Should I take the size into consideration when considering which shock to buy? How important?

 

You have to provide alot more info than this,it depends on weather it is stock,lifted, what the primary use is,dd,off road,all of this matters before you buy shocks.
It is helpful to fill out info on your xj so folks can see what it is you have.

 

Kinda did all that in my "Shock Choice?" thread but it didn't do to much. No big deal.

It's a recently aquired '96 XJ w/4.0 HO,auto trns,and stock suspension. I'll drive it almost daily and MOSTLY on ROUGH paved and unpaved roads,logging roads,farm roads,or no roads at all(nothing radical). I've got my choices down to two brands which are at the top of my budget.. Bilstein HD's($220) and KYB Monomax($200). I'm down to the diam. of the piston rod as a deciding factor. The KYB rod is 5/8"(.625). I,and I've tried for days,cannot find the diam. of the HD rod. The 5100 measures 14mm(.550)so even it's smaller than the KYB. I found a pic on this site of a side by side view of an HD and 5100 thats purpose was to show how much smaller the rod was on the HD. It was,big time! So this is where I'm at. I'm leaning towards the Bilstein because from the reviews I've read on the Monomax(ALOT)I'm thinking it may be overkill. But rod diam. has me stumped. The prices I posted are only good until 8/31 so I'm cuttin it close. So what do ya think? Also I APPRECIATE your reply.

 

The bigger rod is just a little beefier,in your case it is not going to make much difference,in this case I would buy what you prefer,either shock has a good reputation,stay away from nitro shocks as the xj is just not heavy enough for them,if you were off road all the time it might be different