Today was the day! I decided to drive to Camping World and pick up the Bilstein gas shocks for the front of the Brave. The original oil filled shocks were leaking and basically not doing their job. Freeway driving was skittish due to the old shocks. A death rattle would commence when any small bump in the road came along.

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I got stuck in Gilroy Garlic Festival traffic and it took me about an hour to get to San Martin from San Jose. Once there I picked up a couple of reflective shades that I'll cut to size and use to keep the rig cool at Burning Man.

Camping world was having a "brown bag" sale. 25% off of anything that would fit in one of their brown grocery bags. There was a table full of small items that easily fit into these bags. Nothing caught my eye.

I went to the parts counter and the parts guy said that they had 2 front shocks in stock for my M400 chassis. I didn't even consider calling ahead to see if they were in stock. I got lucky. He put them on the counter and I joked "I'm putting these into a brown bag" He said "oh ya totally"

The rules on the bags said that the items in the bag could not extend more than 10" out of the bag. The shocks stuck out of the bag at least 2 feet. LOL

Since the shocks were $110 each, I saved over $50 and got them for less than $150 for the pair. w00t!

I had to use my impact wrench to get the old shock bolts off. The rust on these bolts was VERY tough to break free. There is a spacer on the lower bolts and it was virtually welded to the old bolts with 30 years of rust.

I got new bolts and nuts for the new shocks but I needed these spacers to re-use them. Liquid wrench, a grinder, and a big drift punch, and an hour of pounding finally got these 2 3/4" spacers free for re-use.

I didn't have my jack with me so I had to compress the new shocks by hand to install them. I don't recommend this method. They are gas shocks are nice and stiff. Since gas shocks have a progressive action, compressing them has to be done slowly. They resist quick compression.

Once in place I torqued all the shock nuts and was done. It was late and I was covered in dirt so I put off the test drive til later.

I'm sure the ride will be much improved.

The short list is down to replacing the tail pipe and tuning up the generator.

skid