Firestone Air Bags, way to go. They will really SMOOTH out the ride. I run at 15 psi empty and 45-50 psi when towing. I have 53000 on my 3/4 ton Avalanche and my bilsteins are fine empty but the air bags made all the differnce.

Wannabe

Should be easy when it is up on the flatbed tow truck so often............:food-smiley-007:

I have had a 02,04,06 and now a 08 duramax. The rear shocks on the 04 were totally spent at 10,000 miles but it still drove and towed beatiful except on concrete exspressway with spaced out exspansion joints. Once I changed them to bilsteins it was pretty good except a little too firm empty which is seldom. I rarely EVER drive my duramax unless I'm towing something or hauling something so 90% of the miles are towing miles. I never considered air bags because I'm not coming close to even compressing the stock springs with only 600-800 pounds tounge weight,Smitty

It's a thought but I didn't want to get that elaborate. I rebuild and re-valve snowmobile shocks so I'm real familar with fox high end shocks/remote resovoir shocks and how the fancier ones work,Smitty

I'm really disapointed in the edelbrock IAS shocks,the stock duramax shocks are cheap oil filled shocks and I have seen them on several trucks including my own wasted in less then 10,000 miles. Most owners never even know they are gone unless they tow something on a concrete exspressway with steady exspansion joints because the suspension is pretty decent. I put the bilsteins on my 04 4 years ago,threw the stock ones away then when I went to trade it in I wanted to keep them for my 06 but I didn't have shocks to stick on the truck to trade it in with. A buddie had a fairly new 05 at the time,I asked him if he would like a set of new 06 stock shocks for his truck,he thought I was nuts and said his were still good but we stuck my bilsteins on his truck,put his 05 shocks on my 04 when I trade it (they were ALSO wasted). When I got my 06 home I pulled my new shocks off it and swapped them onto his truck and got my bilsteins back for my 06. He couldn't believe how much better his truck rode even with the new stockers. I had the bilteins on my 04 and 06 for a combination of 60,000 miles,they were still working great but were starting to rust up (they were four years old) so I left them on my 06 when I sold it so it isn't like I destroy ANY shock after 10,000 miles,just the stockers.
The edelbrock shocks ride smoother than any shock I have ever used on the rear of my trucks on 2 lane roads and highway,its just on the concrete exspressway they suck as bad as the stockers. I'm going to re-think the air bags though,maybe they will be my solution. A friend of mine will be towing his boat that is slightly bigger than mine with his 06 duramax down the same stretch of highway friday and he has already changed his shocks to bilsteins,if he says it rode ok then I'm just going to ditch these edelbrock shocks and get another pair,Smitty

The edelbrocks seem to ride smoother than I remember the bilsteins riding on the country 2 lanes and blacktop highway,its just they are not much better than my old shocks on the concrete. I might end up trying some airbags though after hearing everyones responses,thanks for your input,Smitty

The Bilsteins are nice shocks. I put them on the girls FJ and the difference was night and day. On both of my jeeps I used Pro-comp MX-6's. They are adjustable (although I seldom adjusted them). They are very nice shocks as well, way better than the rs 9000 ranchos. If you do get rancho adjustables stay away from the in cab controller unless you like fixing leaks.

Some of the ford f-250's are running Rancho shocks, I have a set of their 9000's I think, they were adjustable, ran them on a full size Blazer and they have lasted well over 100k miles, they are still on there and they came with a lifetime warranty if I remember correctly.

Only problem is I have had to replace the urethane bushings 3 times

What are you usung for oil?? I have had really good sucess with amsoil atf fluid....

I been using a synthetic shock oil for the fox shocks I rebuild that I get from HPE (a snowmobile supply co),I think its about 5 weight around 8$ a qt,this is for snowmobiles though it does look a awful lot like atf,Smitty