Should I keep the boots on Rancho RS5000X shocks?

RYAN17

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May 13, 2019
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Location
MA
After so long with my RC shocks I finally put in some rancho 5000x’s in the front today. I was wondering if I should keep the red boots on for the rear shocks. I plan on installing them tomorrow and didnt know if i should take them off. It isnt rubber like the front shocks. Its more like a plastic that i would have to cut off. Wondering what everybody else does?
 
I cut mine off. I've heard arguments on both sides. I just figured it's a better way to keep an eye on things if I can see it easily.
 
Does anyone make a hard plastic guard like a conventional dirt track fork uses? That would be more directional and not hold moisture.
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The rears with the hard plastic boot are not attached to the bottom part of the shock. I don’t see how they would trap any thing any more than the factory shocks would.
 
I just installed those a few weeks ago and called Rancho technical support. They said that they are there for a reason and to leave them on. That's good enough for me.
 
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Yesterday I cut off boots from the shocks that are in place right now (RS5000, not X series) and I can say that whole shock was completely rusted except the part that was covered. I wish I took pictures.
I'm installing new shocks this weekend and I added few more coats of paint on them. I planned on ditching boots but after I saw how existing shocks look like I think I will keep them.
 
I left mine on but punched additional drain holes with a leather punch for the front shocks. The old ones I took off had rubber boots on them and were several years old. I cut the rubber boots off to examine the shocks and could not observe anything detrimental to leaving them on. These are not the first set of shocks I have run leaving the boots on with no observable damage.
 
@mrblaine had a response in another thread that explained the school of thought that the boots protect the shafts from getting blasted by sand and pebbles. This makes sense to me having spent some time in the dirt bike world where m inverted forks always had hard plastic guards protecting the front side of the lowers.

I suppose it probably depends on your environment. I wheel in dry rocks and sand soil so mine are on, but in a week or so when I reset my pinion angle for the SYE and turn my shocks upside down to clear the spring buckets I'll find out whether I can leave the boot or cut it off.