How many miles would you expect to get from QA1 coilover shocks?

TurboAl said:

it would depend on what kind of roads you drive on. the worst the
roads the faster they will wear out.

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Sure, makes sense.
Mine are only two years old, but..
I've been driving on Milwaukee, WI roads for 12 months now, and roads here are 3rd-world.
Unbelievably broken. Some city streets are so bad you can't drive more that 15 mph or so and hold it on the road. Like nowhere I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty.
It's like vehicular torture-testing every morning on my drive into town to work.. (Anyone know Teutonia Ave. ?)

Even so, I would guess that after only two years (don't have all my records here with me, so I'm not sure the actual mileage) they aren't more than 50 - 60% worn.

Thing is, I'm doing a total front end and front brake rebuild in about 3 weeks, then leaving town for good, going home. So I'm trying to decide if I want to pop for fresh shocks also.
At about $300 for the pair it may be worth it. Compared to what I've spent so far stockpiling parts..
Won't have time to rebuild the pair I have, but I can keep them and rebuild them for swap when they're needed later.

kerad11 said:

I'd do it just for the spare shocks when one set is being rebuilt.
.

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Thanks for that.
You talked me into it..

I'm placing final orders now with Amazon and Nalley for all the little bits.
I can't even bring myself to look at the total I've spent, including new steering rack (mine is leaking a bit), new hubs, pretty-much everything down to the bolts and nuts.

I'm in this truck for the long-g-g-g run.
Sure will be a blast to have it feel fresh as new underneath.
With the addition of a new set of tires the 850-mile trip home is gonna be sweet.

.

BigR said:

Rick do they feel like they are not performing as they should. Remember all shocks do is dampen the oscillations on a bumps. Well Q's allow you to adjust height too. If they still fill good just leave them. Also I have the 25003 belltech which are the double adjustable ones and with the manual it says to occasionally turn all the settings to 0 cycle them a few times and reset them. You may find if yours are not leaking visiablly and they dampen to bump well they are good.

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Thanks for that.

Those shocks are still fine, I'm only questioning for how long, measured against the cost of the overall front-end rebuild I'm doing.. That combined with the opportunity to have it done while I'm still here in Milwaukee by the same shop that installed them for me in '12.

I replaced all the normal wear parts in '12 when they did the QA1 conversion for me, except I didn't have an exploded parts diagram and there were things I wasn't aware of, like the insulator pad at the top of the springs and the little soft bushings around the shock stems.
And then the past 12 months here in Milwaukee (!) and all my highway travel have put a beating on my baby for sure.

To replace the shocks now will be a waste of funds, no question about it.
I would guess they're good for something like another 50K or so.

Thing is, how much longer can I manage to keep an '05 on the road?
If I'm really committed then I want it to feel fresh again.
Replacing the cab-to-frame mounts recently really woke me up to how much any vehicle deteriorates gradually with age and how that changes the feel and character behind the wheel. I can't tolerate that loosey-goosy feel and I won't tolerate chassis rattles. If it doesn’t feel sharp and ready for anything then the truck just isn’t interesting to me.

It's like, if I'm going all-out to keep this thing on the road for the foreseeable future, it doesn't make sense to go halfway once I have the front end apart (or someone has it apart for me..)

I couldn't believe how much $$$ all those bolts and nuts cost when I placed the order last night with Nalley GMC..
Do I really need all of them? Nah, of course not.
But after so many winters in the northern regions where there's plenty of chassis rust, I don't want the guys at Hands-On Garage to get into the job and not be able to finish. I'll need to hit the highway for home then and I won’t be able to wait even an additional day or two for them to get whatever is needed. If I had known all the sizes involved maybe I could have purchased them from Fastenall, but I didn’t.

I've got a new gig waiting for me in North Carolina.
I'll be WAY too busy when I get there and get started on that to look for a shop there to take care of my truck, and I don't know any other shop that will let me buy the parts and them do the labor. The folks here will, and that allows me to ensure I'm buying only quality stuff (mostly Delco in this case, with Goodridge brake lines, Whiteline end links ,and a new Belltech front swaybar).

Then again, it may be a moot point. I’m waiting for the NAAKE offices to open to see if I can even get a set shipped to me in time.

It's all a dollar-penalty against my work/life situation and my determination to hold on to an older vehicle ('cause I can't give up my 355!).

In my situation I should just buy something fresh and keep it stock for ease of maintenance, but that ship has sailed long ago. Once I installed the QA1s in '12 and then the rear disc conversion a few months ago, there was no turning back.


My truck isn't nearly as pretty as yours or most here... the miles and my constant traveling for work have taken a toll.
Eventually my situation may allow me to drop it a little more and to get a fresh paint-job, etc. But that little truck is my only real fun in this life for now.
After all these months in the upper midwest I’m really looking forward to being able to take an afternoon cruise in the western Carolina mountains.

I have another question..
05RadoXtreme’s “how-to” states “Be sure to get the 110 stud, not the 112.. (if you get the 112 stud top you will run out of threads and not be able to properly tighten down the bushings to the stock cap)

I called the nice folks at NAAKE and they still have a record of my kit purchase in 2012.
I spoke to “TJ” there and he tells me that they shipped the standard 112 stud to me before (with the full kit).

At that time I didn’t have the SSK (theWolf!) spring perches though, and now I do have a set ready to install.

Maybe on my previous install they used washers to space the nuts on the studs, I dunno.
I don’t remember anything about that at the time.

I ordered the shocks with the 112 stud from NAAKE.
They expect to ship today.. Am I going to need the 110 stud conversion with the SSK spring perch?
Will I be OK with the 112 studs?

And can I use the SSK perch with the QA1 spring from my 2012 install?