I was under my mighy max today and I noticed that the rubber bushings fastening the bottom of all four of my shocks are toasted. I can grab the bottom of each shock and there is a lot of play between the bottom of the shock and it's mounting bolt. Is this normal??? I'm guessing no. If I bounce the truck up and down there is also some up/down play. About half an inch. The front shock bottoms move side to side over an inch! It seems as though the rubber mounting holes on the shocks have become larger in diameter, hence the looseness.

About 20 000 miles back, I did the torsion bar lift in the front and the 2" shackle lift in the rear. So in effect, my shocks were extended to 2" longer than they were before the lift.

So here are my questions:

1) Is it hard on a set of shocks when you do a lift like I have?

2) Aside from the torsion bar lift stiffness, does running your shocks 2" longer have a negative effect on the ride quality?

3) Since my shocks appear to have no push or pull left in them (they are pretty much dangling from the upper mounts), can I assume they are dead? As far as I know, a shock should always be trying to close up, correct?

4) Is it possible that my shocks are overextended / topping out in their current position and thereby have blown the seals?

5) When shopping for new shocks, I'm thinking I shouldn't be searching using my vehicle make / model, because I no longer run a stock set up. I took measurements, at all four corners of the truck, with the tires fully stuffed, and fully drooped. I measured the compressed length, the static length (trucks regular parked on flat stance),and the extended length of each shock from centre of bottom mounting hole to center of top mounting hole. My front upper bump stops are trimmed. The compression measurement of my rear shocks was determined and limited when the rear tire hits the frame. the rear droop measurement was maximized when the rear shock was at the end of it's extension.

Here are the results:

FRONT SHOCKS mount to mount: STATIC - 13.5"
COMPRESSED - 11"
EXTENDED - 14.5"

REAR SHOCKS mount to mount: STATIC - 20"
COMPRESSED - 18"
EXTENDED - 25"

So, with this information, how can I determine the best fitting shock for my vehicle? I noticed that I have very little travel in the front shocks, especially from the STATIC to EXTENDED lengths. It's only about an inch??!!! If I trim my lower bump stops will this improve, giving me more sag?

Any insight, or pointers would be great!