Shocks : Boots or No Boots that is the question?

[Mr. I - Man]

I'm installing Rod Hall Extreme travel shocks and was wondering should I run them with the boots on or not. I have alway ran my shocks with out them in the past because the great state of Illinois loves to put more salt than a Bierstube pretzel on the public roads during the winter and it seemed that the boots held the salty water up inside the boot causing corrosion. What is the real purpose of the boots?

[Mr. I - Man]

I tried the search and came up with nothing any ideas

[Mr. I - Man]

Thanks for the info. I kinda of thought that but I wasn't for sure

[PARAGON]

Boots are a good idea for a lot of DD, though. The main reason would be on the off chance you sling a rock or some other debris into the rod and ding it. That's about the biggest benefit to them.

Shocks work like any other hydraulic ram system and you don't see heavy equipment running boots to cover the cylinder rams to keep them clean. I think on trucks it's a combo of looks and slight protection.

[CO Hummer]

I've debated taking my boots off too. On mountain bikes, a lot of mfgrs have taken the boots off shocks, but they always do so by providing good wipers near the bottom of the shock boots to remove any dirt before the shock enters the cylinder.

But.......who cares about performance when your shock boots match your paint.

[Mr. I - Man]

But.......who cares about performance when your shock boots match your paint.


I was trying to stay away from the metro-sexual hummer look!