I haven't run a Rancho 5000 in a looooooooooooooooooooong time, are they still like putting solid steel shafts in place of the shock? Seems to be my recollection.

I think the Bilsteins will give a better service life than the Monroes, but I ran both on my '98 4Runner and liked them both, with the Billies being the preferred "stock" set-up.

Changing the front shocks CAN be challenging with plain old hand tools, you may want to do this once and be done with it if you don't have the time, tools or experience to mess with it continually. Personally, I got the time down to less than two hours changing out front springs and shocks... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

EDIT: I just noticed in your sig line that you have a lift spacer. Being unfamiliar with this particular spacer, does this fit inside the spring pack or on top of the spring pack? You MIGHT want to go with a set of OME shocks, those are very nice shocks and have a little more length for the added height of your truck.