I just drove 250 miles from NY to Delaware and I heard some noises coming from my truck. I got to my destination and discovered that the rear shock had disconnected from the truck because the bracket connecting to the frame rotted out in some way.
My plan was to be driving about 1000 miles over the next few days, on highways, and I don’t have much weight in the back of the truck. I never tow anything.
Would I be safe if I just completely disconnect the shock for now?
I am assuming it’s been barely hanging on and barely useful for a while and that I never noticed.
If you have the brackets replace, new shocks on both sides.
Front shocks likely need replacing.
Definitely need to plan on new tires in the very near future.
The tires are only a year and a half old, and I’ve been getting them rotated. I imagine they’ve got at most 30,000 miles on them. For some reason I seem to wear tires out fast.
Overall my truck is in pretty decent shape, so I think I will get much more than 5000 miles out of it. But we’ll see! I can’t predict the future.
I’ll try to get a picture later. Busy trying to not let this take up my whole day right now.
My truck passed inspection recently, and I think I trust my mechanic enough that he’d have noticed and told me if my frame was about to fall apart! Haha. He told me a few years ago that it was solid.
Assuming it was just the shock mount that rusted out (looks like pretty thin steel compared to the frame), I’d get two, replace them both, and replace all 4 shocks.
It’s definitely something to be concerned about. Other than a short trip on local surface roads, 35 mph & less, I wouldn’t drive my older truck w/a missing shock. It may seem to handle ok around town, but there’s no way to predict what will happen if hitting a big bump at 70 mph, the vehicle may go out of control. Suggest to just ask a local shop if they can install a new shock mount. An inspection may show it may not be that complicated. At the same time make sure there’s no rust-openings developing from the truck’s underside into any passenger or confined areas. You don’t want exhaust gasses getting inside. .
You apparently think that the shock absorber’s function is to support weight. It doesn’t. It controls the bouncing of the axle /wheel / tire when you hit a bump in the road. Without the shock absorber there’s NOTHING controlling how the wheel and tire react to bumps, which makes you a danger to everybody one the road.
