KYB KG5480 Gas-a-Just Gas Shock

I bought a used 1996 Suburban and I thought I really should replace the front shocks. I've had good luck with KYB struts in the past, so I bought these with confidence. That was in July, 2015.Not long after a few friends and I piled in the Suburban and headed off to Canada for a week. As soon as we hit 75 MPH (speed limit was 80) the rocking and the swaying began. We stopped in a small town in IDAHO and replaced the rear shocks, even though it felt like the problem was in the front. But why would the problem be in the front? Those socks were new. Admittedly the rear shocks were bad since the problem wasn't as bad after replacing them. We could go 75 without much problem, but the front end still dipped and bounced.When I got home I replaced the sway bar links and bushings (front and rear), the upper control arms/ball joint, the lower control arm bushings, and the lower ball joints. Those only gave me a modest improvement in handling and ride. Then I replaced the rear springs, which made a huge improvement (spring bushings, they're important). The bucking and swaying was gone, but the front end still dipped and jerked when I'd hit a big bump. It was especially bad on the right side. I was even looking into replacing my torsion bars (springs) on the front. It felt like I had a really bad case of bump steer.Then yesterday (Nov 20, 2015, four months after I put on the KYBs) I spied the old shocks that I had saved to take to the metal recycler. They're just a basic pair of Gabriels. I thought, "Hey, I'll conduct a little experiment and just put the old shocks back on." The first thing I noticed was that the Gabriels had a visibly larger diameter and I had a harder time compressing them by hand. It was the best decision I had made in my search to solve the problem. I'm not saying those other things didn't need to be replaced, but I'm convinced that the majority of my problem was these shocks. THEY ARE NOT ROBUST ENOUGH FOR A LARGE PICKUP/SUV, at least they aren't if you value your life and the life of your passengers and fellow motorists. Driving my Suburban was a battle. I'm sure they'll work fine on an S10 or a Ranger, but a Suburban, Expedition, or large pickup is just too big. Thankfully my 'burb now rides safely and tracks well. I'm glad I was lazy and kept the old shocks or I'd be spending $100 for new ones (which is worth it if your shocks are genuinely worn out). KYB, if you can't size a shock appropriately for an application you shouldn't be making them. I'll think twice before putting anything KYB under anything larger than a sedan.

Shock is a bit spongier than I would of hoped in the application I used them in. I think it is an example of a general shock being designed to work with a range of vehicles and while on some it would be over dampened on others it is under. For the price they are a nice alternative to stock but if you are going to spend the time to do this yourself you might want to look into spending a few dollars more for something that has some adjustment so you can really dial in what you want your vehicle to ride like. I wish I had.

I put these on the front end of a 97 Astro van that we recently bought with terrible shocks, so I can't say it feels like new but it sure rides better than it did before!

I replaced all 4 shocks on my 2001 chevy astro with gas-a-justs. the rears are working great, but these front ones i'm not as impressed about. They feel way under damped and theres one big lump in the road on my way to and from work that annoys me a lot. it takes like three bounces for the front end to settle down. I bought these to try and stiffen the ride as I heard these were stiffer than the monroes but so far i'm pretty underwhelmed with these front ones.The rears I'd buy again but I wish I had bought something else for the front. If I were trying again I'd get a set of these for the rear and spend a bit more money for the front. either those bilsteins or the adjustable ones.

Good ride and great price.

great shocks for the money

Took care of the roll the van had in the corners. Almost half the price of the local parts store.

these shocks fixed my shaking