91 no lift 235/75/15 I drive it to work on the highway and I use her pretty hard off-road from time to time. Im only lookin to spend like 40 bucks ea(if that) for them. I gotta autozone advanced carquest and napa to chose from to buy them. Is one store going to have a better/best shock then the others for what i wanna spend? And a HD shock is just going to make for a stiffer ride right?

 

no ones got any advice for me??

 

I never buy shocks from local parts stores. I bought my shocks from Rough Country.

 

i can only assume ur lifted...

 

all thats on them now are just plan old red shocks that could have came from anywhere they worked pretty good before i couldnt complane. the rears are whooped now tho.

 

If you have no lift just head to the local parts store and buy shocks. You don't need any special length other then stock replacements. I know if I had no lift I would just get some nice Monroe or Gabriel shocks. Some Monroe Sensa-Trac shocks should work just fine. Now if you want to do some offroading you may consider a more offroad type shock but they could ride a little rougher on the highway. To me the Monroe's should work fine for mild offroading you would do in a stock height jeep.

 

If your budget is $40, get some that are less than $40.

Pick a flavor and install them. Shocks are really all the same in that price-range anyway.

 

ok thats pretty much all i wanted to know if anyone was better then the other.

 

am i right the HD shocks will just make for a stiffer ride?

 

Maybe.

It depends on vehicle-weight vs. spring-rate.

Most aftermarket shocks are made to fit several vehicles, so there will usually be a compromise in some aspect of the design.

Important shock aspects:

shock valve-centering (shock is neutral at rest)
valve rate
gas pressure
length (compressed and extended)
length/diameter of housing
mounting points

 

is there any quick measurements i can do before i buy them?
or should i pretty much buy some and hope for the best?

 

Since you don't have a lift, let the parts store look them up by vehicle model and pick the ones closest to your budget.

It's usually better to spend the extra $10 and not buy the cheapest ones.

 

yea i was going to go somewhere in the middle

 

id just dont want to buy some and end up hating it

 

You might still hate them.

Funny thing about shocks... everybody has a different opinion of a "good ride".

I prefer a slightly tighter ride with quick damping, which some passengers have called "stiff" and "choppy".