The Monroe gas-matic shocks on my 94 suburban are now ten years and sixty thousand plus miles old. I don’t see any evidence of leaks but they are looking plenty rusty and lately I’m feeling every seam in the road. Now these shocks are up about 50% in price from when I last replaced them so I’ve been looking at other brands (which I’m sure have all increased in cost as well) and am wondering what would be a reasonable amount to spend on a truck which gets driven little but where pavement conditions are seemingly in steady decline? I should add I’ve never been unhappy with these shocks but have been reading a fair amount of unflattering comments about them in the course of my research. I won’t be doing any towing, off-roading or regularly carrying any heavy loads so I guess I’m looking for something not too fancy but of decent quality to hopefully last as long as these ones have.
I’ve hear a lot of negative comments on Monroe too but have not seen any evidence in our shop. Possibly because if we’re not putting on Ford o.e. we tend to default to Auto Zone first and get their Gabriels or the Car Quest branded Gabriels. Both of which have been excelent for all of our customers.
I put Gariel on some of my trucks in the past ( 80 Bronco, 92 Explorer ) and loved them yet my three current trucks ( 08 Expedition, 06 Escape hybrid, 79 Chevy C10 ) are ALL still running their original equipment shocks …yes the 79 is on o.e. shocks !
If you like the Monroe, get more of those. But I’ve used Gabriel or o.e. for all of mine.
Buy Monroe from a store like O’Reilly that has a good record of honoring the warranty and you should have no problems.
With shocks, bigger is better and you get what you pay for…Monroe, owned by Tenneco, makes 4 or 5 different lines of shocks with different price-points to satisfy the market from one end to the other…Also, shocks do not have to be leaking to have lost their effectiveness. Once the internal valves and seals start bypassing, their ability to control rebound diminishes.
If you want to try another brand, Gabriel (Ride Control LLC) is an American company that has been around a long time and is a big OEM supplier…So choose your price-point and have at it…
I like KYB’s. I don’t like Monroe. Sachs makes a pretty good unit. Bilsteins are a great product but pricey. KYB’s are usually available at a good price at Rock Auto for many cars. All of these have plants in the US.
Thank you for your responses. I had not considered Gabriel but looking at the reviews, these get a consistently positive rating for both ride and value. I will post back with results once I replace them.
I’m not an expert but I just put 4 new Monroe Gas Magnum shocks on my B250 van. I’m happy with the ride quality, and I got an excellent deal on the shocks at Amazon.com.
The reviews on Amazon for the Monroe Gas Magnums are good across the board, so I don’t know why some people have a beef with Monroes. They work fine for me and I got a good deal on them at Amazon, with free shipping. Set of 4 cost me less than $130.