Road King Shocks a rip off!!

Worthless on my Unimog RV.
Told them repetitively I wanted stiff damping with my coil springs and weight and they sent them with the softest setting.
Took them off in Germany and discarded them.
The owner-“engineer” is totally ignorant of the physics of damping- I asked him.

 

I agree whit you , completely overrated.

 

Didnt want to make a new thread since this is already here... At how many miles do you guys replace your shocks?

 

You're supposed to check and replace if necessary every 50K lol.

 

When the salesman tells you you need them.
(Sarcasm)
Someone else on here said shocks are one of the most overrated attachments to vehicles and I second that.

 

Sorry turns out it was me

 

but in reality every 500k to a million miles.

 

I actually change mine out every 18 months or so. Keep in mind I haul regional tanker so they take a lot more abuse then OTR day van guys.

 

I am replying on this subject because I am wanting to generate interest in high end shocks. I know RK is out if business, but I heard Pittsburgh Power was thinking of buying from RK the equipment to to make these shocks. And I imagine PP monitors social media-to some degree. So I hope they, or someone else, will start making them again. I got 300-400k miles on 2 rounds (6ea round) and liked the ride, particularly in the wind, and I am always very light. I have only had 2 shocks blown out of the 12 I bought. And 1 failed only a little prematurely at 300k. When 1 failed on the first 6 I had, I just replaced it with an oem until I got some more miles out of the remaining 5. I still have the last 6 shocks I bought. I wanted to have them rebuilt, but RK wouldn't warranty them because they went to new design and were trying to steer me to buying 6 of them, or 6 of the lower rated models they had just started making which were 1/2 the price of the high end models. They wouldn't warranty the rebuilding of my first 6 because they went to a new design at that time, too. I did buy a 6 of the new designs then. But I got upset that they again wouldn't warranty the rebuilding of my 2nd round, and bought OEMs instead. I like the shocks and $1,200 for rebuilds ($200/ea) every 3-4 years is fine with me. The ride stability in the wind is worth it for me. I had one the OEMs I have on now blow recently (at 200k), and I replaced with one of the still functional RKs I still have. And that RK still felt as strong as a new OEM, as I was compressing it by hand to line up with the bolt holes. On a new RK, I would have to wrap it with a 1" wrachet strap to compress it so I could use my other hand to slide the bolt thru. I wasn't strong enough to push down on the shock with one hand while sliding the bolt thru with the other. Heck, it was very hard to compress an RK with one end on the ground and using all my body weight to push down. There is no comparison between an OEM and an RK.

 

Tire selection and replacing the springs will also help. Also getting the wheel and tire as light as possible reducing what's referred to as "unsprung weight" is a tried and true way to allow the suspension to work more efficiently and last longer. Switching to an aluminum wheel and a premium comfort riding tire makes a noticeable difference although you are definitely going to pay to play that game.

 

Pittsburgh Power are a bunch of scumbags so it would make perfect sense if they started selling another BS product to go a long with their snake oils and forced $65,000 out of frame overhauls.