I didn't put the front boots on, but I think there are valid arguments for them as well as against.

I used a bright silver color because I already had it in my garage, and they came out looking more like the RS9000XL.
Click to expand...
I've seen a lot of people saying bad things about shock boots so I think I'm going to avoid putting mine on. However I do like the red look of the ones that come with the rs5000x's
 
I think it all depends of what you do with the boots on. I put mine on and about a year and a half later had my shocks off. When I pulled the boots off there was barely anything in there. Had been drive semi-daily, several all day drives to the Outer Banks in NC and a coii you old weeks worth of daily driving on the beach. Also included many trips on fire service roads and the like. I put them back on. There’s a picture here on the site somewhere of when I removed the boots to look at them. Oh yeah, no road salt in my area either.

No mud or soupy holes of water though. I think I’d keep them off if that was something I drove in though.
 
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