Quick question on struts, I pulled mine recently to add a spacer lift, and noticed that they offer little resistance, I can easily push it down with one hand.  Is that normal for the struts, or should I look to replace them?

On a different note, I have so far broke one rear shock mount bolt, stripped a strut mount bolt, had to sawzall it off, and my front lugs were so rusted/welded on I had to take it to the tire shop to be removed, took them about 40min to remove them. Luckily I got a hold of a set of spring compressors, I was dreading having to mess with the tie rod and steering arm bolts, the castle nut didn't look like it's coming off without a fight, one which usually ends with me breaking something.

Man I hate the New England Rust Belt.

i thought the same about my stock struts. i'm guessing |removethispart|@150,000mi. on them.
they drove ok and didn't show any sign of leak(and i'm cheap), so i kept them.
i'm still using them(3 full seasons now) and am glad i didn't buy new ones.

When I put the spacer up front I noticed the struts didn't have a lot of resistance, so I went and bought new ones.  Two months later they were in the same shape as the old ones...  I'm not sure if they are meant to be like that or if the cheaper struts just don't hold up to washboards.  If your going to replace them, I say get OME or some nice Bilstein struts.  Something that should hold up to abuse.

I don't know if the Bilstein struts are that good, but the shocks I picked up for my truck were a world better then the cheap ones, so I can only imagine their struts are of the same quality.

Thanks for the replies.

I didn't notice an issue before hand, so I guess I'll just put them back in until there's a noticeable issue.

I blew out a set of Monroe-matics in about 4 months of wheeling. I have been running Sensa-tracks for 2 years and one side is just starting to clunk a bit. You should not be able to push the strut down so easy if it is a gas charged strut. If you do replace them don't go with the cheap ones.

Derek

My OE struts were only one way damped, I replaced them with some aftermarket struts with 2 way damping. I don't know what make they were as they came with a 2" lift kit, they stood up to a lot of abuse even when run with strut spacers.