The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1955 4400 Front Shock Absorbers

Wanted to advise anyone interested that despite some opinions here to the contrary that I have seen (no offense) replacing the front shock absorbers - or adding them - made a BIG difference in ride quality for my truck. It is much improved with them.

Some background information, my truck seems to have came with shocks on the front as an option. The ones on it most recently were a Monroe 4017 and they looked old, and the ride was bouncy, like a worn shock absorber would provide. Looking up a replacement via Year/Make/Model was not very effective, I ended up first removing the existing ones (with no noticeable change to ride quality) and measuring them. For some reason or other I couldn't find a match by size that worked. I ended up carefully grinding some surface rust from the old shocks until the numbers became legible and was able to cross reference the above number to a current Monroe shock in addition to the ones I purchased which were Gabriel 83400 Fleetline. Less than $40.00 a piece with a big ride improvement!

Thank you for that info asilverblazer, my '57 Low Cab Forward was fitted with front shocks as a factory stock part, it's a two ton long wheelbase and doesn't bounce but new shocks would probably improve the front end characteristics.

My 1952 GMC 470 series COE, came with factory front shock absorbers. It's the best riding COE by far, of any of the many of them I've owned.