best place to start restoring factory ride?

[05crewcab]

I have a 71 3/4 ton 2wd lwb with a completely stock and original suspension. All of the bushings, and such are rotten.

I am planning on replacing all of the bushings, but where do I start? which ones are the most important to the handling? I plan on replacing the shocks as well with the cheapies from o'reilly's...i don't care about performance handling...i just want it to ride better!

Any help would be appreciated!

[Zoomin]

Shocks will make a bigger difference than bushings when it comes to ride quality. Bushings will help you keep alignment and go dtraight down the road. It doesn't cost much more to get decent shocks, so if ride is important to you, don't skimp there.

[05crewcab]

thanks for the response. so then the question becomes what are the best shocks in the $20 to $50 each range? ...the ones from o'reilly's are like $17. and, i do have a lot of chatter and general loosness going on in front...wouldn't bushings clean some of that up?

[Zoomin]

A set of Monroes should be in the upper part of that range.

Bushings will reduce the clatter and looseness, but won't affect ride all that much.

You're probably looking at a front end rebuild with new ball joints, etc to clear that stuff up. And if you lean toward the nice ride, get rubber, not polyurethane.

[05crewcab]

Well i did the mid-range monroes all the way around and just replaced the sway bar bushings...MAN, what a difference! The monroes that were on the truck were probably 25 years old and just mush. Hopefully these keep me rolling for another 25 years